by Craig Boreth
There were few people in the brasserie and when I sat down on the bench against the wall with the mirror in back and a table in front and the waiter asked if I wanted beer I asked for a distingué, the big glass mug that held a liter, and for potato salad. The beer was very cold and wonderful to drink. The pommes à l’huile were firm and marinated and the olive oil delicious. I ground black pepper over the potatoes and moistened the bread in the olive oil. After the first heavy draft of beer I drank and ate very slowly. When the pommes à l’huile were gone I ordered another serving and a cervelas. This was a sausage like a heavy, wide frankfurter split in two and covered with a special mustard sauce. I mopped up all the oil and all of the sauce with bread and drank the beer slowly until it began to lose its coldness and then I finished it and ordered a demi and watched it drawn.12
THE MENU
Lunch at the
Brasserie Lipp
Pommes de Terre à l’Huile
Cervelas with Mustard Sauce
Beer
Pommes de Terre à l’Huile (Potatoes in Oil)
2 SERVINGS
1 pound potatoes
6 tablespoons very fine olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon beef broth
Wash and peel the potatoes. Place in a saucepan with enough cold salted water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes and cut into slices as soon as they’re cool enough to handle. Put the sliced potatoes into a medium bowl and toss gently with the olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. In a small saucepan, heat the wine, vinegar, and broth until hot. Pour over the potatoes and toss gently. Be sure to include plenty of bread for mopping up the sauce.
Cervelas with Mustard Sauce
Cervelas are fat, short sausages made with pork and pork fat and seasoned with garlic or pepper. The name refers to brains, or cervelles, with which these sausages were formerly made. If cervelas are unavailable, you may substitute any fine pork sausage with garlic.
1 HUNGRY YOUNG WRITER OR 2 SERVINGS
2 cervelas, or other pork and garlic sausage
2 tablespoons butter
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the cervelas. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cervelas and rinse with cold water. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the cervelas in the butter until lightly browned. Remove cervelas, cut in half lengthwise, and place on warm plate. Serve covered with mustard sauce.
Mustard Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
½ onion, finely chopped
½ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon vinegar
Juice of ½ lemon
Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half. Stir in the mustard and vinegar. Add the lemon juice and the last tablespoon of butter. When the butter is melted, pour the sauce over the cervelas and serve immediately.
As Hemingway used the Luxembourg gardens to relieve his hunger, he used the Seine for thinking things through. He browsed the bookstalls along the quais, or sat to edit manuscripts for Ford Madox Ford’s transatlantic review, for which he worked as an unpaid assistant in the mid-1920s. He found that the thinking came easier along the river, “seeing people doing something that they understood,”13 as the fishermen with the long, jointed cane poles understood their serious endeavors along the Seine:
They always caught some fish, and often they made excellent catches of the dace-like fish that were called goujon. They were delicious fried whole and I could eat a plateful. They were plump and sweet-fleshed with a finer flavor than fresh sardines even, and were not at all oily, and we ate them bones and all. One of the best places to eat them was at an openair restaurant built out over the river at Bas Meudon where we would go when we had money for a trip away from our quarter. It was called La Pêche Miraculeuse and had a splendid white wine that was a sort of Muscadet.14
Friture de Goujon (Fried Gudgeon)
2 TO 3 SERVINGS
Olive oil for frying
18 small gudgeon, or smelts
1 bottle beer
1 cup cornmeal
Salt
Lemon wedges
Heat the oil, deep enough for deep-frying, in a saucepan until just hot. Because these fish are too small to gut easily, simply wipe the fish with a cloth, then squeeze the underbelly to force the intestines and swim bladder out through the abdomen. Pour the beer into a small bowl. Dip each fish in beer, then dredge in cornmeal to coat. Shake off any excess.
Fry the fish in the barely hot oil until light yellow. Remove the fish and drain on brown paper or paper towels. Heat the oil until very hot (about 350° F). Return the fish to the very hot oil and fry until golden brown. Drain the fish again, sprinkle with salt to taste, and serve with lemon wedges.
Six Days at the Races
Spring was a magical season in Paris. “With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning.”15 The only truly sad time in Paris was the false spring, when cold rains would beat back the season “so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life.”16 And not just any season, but one that revived Ernest’s appetites for the sports of the city. Hemingway enjoyed taking in the six-day bicycle races at the Velodrome d’Hiver, near the Eiffel Tower. In the early 1920s, Hemingway took friend, writer, and fellow adventurer John Dos Passos to the races. Dos Passos recalled Ernest’s knowledge of the race and its riders but preferred to sit idly by eating and drinking:
I did enjoy the six day bicycle races with him. The Six Jours at the Vélo d’Hiver was fun. French sporting events had for me a special comical air that I enjoyed. We would collect, at the stalls and barrows of one of the narrow market streets we both loved, a quantity of wine and cheeses and crunch rolls, a pot of paté and perhaps a cold chicken, and sit up in the gallery. Hem knew all the statistics and the names and lives of the riders. His enthusiasm was catching but he tended to make business of it while I just liked to eat and drink and enjoy the show.17
Lunch with John Dos Passos
Dos Passos was not alone in remembering those early days through gastronomic eyes. Hemingway simply would not allow his appetite for food and drink to impinge on his appetite for the intricacies of the sport. As we have seen (and will continue to see), Hemingway frequently enjoyed his food and drink as a postscript to sport and, of course, to writing. While Ernest wrote his biting satire of Sherwood Anderson, The Torrents of Spring, he remembered the food and drink he shared with Dos Passos while taking a break from work:
I wrote the foregoing chapter in two hours directly on the typewriter, and then went out to lunch with John Dos Passos, whom I consider a very forceful writer, and an exceedingly pleasant fellow besides. This is what is known in the provinces as log-rolling. We lunched on rollmops, sole meunière, civet de lièvre à la cocotte, marmelade de pommes, and washed it all down, as he used to say (eh, reader?) with a bottle of Montrachet 1919 with the sole, and a bottle of Hospice de Beaune 1919 apiece with the jugged hare. Mr. Dos Passos, I believe, shared a bottle of Chambertin with me over the marmelade de pommes.18
Hemingway standing between Gerald Murphy and John Dos Passos in Schruns, 1926.
Rollmops
6 TO 8 SERVINGS
6 fresh herrings, or 12 fresh fillets
2 cups vinegar
6-8 small pickled gherkins
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 sprig dill
6 juniper berries
6 white peppercorns
Salt
Marinate the fish in a mixture of 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water for 24 hours.
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br /> Remove the fish and, if whole, fillet. Lay the fillets skinside down. Place a piece of gherkin and a few pieces of chopped onion on each piece offish. Wrap the herring around the vegetables and secure with a toothpick. Bring the remaining cup of vinegar to a boil and allow to cool completely. Place the rolls in a large glass jar. Add the herbs and berries. Dilute the vinegar with 2 cups of water. Add a generous pinch of salt. Pour the vinegar-and-water solution over the fish to cover completely. Cover the jar with a lid or cellophane. Let stand in a cool place for 3 to 4 days. The exact combination of herbs is “the secret of the cook.” Some experimentation is necessary to find the combination to suit each individual taste.
Sole Meunière (Fillet of Sole Miller’s Wife Style)
2 SERVINGS
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 large or 4 small sole fillets
Pepper
½ cup butter
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Salt
Lightly flour all of the fillets on both sides. Season with pepper to taste. Heat ¼ cup of the butter over medium heat until very hot and foamy. Add the fillets, being careful not to overcrowd the pan (it may take two batches). Brown the fish on both sides, 5 to 6 minutes to a side. Remove the fillets to a heated serving plate. Garnish with lemon juice, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour out the frying liquid and wipe the frying pan clean. Melt the remaining ¼ cup of butter until very lightly browned. Pour the melted butter over the fish. Serve immediately.
Civet de Lièvre à la Cocotte (Jugged Hare)
3 TO 4 SERVINGS
1 hare, cleaned, gutted, and cut into pieces
4 cups red wine
8 onions, halved
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 sprig thyme
2 tablespoons butter
¼ pound salt pork, diced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups water
Bouquet garni (a few sprigs of parsley, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf bundled and tied together)
4 cloves
1 bay leaf
½ pound mushrooms, halved
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Marinate the hare overnight in 2 cups wine with 2 of the onions, the carrot, and the thyme. The following day, melt the butter in a casserole over medium heat. Add the salt pork and render until the pork is brown. Remove the pork and set aside. Remove the hare pieces from the marinade and pat dry. Brown the meat in the butter and pork fat. Stir in the flour, then add the 2 cups wine, water, bouquet garni, the remaining 6 onions, cloves, and bay leaf. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. Add the mushrooms and simmer for another 30 minutes. When the hare is cooked, place the pieces on a serving platter and keep warm. If you have the liver and blood of the hare, add the chopped liver to the blood and add to the cooking liquid. Bring the sauce to a boil, then strain through a fine sieve. Return the onions, mushrooms, and pieces of salt pork to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste and pour over the hare.
Marmelade de Pommes (Apple Conserve)
4 SERVINGS
6 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into quarters
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
Place the apples, sugar, and water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the apples are soft. Purée the apples in a food processor or food mill. Return the purée to the saucepan and cook until bubbling. Allow to cool slightly and serve.
Beside the marathon bike races, there were boxing at the Cirque de Paris, tennis matches, and horse races. Ernest and Hadley occasionally took the cheap train to the steeplechase at Enghien or Auteuil, sat in the infield, ate a picnic lunch of sandwiches that Hadley made, and drank cheap wine from the cooperative in the Rue Mouffetard. As was the case with his writing, when there was a windfall of funds from a lucky day at the track, attitudes changed, fond memories returned, and thoughts turned to the haute cuisine of Paris. After one particularly fortunate outing, Ernest and Hadley stopped at Pruniers. Sitting at the bar, they dined on oysters and Crabe Mexicaine, enjoying their momentary affluence that lingered through the night until morning, when the all-too-familiar hunger returned and the writing resumed. Many years later, Papa would return to dine at Prunier with his fourth wife, Mary, and Marlene Dietrich. For now, though, Paris belongs to the young Hemingways, and hunger is elsewhere.
THE MENU
Dinner at Prunier
Oysters
Crabe Mexicaine
Wine
Sancerre
Oysters
Hemingway certainly enjoyed his oysters. In A Moveable Feast he eats them on three separate occasions. When money was scarce, he went to “a good café on the Place St. Michel”for portugaises, the small very cheap oysters with their faint metallic taste. But when there was money he knew exactly the place for the finest oysters in Paris: Pruniers. Alfred Prunier founded his restaurant in 1872 in the Rue Duphot. It quickly became, as Julian Street noted in Where Paris Dines, “the most fashionable place in Paris for oysters, fish and crustaceans”19 Later, when Ernest Walsh was paying for lunch, Ernest once again took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the superior quality marennes, or cultivated oysters. Marennes are large and bright green in color. In the 1920s they were considered very expensive at about $1.50 a dozen.
Preparing oysters on the half-shell at home is actually quite simple but takes some practice and understanding of this delicacy. Prepare about 6 oysters per person, although the portion is limited only by the oyster-passion of the eater.
When purchasing live oysters, make sure the shells are tightly closed. If one is open, squeeze the shell closed a few times until it tightens up. If the oyster will not close, discard it. Also, avoid oysters that feel either too light or too heavy. Purchase the oysters shortly before you plan to use them.
When home, store the oysters, covered with damp paper towels, with the larger sides down (allowing the oysters to sit in their juice). To open an oyster, hold it in your hand with the larger side down. Find a small gap in the hinge of the shell, and pry the shells apart with a pointed can opener. Run a small knife along the underside of the top shell, disconnecting the oyster. The oysters can be served on a bed of crushed ice. Be careful to retain as much of the oysters’ juices in the shell as possible. Serve with wedges of lemon. Or you may serve the oysters with a sauce made by simmering together ½ cup white wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons minced shallots, allowing the sauce to cool and adding 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley.
Crabe Mexicaine
This recipe is adapted from Madame Prunier’s Fish Cookery Book It is rather complicated, but once you have made the sauces and stocks (the remainder of which may be used again and again), the assembly of the final dish is rather simple.
4 SERVINGS
For the Fumet
3 tablespoons butter
2 pounds raw fish trimmings and bones
1 onion, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
12 peppercorns
4 cups white wine
5 cups water, plus a little more
Pinch of salt
For the Fish Velouté
¼ pound butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
For the White Wine Sauce
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
For the Tomato Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
2 onions, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 inner ribs celery, diced
½ bay leaf, crushed
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 pounds tomatoes, seeded and juice squeezed out
2½ cups tomato purée
Salt
Pepper
Pinch of sugar
Bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, and bay leaf tied together)
3½ cups vegetable or chicken
stock
The Rest
4 large mushrooms
Olive oil, for brushing
5 tablespoons butter
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 cup diced okra
1 sweet red pepper, diced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
½ pound crabmeat
To make the white wine sauce, you must first prepare a fish fumet (or concentrated stock) and a fish velouté (a white sauce made with fish stock). To make the fish fumet, melt the butter in a large skillet. Cut up and add the fish trimmings and bones. Add the onion, parsley, and peppercorns. Cover and stew for about 5 minutes. Then add the white wine and water. Add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Boil the fumet gently for 25 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve. Set aside.
Note: This recipe makes about 2 quarts, most of which will be used in preparing the Crabe Mexicaine.
Fish Velouté
First prepare a roux: melt the butter in a saucepan (do not use an aluminum pan) over low heat. Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed. Continue to cook the roux, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes, until the roux takes on a golden color. Transfer the roux to a stockpot. Whisk in 7 cups of the fish fumet (to avoid lumps, allow the fumet to cool thoroughly before adding to the warm roux). Bring the velouté to a boil and boil gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Pour the velouté into a mixing bowl and stir until well cooled.
White Wine Sauce
Now you’re ready to make the white wine sauce. Begin by whisking together ll/2 cups fish velouté with 4 tablespoons offish fumet. Just before serving the dish, bring the stock to a simmer and remove from the heat. Add the egg yolks mixed with the cream. Stir until thickened. Stir in the butter.
Tomato Sauce
Make a mirepoix in a stockpot: melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, and inner celery, bay leaf, and thyme. Fry this slowly for about 5 minutes, without coloration. Add the flour and fry until slightly browned. Then add the tomatoes. Stir in the tomato purée, salt and pepper to taste, a generous pinch of sugar, the bouquet garni, and the vegetable stock. Cook the sauce, covered, over low heat for 30-45 minutes. Pass through a fine sieve and set aside. Reheat the sauce to a simmer just before serving. This recipe makes about 1½ quarts of sauce.