At the start of the month, my wife Jan and I tried the new take-out service from Daglan’s own lovely restaurant, Le Petit Paris. I described the event in the posting “A restaurant comes to us,” on April 2.
Yesterday we ordered the restaurant’s take-out dish for our Sunday lunch, and even more happiness ensued. While Jan and I had different desserts, we both had the same main course —porc au caramel — and were fairly stunned by how good it was.
First, a few comments on pork, from my posting “A brine too far” (February 13, 2019):
I’m a sucker for pork. When we lived in Toronto and would go out to dinner, it was a no-brainer for me to choose the daily special, as long as it was something like “A thick-cut maple-glazed pork chop.” Unfortunately, chewing the meat sometimes was like eating “thick-cut maple-glazed cardboard.” That’s because (I think) North American pigs have become leaner and leaner, so that there is not nearly as much flavourful fat marbling through the meat. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case here in France, where we find the pork generally very tasty.
Given my love of pork, I was quite looking forward to our lunch from Le Petit Paris, but I didn’t hold out any particular hope for the au caramel part of the dish; I figured it would just be a normal roast with a glaze on top. And that’s sort of what it looked like, as you’ll see on my plate below (which also includes a delicious purée of sweet potato from the restaurant, and some white asparagus that Jan cooked):
But no! In fact, when I tried cutting into the pork with my steak knife, it virtually fell apart. So in fact what we had was a very slow-cooked dish of pork, smothered in a sweet sauce that I loved; it was like the slow-cooked barbecue you’re served in the U.S. South, but with a caramel sauce instead of barbecue sauce. Have a look:
For these main courses (pork and sweet potato) we paid 11 euros each, and for the desserts, just 4 euros each. Jan’s gluten-free choice was a lovely dish of panna cotta, topped with fresh strawberries:
My dessert was the chocolate fondant — a rich chocolate cake with melted chocolate at its heart. Have a look:
If there is any one ongoing, nagging criticism about Le Petit Paris, it’s that the menu doesn’t change very much. Based on yesterday’s lunch, I’d suggest one positive change would be to make porc au caramel a regular on the menu.
Another brilliant dish. So looking forward to getting back to Le Petit Paris – especially if that’s on the menu!
I agree Simon. Really hope that Chef realizes he has a winner here!
You’re so lucky to have such fabulous take out. We don’t do take out but if we did it would pale in comparison to yours!
Karen, next on our take-out agenda is the Thai food at Sawadee. Often it’s been Pad Thai, but we’re looking for change. Some kind of curry? (They have many.) Some kind of stir-fry? (They have many.) So many choices!
The pork looks fabulous, it does not look like a chop so what cut was it?
Cheers, Teressa (Letitiaâs friend in UK)
Cheers, Teressa
Sorry, Teressa, but my meat knowledge is sort of limited. Definitely not a chop, but a sort of roast. So what would that be? Shoulder? I really don’t know. Anyway — delicious!
🤤
Marla, I think you are indeed a foodie at heart.