PARIS – One huge, polished wood table for 12, a cozy round table that will just seat five and a few tables tumbling out onto the sidewalk. That is all you get at L'Auvergne Gourmande, one of the newest and finest little places to open in Paris in a while. But the little turns out to be a lot.
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No surprise here, for this is the annex of the generally reliable Left Bank restaurant La Fontaine de Mars. In their newest, pocket-size endeavor the Boudon family has invested all its knowledge of the gastronomically abundant Auvergne region of France, its rich culinary history, its impeccable farm products and some pretty decent wines and cheeses.
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Best of all, they have brought back the daily plat du jour, almost a dinosaur in today's Parisian cuisine. So Monday it is duck à l'orange, Tuesday lamb chops, Wednesday beef tongue, Thursday stuffed chicken, Friday salt cod with the garlic mayonnaise known as aioli and Saturday suckling pig. How's that for hearty?
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But this little table d'hôte - where everyone sits together on bistro-style stools - has a modern take as well. The grande salade de legumes is a mound of greens with seemingly every kind of fresh vegetable imaginable, nicely cooked and dressed and topped with a crunchy tuile, or cookie, made of Cantal, a sturdy Auvergnat cheese of cow's milk. Other starters might range from homemade foie gras and a green salad to a fresh pea soup with little chips of smoky bacon.
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This is the sort of place where you can eat depending upon your appetite. Have a simple Auvergnat cheese platter and a sip of fruity Saint-Pourcain from the gamay grape, or go for the whole shebang with a thick and meaty cote de boeuf, teamed up with a rich potato purée. I feasted on a wonderful breast of guinea hen, pintade, with a deliciously puckery vinegar sauce served with sweet sautéed apples.
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The wine selection, by the glass or the bottle, is vast, inspiring and educational. You can find some little-known wines from the Auvergne, small appellations from the Cotes Roannaise, Gaillac, vin de pays de l'Ardeche and a Coteaux du Tricastin. Paris needs more places like this: energetic, inventive and fun, with some good food to boot.
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L'Auvergne Gourmande, 127 Rue Saint-Dominique, Paris 7; tel: 01-47-05-60-79. No credit cards. Closed Sunday. About 110 francs ($15) a person, including service but not wine.
ON to London. Wonderful ethnic food at low prices has long been a draw here. A quick tour turned up some of the finest Lebanese food I have ever tasted - at Le Mignon, a tiny, seven-table restaurant in the Camden Town area of northwest London.
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The owner, Hussien Dekmak, does all the cooking and serving and offers a fine, fresh-flavored lineup of specialties from his native Lebanon. The pure, clean flavors make for a happy food revelation of a cuisine that makes so much sense. With a diet based on dried beans, fresh vegetables, olive oil, yogurt and a touch of lamb and chicken, what could be bad?
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Don't miss the hommos beiruty, a smooth, tingling chick pea purée flavored with sesame paste and lemon juice with judicious touches of garlic and parsley, topped with tiny cooked fava beans. Likewise, the moutabal (also called baba ghannoug), a smoky purée of grilled eggplant seasoned with sesame paste, lemon juice and olive oil had that essential, mood-elevating sense of purity.
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I had never before tasted batrakh, thin slices of dried smoked roe served with fresh garlic and olive oil, and would surely go back for more.
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I love lamb sausages from any cuisine and Le Mignon's fried spicy lamb sausage, or sujuk, served with nothing more than a touch of freshly squeezed lemon juice, made my palate very happy indeed. Le Mignon, 9a Delancey St., Camden, London NW1 7NL; tel: 020-7387-0600. All major credit cards. Closed Monday. About £15 ($21.50) a person, including service but not wine.
A great place in London for a drink before or after dinner is the Sanderson Hotel, one of Ian Schrager's latest hits. The long, narrow bar is graced with elegantly hung sheer white draperies, with lighting and artwork cleverly veiled by a second layer of sheers. The walls of the shiny stainless-steel-top bar are lighted to reflect a cool lime-green glow, while the stainless bar stools perfectly lined up along the room make want you want to hop on and sip champagne. Hip, chic, magical you might say.
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Sanderson Hotel, 50 Berners St., Soho, London W1T 3NG; tel: 020-7300-1400; fax: 020-7300-1401.