Poulet cordon bleu aux duxelles avec asperges - dîner ce soir!
Recent literary dig.
Learning all about postwar slang “les boudjianzes” = les bluejeans.
On cause, on cause cest tout ce qu’on sait faire….
Southern California offers the same dry, airy climate as Southern France, making it an ideal host for la lavande!
from the Getty’s art expo The Walls of Algiers “The peaceful neighborhoods of old Algiers quietly open up and ascend the strange twisting streets, like mysterious staircases all leading up to silence. Private life, as everywhere in the Orient, is protected by impenetrable walls.” —Eugène Fromentin, Une année dans le Sahel (Paris, 1874)
— http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/algiers/
Saintly bistro fare
Le Saint Amour in Culver City offers bistro fare without pretention. Immediately you are greeted by the owners who ask in broken English thick with a Lyonnais accent where you would like to be seated: terrace? bar? bistro table?
A traditional menu with a few medieval sounding dishes like boudin noir (blood sausages have been a favorite of the French for albeit 2000 years… http://www.hertzmann.com/articles/2002/boudin/) and pied de cochon (literally, a lightly breaded pig foot). You can play it safe with a poulet basquaise or a quiche lorraine but be adventurous, leave it to the chef to decide your fate! I was delighted when I saw my plate round the corner- quenelles de brochet or cod dumplings with a side of lentilles du puy (http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/11/cheap_caviar_1.html).
Le Saint Amour is everything you expect a successful bistro to be: noisy, energetic, and crammed with neighborhood locals shouting to each other from the bar to the tables, occasionally adjusting their coiffure in the mirrors that hang above the bistro seats. There are no vintage Perrier posters or “Oh la la” signs, just antique cookwares like copper pans and cast iron madeleine molds. Go ahead and fall amoureux of Le Saint Amour-I certainly have!
For an in-depth look at the dining experience at LStA, see my yelp review by clicking on the picture posted below.
Quenelle de brochet & lentilles du puy which David Lebovitz aptly named the caviar of lentils
