April 2005 Archives

[This policy has been updated and is valid as of October 2009.]

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by David Lebovitz. This blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions except in the sidebars and areas where it is clearly marked or evident. Nothing is any of the posts on the blog has been placed there because payment exchanged hands.

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Readers who subscribe to my newsletter will only receive message generated by me. The list of subscribers is never shared or sold. Newsletters are sent out intermittently throughout the year and I do not send unsolicited e-mails or newsletters: at the end of each is an opt-out feature if readers wish to discontinue receiving it.

Products Featured

I infrequently accept products, services, travel, and event tickets from companies and organizations as long as the topic pertains to the blog, or is aligned with my personal beliefs. I sincerely believe in small businesses and food producers and will often feature them, or items that they produce, in an effort to assist them in becoming more widely known. This, to me, is an honest gesture to give these companies and establishments more exposure.

Because I live abroad, and many products aren’t easily available, I will have American products sent to me by the company, so I can evaluate them honestly and share it with readers. There is never any monetary compensation involved and I make it clear to the company that I don’t promise to mention the product, or give it a positive review, on this site or in my books.

Restaurant Reviews

In the restaurant reviews on the site, I’ve paid for my meal. In cases where the meal was complimentary, I mention in the post that I was invited by the host. I sometimes get complimentary items from restaurants because I was a pastry chef and have many friends and associates in the industry. (Which is common practice amongst people in the restaurant business.) Whether I receive anything or not has no influence on what I write about.

The restaurant “reviews” on the site are intended for informational purposes since many visitors come to Paris and want to know where to go. For that reason, I rarely mention places in a negative light, simply because I like to believe that everyone in the restaurant business is doing the best they can. Not all succeed, but those who do, I am happy to pass along my experiences when dining there.

Generally speaking, I don’t monitor when restaurants or other establishments move, change hours, and experience personnel shifts and changes. As possible, I do update posts, but I do provide phone numbers and advise calling restaurants and shops for the most recent information.

Cookbooks & Recipe Attribution

I will occasionally write about a cookbook, or adapt a recipe from one. If the book is not already in my collection, on occasion, I’ll receive a review copy from the author or publisher, which is common practice. I don’t review all the books I receive nor do I promise placement or a positive review in exchange for the book.

I follow the attribution guidelines which I wrote about at Food Blog Alliance, which are standard throughout the cookbook industry and amongst food writers.

Amazon

There is never any compensation involved from advertisers in my blog posts. As I am a cookbook author and make my income from sales of my books and will, on occasion, provide links to them, as well as other books available on Amazon.

I do receive a small commission on Amazon sales, but many of the links exist because I get inquiries about the availability of products, and Amazon and its affiliates carry a wide ranges of books, gourmet foods, and cookware that are easily available, often internationally. I personally shop at Amazon and find it to be easy-to-use and reliable. I believe in supporting local businesses as well. But because it’s not always possible to mention that in posts, I assume that readers know best the shopping options available to them in their particular geographical region.

Ad Networks

At the time of writing, I am a member of the Martha’s Circle, the Martha Stewart ad network, which I chose because I they seem to be in line with my personal philosophy about cooking and food. Because ads are automatically fed by her network, I don’t monitor the ads that appear there. I do not allow ads with sound or flash animation that exceeds to parameters of the ad space and if those appear, it’s by accident, and I contact the network to have them removed immediately. For editorial reasons, I prefer to keep a “hands off” policy with the ads, unless something is blatantly offensive.

Similarly, I use Google AdSense, a third-party ad system, which is keyword-based and reacts automatically to the content which is presented on the site. I have no say over the ads that appear and like the ad network mentioned above, for editorial reasons, I like to keep a hands-off policy with those ads.

I can’t monitor all the ads since many are regionally-based and I don’t see the same ones that you might see. So if you find an AdSense ad offensive, click on the “Ads by Google” link adjacent to the ads (not on the ads themselves), and you can register your complaint directly with Google.

Advertising

I do not accept text-link ads, or goods or services in exchange for links or content placement. Messages requesting any of those will be ignored.

One-third of my readers are from outside the United States and I appreciate their understanding when I find life outside of the borders of my home country perplexing. While I welcome diverse opinions and comments on the blog, I do not allow personal attacks in the comments and will delete anything I deem inappropriate.

Any links to commercial sites in the comments, unless related to the post, will be edited or deleted as well.

I strongly believe in honesty of relationship, personal integrity, and trust with readers. I don’t recommend products, whether given to me as gifts or that I’ve purchased, if they’re not something that I would personally purchase and use myself.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely mine. I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement and not because I’ve received cash in exchange for the endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

Trust with readers is my most important asset and I strive to only recommend products, restaurants, hotels, and travel experiences with my reader’s interest in mind. Maintaining a blog has many facets, including costs associated with web hosting and design, and a considerable amount of time is spent writing content and responding to readers. It’s my intention to share my stories in a humorous manner, not intended to offend, but to highlight cultural differences, entertain, and for informational purposes only.

A friend of mine, another David L (who also worked at Chez Panisse with me and is now a chef in Switzerland) comes to visit me often, and it's one of the few times I let someone else into my tiny kitchen. He's a terrific cook, and perhaps the only person who is more picky about the way things should be in a kitchen than I am.
David and I like to roam about town looking for things to eat but we always we have a falafel at L'As du Falafel on the rue des Rosiers, in the Marais when he arrives. I usually insist visitors to Paris go there during their trip, since I would rank their 3.5 euro falafel as good as many 3-star dining experiences (and better, and cheaper, than one I recently had.)

Recently we were at the Richard Lenoir market, off the Bastille, and on sunday (the market is thursday and sunday) there are two of the nicest young women from the Savoie selling products from their region. They've got everything from buckwheat squares of pasta, rugged mountain cheeses, and cured meats. David (the other one) was excited to see this sausage which is studded with nuts!

It seemed pretty wacky to me to put nuts in sausage, isn't it? But the nutty, crunchy almonds are terrific and I can't wait until next sunday since, as you can see, I'm almost at the end of my, er, sausage.

It's finally up, my new blog. (Actually I've been blogging before it was cool, beginning in '99) but new software is making this much easier, or so I've been told.

We've been working months on getting things ready with a vivid new design.

You'll find lots of new postings, sometimes daily, mostly about things I'm finding to eat, recipes, places I visit, and more.

There's also a place for readers to post comments, which I read and respond to.

Please be patient with this site for the next few weeks as I learn how to post text and pictures (it's ain't as easy as making brownies...)

There may be typos, misspellings, accents missing, and general chaos, but once I get things up and running smoothly, you'll want to visit often.

Thanks, and 'a bientôt'

David

There's plenty of clichés about Paris in the springtime that are true. But what I really am happy to see are the return of the radishes. I love radishes, and by the looks of things, so do Parisians...

Wow!
I can't get enough of them and I always get two bunches, since I eat one right away, dipping each crisp, spicy radish in a bowl of fleur de sel.

One radish vendor told me eating radishes will make you sleep better.
Lars, a German friend, told me to save the leaves and make soup (which sounds icky), and Chinese medicine practitioners eat daikon white radishes to 'cool' down. I remember as a kid, in my first (and only) garden I planted radishes, which actually grew!... unlike much of the other things I planted. I discovered it wasn't much fun pulling weeds when everyone else was playing, so the garden was abandoned after the first radish harvest.

Luckily radishes are in abundance right now, and I can buy them weekly at my local market in the Bastille, and I'm using them as much as I can. Aside from dipping them in salt, I thinly slice radishes and toss them with coarse frisée, toasted hazelnuts and hazelnut oil; a terrific salad served with a round of fresh or aged goat cheese. Trimmed radishes, split lengthwise, are tasty served alongside Tapenade.

Apologies to all for not updating the site, but I've been working on the overhaul and can't wait to get it up... which will be shortly. There will be lots of new content, a new look, as well as very frequent updates and lots of recipes. I've also been very busy planning and leading chocolate tours and working on some new recipes for chocolate classes in December of 2005 at Sur La Table stores. I just finished a major article about Paris chocolates for the October issue of Hemispheres, the magazine of United Airlines. So plan a trip on United in October if you want to read it!

So it's springtime here in Paris.

At my outdoor market, I've been buying colorful blood oranges from Tunisia and Spain and making refreshing sorbets, then candying the peel to serve alongside. (My grandmother never let me throw anything away...) As the weather gets warmer, dinner's often a simple salad of peppery arugola and watercress sprinkled with a drizzle of argan oil, my favorite oil, made from argan nuts that have been munched by tree-climbing goats in Morocco, after which they're "expelled", then laboriously pressed.

I've also been baking tagines (Moroccan casseroles) using spring lamb and plump, sweet prunes from Agen. And sometimes dinner will just be a slice of Terrine Gascon which I get from my local butcher, made from shredded duck confit and I suspect an overdose of duck fat. (I figure if I down enough rosé with it, that will dilute the richness in my system.) There's also many new cheeses that I'm trying at my fromagerie, such as an earthy, crumbly, and pungent bleu cheese from Savoie, ripe and gooey brie de meaux, and a new favorite, Langres, a copper-colored knob that when sliced, reveals a soft, creamy interior with the lovely sweet-pungent smell of fresh cream, grass, and barnyard.

One Of My Favorite Bakeries in Paris, L'Autre Boulange

And I've been trying as many new chocolates I can get. I've had some lovely bars from Green & Black's organic chocolate from Great Britain, as well as handcrafted Tuscan chocolates from Slitti and Amedei that I'll be visiting with guests in May during my upcoming Italian Chocolate Tour.

For those of you unfamiliar with Tuscan chocolates, they are some of the finest chocolates you'll ever sample. Wish you were coming along?

If you've missed the opportunity to come to Tuscany with me, I've just announced a week of chocolate and cooking classes with cookbook author Susan Loomis in September, at her lovely home located in Normandy, one-hour from Paris. See below for details.

Each winter, the International Salon d'Agriculture occurs in Paris at the enormous Porte de Versailles exhibition center. The French are in love with anything agricultural. I recently saw a huge, room-sized map of France artfully composed of vegetables and fruits from the various regions.

And they love cows. (Well, living in a country with the most exceptional cheeses in the world, I am beginning to worship them as well.) When I last went to the post office, I was offered their newest stamps, which featured a cow. When I showed them off to some French friends that came for dinner that night, there was much ooh-ing and ahh-ing.

Although I do like cows as much as, um, the next person...I was more intrigued by the food representing all the regions of France and several other European communities and Africa. I bought a hunk of nutty Gruyere from the Swiss pavilion that was really, really good and sweet-scented, slender vanilla beans from the Antilles.

There was lots of unusual seafood to gasp at, delicious Basque foie gras conserved with pimente d'espelette (smoked pepper powder), and much wine to sample, as well as Pommeau, an aperitif of Calvados brandy blended with apple cider.

I'm Thinking of Giving Up Fish

I meet some lively Africans from the Ivory Coast, who split open a cocoa bean and fed me the slippery seeds within. If you've never seen a cocoa bean, they're beautiful pods filled with slippery, almond-sized beans imbedded in a creamy liquid.

African Cocoa Beans

Although the Salon is great fun, it's always mobbed and this year was no exception. The one thing you never want to do is get between a French person and food. Otherwise, look out!