Le Baratin

Waaaaaay back in January, on a tip from our Paris landlord, I brought my mom and Cathy to a neighborhood restaurant with a city-wide reputation: Le Baratin. According to various online reviews, many famous Parisian chefs come to Le Baratin when they feel like going out to eat. We went for lunch, and were pretty pleased with both the cost (17 euros for three courses) and the quality of the meal.

Filet of cabillaud (cod) on an artichoke heart salad

Tripe, veal foot, and chickpeas in a spicy stew

Ever since January, I've been telling Maggie that we have to get back to Le Baratin, and last week our good friends across the courtyard treated us to an excellent dinner there. I appreciated the larger selection than we had had at lunch (it turned out I'm not a fan of tripe) but that was the only real difference; the kinds of dishes offered and the quality were similarly top notch.

Le Baratin specializes in simple, hearty fare that combines traditional French products and delicacies with an Argentinian sensibility (Madame is Argentine, I think). On the menu the night we were there: entrées including braised, pulled beef tail (top left) and gorge de maquereau (mackerel throat, top right); plats including wild turbot over sautéed vegetables (middle left) and slow-cooked beef cheek (middle right); and desserts including strawberry soup (bottom left) and fondant au chocolat (super-moist chocolate cake, bottom right).

There are some internet-dwelling gourmands (foodies) who think Belleville is too far to go for good food, even when it's of the caliber served at Le Baratin. Tant pis pour eux (too bad for them), and so much the better for us, real-life-dwelling gourmands who live right around the corner!

Le Baratin

3, rue Jouye-Rouve, 20th arr.

Métro Belleville or Pyrénées

01 43 49 39 70

Professeur Gamberge

While babysitting our friends' children yesterday, I watched a cartoon called Le Professeur Gamberge whose episode title was "Il s'arrête quand, la crise?" (When will the economic crisis be over?) I was astonished that a children's cartoon would address such a heavy, "adult" issue, but I was even more surprised by the unabashedly populist response. In the episode, the Professor (whose last name translates to "Think Hard") explains to three children that bankers - portrayed as gourmands at a table full of rich food - ate too much and got very sick. They'll need to curtail their excessive eating and exercise before their banks - and then the economy - feel better. Brilliant/provocative!

I couldn't find the exact clip I saw (nor could I find an official website) but I did manage to locate a few other "episodes" on youtube, and hopefully this one on slavery (!!!)  will give you the gist:

A brief resumé, for the non-francophones: the children are about to ask the Professor a question when they're interrupted by a news segment about a French couple accused of enslaving a maid. Professor Gamberge explains the history of slavery, starting with the war spoils of antiquity, then the Arab slave trade of East Africa, then the European slave trade between Africa and the Americas. He notes that today, slavery doesn't exist at quite the same magnitude as in earlier times, but it can still be found in war zones, under dictatorships, and even "here." He ends with the instruction, "Never forget that we cannot treat humans like dogs." One of the girls takes the edge off by retorting, "But there are some dogs who are treated very well!"

Apparently, Professeur Gamberge also helped explain the recent Regional Elections, but he's not always answering politically charged questions (other topics of interest: earthquakes and forest fires; you can find a list of the first fifty questions posed in episodes here). All questions answered by the show come from children, and supposedly nothing is off-limits. Maybe we can get such a hard-hitting, pedagogically-oriented segment on Sesame Street. First question: Big Bird, why can't Bert and Ernie get married?