We headed across the river the other night to meet up with some friends in the Chartrons district and chose PICKLES where Will had dined once before and I wanted to try. It was a pleasant evening, so we dined outside, which I did regret later with smokers and the horribly uncomfortable outdoor chairs with virtually no back support. That said, the service was good and the food pretty good to boot. Will discovered our friend Brad's favorite for the summer a Mezcal Negroni while I went right to the wine and loved their Cotes du Rhone blend call La Bastide Saint Dominique 2025 made from Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Clairette. You gotta love the prices when the bottles are almost all under 40 Euros!
Will ordered a nice Pork Taco starter, one of us tried the Polenta Frites and we also split a delicious bowl of Moules de Bouchot de Bretagne Facon Thai, Lait du Coco et pate de curry rouge, which were small dainty mussels from Brittany in an excellent and quite spicy (well, for the French) That red curry sauce. There was plenty of yummy crusty bread to mop up the leftover sauce as well. I wondered what all the little yellow caviar looking things were on the mussels and then we figured out it was mustard seeds, which I loved. One of us chose the duck breast, but the other four of us chose to split the special Bar Entier, Salad de Pois Chiches, Caviar d'Aubergine et salade d'herbes. This was a whole beautifully grilled sea bass with some sauces and a very different kind of salad made up of whole chickpeas, a puree of eggplant and again covered with mustard seeds, which at first I thought was the "caviar" of the eggplant.
For dessert I loved the Gazpacho of Nectarines and White Peaches as it was so refreshing. Three of us left for a drink at a nearby bar, and I was still wondering why the place was called Pickles instead of Mustardseed, but that won't keep me from returning!
