Ze Kitchen Galerie

The first night Doreen and I had to ourselves we had dinner reservations at a place recommended by Patricia Wells called Ze Kitchen Galerie. We had spent a hard day at the Marche aux Puces, and were looking forward to ou first fancy meal in Paris.

We love to go to the Marche, which literally translates as “Flea Market”. IT is a long way from the city (take Metro #4 to the Port de Clignancourt and then walk for eternity though the north African t-shirt, belt, and watch vendors until you get there.) We walked for hours looking at geegaws and knickknacks. We ended up buying one of each (one geegaw and one knickknack) they are very beautiful things.

We made it back in time for a short nap, and then walked over to the restaurant. It was not too far from the apartment, and we arrived right on time. Being Americans, we can usually get reservations early. I think that there were for about 7:30.

The service was more French than we are use to in these fancy places. The waiter was nice enough, but stand-offish. We started with a nice coup of pink champagne, and then ordered our meal. I had a ravioli of shrimp and chicken in a galangal juice – a ginger like Asian root. Doreen had a cold soft shell crab with octopus in a spicy red sauce. My dish was wonderful, with a full play of flavors from spicy to sweet. Doreen was less fond of hers.

With the meal we ordered a Cotes du Vivarais, which I was not familiar with until then. It was recommended by the waiter and was a nice compliment to our main course, which was veal cutlets and sweetbreads. There was a spicy peach sauce to accompany the meat, and the wine was nicely acid to cut through the sauce. An excellent choice.

For dessert Doreen had red fruits in a soup bowl. She had ice cream as an accompaniment. I had passion fruit white chocolate soup alongside mango and some sort of a vanilla ice cream. It was great. Doreen liked hers as well.

We walked home trying to think about how we were going to work off the calories.