Chinatown: between a wok and a bad place
On a recent visit to Paris, I sought out what was on offer in Chinatown, which radiates a little from its main artery of Avenue d'Ivry, in the 13th arrondissement.
Menus were as bleak as the area itself. Although there is no shortage of restaurants advertising Chinese food, those menus also commonly list Thai and Vietnamese dishes and sometimes Singaporean, Indonesian and Korean ones.
Most display this Asian melange on shop-front menus with photographic illustrations that made the Hong Kong-born Chinese companion who had joined me on this mission shudder. She declared that she would never consider eating in Paris Chinatown. More than half the dishes depicted seemed to be deep-fried, especially ubiquitous variations on spring rolls. Fried rice noodles, fried rice and noodle soups feature in many listings but did not look appealing.
In half an hour or more of strolling through the area, I saw only one restaurant with tablecloths that served predominantly Chinese fare - Le Mandarin de Choisy. But its menu also contained a number of 'spicy Thai sweet and sour' dishes, 'frog's legs with citronella and coconut milk' and other non-Chinese dishes.
One or two authentic restaurants cater to better-off Parisian Chinese in the Belleville neighbourhood, once quite a Jewish and Muslim area. Newly rich immigrants, notably from Wenzhou, have created a demand for familiar cuisine here, but most come with no frills. Salon de The Wenzhou, in the heart of Belleville in the 20th arrondissement is certainly popular and its dishes are authentic. The atmosphere and service, though, are brusque.
Two city centre restaurants promise more. Chen Soleil d'Est, offers a more refined take on traditional Chinese dishes. Lily Wang, with its contemporary interior and Chinese-Western fusion, reflects a public interest but neither has menus that would please a purist.
So when the Paris Shangri-La opened its Shang Palace restaurant in September last year, declaring it the French capital's only fine dining Chinese restaurant, there was more to this statement than marketing hype. As in Hong Kong, Shang Palace is also below ground level and uses plenty of wood and Chinese motifs, though its main dining room is smaller. Most importantly, the head chef, Shenzhen native Frank Xu and the kitchen and floor team are all from top southern Chinese and Hong Kong kitchens. Like many hotel Chinese restaurants, the menu augments its declared regional speciality - Cantonese here - with a handful of other provincial specialities, most commonly Peking duck and beggar's chicken.
But even this restaurant cannot resist adding a Southeast Asian dish or two: lo hei, for instance - thinly sliced raw salmon, with shredded root vegetables and fruit, sliced jellyfish and sesame dressing - is a Singaporean Lunar New Year appetiser. Wok-fried minced pigeon meat with diced vegetables in lettuce leaf wraps is a decidedly Cantonese dish and unavailable elsewhere, as is its lotus leaf wrapped steamed pre-fried rice with egg, shrimp, chicken, roasted duck, mushroom and seasonal vegetables.
According to Xu, he can get hold of almost all the ingredients he needs and makes good use of local fresh produce. 'Some of the meat is better than what was available in China,' he says.
Some vegetables, however, are not available in Paris and are ordered from China - lotus root, water chestnut, lily bulb, burdock, leek flower and winter melon, to name a few. If a vegetable cannot be imported for some reason or another, Xu usually replaces it with another ingredient. 'For instance, when I can't get Chinese asparagus, I use the French kind. It is not exactly the same taste, but it has a similar texture.'
Another recent opening, Paris' Mandarin Oriental, does not have a Chinese restaurant. 'We don't believe that including a Chinese restaurant is essential, particularly for our hotels, outside of Asia,' says Sally de Souza, group public relations manager for Asia. 'We do, however, include some of our signature Asian and Chinese dishes on the room service menus.'
