Are Japanese chefs starting to make their French counterparts blush on their home turf? In any case, they are undoubtedly serving more and more knockout punches! Here’s another fine example at Les Enfants Rouges, where chef Daï Shinozuka who, after sharpening his blades under Yves Camdeborde (L’Avant-Comptoir de la Terre, du Marché and de la Mer), has taken over this bistro right near Marché des Enfants-Rouges. Served in an unfussy space (off-brown tiling, black wooden furniture), the perfect Japanese-Parisian menu filed out the other night: an excellent soft-boiled egg with plump pan-fried duck hearts, spelt and haricots verts – or a heady bass marinated in citrus, with a yogurt and basil cream twist; a decadent free-range pork belly topped with yuzukosho (a chili and yuzu peel condiment), served with smoked beets, spinach and crisp asparagus; before ending perfectly with a reinvigorating sheep’s milk ice cream sweetened by crème fraîche and served with some heady black cherries. // N.K.
FEELING THIRSTY? The drinks menu is overflowing with natural wines: a Givry red from the Bessons (€13 a glass), a Saint-Péray white from François Villard (€15), a Hérault red from Xavier Braujou (€68 a bottle) or, for something flashier, a Gevrey-Chambertin-premier cru from Denis Mortet (€450).
PRICE: Menus €40 (weekday lunch), €65 (dinner), tasting menu €95 (dinner).
