L'Arpege

 It was in 2008 Nov.
Wow  I really feel privileged . I was not good at blog writing those days so just  jotted down a few lines  then .  pardon my haphazard writing .

Michelin is a Tyre company which comes out with good places to eat in their travel book every year . Around the world they travel to good hotels and go incognito  as reviewers and rate the food and ambiance . 3 star Michelin is THE ultimate honor any chef can get . Every year this rating is done . If the number  of star falls ,  ( insiders have told us ) most restaurants close down or some chefs commit suicide they cant withstand the insult.
One of the first  and fine dining experiences of France is described underneath.
L'Arpege is one such 3 star restaurant in the heart of Paris. Many people come from Japan or New york here  only for lunch and then fly back. Such is their reputation . We left our kids at 12:00  at the creche and ran to the hotel as our appt was at 2 pm . The waiter there was kind enough and he said he will decide the dishes and wine for us . Both of us were ill at ease as we  were  still not used to the French  dining .  We were hardly 1 year old in Paris .  
The chef Alain PASSARD  apparently realised that the French dont eat much vegetables. He  is known for vegetarian cooking .  We have heard that he grows his own vegetables.  
We started with a good wine from Navarre. It makes the best wine in France . We had a 9 course meal . Starting with potato gratin ( potato, cheese , cream topped with Malaysian pepper ) , salad , beetroot gnocchi , potato gnocchi , eggs ) I don't know how they manage to do it , inside the original egg shell they add egg whites, yellow , creams and other spices ) , sweet onion gratin , dessert ( hazelnut sauce with crapes and choc sauce ) , a cheese trolley , sweets trolley ( all home made , no chocolate  was shop bought ) and finally coffee. Did I miss out any course . whew !!! it was a full 9 course dinner and by the time i finished 6 courses I could go no more . I was full but managed to take a few bites.
It was just wow . I managed to click some pics of the dishes we bought . Next to us were some Japanese youth who were clicking pics like mad . They clicked pics of the knives, forks and what not ... by the time we finished it was well past 4 30 pm . whew took us more than 2.5 hrs for lunch . I was soo full that I could not walk properly and tired and sleepy from all that heavy food .The bill per head would have come to more than 200 euros . I don't think i will get any such chance to dine at such a fine restaurant again . Only one Indian restaurant has 1 Michelin star in London ZAIKA . The rest are French, American or Japanese. Wow its just wow . I can only thank my luck I got this chance.  
L'Arpege is  definitely worth  more than one visit . 

Vegetable /Curry dishes

• Ennagai palya

Ingredients:

• Brinjal: 1 kg
• Onion Chopped: 200 gms
• Tomato Chopped: 200 gms
• Coriander: 25 gms
• Garlic: 30 gms
• Huchelu: 25 gms
• Channa Dhal: 25 gms
• Salt to taste
• Groundnuts: 100 gms
• Curry leaves: 5 gms
• Turmeric: 5 gms
• Tamarind: 25 gms
• Oil: 250 gms

Method Take the brinjal cut half as 4 pieces, grind these coriander, garlic, huchelu, channa dhal, groundnuts, curry leaves, turmeric, tamarind, then pour this brinjal and fry in the oil then pour grinded paste with brinjal and add items onion, tomato fry it. And serve it.




Vegetable Khurma .

Ingredients :
Onion	2 nos ( Medium )
Green chili	3 nos
Ginger garlic paste	1/2 tsp
Mixed vegetables	1 cup ( Carrot, Beans, etc )
Curd	2 tbsp
Milk	1/4 cup
Coriander powder	2 tsp
Salt	to taste
Bay leaf	2 nos
Black stone flower	2 nos
Cumin seed	1/4 tsp
Fennel seeds	1/4 tsp
Curry leaves	8 nos
Coriander leaves	2 tbsp
Oil	3 tsp
Ghee	1 tsp
To Grind: :
Cloves	2 nos
Cinnamon stick	2 ( small )
Cardamom	1 no
Cashew	2 nos
Poppy seeds	2tsp
Roasted Channa dhal	2 tsp
Green chili	1 no
Coconut	5 tbsp ( grated )

Directions:

1. Step 1
   Grind the “To Grind” Section in to fine paste.Cut the vegetables into the same size or the desired size. Chop the Onion finely. Split open the green chili. Beat the curd into a creamy paste. Chop the Coriander Leaves finely.
2. Step 2
   In a non-stick pan heat oil and ghee together. When hot, add bay leaf, curry leaves, black stone flower, cumin and fennel seeds. Immediately add the chopped onions, green chilies and saute the onion till it turns golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry this well till the raw smell leaves. Add the vegetables, coriander powder and 1 cup water and allow the vegetables to cook in medium flame for sometime.
3. Step 3
   Add Curd, ground paste , salt and allow it to boil for 3 min.Add the milk, coriander leaves and turn off the the stove.

Snack Dishes

Cashew nut Pakoda

Ingredients:

• 100 gms rice powder
• 150 gms besan
• 1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
• 1 tsp red chilly powder
• 5 green chillies
• A few shredded curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp jeera
• 1/4 tsp ajwain
• 1/2 a cup chopped cashew nuts
• 4-5 tsps ghee or oil
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep-frying

Method:

• Mix the rice powder, besan, salt, chilly powder, jeera, ajwain and coarse pepper.
• Add finely shredded curry leaves and sliced green chillies and mix once more.
• Combine soda and oil/ghee in a separate bowl to make a paste.
• Add paste to powder-leaves mix; use a little water to turn it all into a dough.
• Knead into round bite-size balls and deep-fry.
• Cool a little and serve.

Cabbage Kootu.

There are several ways of  making Kootu  which is a healthy mix of lentils and vegetables with very little spices . My sister in law Jaysri Prasad has given me this recepie .

Tual Dal      -1/2 cup .
 Shreaded cabbage - 1/2 cup .  
  Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp
 Hing  powder- a pinch  
 Green chilles - 5  
 Tamarind   -
Lemon size .

 Boil Tuar dal with turmeric  till very soft .  Squeeze juice out of tamarind . Add 1 cup of water to that tamarind juice and boil the shredded cabbage in that till soft. Take a heavy bottomed pan , heat 2 tsp of sunflower oil in it . Add a spoon of mustard seeds , curry leaves , the pinch of hing , the methi seeds and let it splutter . In the end add the slit green chillies .  Then add the boiled cabbage and finally add the  boiled tuar dal . Add salt as required .
As the last step you can add a fistful of coriander leaves .  Cabbage kootu is ready .U can have it hot with rotis or rice . Many vegetables in place of cabbage can be used like carrots, spinach leaves , capsicum or onions .

OLD JAWAD

I had dinner in a very good Indian/ Pakistani restaurant called Old Jawad last night .
My Tunisian friend told me  that  Jawad means a Horse in Arabic .
Well , Javed is a very common Indian name . I dont know if Javed and Jawad are the same .Why will any one name their child as a horse.  Hmmm yes but we do have Ashwini as a Hindu name too.
Sorry to start on a negative note but my impression about these so called "  Indian "
restaurants outside India is not that good .
Most of them claim to be Indian but are usually Pakistani , Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan.They use the same sauces and spices for all dishes .Most of them use ready made / shop brought  masalas in fact.
The very very few rare authentic Indian ones are very costly and run by 5 star chefs .
RATN  in  Champs Elysee is one such restaurant . Its was good no doubt but was also Super Costly.
We ( Sri and myself ) had gone there way back  in 2008 .Just the main course and red wine without any starters and dessert cost us nearly 100  Euros then .
Well  this is about Old  Jawad in Opera ( Auber ) so I will stick to that .
Hmm so we  started  at 7 30 and reached around 8:00 PM . We were  nearly 9 of us .
It was bang in the Centre of Paris near Opera (Auber) .Nice area . In front of the restaurant stood  a  theater  for plays .
The restaurant itself is quite big by 'Foreign' standards.
It has seating capacity for more than  100 at a time .
Well decorated with thick red velvet curtains ,it had a very sophisticated air  The chairs were lined with thick cushions .
All done with white and light brown it gave a very 'rich' air .
In the center  there stood a big huge ' flower pot ' with lights coming out  of stems like flowers in a vase .
The waiters were  quick and brisk .
We were served some free drinks  .We were served some kind of  alcohol in blue color .Never tasted it before . It smelt and tasted good . Of course no one knew what it was.It has lemon pieces swimming in it .Some of us took  beer . I am wary of drinking  alcohol while alone . So I stopped with one glass of blue something .
After taking our orders  , the dishes started coming within minutes.
Whew what a relief from restaurants which make us wait more than 30 mins .
The starter ( for me ) was veg bhajia . Vegetarians don't have many options anyway .
It was oily as expected. I could not eat much. As expected it had a lot of soda to make it crunchy  and fluffy . Soda absorbs a lot of oil .The starter came with a naan bread .Some of my friends took 'Fromage Naan ' -Cheese naan. Actually Cheese naan should be made of Panner but  here , there and every where except my home town they make Cheese Naan with English Cheese . No wonder its all runny and heavy .
The main course was heaven .
I have never seen such thin slim basmati in my life .gosh it looked like small  needles . U know praise is genuine when it comes from me . I rarely  praise .
Very fluffy very tasty.  They served mix veg with that  rice . It should have been dal ( lentils ) of some kind .
It went  with the menu and we were not allowed to change it .
For 20.00 Euros it was a good menu -Starter Bhajji ( or Bhajiya as some Northerners call it  ) with  naan ,
main course fluffy needle like basmatic spiced rice with mixed veg and kulfi as dessert . Yummmmy .
The free drinks,  papads and the liqueur at the end were great too .The ambiance was good and simple. No heavy so called ethnic paintings no loud music ,  no jarring murals about semi  clad  women by the riverside . It did have some paintings hung on the wall but it was simple  ,  in not very bright colors and few in number .
All served quickly , nicely , promptly by no nonsense waiters who were  good at just  small chit chat and did not linger  long to talk about how they miss their home towns way back in whichever part of the world or how their grandparents were from India   blah blah ...
The food was filling but not heavy . I decided to take the train for a change. Usually I am a bit wary and end up taking a taxi at night. Our dinner finished at 11;00 PM and gosh the trains were so full .I was pleasantly surprised .I reached home at 11 ; 30 pm.
Old Jawad is worth a visit .