NWR - Table Verte

[Robert Dentice]

The Chef from La Sirene has opened a French Vegetarian restaurant in the EV. It opened days before the Hurricane. I have eaten their once and it is very good and BYOB. I look forward to going back. They could probably use some business.

Table Vert

 

[Brad Kane]

originally posted by Robert Dentice:

French Vegetarian

That's a rather funny concept.

 

[Robert Dentice]

originally posted by Brad Kane:

originally posted by Robert Dentice:

French Vegetarian

That's a rather funny concept.

I hear you but I think it works surprisingly well.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

Many wonderful dishes have no meat or can very reasonably be made without them... soupe a l'oignon, Salade Lyonnaise, various gratins, ratatouille, all the desserts. And that's just sticking to the traditional menu.

 

[Sharon Bowman]

Soupe à l'oignon is very beef-stock based.

I have made a kind of salade lyonnaise with cèpes in place of lardons, but still....

I like vegetables so much that it makes me sad when they are forced to be more than they should. If there were meat items on the menu, that would make non-meat ones a taste choice, not a pis-aller.

 

[Cory Cartwright]

I work with a vegetarian from the Beaujolais. I have no idea how he does it.

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Soupe à l'oignon is very beef-stock based.

I have made a kind of salade lyonnaise with cèpes in place of lardons, but still....

I like vegetables so much that it makes me sad when they are forced to be more than they should. If there were meat items on the menu, that would make non-meat ones a taste choice, not a pis-aller.

One can make onion soup with vegetable stock--but it really is only onion soup in a manner of speaking. Still, if one has vegetarians in the family, one has to make due.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
...one has to make due.

"do"

 

[Sharon Bowman]

"dew"?

 

[Mike Evans]

"doux"?

Homophone fun aside, I remember conversations with Stuart Yaniger, who defies pretty much every vegetarian stereotype imaginable, about great vegetarian meals he had in France, so the concept seems plausible enough.

 

[VLM]

originally posted by Mike Evans:
"doux"?

Homophone fun aside, I remember conversations with Stuart Yaniger, who defies pretty much every vegetarian stereotype imaginable, about great vegetarian meals he had in France, so the concept seems plausible enough.

Only to the extent that Yaniger is plausible.

I've had great vegetarian meals at his house. Craziness.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

L'Arpege is famous for a tomato, right?

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
L'Arpege is famous for a tomato, right?

I thought that they were famous for the Infamous Egg.

Mark Lipton

 

[Brad Kane]

originally posted by VLM:

Only to the extent that Yaniger is plausible.

I've had great vegetarian meals at his house. Craziness.

I've had an amazing porcini fonduta and tomato and egg paella that he's made. Neither one were French, though. The wines were.

 

[kirk wallace]

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
L'Arpege is famous for a tomato, right?

I thought that they were famous for the Infamous Egg.

Mark Lipton

The soft-boiled (actually poached and then returned to the shell) egg amuse with maple syrup, or sometimes old sherry vinegar, the couscous "arlequin" with carrots, rutabega and other veggies and argan oil; the beet baked in salt and drizzled with very old balsamico, the little ravioli of fig and onion in a veggie consume, the crazy amazing white onion-Parmesan gratinee with Sarawak black pepper, and black truffles in wintertime (unnecessary in my opinion), and yes for dessert, if you don't want the millefuille, the confit tomato with 12 favors and vanilla ice cream -- all great. But also, the "taglitelle" of celeriac, the tomato gazpacho with Orleans mustard ice cream, white peaches, almonds and harricots verts, the peas with basil sorbet.... The list goes on.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by kirk wallace:
The soft-boiled (actually poached and then returned to the shell) egg amuse with maple syrup, or sometimes old sherry vinegar, the couscous "arlequin" with carrots, rutabega and other veggies and argan oil; the beet baked in salt and drizzled with very old balsamico, the little ravioli of fig and onion in a veggie consume, the crazy amazing white onion-Parmesan gratinee with Sarawak black pepper, and black truffles in wintertime (unnecessary in my opinion), and yes for dessert, if you don't want the millefuille, the confit tomato with 12 favors and vanilla ice cream -- all great. But also, the "taglitelle" of celeriac, the tomato gazpacho with Orleans mustard ice cream, white peaches, almonds and harricots verts, the peas with basil sorbet.... The list goes on.

So, you've been there?

 

[Steve Edmunds]

originally posted by Cory Cartwright:
I work with a vegetarian from the Beaujolais. I have no idea how he does it.

fromage

 

[Thor]

FWIW, I've also had terrific, indeed legendary, vegetarian meals with Stuart and at his (or JD's) house. And at the late-unlamented Spiedini, at which Stuart's friends regularly joined together to contribute to a month of Stuart's free post-Spiedini dining on the leftovers. (Sorry, was that snarky?) Not one of them would I describe as a lighter alternative to a inject-dairy-fat-into-your-arteries meal, though.

At Arpège, which I finally managed last night, the vegetables were all terrific. Brilliant, even legendary. Stuart would have loved them. Frankly, it was everything else that was mediocre (at best), and the mille-feuille was an inedible pile of ashen nastiness. They managed to make turbot boring. Etc. Alas. Well, at least it was cheap... *sigh*

Re: vegetarianism in France, I asked a friend who worked with a dozen Burgundy winemakers and who was (then) a vegetarian how that was even possible. Her answer: "it fucking sucked."

 

[kirk wallace]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

originally posted by kirk wallace:
The soft-boiled (actually poached and then returned to the shell) egg amuse with maple syrup, or sometimes old sherry vinegar, the couscous "arlequin" with carrots, rutabega and other veggies and argan oil; the beet baked in salt and drizzled with very old balsamico, the little ravioli of fig and onion in a veggie consume, the crazy amazing white onion-Parmesan gratinee with Sarawak black pepper, and black truffles in wintertime (unnecessary in my opinion), and yes for dessert, if you don't want the millefuille, the confit tomato with 12 favors and vanilla ice cream -- all great. But also, the "taglitelle" of celeriac, the tomato gazpacho with Orleans mustard ice cream, white peaches, almonds and harricots verts, the peas with basil sorbet.... The list goes on.

So, you've been there?

We started going in '95, a year or 2 before his 3d star. But, he's only been mainly veggie since '00 or so. A few years there, no fowl even. Haven't been since October and November of '10, but he put lamb and foie gras back on the menu in '07 or so, IIRC.

 

[Lou Kessler]

originally posted by VLM:

originally posted by Mike Evans:
"doux"?

Homophone fun aside, I remember conversations with Stuart Yaniger, who defies pretty much every vegetarian stereotype imaginable, about great vegetarian meals he had in France, so the concept seems plausible enough.

Only to the extent that Yaniger is plausible.

I've had great vegetarian meals at his house. Craziness.

Now that's a name from the past. I remember his first wife who would wolf down a large piece of bloody meat accompanied by a large Pepsi while Stuart choked.
They did divorce.