Finding Good Food In Unknown Places

Anthony Bourdain had a famous quote about finding good food in unknown places. It was: "I'm a big believer that you're never going to find the perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one."

I couldn't agree more. You have to be willing to take a chance. But there are ways to minimize the possibility of that bad meal. The best way is to do some research. In my early travels, my research consisted of word of mouth from local people and the restaurants I read about in the different food magazines like Gourmet, Food And Wine and Bon Appetit. My early travels were only in the United States and were to major cities, like San Francisco, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. It wasn't until the late 1990's that I ventured to Europe. When I did that I had to up my game. 

My first trips to Europe, were to Italy when I worked for Winebow. I was a regional manager. Winebow represented 80 wineries in every region in Italy except Valle d'Aosta. The owners of these wineries wanted to impress their American representatives so they took us to places the average tourist doesn't go. This included restaurants. I was very lucky. I got an extensive education in Italian cuisine, as well as wines. 

With the advent of the internet, things became easier. The Michelin Guide, Gayot and Zagat are great resources and available online. Eater, Tripadvisor, the Food Network and Yelp have helped too. I still use publications but now the online version. The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Forbes, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are great resources. Sadly, some publications have gone away, never to return. Gourmet Magazine being the one I miss the most. Caroline Bates' and Jay Jacobs' restaurant reviews of California and New York City restaurants were priceless.

When I first started to travel, I would always make a list of about 15-20 restaurants I wanted to try in the areas I was visiting. I have always been in the food or wine business, so I am always on the lookout for interesting restaurants or wine shops or markets. I have a lot of friends who also travel so I was always getting the "You're going to... You gotta try...". I kept these suggestions and lists on my laptop in a travel folder. When I was planning my first visit to Paris in 2007, I had a customer and friend who traveled to Paris a lot and he gave me his list of restaurants. It consisted of the name and maybe an address. I decided to expand the number of entries and information on his list. 

I put everything in a word file. I broke it down by arrondissement which in Paris is the administrative districts. There are 20. The number of the arrondissement is indicated by the last two digits of the Parisian postal code (75001 up to 75020). The 20 are arranged in the form of a clockwise spiral starting from the middle of the city, with the first on the right bank (north bank) of the Seine River. 

I included the name of the establishment or market, my personal star rating, what it is (ie. Cafe, Restaurant, Wine Bar, Market etc.), the address including the postal code, the nearest Metro stop, the telephone number, web url, the email address, the hours, a brief description including price range and pictures of the map location, the exterior, the interior and the food. Here is an example:

Le Nemrod *** - Cafe

51 rue Du Cherche Midi, 75006  Paris Mo : Saint-Placide M4
Tel 01 45 48 17 05  Web : No  Email No

Open M-Sa 6:30-24:00 Closed Su

This is a simple cafe and you will fall in love with it. Great early morning for coffee and pan au chocolate and great late night for coffee and Calvados. The staff is efficient and helpful, but may or may not be well versed in English. The quality of ingredients is a sampling of some of Paris' best with Polaine bread and Bertillion ice cream. Carte €25-35pp

  

On that first trip I had about 120 listings divided among the 20 arrondissements. Most were in the 4th, 5th, and 6th arrondissements, the places I like to stay and walk. Paris is a walking city with great people watching. It is also pretty much the ultimate food city with all the restaurants, bistrots, brasseries, cafes, bars a vin, marches, boulangeries, fromageries, chocolateries, patisseries, glaces, caves a vin, specialites gastronomiques and kitchen and tableware shops that exist within these 20 arrondissements. In France food is a religion. The French plan their whole day around where, when and what they are going to eat. The sheer number of guides to the best food places in Paris is mind boggling. 

I started with my friend's list and worked with Patricia Wells "The Food Lover's Guide To Paris and Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" first episode which was "Paris". I had about six months to plan this trip, so whenever I saw something related to food and Paris I reviewed it. Mark Bittman wrote an article in the New York Times titled: "Steak Frites: Seeking The Best Of A Classic". I found several good places that were added to my list. Samantha Brown's "Passport To Europe" on PBS did an episode on Paris. I found a couple good places in that. Things just sort of snowballed, and that's how I ended up with 120 entries on my list. 

On that trip, I found several interesting spots on our walks that were added to the list. When we travel, my wife, Sally, plans all the sightseeing (museums, art galleries, gardens, etc.) and I plan all the food related adventures and the accommodations, a sort of division of labor. She is really good at finding interesting and unusual places in addition to the regular sights. We are there as tourist after all.  

When we visit a city, we like to stay in an apartment in a neighborhood rather than a hotel room. We think you get a better feel for the city and there is a kitchen where a cook can take advantage of all the local market and shop finds. Paris has some of the best food finds in the world.

I'm sure you can see where this is going. On that trip and subsequent trips and the last 15 odd years, the Paris list has grown to about 300 listings. Now you're thinking, there is no way to hit 300 spots in the 2 to 3 weeks you're going to be there. You are correct. And you are thinking, what if you find a spot you really like, don't you want to go back? Again, you are correct. 

My wife, Sally, in her quest to see all the sights, has us traveling to all the different arrondissements. By having this large list, no matter where we are, if hunger strikes, we can find a good meal or snack. And if by chance that particular spot is closed, we have several backups. You don't want to waste an opportunity for a gastronomic treat when you are in the "Temple of Food".

Over the years, I have amassed food lists for over 20 other cities. I have not traveled to all these cities. I have friends, who know I'm a food freak so they will say, "I'm going to... Where should I eat?". So I will make a list for them. Of course, this is just like the Paris list, over the years they get added to. I like to travel so the next thing I know I'm going to that city and I already have a list. I have an ulterior motive to making these lists for them.

I have switched from the Word format to Excel, a spreadsheet. I include, in separate columns, the name, address, area of town, zip code, days open, hours, type of establishment, website url, telephone number, price range per person, websites I used to research it, and a brief description. By using the spreadsheet format, I can search or arrange by category. This makes thing easier. In these other lists, I have from 40 to 100 different establishments. In the Excel format, the list is easy to use and transport on a cell phone or tablet. There is no need to cart around a laptop.   

I sometimes make "Road Trip Lists".  We have enjoyed car trips to New England, to Charleston and the Outer Banks, 2 different ones out West and a recent trip to Alaska.  Going by car, we have seen how massive this country is and how beautiful these areas are. We only stay 1 or 2 nights in each town so the lists don't have to be more than 5 to 10 eateries. I always include a couple breakfast spots and places for lunch along the way from one location to the next. 

In composing these lists where small towns are concerned and even some cities, it is sometimes difficult to find what I consider a good eating establishment. This is when you have to go back to Anthony Bourdain's quote about the willingness to experience a bad one. 

Alaska was especially challenging. In Seward for example, we found a good spot the first night and went back there a couple more times. The other selections, I had on my list didn't look too promising when viewed up close. Seward was a "difficult" town. We didn't make reservations at this first place. Instead we sat at the bar, usually a good strategy for any restaurant. The bartender became a friend and had some suggestions on where we should go for breakfast and ice cream. A couple of locals sitting at the bar next to us also had some suggestions. Word of mouth research is great as long as the person's idea of a good meal is the same as yours. I will admit, we had some "difficult" meals on that trip but we'll know next time. 

 

All this research isn't foolproof. Sometimes I fail horribly and we end up with a bad meal. It happens. When I research a particular spot I rely heavily on the pictures of the food I see online. I've been a cook for a long time. It's hard to make bad food look good. Pretty much anyone can write a great menu. It's the ingredients and execution that matters. TripAdvisor and Yelp are particularly good for this because the pictures are taken by normal folks like you and me, not a "food stylist" for a major publication. There is lots of "Food Porn" on the internet. 

These lists have served me well but they are just a guidepost in the search for that "perfect meal". They are like everything else in life, they are constantly changing. For every return trip to a city, I go back and check to be sure things are still the same. Over the years, places close for a thousand different reasons, chefs or proprietors retire or die, things change, so I check. 

We have lost several favorite spots - Sally's favorite profiterole palace, Cafe Constant, has closed. Chef Christian Constant retired and sold the spot to another chef. The new menu doesn't even have profiteroles on the menu. Insert teardrop here. We had several really good meals at Cafe Constant in addition to that dessert. I'm not sure if it was the quality of the profiterole that made it Sally's favorite or the fact that they gave you a pitcher of warm dark chocolate ganache to take care of any portion shortages. 

I will have to do some research to find another spot that takes equal care in the preparation and service of their profiteroles. 

I too, lost a favorite. It was "FROMAGER B. LEFRANC" on the Ile Saint-Louis. We found him on our second trip to Paris in 2009. We stayed in an apartment on the island and became friends with the old man in this cheese shop as well as the baker at Boulangerie Saint-Louis, the wine merchant in the shop 2 doors down, and the butcher close to the cheese shop. The friendships came about because we stayed in the neighborhood and shopped at these places daily for over 2 weeks. They recognized our persistent faces. 

 

I especially enjoyed my dealings with the gentleman in the cheese shop. He and I were kindred spirits. His English was just about as bad as my French but we both tried. I think that is the most important thing. He always asked what I had purchased at the butcher and wine shop before he suggested a cheese (He knew my habits by the bags I carried into his shop. He was my last stop before I went back to the apartment to fix dinner). On that first visit he suggested a Roquefort from Maison Carles to go with our duck confit with frisee salad, the baguette from Boulangerie Saint-Louis and the Medoc from the wine merchant on the same street. He also insisted I purchase some Le Beurre Bordier to go on that baguette. It was perfect.

On our next trip in 2015, he wasn't there and the shop had been "updated". From the conversation I had with the 2 young men who now ran the shop, he had retired and sold the shop to them. I'm pretty sure he had retired to that "Fromagerie in the Sky". That would be the only way he would have ever left that shop. It was more than just a shop. It was his life. 

The "updated" shop was nice but not the same. They didn't ask what I was having for dinner. I missed the old man. We were staying over in the Latin Quarter (the 5th) this trip, so I found another old man to sell me cheese. He asked what I was having for dinner before he suggested a cheese. I added him to the list.