It was a quiet, snowy evening and in our world, the only plan for later that night was to watch the Jets game, so we had time for an early supper with some good, good friends.  Skip to their world: they have three little ones and Mom home schools the oldest.  They have been sick with a cold.  The youngest has just learned to walk and is into everything.  To them, this is more than a quick, early supper.  This is a couple of precious hours where they are not preparing food, serving, feeding and cleaning up.  They are engaging in adult conversation focused on their plans and desires and not only their children.  In short, they really needed this time, however brief.  So if you can treat a young couple to some time like this or better yet, babysit for them, so that they can have some time alone together-do it!

I am currently reading a lovely work of non-fiction entitled “On Rue Tatin”.  The authour is the writer of the French Farmhouse Cookbook and so it was very appropriate that we find ourselves at Chez Sophie Bistro & Pizzeria.

The small dining room room is simply appointed with a bevy of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling but for extra coziness, little lamps perched on every window-sill.

The white sauced pizza looked very tempting and so we will have to go again very soon to sample it. So too, the fried Camembert as D and I recounted our honeymoon which began in Quebec City, eating fried cheese at a sidewalk cafe.

We were able to make our choices and the meal started with a split pea soup served with a “just-out-of-the-oven” mini baguette.  Soup did not start my meal so my anticipation of good things to come was that much heightened.

And oh, I was not disappointed.  I choose Moule & Frites every chance I get and Chef Sophie’s are up there with the city’s best (7 1/4 and Inferno’s).  The seafood meat was succulent and in no way had suffered by the poaching process which is sometimes the case.  Mussels must be closely supervised to serve them at their peak and these were beautifully done so.  The nectar that they floated in was so sublime that I boldly requested a spoon.

Sophie’s version comes with a beautiful tossed salad and absolutely delicious French fries: piping hot with a sprinkle of salt (and not a ketchup bottle in sight!).

The guys at the table choose an Alsatian stew of beef and pork with carrot, potato and leek. They too did not receive spoons, but were undeterred because each morsel in their bowl had been simmered for adequate time so as to soak up every droplet of the white wine broth.

Lastly, this gorgeous Arctic Char was presented and consumed with delight.

There was no time for dessert so that is another reason why we will have to return.  D and I finished our wine and remembered the days when we were busily raising our own three children. But we also remembered our last evening in Paris when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary-the kids were grown, we were a happy couple enjoying life’s shared experiences and we  sat side by side, and dined on Moule & Frites.

Kath’s quote: “If I had magic powers, I should like to wave my golden fork over the confined cookery of Europe and enlarge it to infinity; I would like to . . . offer French nationality to the many hardly known but delicious foreign dishes; …I would like to put the whole of natural history on the spit, in stews, in fricassees, in court-bouillon, in grills,….. ” –Fulbert-Dumonteil (Jean Camille) 1831-1912

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