Clamato in the 11th, is practically our new Sunday cantine and today we went with our longest (and indeed oldest) French friend who goes back to my first extended stay in France in 1953. The outside is unprepossessing, the menu is very impressing and the wines are bio/natural/unfiltered/etc.
The menu is essentially made up of small plates but some seem more firstish and others mainish; so for firsts we ordered and shared a carpaccio of chinchard (the new hot fish in Paris) with shaved kabu turnips; haricots verts with poutarge; and eggplant in a bouillon of shrimp with katsuobichi (dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna says wiki). Wow! What a way to start.
For our mains/seconds, we shared an interesting and very intriguing tasting smoked mackerel on a "pancake" of Sicilian onion; a wonderfully fried merlan colbert with a smashing tartare sauce; and 3 giant scallops in their shells in herb butter.
At this point, even though the dishes had been relatively small, we were all satisfied and started by saying "I don't need dessert" but our friend from the 20th said "We should try one" and in the ensuing discussion with the waitguy, chose to have both. What a smart decision: they were the peak of the meal: a gateau des Anges (cake with poached figs) and a clamatarte (tart with maple syrup). Double Wow!
With 1.5 bottles of wine, no bottled water and fine Italian coffee, our bill came to 142.00 E or 94.66 E a couple.
