Mmmmm

We arrived in Paris on a lovely sunny day, just in time for lunch. The day's plan called for lunch at Spring (2 Michelin stars), walking (about the best thing to do in Paris besides eat), and dinner at Passage 53 (another 2 Michelin stars). Were we up to the challenge? Well, part of what made it possible was that at both restaurants, there is no menu. They do check if they have to take allergies into account, discuss the food in terms of wine choices, and then you sit still and they bring you things. No neurotc discussions of what's on the plate, is it too light, too heavy, whatever. They bring, you eat. And both restaurants are tiny, tiny places and waaaay to cool for me to take photos at table. The similarity stops there, because the personalities of the restaurants are very different.
Spring: tiny, maybe 20 seats, a hole-inthe-wall, well, in stone walls, wooden beams, karge windows, metal circular stairs to a wine bar downstairs. Our amuse-bouche: a magnificent chicken consommé with tiny slivers of brill, foie gras, wild mushrooms, fresh herbs. Could have happily sipped this all afternoon. Didn't have to, 2 perfectly cooked sea scallops came next, followed by absolutely the best pigeon we have ever eaten. Dessert: pear clafoutis. Goal: simplicity of preparation, perfect technique, and the very finest products. Result: success. At the beginning, reaction: cool, cute. After first sip: attention. At end: completely understood what the fuss is about, and you should go.

A walk on a lovely fall day, and then dinner at Passage 53, which will get its own post.

TRICK OR TREAT! Fred copes with the Great Northeast Pumpkin Shortage...

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE HURRICANE GETS TO THE PUMPKINS FIRST!

YOU HAVE TO MAKE VEG-O-LANTERNS 

AND FRUIT-O-LANTERNS

HEIRLOOM TOMATO - O - LANTERNS AND GRAPE - O -LANTERNS 

 GRANNY SMITH-O-LANTERN  AND SQUASH-O-LANTERNS

 OF COURSE THERE IS AN ADVANTAGE: NO PUMPKIN SEEDS TO DEAL WITH!

UNLESS YOU LOVE THEM, OF COURSE, 

IN WHICH CASE IT'S A DISADVANTAGE.

and, because one cannot live on fruit and veg alone, here are some SCARY GHOST COOKIES.
I was going to include the recipe, because these things are really cute
but every single ingredient was a prepared food,
many of which contained other prepared foods
and unpronounceable chemical compounds.
Now that's scary.

Scheduled to post while we're in France

some good news from Brussels: more food! and then on to Paris

Just so you know, our dinner at Comme Chez Soi ended with a lime soufflé (me) and asome poached white peaches (him). I'm resolved to track down a fool-proof recipe for the lime soufflé; have a recipe for a chocolate soufflé that's not only good but can be gotten ready ahead of time, held in freezer, then baked during dinner.

And the following night, dinner at Restaurant Bruneau, another favorite. This started off with four (four!) amuse-bouches.

Then the first course: cold foie gras plus sautéed foie gras.

At that point I lost the ability to take pictures. My main course was all white: breast of pheasant with a copious amount of white truffles, the whole in a creamy white wine sauce. Himself had a roast wild duck with wild autumnal fruits (not sure what those are but since I wouldn't let him have a taste of my dish, he wasn't sharing his either. Thus we work to save the economy, one luvly mouthful at a time.

Well, mouthfuls and mouthfuls.

a chill wind from Brussels

Not exactly big-city black, but boy was I glad I'd brought it! Brussels was cold and drizzly when we arrived, sunny and colder thé next day, anxious-looking non-tourists milling about itopping that someone would say something of financial significance.

On a more cheerful note: dinner! Our first night, we charged back to Comme Chez Soi, where we'd last been in June. Too much of a good thing? Not hardly. In brief, the food was just as wonderful, the crowd a little cooler, more somber. Not a picture-taker in the place. Fall dishes were (natch) featured, and the amuse-bouche was a savory little pumpkin mousse. It's tough to make pumpkin taste like anything, and I dreaded starting with something that tasted like pumpkin pie. No worries, this was light, fluffy even, and tasted mildly vegetal and like, um, itself. A good omen. For first courses we repeated what we'd done in June, and my main course was delectable venison, in two services.

The first plate was arranged like a woodland scene, but despite the cuteness the meat was medium rare and hearty. The second plate was more venison, this time accompanied by a generous serving of sautéed wild mushrooms.
to be continued

a few last-minute try-ons

Somehow it doesn't feel like a real trip unless there's something new in the suitcase (business travel excepted, when one must know that everything can be relied on). And so I nipped into and out of a few stores to see if I could grab anything that would feel new but not put the luggage over the weight limit.

Hadley sweater, J.Crew - in artificial light this looked like brown and navy rather than deep red and navy. The yarn felt furry, and the little epaulets on the shoulders stood up too much for me. I loved the picture of Marissa (remember Marissa?) in this sweater with the henna-red striped silk shirt, but the sweater just didn't work for me, and I was afraid that the blended fibers would wind up being too hot. Tried on a few different sizes, didn't seem to matter (?) for some reason. Did not buy. Still glad I grabbed that shirt on a promo!

Cashmere slacks, J.Crew - thin, almost airy cashmere fabric, no lining. For the price ($595), I expect something that will stand up to being worn by an ordinary person with a sometimes extraordinary life. Well, at least I expect a lining. No lining, had pockets which will drag the stitches out of the waistband if used. Web site shows navy, I saw grey in store. Did not try on.

Prince of Wales Schoolboy Blazer, J.Crew - not as nice as last year's fabric, and a little shorter. I had last year's POW jacket at home for a few weeks, studied it from every angle, decided that the back view was, um, not for me, returned it. Cut is a little skimpier this year, isn't everything? Did not buy.

Stretch Perfect Shirt, J.Crew -  this was not marked down instore, is on web, loved that it comes in white! Will probably order but not in time for trip.

I had seen the new paisley skirt and a paisley knit top instore last week, and thought I might try on, but when I asked, the SA insisted that they had never been in that store (could the Flagship be sinking?) and could be found only in Paramus NJ. I know where that is, and what I mostly know about it is that you can't get there from here by public transportation. I also know that I was not in New Jersey last week, and I am very sure about that. Moreover I do not hallucinate items of clothing. Very puzzled.

There were a couple of nice pencil skirts that aren't on the web site, but I bet they too will have vanished into Rollout Limbo if I were to run back today. I thoroughly approved of a black and white tweed one and will keep it in mind nevertheless. Oh, and was told there is no gimlet skirt. Huh.

On to Anthropologie, tried on hats. I am sad to report that the Anthro store on lower Fifth Avenue now only carries "one size" hats. However, there was an interesting Sonia Rykiel sweater facing the front door, made of squares of bright color knitted wool sewn together. Decided that all those seams would not make for comfortable wearing. For $450, someone could learn to use bobbins, and Mme Sonia could find a distinguishing feature other than inside-out seams. That's old.

Oops, almost forgot - there were about a dozen pairs of the shiny pink flowery pants (in this post )   on the sale rack at the J.Crew (flagship),  also a lot of the Liquid Silk Skirts in both colors.

I guess this was just one of those days when my sense of style stops at "Does it itch?" This is not the proper attitude for a trip to France. Although I bet a Parisienne could wear anything, even sweat pants, with cute shoes and a scarf, and look stylish. I also bet that how a Parisienne looks in sweat pants is something that will not be tested in our lifetimes.

Home to finish packing; discovered when I took the skirt that goes with the blue suede shirt out of the dry cleaner's wrappings that someone had darned a tear in it. Expletives deleted: I do not like this kind of mystery. Still fretting that I may wind up checking in, opening suitcase, and finding that I resolved the raincoat dilemma by bringing a short, a long, and a foldable, but no slacks. Time to focus.

and then everyone was happy

the groom toasted the bride

the bride toasted the groom

they both toasted the late mother of his children

the children toasted the bride and the groom

the grandchildren who were old enough to raise a glass, toasted the bride and the groom and their late grandma

the grandchildren who were not old enough to toast, passed around chocolates

there were canes and there were walkers

but there was also dancing
some people are just confetti in your life, no?

I'm so glad we were there!

J.Crew does J.Peterman

The J.Peterman duster has been around since I babysat for professors' kids and thumbed through their magazines (Peterman advertised in The New Yorker, not Highlights for Children). It gave me the idea of protecting the bottom part of my trousers, or my legs in fragile hose, from being splashed by inconsiderate drivers. Even though there's lot of short rainwear around, long remains my preference. I've copied the Peterman catalog's description to show that it is possible to write fanciful or evocative or even silly descriptions without doing serious harm to the English language. I don't think the duster's waterproof, or even water-resistant, nor does my current lifestyle call for anything with a "saddle vent," but I can like the coat, read the copy, and chuckle. In a nice way. I've never known anyone who owned this coat, although I once saw one on a tall guy with clipboard outside a sample sale. He looked like he wanted to be recognized.

Now I turn to another duster-like outer garment, which I haven't seen in person, even on someone with a clipboard. This is the J.Crew Nili Lotan overcoat. The breathless description leaves out the part about the elves who weave the magic fabric while waiting for the cookies to cool and then hand the fabric from tree branches for the birds to admire while the elves box up the cookies. This is disappointing: I would expect no less for an unlined garment going for $528. Otherwise the copy ticks all the boxes: in love, streamlined, understated, effortlessly chic, crafted. Aha! they left out "our newest obsession" and "we're obsessed." I always thought if you had obsessions, you dealt with them and if they really bothered you, you got help. It appears that some (collective) obsessions can just go away. Oh, and it looks to me like the coat "hits" at or above the knee, not at mid-thigh. Now I am chuckling, but not in a nice way.

It's not just the human anatomy that confuses the interplanetary crowd: I've concluded that everything on their home planet is a colloid, since the most basic concepts of, say, a straight line, up vs. down, down vs. across, and the like, continue to elude them. Clearly such concepts are not necessary on a planet where the basic means of locomotion is the ooze.

Let us look at horizontal vs. vertical. ⎮is a vertical line. — is a horizontal line. We will deal with the names of other kinds of lines in the Advanced Session. Now we look at a New Arrival in the J.Crew catalog: the Snowbound Sweater. Made of cashmere along the lines of the classic shetland crew. So far, so good.

 Granted, this is a sewn-in yoke, and a very nice yoke it is. However, there are two seams that connect the yoke to the body of the sweater, and to do this, one of them has to be horizontal. The other has to be vertical. Otherwise the result would be a dustmop, not a garment. So having seams hold one piece of a garment to another is not a feature. It is sewing. It could be a feature if the seaming were decorative. As it is, telling me that my sweater is sewn together suggests that others may not be. Well, if the sweater had been hand-knitted on circular needles, then there might not be any seams, but in that case why add them? Enough, stop, it looks like a nice sweater, I like the idea of the yoke, and I hope some kind soul will order it and let me know how it fits and how the construction is on the inside. I used to cringe when my mom would turn something inside out and point out the reasons she wasn't going to buy it. Now of course I -- is every woman's worst fear turning into her mother, or not turning into her mother? Have you ever heard tapes of your mother coming out of your very own mouth?

I warned you, didn't I, that as Hallowe'en draws near, there will be a number of posts with scary subjects. Turning into one's mother is one of the scariest.

on the road again: plans, packing and zero-sum shopping

Remember Mr. Creosote?

This is the immortal Fernand Point,
who started it all

so, we leave a week from today. Once again, Brussels (2 dinners), train, Paris (5 dinners, some lunches as well, including Spring, about time!), on the road, Mionnay (1 dinner), Lyon (2 dinners), on the road, Nice (2 dinners), Monte Carlo (1 dinner). Think that's it. Some more lunches while on the road, possibly. Um, naturally. October is game season, you never know what you'll find.

Hmm, just realized that Mr. Creosote and Fernand Point may have been separated at birth! How appropriate for trip planning!

Checking weather forecasts obsessively, and it seems that at this time of year, France is like New York, in that nowhere on this expedition south does it look like one day will have remotely the same climate as the next. I feel like I'm packing for a Girl Scout sleep-out - what if it's cold? rainy? pouring? warm? hot? humid? dry? Be prepared! - only with what I hope are cooler outfits. So far have decided to bring the famous Donna Karan cashmere wrap coat and a raincoat. Which raincoat is where indecision and neurosis have a party.  A short raincoat packs better, is better in cars; a long raincoat is heavier, but better on city streets, where there are splashes from thoughtless cars and busses, and nicer over a dress.

Restaurant dress: for hot weather, the blue silk print from last spring's trip plus that green lace vest. The vest works really well with the undertones in the blue print and that vee neck in real life needs a little cover. For cooler nights, have had an old dark red paisley wool challis dress updated; reset the shoulders - have decided I won't live long enough to welcome the return of pouffy shoulders and if I do I'll want new stuff anyway. Re-cut the neck - don't like turtlenecks in restos, now it's a high vee, good for necklaces. Or a little chain. Hemmed to mid-calf. I love it. Bought it a dark blue sparkly belt that picks up some of the blue bits in the paisley. I could hear it saying Merci!



On the road: jeans, tees, jacket as needed. City daywear: dark jeans or black slacks, silk shirts, blazer (ahem, a blazer is a jacket that has lapels, a collar, sleeves, and buttons and buttonholes). And my gorgeous Chie Mihara shoes, which - guess what? are comfortable!

the Chies I'm
thinking about

the Chies I have -
black, brown, taupe

Thinking of getting a second pair of Chie lace-ups (different colors, different pattern). I know they cost a bomb, but not having a pained expression on my face from aching feet will make me look years younger and more energetic, much more so than, say, a jacket whose partial lining gives rise to worry. My mom used to say that nothing makes your face look old like aching feet, and nothing makes you sound old like talking about how your feet hurt, so enough of the shoe/foot conversation.  Update: bought the Chies - they were marked down by 30% while I dithered - and am taking some other merch back to stores ! Zero-sum shopping?

A thought: at the end of October, Nice will be winding down for the winter but still warm, so I might finally get to wear my "flame" orange-red paisley skirt. And not a moment too soon! After thumping self on back in triumph for snagging this beauty before it sold out, there wasn't one occasion all summer for which it was suitable. OK, that skirt is coming along to earn its keep. Hah. Have made Some Progress. Now it is time for a rest. Oops, just realized I never finished the posts about the lovely meals we had in Seattle and San Francisco week before last. Bad blogger. Back to work.

a star is born: another Merchant Prince seeks world domination

Via this morning's inbox, our friends at Madison Avenue Spy have let us know that the former husband of Tory Burch (said to be the wizard behind her v. successful line), is AT IT AGAIN.
 "Retailer-extraordinaire Chris Burch will open his newest boutique, C. Wonder, October 22, in Soho. The new concept will sell housewares, home decor, personal electronics, in addition to apparel, shoes, jewelry and accessories, according to our sources. 

"Chris Burch is best known for being the brains -- and money-- behind ex-wife Tory Burch. Not willing to just sit on his wallet, Chris has been working on several concepts, including the launch of lifestyle brand Monika Chiang. (That's Chris' current girlfriend)."

Well. I've seen taxi-tv ads for C.Wonder, and the ads are a cross between the Target Bullseye with Dog ads and the Gap all-singing all-dancing all-jiving chino ads of years past. You would never know from the taxi ads that the newest creation of a "retailer-extraordinaire" is being touted. Yes, that's one of the names he goes by. Keep reading for others.

POPPIN'S COLOR CHOICES
for pens, desktop stuff, etc

The article continues:  "We are told that Kelly Cutrone designed the new clothing line for C. Wonder --which is surprisingly colorful -- and the office supplies draw from another Burch venture, called Poppin. Poppin's chicly redesigned office supplies are currently sold online at an affordable price point and come in an array of bright colors. Totally cool (or at least they photograph really cool)." I checked out Poppin and not everything is colorful. However the prices are not terrible for decent-looking pads, pencils, office supplies generally, as opposed to the tawdry kind (but with the firm name on) that the office manager got a good buy on. Poppin's mission is apparently to give everyone who uses a pad backed with thin cardboard that bends an opportunity to omit at least some of those "I'm wasting my life" moments from the workday. Unless you're too stubborn to bring your own supplies to the office. I bring my own pens everywhere, because I prefer my handwriting to be legible. Most of the time.

some whoopee from
C.Wonder's website-in-progress

OK, back to C. Wonder, it's meant  to attract the Anthropology customer in a "more fashionable and modern environment. The 5,100 square foot space was first built out in a warehouse in China, as to perfect the design and merchandising of the concept." That Chris! What a guy! (How did Dear Leader miss this?) 

And I can do no better than the Madison Avenue Spy's conclusion:

"If all goes according to plan, C. Wonder will multiply across the country. As a matter of fact, Chris Burch is so confident about his self-named venture, he's requested others to call him The King. Perhaps he is testing the name of his next retail concept."

   Or he could call it J.Wonder. In the words of Mel Brooks, "It's good to be da King." Possibly even better than to be "da Prince"?

Fred hits the Columbus Day sales (and others)

Prices and leaves are falling, and will doubless continue to do so for the next few weeks, but we have a trip planned! Before I even start packing for the trip, I want to be sure that my Hallowe'en costume is organized , so that when we return I can get right down to haunting. Forethought is my watchword (some of the time, anyway). With that in mind, a little preliminary haunting - of stores - is in order. I'm saving my broomstick to be able to zoom around efficiently for the sales that I expect to occur around Thanksgiving, so I have to do something different this Hallowe'en. 

My perfectly coordinated Hallowe'en costume will represent, with a little make-up, 

BIG BIRD'S BLIND DATE!

Surely at least once you've been told you're perfect for someone whom you have absolutely no interest in meeting. We all have. And yet, the would-be-fixer-upper persists. They all do. Some people have no sense of humor. Descriptions of fix-ups are like descriptions of real estate: they have their own language. "Tall" can mean anything from "about" five feet to "paints ceilings without stretching." 

Thus if the potential fix-up is described as tall, with a distinctive profile, I see visions of Big Bird (who is a perfectly nice bird, don't get me wrong, I just can't see him with me in a 3-star restaurant) -- well, here's the outfit that says

 I DID TOO MAKE AN EFFORT
 SOME PEOPLE JUST DON'T GET "IRONIC." 

NOT MY FAULT.  IT IS THE 21ST CENTURY.

Upon reflection, this ensemble looks a touch scanty, and Hallowe'en night can be chilly.

I shall add these Hallowe'en-themed leggings and the long-sleeved tee that I recently saw

in the J.Crew Collection Store on Madison Avenue. Really truly! Ask my iPhone!

Guess noone told them there's a pumpkin shortage in the Northeast, the store was coming down in orange.

These are Feather Boa cookies.

Just in case I have to provide dessert.

When stale, they can be strung together to make accessories. 

and now for something completely different!

SHAMELESSLY COPIED FROM RICKY'S EMAIL

For a year in which very little has actually happened, the entertainment and political scenes have been interesting indeed. And sometimes it's been hard to tell one from the other. As Hallowe'en approaches, here in New York City the store windows and store ads are showing Hallowe'en get-ups that are sometimes very funny,  though I wouldn't want to be the one trying to explain the joke to a little kid. Nevertheless, I share with you an ad from an email sent to me by Ricky's NYC, a local chain specializing in makeup, skin/hair products, and glorious disguises. If you're in town shopping, save a few minutes to play in a Ricky's store. Meanwhile, please note the absence of politics/witch jokes. Sooo last year. But there will be more Hallowe'en posts. You betcha. The ad's on the left.

you mean I haven't lost weight? sighing over size tags

 This past spring an article that appeared in the New York Times considered the sizing of women's clothing. This chart (shamelessly copied from the article and slightly imperfectly joined where the technology here at Flintstone Towers didn't quite - well, you know) - this chart, as I say, sums up the reporter's findings. The conclusions will come as no surprise to anyone who shops on the web, or who wanders from store to store on Madison Avenue. Here is a link to the article itself, which is worth reading.

What the article doesn't discuss is the variation in sizes at the same merchant where items are produced in different countries, or in the same country but at different manufacturers. I have come home from Lord and Taylor, a perfectly respectable department store, with 3 pairs of Ralph Lauren Collection pants (not known for cost-cutting, but still) to try with a jacket, each pair in a different size. And with yet another size for the Calvin Klein pants that might work with that jacket. I think they cut costs at the factory by putting the size tags on in the dark. Or it could be another example of that old saying, "First you pick the order, then you put the size tags." 

Thoughts? Has your size changed "effortlessly" in the past few years? 

the three-way mirror retail blues

Up from the dripping curb I dash

wet as a muskrat from tail to nose

no weather will stop me, no lack of cash:

there are three occasions for which I need clothes.

I enter the shop with intentions purest

tho smiles are sunny, the outlook's bleak

the clothes I see are closet tourists

they'll visit but stay not even a week

If I see a pretty color

the hemline's coming down.

If I need it one size smaller

my size is not in town.

If the fabric isnt itchy,

if the buttons aren't tin,

then the lining's pure synthetic,

and leaves red spots on my skin.

I need another jacket

Like I need a rich dessert.

Pricing's such a racket,

I can't even find a shirt.

I won't wear orange, bored with taupe and pink

(but thankful for the shades of green this season)

The jewelry is made of plastic and zinc

And I won't buy more stripes without a good reason.

I don't really buy, it feels more like I borrow

then bring things back with cheeks aflame,

bought today, marked down tomorrow -

This is the Retail Walk of Shame

and why I'm fed up with the shopping game.