Eating Lunch

As someone who has experienced pretty much the full gamut of possibilities of being in France – from visiting for a long weekend once a year, through visiting every three months for ten days-two weeks, to living a full 365 day year, I’ve thought a lot about when to eat one’s big meal of the day. Oh sure, if you’re here for 1-3 days I understand the wish to cram your day full of museums and sight-seeing and eat at night; or if you’re a dedicated food-obsessed nut, like some of us, I understand the desire to eat two big meals a day.  But there’s a better way. It’s now fifty years since I first set foot in the hexagon and I’ve gone back to what I was taught then – eat big at lunch, bicycle all afternoon and have a light supper.  Take today, for instance.  We ate at the great old bistro, Astier, in the 11th, where the food is all an American hankering for the good old days, updated perfectly, could want: starters like a huge terrine of herring and onions à volonté, cabbage stuffed with confited gizzards and various soups and terrines; mains like a huge tranche of pork breast, steak or fish (for instance, lieu or dorade); their famous platter of 15 cheeses; fine bread; and good classic desserts like a baba au rhum, tarte tatin and an assortment of dessert goodies.  Afterwards, take a walk up the Canal St. Martin, visit the Picasso Museum and/or come home to write something for Bonjour Paris.  And at night, have some mussels, wine and cheese. I advocate this style for several reasons: First, it’s healthier to eat one’s big meal at lunch. Second, you can walk off or burn off some calories acquired by overindulging in cheese and chocolate. Third, without your head swimming with fat globules and stomach struggling to process alcohol, you’ll sleep better. Fourth, and maybe most important, it’s oddles cheaper.  At Astier, it doesn’t matter much, but where we ate yesterday, Jean-Yves Bath’s Bath’s in the 17th, the lunch menu is 25 €, whereas dinner is about 50 € a la carte, before water and wine and coffee. And finally, and here’s the snob in me coming out, at lunch, at least at new (like l’Arome, another place we ate lunch at this week), or newly priced (like the Violin d’Ingres – ditto) or newly renovated (like Astier) or newly moved (like Bath’s) you rarely hear a word of any non-French language spoken. So be good to your heart, your stomach, your muscles and your wallet – eat lunch. My recommendations this week include: Astier 44, rue Jean Pierre Timbaud, 11th T : 01.43.57.16.35 Open 7/7 Lunch menus 19.50-29.50 €, a la carte 30-35 € Bath’s 25, Rue Bayen, 17th (Metro : Ternes) T :01.45.74.74.74 Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays Lunch menu 25 €; a la carte about 50 €. Le Violin d’Ingres 135, rue St-Dominique, 7th (Metro : Ecole Militaire) T : 01.45.55.15.05 Closed Sundays and Mondays Lunch menu 50, 110 € dinner, a la carte 96-100 €. ©2006 John A. Talbott