French Food

Not gonna talk about the Perm Sec in MEWR x Le Cordon Bleu issue. So Mr Y. S. Tan got chided publicly. BFD. I was more interested in the news on how the total annual salaries at the MR4 grade will fall by 18% to $1.57 million and salaries at the SR9 level will fall by 12% to $353,000. SR9 is the entry level of superscale Administrative Service Officer. They are in their early to mid 30s. My annual pay is no where near $353,000, which works out to be more than $29,000 a month. In fact, I am so far from $353,000 that I don't even belong to the same neighbourhood, street, estate, postal district, GRC....... The SR9 grade officers can see their salaries drop by another 50% and still be getting more than me. I need to constantly remind myself of this whenever I think I should work late. Oh poor them. Having 12% of their salaries shaved off. Woe.

Enough about that.

This is about the good fortune I enjoyed when I was in Paris for a working trip late last year. I had foie gras on 4 of the 7 nights I was there. So besides staying at the Hilton, Paris, there was good food all round. Ok, so the forced fed geese weren't so fortunate. My fortune was further diluted by the fact that I don't really love foie gras.

I'm more of a tee kwa (pig liver) in the minced pork and mushroom mee pok dry type of person. Especially the powdery type done easy.

The cool way to name your restaurant when you have made it is easy. Name it after yourself.
Not your surname. Use your first name. Preferably with your maitre'd name as well. Just to debunk the critics from saying you are ego-centric. Even if you are.

George V is the area to look for French fine dining. Sandwiched between the Eiffel Tower and The Arc D'Triomphe, an avenue off the Champs Elysees, it is easily located.

On the second night, I had my first french fine dining experience in this place called Philippe & Jean-Pierre. Good thing I had late dinner that evening. So the bulk of the dinner crowd had already left. Thus the few of us had a fantastic night of relaxed conversations, fine food, good wine and a very interesting cheese board.

The third night was the exhibition's opening gala held in The Paris Navy Museum which is the west wing of the Palais de Chaillot (or Trocadero). Most who have been tp Paris would have been to the compounds as it provides one of the best vistas in Paris - that of the Eiffel Tower standing resplendent on the opposite bank of the Seine river. I just wanted to note that Singaporeans are not the only kiasu (afraid of losing out)/tumjiak (greedy - taking alot of what you like) /gianpng (greedy - taking alot of what you like AND whatever else is served). There were foie gras served in a myriad of ways and freshly shucked Mediterranean oysters. And buzzing around these stands were representatives from various countries. I saw this particular man slurping down more than a dozen of the oysters. I think I had 2. Damn. Not only am I earning way less than the local elites, I am also not being kiasu enough as the local uncles/aunties.

The next night was at a restaurant famous for the seafood and specialities from Provence - Marius et Jeanette. Although pricey, the eatery was filled with casually dressed patrons and as noisy as a pub. Except that no pub music was being played. Only the sound of conversations in French and English (our table).

The last of the George V restaurant I dined in was in Pershing Hall. The restaurant is part of the Hotel Pershing Hall and is one of the place in Paris to see and be seen. Below is the menu (the only place I had taken note):

Fine tart of Cod, olive oil and lemon dressing, caviar of tomato
~
Pan fried sea bass filet, stewed garlic and caviar of eggplant
~
Figs roasted with citrus, rosemary sherbet

[errors intended]

Figs as dessert was common because they were in season. So many of the desserts I had were fig-based. Even for lunches.

Ok, getting quite tired. Will stop here.

Boring entry.

Jeff Koons at Chateau de Versailles

So we took a 1/2 day trip to Chateau de Versailles. Where Sofia Coppola filmed Marie Antoinette.

Weirdest thing was that Jeff Koons was being exhibited within the palace. The first piece I saw was Balloon Dog in one of the rooms. While the others were wondering what was this giant pink metallic dog doing in the middle of a stately 17th Century palace, I immediately thought, "Jeff Koons!".

Balloon Dog

Haha! I'm no art expert but there is something serendipitous about this artwork. And to think that auntie and I were just talking about his famous Balloon Dog days before leaving for Paris. We couldn't remember how it was brought into our conversation but imagine my surprise when I saw it in one of the many halls in the palace.

Balloon Dog

There were plenty more of his works in the other rooms. But none of the raunchy "Made In Heaven" series. If you're not aware of this series, just google it and erm, be mindful that Ilona Staller, a former(?) pornstar/member of parliament (she works hard for her million dollar a month pay) is also Jeff Koons' ex-wife.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles

There were some which looks wrong on many levels. Like this piece of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles. Whatever happened to Bubbles anyway? Bubbles is like Andrew Ridgeley (aka the other half of Wham!) during MJ's Dangerous era.

Lobster

Some were even more inane. Like the one above. But strangely, when Lobster is juxtaposed next to the crystal chandelier, it takes on a whole new meaning. Oh! I love the way I used the word "juxtaposed". So artsy.

Moon

I am not a fan of Jeff Koons. Most of his works don't go down well with me. I know pr0n when I see it and pr0n is all over in the Made In Heaven series. But some of his works are really spectacular and make really fantastic public pieces.

Balloon Flower

And pieces like Pink Panther, Ushering In Banality and Bear And Policeman, well, kids love them. In fact, TPY took a picture of Bear And Policeman because he thought that his kids will like it.

Pink Panther

Ushering Into Banality

Bear and Policeman

And who knows, you might some treasure amongst this trove.

Hanging Heart

Such luck.

No time to blog

Just wanted to put up some pictures in here.

Yes, this is THE Paris Hilton. Was staying on the 4th storey and this was the view from the balcony:


As France is the sitting on the EU Presidency from Jul - Dec 2008, the Eiffel Tower was specially lit for this period of 6 months.


And every hour, on the hour, the spectacle is enhanced with thousands of glittering lights (gotta rotate the screen or head...).

There was also the amazing french dinners at Philippe et Jean-Pierre, Marius et Janette and Pershing Hall.

More of these later....

Hilton Suffren

I will check out if the Hilton in Paris (Paris Hilton)

1. is easy to get into - Yes.
   
2. has a wide entrance - Yes, revolving door.
   
3. allow entry from the rear door for VIPs - Possibly maybe.
   
4. allow double or triple occupancy - Definitely.
5. charge by the hour - Didn't ask but unlikely.

Be right back with more. Pictures to follow.

Post before Paris Hilton

I'll let auntie write a few lines:



ok, she refused.

Anyway, waiting for time to pass before leaving the house for terminal 3.
Gonna attend this Euronaval 2008 exhibition in Paris le Bourget. It's not actually Paris. But Paris le Bourget. What does "le bourget" mean? I don't know. What does

auntie says if she has to type, she's gonna type something like this: "He says that he is going to get some air stewardess' number and have a fling."

anyway....

I will check out if the Hilton in Paris (Paris Hilton)

1. is easy to get into
2. has a wide entrance
   
3. allow entry from the rear door for VIPs
4. allow double or triple occupancy
5. charge by the hour

What else do you wanna know?

Don't think I'll put up many pictures after this trip.
Oh yes, the gifts, plaques and books weigh 8kgs. These don't belong to me. I hope I can leave them all in Paris.

But oh fuck. If these gifts go out, some are definitely gonna come back in.
It's like chinese new year but in a bad way.

Paris, Hilton

J: "I'm staying at the Hilton and I was looking at the website, it's so funny. Remember the Hollywood cliche where every Parisian window has a view of the Eiffel Tower? The pictures on the website show exactly that! There's a picture of a balcony with a view of the Eiffel Tower."

V: "You are staying in Hilton while in Paris?"

D: "Haha, that's really Paris Hilton."

Guffaws.

*not verbatim