French cuisine is not known for fusing with other culture’s flavors and ingredients. When I read about Le Pre-Verre on Pudlo Paris, it said that the chef is known for incorporating Asian’s spices and herb with French cuisine, we got interested. Besides it’s the most promising walking distance place from where we stayed at (which has too many tourist traps). The restaurant was packed and we didn’t have reservation, but they managed to seat us at an outdoor table. Like many restaurants in Paris, they offer a set menu. 26.50 euro for 3 courses, very affordable!
1st course, Freda’s choice: Chestnut Soup with anise Star. I haven’t seen non-Chinese/Indian/Vietnamese cuisine using anise star before so we thought that was interesting. And it tasted really good. Other than the wonderful sweet chestnut flavor, there’s a subtle spice-flavor in the soup that could only contribute to anise star. My choice: Oyster with Ginger. Very fresh raw oyster. The dice ginger is a nice touch, very Chinese.
Freda’s main course: Suckling Pig poched in Spicy Sauce with Cabbages. Incredibly good, the meat melt in your mouth, very tender. The sauce is not spicy despite it said so, there’s subtle cumin flavor in it which compliment the meat well.
My meat course: Mallard roasted with corn and cocoa. Mallard is wild duck. Very nice interesting dish, the sauce was almost mole-like (cocoa) but it’s not Mexican tasting at all. Duck with cocoa sauce is an interesting combine, I love it.
Dessert: Roasted Bananas and Mango Mousse with Red Wine. I was too fulled from the main course so we shared one dessert. The mango mousee was a little sour (not mango season?) but I’m glad for the sourness for aftermeal. The roasted bananas are basically plantains.
Le Pre-Verre
8, rue Thenard 75005 Paris
Metro: Maubert – Mutualite
Great weblog and a nice review of some excellent French cuisine!
Anise and ginger and suckling pig and curry and mole and mango dessert…many “exotic” elements indeed! Even the restaurant looks kinda Southeast Asian feel. ^^;;;
If I was going to trust someone to properly fuse Asian ingredients into their style of cooking, it would probably be the French. The duck looks really really good.
You two had done so much homework before getting there!!!!
Did you miss anything American while you are there? (food-wise)
Chubbypanda: I’ve read French people criticism of fusion in French cuisine though (that they’re not that well done as they’re burden by the French cuisine tradition). But from what I sampled, they’re pretty good. Probably not as creative as how Japanese did with French food, but those are chichi fine dining type. My experience with the ‘bistro’ level ‘fusion’ in Paris are pretty good.