expat on the go...

VILLAGE GREEN, RIDGEWOOD, NJ

Hello from New Jersey.

The house is NOT yet finished, though we are getting closer.  Will post pictures soon - I promise!

Last weekend, honey and I went out on a date and ate at "Village Green" in Ridgewood, NJ.  It was a 5 course meal.  It was, after having lived in France for 3 years, not bad at all!!  Of course, in Ridgewood, it's bring your own booze - so honey brought a bottle of wine - not from his 'fridge' (read = expensive wines) because he couldn't find his key (!)  That's my honey, you have to roll with the punches (he did find it this week, at the office - phewwwww!!!).  My honey had, as a starter, chanterelle mushrooms with frisee salad and I had beets with arugola greens.  It was very good.   We then ordered the escargots bourguignon - OK, 1) the escargots were in a shell and in the shell was bar-b-queish sauce and on the bottom of the plate was the traditional persillade - BUT no garlic!!! What, escargots, NO garlic.  No. That was not our favorite.  Either you go western (with an caramelized onion 'compote' and forget the not so tasty persillade) or you go French and do a persillade with garlic - NOT bar-b-que sauce.  For the next course, he had monk fish in a creamy sauce (that was delicious), and I had red snapper in a fresh tarragon-citrus sauce - equally delicious and lighter.  We then had our 'meat' dish.  Honey had the crispy duck AND that was something to write home about.  I had the rabbit.  It was the 'special of the day'.  I love rabbit, though, I have to say, it was a little dry.  My honey ended with a peach crumble and, of course, I had my cheese plate.  The cheese plate was very nice.

All in all a very nice restaurant and great service.  I would definitely go back.

36 Prospect St.
Ridgewood, NJ  07450
Tel: 201-445-2914
Fax: 201-251-9510

ANOTHER WONDERFUL DINNER

On Monday we went to the local 'Carrefour' (supermarket) and bought frozen Canadian lobsters (yes, we did!) and frozen giant shrimp.  The honey finished off the dinner with some more Gruissan oysters.  We bbqed everything:

The view we see when we eat dinner (can you hear the waves?):

 

Cooking the oysters:

 

Beautifully bbqed oysters, Yum!

 

Enjoying the oysters, while the Teen takes pictures - she's not into oysters...

 

I didn't eat all these oysters, I promise!

 

My husband loves these oysters.... (!)

 

Our wonderful grill:

 

 

The Teen made a wonderful garlic/butter/olive oil sauce that was to die for!  We also had a rose from Corsica - try a rose from Corsica, you will not be disappointed, I promise!

Then the boys went to the Monster Truck rally.... next post....

WINE LIST - THE HIDDEN KITCHEN

And here is the wine list:

2007 Chateau La Bertrande Bordeaux Blanc Sec
2007 Domaine Le Fort Sauvignon Blanc Fut en Chene
2005 Chateau de l'Aulee Touraine Azay le Rideau
2006 Chateau Haut-Boisron Bordeaux Rose
2006 Domaine la Milliere Cotes de Rhone Rouge, Vielles Vignes
2001 Domaine de Roquefourcat Corbiere Cuvee Laetitia

I remeber the first one being a little 'acidic' for me, but a nice apperitif wine.

The second one was nice.

*The third one was SPECTACULAR!  (Chateau de l'Aulee, Touraine, Azay le Rideau).

The fourth was a rose (very dark - we thought it was a red at first), was also nice.

The fifth was very good.

The sixth was also very good.

There you have it.  Go out and try them!

MY WINE(O) FRIEND...

Don't worry about the title!  He knows it's true!!!  ;)   He knows I luv him!!!

This is the friend that came to the, 'Salon des Vins' with me.  I cook, he brings the wine!  Nice pairing of friends!  And, our spouses enjoy the ride...

Our friend holding a 'little beauty'...

 

The cork of this wine:

 

Chateau-Margaux, premier grand cru classe 1966 (a young wine, in my opinion ;) )

 

A good time was had by all!  They wine was extraordinary...  nothing like I've ever had before - very earthy, smooth, wonderful... 

BEAUNE

The honey and I are having a nice weekend in Beaune.  We are staying at the Cep hotel.  It's quite nice.

Le Cep - 27 rue Mautoux  Beaune.

We wanted to go see the wine museum, but it was closing, so we decided to go and get ourselves a little 'apero':

We also had to get the camera fixed,  because 'someone' took the sim card out of my camera and put it in HER camera - that, 'jammed up' my camera and I had to 'empty' my sim card!!!  We'll talk later, missy!

For dinner, we went to, "Loiseau des vignes" - a restaurant started by Bernard Loiseau (the chef that committed suicide because he thought he was going to lose a Michelin star - apparently, that's NOT why he committed suicide - I say, depression?).

The restaurant is right beside our hotel - quite convenient!!  

For starters, my honey had, "The best escargots I've EVER had!!!"

There was a 'surprise' inside the 'nugget' (as we called it!!!  ;)  )

I had a 'terrine en croute' - foie gras with truffles:

With this, we drank:

We both took a 'drinking menu' were you pay 24 euros and they serve 3 wines that go well with your choice of menu.

For his main, honey had lamb:

He drank this with it:

I had the 'quenelles de sandre'  in a lobster sauce (house specialty):  YUMMY!

And trust me, I was 'this close' to asking for a spoon!  I had this to drink with this wonderful meal:

For dessert,  I had the cheese plate:

I choose 2 fresh goat cheeses:  one in olive oil and tarragon, and the other 'rolled' in 'piment d'espelette'.  I also chose, 'delice de pommard', a cheese rolled in mustard seeds (the half-cut cheese in the forfront). Last, but not the least, an epoisse (that'll grow hair on your chest, for sure!).

Had a great wine from the south of France:

My honey, the chocolate lover, got this dessert:

They served him a muscat wine to go with his dessert.  The restaurant sells wine by the glass (of course you can buy a bottle, but it's  much more fun to try and test different wines!).  This is what the 'wine trays' look like - but imagine at least 10 to 15 of these:

My honey pulled a 'Frank'.  What's a 'Frank',  you may ask?  We are going back to the same restaurant, same time.  He liked it!  He knows it a sure deal.  And, hey!, it cost less than our dinner yesterday, in Paris.  Vive 'la campagne'.  Vive, Beaune!!!!

THE PARIS MARATHON

 My honey did finish the marathon, and he finished within the time frame that he wanted (30 minutes less than his last marathon - he did it in over 3:30 hours, but less than 3:50). 

After the marathon, I had prepared a buffet for a few runners and their families.  My honey arrived first, followed by the 3 other runners and a couple, who we 'hang out' here in Paris, came to encourage the marathoners. 

We started off with a kir royal - and some hors-d'oeuvres. 

Here is what the buffet looked like:

 

Skirt steak with a great garlic/cilantro sauce (Epicurious recipe you can look up):

 

Then I had a summer Italian fair - vitello tonnato, lentil salad with fresh herbs and grilled veggies:

 

 

 

I had 2 pasta salads - one 'natural' and one pesto salad, a fruit plate, a green salad and green beans.

I think a good time was had by all - CONGRATULATIONS to all the runners!!!

CHEZ MARIE C.

Yesterday, due to the transit strike, my Japanese class was canceled, so I could go to my cooking class - Yeahhhhh!  I take cooking classes at 'Marie's' - a wonderful woman from California,  who decided to move to Paris because she loves 'the way of life' here.  She has a wonderful blog you can check-out - "the script ended".  She has always loved to cook (and cooks wonderfully fresh, delicious food).  Yesterday, we learned how to make a 'cremant aperitif cocktail' - where you take cremant (sparkling wine) and add either black current, blackberry or raspberry liqueur to the sparkling wine.  Adding the actual fruit, that the liqueur is made of, gives it an added touch.  It's like a kir royal, but it isn't because it's not made with champagne, but 'cremant'.  This particular cremant came from the bourgogne (Burgundy) region.  There is also another cremant that comes from the Alsace region.

 

With the cremant, we had dates stuffed with foie gras.  You simply take pitted dates and stuff them with foie gras.  You can also stuff the dates with roquefort.  The second hors-d'oeuvres was a beet and avocado bite.  She cut morsels of beets and avocado and sprinkled pistachio oil on the bites.  Wonderful!

For the main course she made magret duck (that's the duck they use for the foie gras) with lavender, honey and ginger marinade - YUMMY!!!  She made a 'pilaf' rice with dried cranberries, raisins and pine-nuts.  Wonderful mix together.

Speaking of foie gras, we talked about this at lunch the other day.  Is it illegal in the US? Sort of,  California voted against foie gras making in 2004.  This law will come into effect in 2012, and in the following states:  Hawaii, Illinois, Massashusetts, New Jersey (bummer!), Pennsylvania and Washington.  They gave the foie gras makers time to reroute their efforts.  Here's the law:

États-Unis :
Le Parlement de Californie a voté en juillet 2004 la loi SB1520qui interdit :

• de gaver un oiseau dans le but d'engraisser son foie au-delà de sa taille normale,
• de vendre un produit qui est le résultat du gavage d'un oiseau.

La loi entrera en application le 1er juillet 2012, un délai ayant été accordé aux producteurs pourorganiser leur reconversion. Les débats ayant mené au vote se sont appuyés, entre autres, sur le rapportdu Comité scientifique sur la santé et le bien-être animal de la Commission Européenne. Des propositions de loi similaires ont été déposées dans d'autres états (Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvanie, Washington).

For dessert, she made traditional bordeaux canneles (there's an accent aigu on that last e), served with a fresh orange and kiwi salad.

All in all, an easy menu to undertake and quite tasty!

MARCHE DU PRESIDENT WILSON

Today I went to the President Wilson market.  It is at the Iena metro station.  So, like a good 'parisienne', I took my caddy and set off to the market.  The Iena metro station is on the same line ... so no transfers.  I love that market for one thing: the carrots.  Yes, believe it or not the variety of carrots, that this one vendor has, is simply mind-boggling... and, of course, when I got to the carrot vendor, there were a lot of clients so I wasn't up to taking a picture.  You can't miss him, he's the one with the many, many different types of carrots, but not only that, he has different types of beats (colors, shapes and sizes), different types of radishes and all types of really neat root vegetables.  I did get a chance of taking a picture of the general market:

 

There is also a guy who sells all types of mushrooms, which always intrigues the little guy.

So here we have, from left to right: girolles, trompes de la mort, shitake, and pleurotte.

 

Now, 'trompes de la mort' (trumpets of death) gets a very  strong reaction from the little guy - as much as he loves to eat, and trust me, he is willing to try anything; REFUSES to eat these.  I always tell him, when we are at the market together, "Trompette de la mort would be good tonight? What do think?" - I always get a very strong reaction!  And the answer is always "NO!!!".  Here's what they look like:

 

I have to admit, they do look a little scary!!!

And, here's me, all done and going back home.

 

I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  It's my sister and brother-in-law's 11th wedding anniversary.  Here's to you, you guys.  I'm thinking of you!  I love you!!!

C'EST PAS BEAUTIFUL CA???

Yesterday, honey and I took the 'Batmobile' to the Versailles market.

 

I love that market.  It has indoor and outdoor vendors.  The indoor vendors are opened everyday except Mondays.  The outside food vendors are opened Tues, Fri and Sun from 7-14. The flower market is opened Tues, Fri and Sat (although I've seen them opened on Sun!) 8-19. And the non-food vendors (tablecloths, porcelain, pots, etc...) are opened Wed,Thurs and Sat. 11-19:30.

I forgot to take pictures of the outside market: 'New Blogger Syndrome' (NBS), although I did remember once we were inside.  We got oyster and mussels for dinner:

Bulots are 'sea snails', very good with aioli - u need to take off 'flap' & cut other end off:

 

 

Scallops or 'St-Jacques', here in France:

 

With these beauties,oysters, bulots, shrimp, lobster, sea urchins, you can make a wonderful

Plateau de fruits de mer or Seafood Platter:

Different types of fish:

 

This is what my seafood platter looks like:  I bought the pans at Dehillerin.  If I were at home, I would definitely put more ice, but since ice is a rare item here... you do what you can!!

A.Simon and E. Dehillerin

On Saturday, I took the Paris insane asylum, commonly known as the metro, and headed towards 'les Halles' metro.  That area is filled with cooking ware stores, restaurants, shops.  It is a very lively place.

This is what makes Paris beautiful:

 

Beautiful buildings everywhere.  A. Simon, a porcelain and cookeryware store is right on the left.

42 rue de Montmartre 75002.  It is worthwhile going.

Another place that is worthwhile is Dehillerin.  This is a must: copper pots, bakeware, gizmos and gadgets coming out of everywhere, and please, don't go on a Saturday, unless you like the feeling of being a sardine.

 

And that's the basement!!!  Ahhhhhhh, Nirvana!

18 et 20, rue Coquilliere/51, rue J.-J. Rousseau (it's on the corner).

Happy shopping!