Boring tagine in Morocco

It’s possible to get vegetarian food in Marrakech. Most restaurants will sell a vegetable tagine. However, I found them to be quite boring. Perhaps I needed to visit better restaurants.

Earth Cafe

You can imagine my delight when walking through the market and spotted some hand made signs for “Earth Cafe” a vegan restaurant. I had to find this place and enjoy a good meal, it did not disappoint.

The first thing you see as you step down into this cafe is the open kitchen, a beaming chef will greet you with pride as you enter her domain. As you pass the kitchen the restaurant opens vertically. What seems like a small space grows to several floors with an open space in the center.

The menu

I was surprised to see the menu lacked tagines and couscous. How very non-Moroccan! How very refreshing after dealing with some rather banal versions found in other places.

Instead you’ll find a creative assortment of dishes that span the North African and Mediterranean flavor spectrum. My meal had a variety of vegetables wrapped in filo dough, baked and placed on the plate with mango sauce. It was delicious and very filling.

Earth Cafe also features some yummy smoothies that will hit the spot on a warm African afternoon. The friendly hosts speak French and English. The waiter even walked with me through the souks to find a hammam.

You’ll owe it to yourself to visit Earth Cafe when visiting Marrakech. You’ll get great food, great service, and a jovial, peaceful environment. The flavors are so great that your meat eating friends will also enjoy the meal.

Delicious French Cuisine

Chez Paul serves solid, traditional French cuisine. As such, you’ll find many more meat options than vegetarian. There’s not much on the menu for the vegans. It’s a shame, as the food is really amazing.

I visited Chez Paul on a Friday night. A reservation is highly recommended, as this is a popular restaurant in a popular dining area. I started with the cream of asparagus soup, which was amazing. It was silky and very satisfying. Frankly, I could have stopped at just the soup and died a happy man. Chez Paul features a special vegetable soup every night, so hopefully you’ll be arrive on asparagus night.

Following the soup, my friend Bob and I had the vegetable lasagna and salad. The lasagna was good and cheesy, but didn’t match the asparagus soups flavor quality. Finishing the night, I had the house specialty dessert: pears poached in a spiced wine with ice cream. This was also an amazing dish.

To summarize: Chez Paul is a fantastic, vintage restaurant in a hip section of Paris. The food is amazing, but the vegetarian selections are limited. The vegan options are even fewer. It’s a fabulous place to visit with friends.

Address and Ratings

Exki has a strong commitment to organic food. Here’s a snippet from their web site:

Nous sélectionnons pour vous les meilleurs ingrédients saisonniers.

Nous refusons l’usage de tout additif.

Certains de nos produits sont labellisés BIO. Par exemple le pain, confectionné et cuit artisanalement sur pierre, sans aucun “améliorant” artificiel. Pour garantir sa fraîcheur, nous terminons sa cuisson, chaque matin, dans nos restaurants.

Sont également BIO : le lait, le yaourt, les jets de légumes, des tartelettes, des biscuits, des confitures,…
Exki philosophie

I have not visited this restaurant yet, so I cannot give a review.

Exki

9, boulevard des Italiens (2°)

118, avenue de France (13°)

82, boulevard du Montparnasse (14°)

01 42 61 06 52

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LeGay Choc also features a nice selection of tartines, sandwiches, and quiches. I was in there a few weeks ago getting some croissants for breakfast and was surprised by the selection. I’d say they were filled with good taste, but lets just say the food tasted good

There are lots of vegetarian options in the Marais. Keep LeGay Choc in mind when looking for a simple, fun lunch idea. It’s also the best place to get a sourdough zizi for the next dinner party.

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So I finally decided to see what the fuss was all about. Jean-Pierre promised a magical experience when drinking wine with cheese. My time in Paris was rapidly coming to an end and I needed a touch of magic.

So we planned on visiting the original wine bar, not just in Paris but around the world. It’s a small restaurant in the 11th arrondissement that introduced the concept of expertly chosen wines that are available by the glass and paired with the best foods and cheeses.

Unfortunately, it was August and we met outside a closed restaurant. However, all was not lost. Jean-Pierre had lived nearby a decade earlier and knew a special little restaurant. We crossed our fingers that it was still around and not on the standard August Vacation.

Le Pure Café

Jean-Pierre lived in an apartment that looked down on this odd corner lot restaurant. He knew it a couple decades ago when the area was buzzing with good ol’ communist and worker activism. This restaurant/bar was a meeting place for the Parisian Proletariat.

It’s now more bobo than prolo. The new owners have expanded the space and size of the bar. There’s still a small tribute to its red history, but the conversations are now about food, family, and work instead of revolution.

The interior is decidedly “shabby chic”. It’s the antithesis of Bofinger or the new restaurants that are meticulously designed. Le Pure Café seems to have grown organically and still exhibits some growing pains. For instance, the circuit breakers were tripped about every twenty minutes while we were there. The raucous din of conversations would abruptly stop as the lights went out and the waiter would lean over a dining table to flip the switch back on.

The food

Le Pure Café has a few vegetarian options on its menu. I chose a baked cheese ravioli dish in a cream sauce. It was very rich, cheesy, and satisfying. However, I was fascinated by my friend Philippe’s dish. He had Burrata. Keep an eye out for this cheese, I think it is going to be the new hotness.

Burrata – Buffalo Mozzarella’s Creamy Sister

Burrata is like buffalo mozzarella with a cream center. He was served a large ball of cheese with a drizzling of pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. He also had a small green salad and some thinly sliced country ham. Obviously you could get it without the ham.

Burrata is very soft and tastes extremely fresh. It gives a new and decadent spin to the standard caprese salad. I would highly recommend this dish for your visit to Le Pure Café.

I’ve been looking for the cheese in California and have only found it in one Bay Area store. The fromager at Oakville Grocery, in Napa Valley, said the shelf life is very short; so most stores will be reluctant to stock it.

The Dessert

One cannot possibly live on pasta alone. No, one needs a balanced diet. In my case, the diet is balanced by a healthy serving of something chocolate. Le Pure Café certainly didn’t leave us unbalanced.

Jean-Pierre had a fabu tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream. Philippe had the carpaccio of pineapple (I prefer the version at La Bélière), and I had the mother of all tiramisu platters. I ordered the Declinaison Chocolats, or a quartet of marscapone delights. I was presented with four variations on the tiramisu concept. There was the standard espresso/chocolate variety, but I also got Pistache, Caramel, and Fruit Rouge. I truly couldn’t choose a favorite, they were all magnificent.

The Wine

Jean-Pierre and Philippe chose a good, but simple wine for me to try. Keep in mind, I’m over 40 years old and have not drank alcohol. So I was experiencing wine and alcohol at the same time… I have to say, it was horrible!

I’m sure the wine was good. I’m sure it would have been magical with cheese. I’m probably going to burn in some alternative wine-hell for dissing vin rouge. But I shuddered and went into body writhing convulsions every time I swallowed the wine. I think Jean-Pierre thought I was being possessed by some kind of voodoo.

I now can live the rest of my life knowing that I really didn’t miss anything in France by choosing Perrier over wine at the dinner table. I still enjoy cooking with booze, but I can cancel any future wine trains through the Napa Valley.

Le Pure Café Summary

Le Pure Café is a hidden restaurant in the 11th. It sits in the split of two side streets that are accessed via a side street. So you’ll need to have your map with you. However, it is certainly worth the trip.

The service was friendly, although a bit slow. The food was wonderful and the wine didn’t kill me. The highlights were certainly the cheese based dishes. I didn’t see much for vegans, but lacto-ovo vegetarians should love it. The restaurant is triangular with large doors on two sides. This makes it fairly wheelchair accessible.

Dinner for the three of us, including dessert and wine was 96 euros.

Update: Watch closely and you’ll find Le Pure Cafe as the backdrop for a recent Windows 7 commercial on television.

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Jazz Music

This are two face to La Bélière. The first is for dinner, where food takes the attention and music provides the backdrop. However, the focus shifts in the late hours as the kitchen shuts down and it becomes a vibrant Jazz bar. The owner’s been known to keep the place open and hopping until the sun rises. So plan on taking your time and possibly staying much later than you expected.

The Menu

Unfortunately there are not a lot of options on the menu for vegetarians. However, don’t let that stop you. Ask for the plate des legumes. This is a selection of vegetables being served with the various dinner plates. Jacques is a master at blending traditional French cuisine with Asian and Mediterranean dishes. You’ll be surprised by the variety. This is usually a good option for vegans as well.

There’s also a tomato/mozzarella mille-feuille salad that is amazing. It comes with ham but simply ask for it “sans jambon”. This is a full meal in itself.

The menu at this restaurant hasn’t changed much over the years; so keep an eye out for the daily specials. This is where Jacques has more room to stretch his culinary muscles. You may also want to make reservations several days in advance and ask for vegetarian options. Jacques speaks English fluently, so you can say hello while you are dining. Actually, everyone that works there seems to speak excellent English.

Dinner should cost between 15-30 euros, depending on your desire for dessert and/or drinks. The meals are large so plan on sharing an appetizer and watch out for the mother of all profiteroles for dessert. She’s a whopper!

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I stopped here during a chilly, rainy summer evening. The outdoor seating has a nice heater and lighting for a comfortable place to enjoy a meal and a book. Luckily they also had a couple vegetarian options.

While I was in the mood for a salad, their eggplant lasagna sounded like a better choice. The lasagna comes in a small terrine with layers of eggplant and sauce. It’s not your traditional lasagna with gobs of sauce and cheese. This is a lighter version with a slightly spicy sauce.

This also came with a mozzarella and tomato salad and rustic bread. The salad was nice, but had some crunchy bits that made me wonder if the lettuce was washed completely. It had a healthy portion of fresh mozzarella and a sampling of tapenade for flavor.

Comfort + Food

As I mentioned earlier, their outdoor seating area was quite comfortable. I pulled out my French history book and enjoyed reading for over an hour while watching the rain come down in heavy sheets. Evenings are special in Paris during the summer. A hearty meal, a good book, and a comfortable chair are what Paris memories are made of.

Your Meat Eating Friends will be Happy

Le Bistro du Peintre also has a good reputation for the standard meat-based bistro dishes, such as tartar, duck confit, and marrow bones. So this is also a good choice if you are dining with a bunch of meat eating friends.

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Taisho Ken – Miso Soup Bar

In the center is a small Japanese miso soup restaurant that I’ve been finding myself eating at more and more. It’s a simple place with an open kitchen, large pots of boiling miso broth, and a friendly, bustling atmosphere. This is a simple place that may remind you more of a roadside diner than a French bistro.

Miso soup normally brings to mind a small bowl of broth with a few small chunks of tofu floating amongst green herbs. I was greatly surprised when I ordered the vegetarian soup bowl and was presented with a Texas sized spoon and a big bowl of broth with fresh vegetables and noodles. This is a meal by itself, you won’t need any rice or dumplings.

Paris is a great place to have a big lunch with friends and a simple dinner of soup or salad. I’ve added this place to my list of regular stops. It’s especially nice on a cold rainy night when the windows fog up and you are surrounded by the smell of the broth.

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It was shocking to see these huge salads for the first time. Not that it stopped me from ordering them, mind you. There’s enough cheese on them to sink a battle ship! And my gut is a combination of a frigate and a destroyer!

But this is France and food is about quality over quantity. So I’m happy to report the salads are just as tasty as they are huge. I’ve had the Sequine with a poached egg and chevre tartines, as well as the Parisienne (without the ham). The Parisienne’s cheese count was downright obscene and I loved every minute of it.

I’m still on a damn diet so I haven’t tried the crème brûlée, but I’ve been told it is to die for. I’ve also seen someone with the cafe gourmande that looked decadent.

La Chope Champerret is right next to the Porte de Champerret metro exit (line 3). It has patio seating and only a small step to enter. I don’t know what the bathroom situation is like, but it seems pretty wheelchair friendly.

La Chope Champerret

143, Avenue de Villiers (17°)

01 43 80 80 64

Metro: Porte de Champerret

Brasserie

• Overall: 4/5
• Location: 4/5
• Taste: 4.5/5
• Service: 4/5
• Vegetarian Friendly: 4/5
• Vegan Friendly: 3/5
• M.E.F. Friendly: 5/5

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The cafe has matured over the years. The massage chairs have been replaced with more dining tables and an increased attention towards dining instead of dozing. However you can still get your fortune told and enjoy a no stress dinner.

Chef Dean to the Rescue

I’ve mentioned my favorite chef in Paris, Jacques. What I may not have mentioned enough was his partner and sous chef Dean. The two of them created a menu that kept the No Stress Cafe from becoming a one line joke, “hey did you hear about the cafe with back rubs near Pigalle…”. Jacques has moved on to other restaurants and Dean is now the chef of the No Stress Cafe.

I can tell you from experience that Dean is a masterful chef. He has an international approach from his Asian heritage and years of cooking in Paris. His menu at No Stress is a fusion of Mediterranean, French, and Asian recipes.

Vegetarian Options

The standard menu features several vegetarian and vegan options.

• Lasagna Vegetarienne
• Salad La Vegetarienne
• Salad La Chevre Chaud
• Wok Vegetarienne

However, you can also request the Tapas menu to be vegetarian. This is what I had the other night and it was excellent! Dean gave me a bit extra but you can expect an assortment of tempura, pickled vegetables, lasagna, and other seasonal vegetables.

Dean also makes a killer bowl of vegetarian french onion soup. He uses white wine instead of stock and it blows away the french onion soup at Potager du Marais. It’s not on the menu, but he’ll make it the soup of the day if you make your reservation a few days in advance. Tell them Ted sent you.

Eating at No Stress cafe reminded me of sharing a dinner at chez Jacques and Dean. Ample portions of food from around the globe served family style with great affection.

No Stress Cafe

24 rue Clauzel (9°)

01 48 78 00 27

Metro: Pigalle, St. Georges

Cafe

• Overall: 4.5/5
• Location: 3/5
• Taste: 5/5
• Service: 5/5
• Vegetarian Friendly: 5/5
• Vegan Friendly: 4/5
• M.E.F. Friendly: 5/5

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