We had walked many times past La Marmite while choosing dining establishments to eat at near our hotel... But every time we walked by it, it was busy.
Tonight, we finally decided to go in. "Marmite" in French refers to passion... the servers at this restaurant were anything but!
When I sat down I noticed that ALL the locals were eating from a massive bowl that resembled a potato with mixed greens of some sort, though they varied. Whenever I'm abroad, I always like to glance over to see what all the locals are eating... Because they MUST know what's good?!
We ended up ordering:
Escargots - Served in its shell (Some of them were difficult to get out, even with the snail tongs and fork. My dad resorted to just shaking them out and it worked quite well, although I think we lose points for etiquette?) It was a very savoury escargot that was served with a pesto butter.
Salade Perigovine - So it turns out all the big bowls that the locals were eating out of were salads. What would Jenny Craig say about portion size? But wait, other than portion size, there's more that Jenny Craig would hate about this salad. It is a salad with a romaine lettuce base, served with: duck gizzards, pâté on toast, thin sliced potatoes, duck prosciutto, duck fat and duck sausage with a creamy ranch-like dressing... It was such a savoury salad... however, defeats the purpose of ordering a salad (e.g. healthier alternative?) I think not. But what the heck, I was on vacation. My only regret is that my phone died and I couldn't take a picture of how massive the bowl was. I had to leave half the potatoes although I really really wanted to finish them because they were just that dang good!
Boeuf à la Bourguignonne - My dad is a very predictable diner. He seldom strays or is adventurous. If its western food, its always Steak! So I suggested to him that he should try something different. When he first heard my suggestion he gave me this "Are you trying to deprive me from my steak?" look... A rather skeptical "I don't know if its going to be any good" look. But in the end he took my advice, and he was NOT disappointed. The stew came in a pot that looked like a mini witch's cauldron. The serving size was quite generous as even my dad could not finish it on his own. There is quite a lot of sauce left over at the end. My dad liked it so much he wanted to doggy bag the sauce so we could dip baguette into it, but we quickly rejected the idea. Sure, let's just magnify the fact that we're tourists... as if being the only Asian family inside the restaurant wasn't already screaming that. The stew had an intense flavour to it and the beef was nice and tender. You could taste the subtle red wine in the stew.
Rump Steak - The steak was the most disappointing part of the meal. It was overdone, and not tender at all. It could be the cut of the beef? In general I found that either 1) French beef is inferior or 2) The French don't know how to cook a steak like us North Americans? Every steak experience we had in Paris was a bad one. The rump steak at La Marmite was quite bland.
Duck Confit - Mom ordered this dish, and although the duck meat was flavourful juicy, moist and tender - the duck skin was mushy. I like my duck confit à la crispy!
All in all, this was one of our better Parisian dining experiences... It was authentic French fare (unlike a lot of the tourist traps), and I am glad we decided to choose a hotel that was in a less touristy part of town to experience French cuisine. read more