Doni Belau's Posts

Donate to Win Fabulous French Prizes

Posted by Doni Belau on September 25, 2013 at 4:00pm

Girls' Guide to Paris recently launched a new digital e-magazine, Girls’ Guide to Paris ET PLUS. To celebrate the new magazine about Paris and the rest of the world, there will be an official launch party in Paris on October 3 at the fabulous Hotel de Vendome. This VIP event will not only celebrate the launch of the e-mag but also benefit two wonderful charity organizations. Guests and readers worldwide will have the opportunity to win a unique selection of luxurious French items and experiences while helping us raise money for Ubuntu Africa and Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). It will be a win for everyone: raise money for children with HIV, and take home great prizes!

Ubuntu Africa was founded by Whitney Johnson in 2007, with the aid of Doni Belau (gg2p’s founder), in response to her experience volunteering at a South African orphanage, where she saw children die because of a lack of resources. Ubuntu Africa provides resources and services to more than 200 HIV-positive children in Khayelitsha, South Africa.

Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) is a humanitarian organization that delivers medical assistance to people in nearly 60 countries. Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals volunteer their time and help people access medical care regardless of race, religion, creed or political affiliation. They work closely with Ubuntu on the ground in South Africa and often refer children to UBA’s health center.

Some highlights of the online charity raffle:

Fabulous apartment stay for five days at the Paris apartment of gg2p’s founder, on the Ile Saint-Louis. Sleeps 5–6. Value: $2,800.

Leather designs from Perrin Paris, ranging from exclusive key chains to its most famous handbag (worth $2,200).

Win a place at the launch party to sip Champagne and experience a taste of French cuisine by Chef Marie with the glitterati!

A stunning silver gift donated by Christofle, a historic French house creating the art of luxury in silver since 1830.

De Beers Diamond award winner and luxury jewelry designer Ann Gérard’s exclusive perfumes (worth $165).

Visit EverRibbon to learn more and donate to help children with HIV live healthy long, healthy lives in South Africa.

If you give $50 or more, you’ll get a free subscription to the new Girls’ Guide to Paris ET PLUS magazine —and a chance to win the prizes described above and more.

Caviar d'Aubergines recipe from Paris

Posted by Doni Belau on August 10, 2011 at 7:13am

Caviar d’Aubergines

by Camille Malmquist

Undoubtedly, summer is the reigning season for a picnic in Paris. Most of the time, Parisians will stop by their neighborhood traiteur to pick up deli favorites, such as salads, pâtés and dips. One of the most popular of these is caviar d’aubergines, a thick purée of roasted eggplant, so named because it just might be as delicious as the storied fish eggs. Oh, and its color may resemble the lightest and finest caviars, if you squint just right.

Summer is also high season for eggplant. Roasting it yields a surprisingly rich flavor, with just a touch of smoke from the slightly charred skin. Cooking it on the grill increases the smokiness and is a great option on days too hot for the oven. Or if you happen to like smoky flavors, which I do.

Lightened with lemon and fresh herbs, and slightly pungent from garlic and red pepper, this cooling summer dip is equally at home on a picnic blanket or a backyard table. But dolloped on tiny blini or spread thinly on toasted baguette rounds, it can also make an elegant hors d’oeuvre if picnics aren’t your thing.

This is a very versatile recipe, highly adaptable to whatever flavor combinations you like. In fact, if you leave out the rosemary and add a few tablespoons of tahini, you’ve got baba ghanoush, which, along with hummus, is another favorite on Parisian picnics.

caviar d’aubergines

Makes about 1 quart/1 liter.

3 medium eggplants (about 1 pound 10 ounces; or 1,200 grams)
3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
zest and juice of ½ a lemon
1¼ teaspoons coarse sea salt
½ teaspoon piment d’Espelette or hot paprika
3 tablespoons (45 ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
leaves from 6 stems of parsley, chopped
1 clove raw garlic, minced (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400F (205C).

2. Wash the eggplants and prick them all over with a fork. Place them in a large ovenproof dish with the unpeeled garlic cloves, and roast until the skin is browned and wrinkly and the eggplants feel very soft, about an hour. Remove the garlic after about half an hour. Allow the eggplants to cool.

3. When the eggplants are cool enough to handle, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh. If it comes out in very large pieces, chop into 1-inch (about 2-cm) pieces. Discard the skin.

4. Place the eggplant in a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor. Peel the roasted garlic and add the flesh to the bowl as well. Add the lemon juice and zest, salt, piment d’espelette, olive oil, rosemary and parsley, and blend with an immersion blender or in the food processor until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking with salt, lemon and the raw garlic if desired.

5. Scrape the purée into a serving bowl, cover and chill for at least an hour to allow the flavors to meld. Just before serving, drizzle with a little more olive oil and garnish with extra parsley leaves.

Camille Malmquist is an American pastry chef living and working in Paris. In her spare time, she cooks and bakes at home (believe it or not), as well as tackles the difficult task of trying out as many restaurants and bakeries as possible, then she blogs about her food and travel adventures at Croque-Camille.

Editor’s note: If you are a foodie heading to Paris, why not download one of our three gourmet walking tours?

Parisian Valentine

Posted by Doni Belau on February 14, 2011 at 5:10pm

Click on this link to see the Girls' Guide to Paris' Valentine's day blog post about the love locks on the Seine.

http://girlsguidetoparis.com/archives/a-parisian-valentine/

The hottest restaurant in Paris

Posted by Doni Belau on July 26, 2010 at 12:05pm

http://www.girlsguidetoparis.com/ourcurrentfave

One of our writers, based in Paris reviews Daniel Rose's new resto Spring. Easily the HOTTEST place in town right now, run to do not walk to make a reservation.

Review by Barbra Austin. Lovers of Paris will enjoy our site www.girlsguidetoparis.com ;

Spring Restaurant
By Barbra Austin

Pigeon with sweetbreads, girolles and cucumbers.
Spring Restaurant
6, rue Bailleul, in the 1st Arrondissement.
01 45 96 05 72.
Dinner, Tues–Sat; lunch, Thurs–Sat.
In high summer, Spring has sprung.
Has sprung again, I should say; this is the second incarnation of Daniel Rose’s much-lauded restaurant in the 9th, open at long last.
A fantastic renovation has left original architectural details of the 16th century space in place, protected but visible thanks to clever and beautiful use of glass to cover exposed beams and stone walls, and to encase a risky old stairway. A huge plate-glass window swings out to the street. The open stainless steel kitchen is the centerpiece, dominating the roughly 22-seat dining room. There you can watch Daniel, cochef Marie-Aude Mery and their small staff at work.
Your meal there will not be the same as mine, though it will be the same as your neighbor’s. The unique 64 euro menu changes daily according to whim and what products are available.
We settled in with champagne and a plate of melon with cured pork loin, ready to get down to business.
On this night there was eggplant, showing off its versatility as a crisp croquette, a quenelle of caviar, a deeply caramelized confit and, most surprising, a lightly pickled wedge that half the table mistook for a tomato. Smoked eel lent salt and depth to the menagerie.

Eggplant four ways, smoked eel.
Next, tuna two ways: over sweet, delicately smoked tomatoes, accompanied by a tender morsel enrobed in ashes of leeks—a Catalonian riff on old Paris. A single well-seasoned prawn completed the plate. Pigeon followed, mingling with sweetbreads on a bed of girolles and spears of cucumber (a vegetable rarely eaten any way but raw), its flavor concentrated by cooking.
We enjoyed a fantastic cheese plate of Ossau Iraty, cratered cantal and oozy Brie. We finished with a series of sweet dishes: an apricot floating in a verbena broth with red currants and mint; a plate of cherries sautéed with fresh almonds; and a deconstructed lemon tart. These are what I think of as “cooks' desserts,” dispensing with classic pastry forms and focusing first and foremost on flavor.
Lunch is different, built around a daily bouillon—a nod to the earliest Paris restaurants and, specifically, to nearby Les Halles. Chicken or pigeon and pristine vegetables get their turn in the savory bath, and small plates round out the offerings.
The thoughtful wine list is made up of bottles from small producers practicing organic or biodynamic winemaking, from la belle France but also Italy, Germany and Austria. Prices range from the reasonable sub–30 euro mark to, well, whatever you’d like to spend.
Speaking of wine, in September a wine bar will open on the lower level. Something tells me I’ll be spending a lot of time there.
If you want to eat upstairs, though, stop reading this and book immediately.
In a nutshell: It seems that Daniel Rose has done it again.
Price check: The multicourse dinner menu is 64 euros; lunch bouillon, 23 euros.
If Spring appeals but . . . but what? Book now.

Editor's note: For a gourmet walking tour, check out our DIY downloadable tours.

Note: this page contains paid content.