Grazing Tale of Two Cities; Paris & London

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is the tenuous link between two meals I had recently. One was in a bistro in working class Paris and the other in a bistro in Mayfair, London. Charles Dickens SparkNotes excerpt from Barnes & Noble: Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England in 1812. As the second of eight children in a very poor family, he lived a difficult childhood. Eventually, his father was sent to debtor's prison, and Dickens himself went to work at the age of twelve to help pay off the family's debt. This troublesome time scarred Dickens deeply and provided him with substantial material for such stories as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield. Steeped in social criticism, Dickens's writing provides a keen, sympathetic chronicle of the plight of the urban poor in nineteenth-century England. During his lifetime, Dickens enjoyed immense popularity, in part because of his vivid characterizations, and in part because he published his novels in instalments, making them readily affordable to a greater number of people. The Industrial Revolution, which swept through Europe in the late eighteenth century, originated in England. The rapid modernization of the English economy involved a shift from rural handicraft to large-scale factory labour. Technological innovations facilitated unprecedented heights of manufacture and trade, and England left behind its localized, cottage-industry economy to become a centralized, hyper-capitalist juggernaut of mass production. In tandem with this transformation came a significant shift in the nation's demographics. English cities swelled as a growing and impoverished working class flocked to them in search of work. As this influx of workers into urban centres continued, the bourgeois took advantage of the surplus of labour by keeping wages low. The poor thus remained poor, and often lived cramped in squalor. In many of his novels, Dickens chronicles his protagonists' attempts to fight their way out of such poverty and despair. A Tale of Two Cities, originally published from April through November of 1859, appeared in a new magazine that Dickens had created called All the Year Round. Dickens started this venture after a falling-out with his regular publishers. Indeed, this period in Dickens's life saw many changes. While starring in a play by Wilkie Collins entitled The Frozen Deep, Dickens fell in love with a young actress named Ellen Ternan. Dickens's participation in Collins's play led not only to a shift in his personal life, but also to a career development, for it was this play that first inspired him to write A Tale of Two Cities. In the play, Dickens played the part of a man who sacrifices his own life so that his rival may have the woman they both love; the love triangle in the play became the basis for the complex relations between Charles Darnay, Lucie Manette, and Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. Moreover, Dickens appreciated the play for its treatment of redemption and rebirth, love and violence. He decided to transpose these themes onto the French Revolution, an event that embodied the same issues on a historical level. 1. BISTRO LE CHANTEFABLE, 93 ave Gambetta, Paris 20ème. It was just before Easter, hence the fluffy rabbits and chicks... The menu on chalkboard. Now that’s what you call handwriting. No nonsense Rhone Red Our vegetarian convert could just about manage the seafood pan. I believe it was Filet de Sabre sauce Regence. The two carnivores shared a dish but I was confused to receive just this wooden breadboard with only salad and chips on it Then, this arrived...Huzzars! Côte de boeuf maître d’hotel [Rib of beef] served “bleu” and barely introduced to the flame, was a tad cool but surprisingly tender. The bistro had a butcher and fishmonger outlet attached, which must have helped provide the finest quality of produce. There was enough meat for two but then this remained on a third breadboard..... My French brother-in-law devoured the extra meat. He had a ‘macho’ upbringing, growing up on a farm in Normandie before becoming a kitchen architect, and suffers from enforced bouts of vegetarianism Dessert was a mélange of macaroon, chocolate, nuts and ice cream, redolent with the aroma of unctuous coronary disease... FINI 2. BISTRO L’AUTRE, 5-B Shepard Street, Mayfair, London. This is Polish & Mexican cooking at its most eclectic, in a bistro with a French name. Notice the sombrero on the wall [top right] and there is a book on display – “Champagne Exercises”. Copies signed by the author, who is depicted on the cover, are for sale. It’s all about exercises you can do with a couple of bottles of champagne! The author also appears in illustrations demonstrating said exercises with champagne bottles and a chair as props. Yes, they were full bottles of champagne to start . The landlord, Mr Ian Morton, kept turning people away from this tiny establishment, as they walked in off the street. I was glad to have made a reservation on the way back from an afternoon of sinful consumerism around New Bond Street. Those who squeezed in were placed in ground floor dining area or downstairs. There was a ‘sin room’ in the basement for smokers. We had a couple of Polish and Czech beers [no picture] to start. EB Beer is Polish with tenuous links with New Zealand, hence the Emu on their logo; don’t ask why. Trust me that it was quite palatable.... weird provenance, but palatable. Budvar was the Czech beer we tried which was also quite palatable. In keeping with the Polish-Mexican theme, we had this cabernet sauvignon from Chile..er..not De Gras 1999 from Colchaque Valley after 12 months in oak. BLACKCURRANTS; enough said. Starter 1: Börtsch soup with mini pirozhki pasta and sour cream. Starter 2: Pickled herrings in sour cream and dill with apple onion rye bread. These were very authentic renditions of two northeastern European classics. Now to the Mexican part of the menu... Main course 1: Frijoles con Poerco [pork and beans]. Pork loin and chorizo sausage with chilli and black-eyed beans and rice was a spicy and filling dish. If we had cucarachas on the floor, it would have been Mexico. Hygiene officers would have evacuated us but then it would have been REALLY authentic. Main course 2: Golonka. Marinated slow-roasted pork knuckle, sweet & sour cabbage and potato. Well, how Polish can you get? Desserts: These were repeated rounds of Polish buffalo grass vodka. The vodka was served frozen and really had a grassy flavour; I had visions of huddled Polish peasants braving the harsh winters with the stuff. Conclusion: Paradoxically, my meal in ‘gay’ Paris was rather conventional and the one in ‘Channel Tunnel boring’ London was a riot. The food revolution in London of the last decade makes it the eclectic food capital of Europe, if not the world. Alternatively, maybe the repeated shots of buffalo grass vodka clouded my judgement? We’ll have to graze there some more to confirm intial findings.........”la cucaracha... ay..ya..yaya..yaya..ya!” Restaurant reviews photos and text copyright Melvyn Teillol-Foo 2003 MTF ThePuristS.com Wine and Food Discussion Forum  |  ThePuristS.com Home Page We welcome comments, suggestions, and corrections. Copyright 2002-2003 - MTF and ThePuristS.com - all rights reserved