It’s a declaration that would likely motive the human beings of Lyon to take up fingers, but Paris is surely France’s gastronomic capital, way to the quality and consistency of the town’s restaurants.
From humble roast hen on marketplace rotisseries to brasseries, bistros and Michelin-starred temples of haute cuisine, it’s a worldwide eating vacation spot with few equals.
But compared to iconic meals cities which includes New York or Hong Kong, the City of Lights historically lacked the true worldwide range of flavors and cuisines.
When I lived in Paris 20 years in the past, Chinese food, as an example, consisted largely of buffet trays of meats, rice and greens, all candy and barely cloying. One popular dish wasn’t even mainly Chinese: salad spring rolls.
Happily, matters have modified remarkably on the grounds that, and some of the establishments from haute to humble are introducing Parisians to proper local Chinese cuisines.
Just steps from the Arc de Triomphe on the pinnacle of the Champs-Élysées, the elegant Peninsula Paris is domestic to LiLi, one of the most striking Chinese eating places anywhere in Europe, not to mention France.
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Since opening in 2014, it has received recognition as one of the French capital’s maximum glamorous eating rooms, at the same time as the Art Nouveau building that homes The Peninsula is one among Paris’ see-and-be-visible spots.
LiLi’s subject matter is based totally on a fictional girl of the identical name who represents the marriage of Chinese and French opera, a concept which makes for a theatrical dining room.
At the cease of an extensive, brilliant marble hall there’s a placing painting of art offering Lili, made from fiber-optic strands. The restaurant then opens up earlier than you with its excessive ceilings, marble pillars, chandeliers, cherubs, and shimmering lacquer-crimson curtains.
Overseeing the kitchen is executive chef Dicky To Kwok-Kim, born and raised in Hong Kong, with experience crafting excellent Cantonese cuisine at The Peninsula’s residences in each Shanghai and Tokyo. He says that diners are state-of-the-art sufficient to flavor the difference among his delicacies and that of the greater not unusual French establishments that blend up Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines.
“Guests at LiLi are capable of realizing that our Cantonese meals are a sophisticated version. We are the use of the satisfactory local merchandise, and in the kitchen we also have a fish tank, to offer the fine high-quality sparkling seafood, cooked in a traditional Cantonese way,” he says.
Dinner here entails an impressive parade of dishes. A bowl of XO sauce – first created via The Peninsula’s Spring Moon eating place in Hong Kong – observed a small selection of dim sum. Yes, this changed into dinner, but it’s additionally Paris, and the dim sum was impeccable – appreciably the lobster, asparagus and caviar dumpling. With those substances, how ought to it now not be?
Then came double-boiled guinea hen soup. The fragrant and gamy hum of guinea chicken from Burgundy becomes greater with black truffle, Chinese celery, and organic egg, making it decadent and umami-wealthy.
The crispy duck served to adjacent tables appeared tempting, however, given that I turned into eating solo, I went with the pyramid of pork belly. It changed into a great char siu construction, layered like an Aztec temple, deep mahogany in coloration and served on minced mushrooms and spinach. An innovative and superb dish.
To end, sago and mango pudding became true and familiarly tasty; even though priced at a hefty €13 (US$14.5), it will supply Hong Kong diners a shock. LiLi simply lives as much as its popularity and could without problems supply quality Cantonese eating restaurants in Hong Kong a run for his or her money. While Paris’ southern 13th arrondissement is domestic to the town’s Chinatown and a big wide variety of Chinese restaurants, my next stops were north of the Seine.
First up, the oddly-named Carnet de Bord, meaning “log e-book”. It could be hard to find a much less appealing placing, a few minutes’ walks from the Gare Saint-Lazare railway station. Neighboring eating places, named Kung Fu Cuisine and Wrap n Roll, rarely stimulated self-assurance, not to say the 2 person video stores nearby.
Carnet de Bord’s humble outside definitely states “restaurant Asiatique”, which does little to provide an explanation for why it’s one of the capital’s top Sichuan eating places. That’s according to Parisian diners as well as Gong Li.
