Miznon – Paris
We all know I don’t make friends with salad (although I do have a very unfortunate fondness for les salauds) but after three days of hard-core, and I might add rather uncharacteristic, juice detoxing I thought I should ease my body back onto solids with something light and healthy. And so I pottered on down to the newly opened gourmet Israeli pita and salad bar round the corner with the eternally dapper Kipfler Sutherland and hilarious, charming fellow foodie Gwyneth Poutlry to break my fast – warning my companions on the way that I probably wouldn’t be able to eat very much, what with my newly shrunken stomach and all…
I have done my best to avoid the busy little rue des Escouffes since a humiliating incident when I first arrived in Paris involving an order of pork bones (needed to make David Chang’s ramen broth) at what I had not realised (despite the extensive range of chicken sausages) was a Jewish butcher. Not kosher, not kosher at all.
So with head bowed I bolted past the boucherie and into Miznon, the pumping little cafe on the corner. Run by Frenchman David Moyle, Miznon is the Parisian branch of Eyal Shani’s excessively popular fast food pita restaurant in Tel Aviv.
When Kipfler Sutherland, Gwyneth Poultry and I arrived, on this particularly sunny Thursday, the place was utterly frenetic. Waiters were yelling out names Starbuck’s style over eclectic Israeli beats, and pitas were being ferried around like a game of pass-the-parcel. The decor is rustic with its concrete floors, counters of polished wood and steel, mismatched industrial lampshades and random piles of vegetables sporadically placed throughout the room and the menu, which looks like someone has left it mid-way through a brainstorming session, is scrawled in multicoloured chalk on a blackboard at the back of the restaurant, and is nigh impossible to decipher.
Miznon offers a vast range of pita fillings to suit all palates, including chickpea topped with boiled egg and green chilis, freshly cooked minute steak with an optional egg, spiced fish, freshly marinated tuna, and hummus, amongst others. As it turns out there were no non-pita salad options (more’s the pita), and Miznon’s signature slow roasted chicken salad pita was not yet ready, so I went for the lamb kebab pita with sides of roasted cauliflower and ratatouille, Kipfler Sutherland ordered the boeuf bourguinon pita, and, on recommendation of the waitress, Gwyneth Poultry chose the minced lamb stuffed-braised cabbage leaf pita.
No sooner had we plonked ourselves on the free stools overlooking the open kitchen then our orders were ready, signalled by a man screaming Eenerande, which he thought was my name (and which all the chefs seemed to find wildly hilarious).
My lamb kebab (which I have only unappealing half eaten photos of due to excessive hunger), although it was more like succulent lamb meatballs, was utterly mouthwatering. The fresh,warm homemade pita bread was light and fluffy, the meatballs were juicy, incredibly flavoursome and perfectly cooked and the salad was teeming with fresh herbs and spices. Unlike most pitas, with heavy slices of meat or deep fried felafels and overpowering garlic sauce that stays with you for 24 hours and limits all form of pleasant social interaction, at Miznon the pita’s are light and fresh and the sauce subtle.
It was hands down the best pita I have ever eaten.
Kipfler Sutherland claimed his rather Frenchified boeuf bourguinon pita was deliciously flavoured, although he ended up with beef sauce all over his new chinos, while Gwyneth Poultry’s mince-stuffed braised cabbage leaf pita was apparently divine.
The portions are very generous (apparently they do half serves) and by the time we were done with our pitas our jeans were literally bursting at the seams. However we battled on – the side of ratatouille with preserved carrots and a sprinkling of hard boiled egg was absolutely delicious, and had a beautifully sweet, caramelised flavour, and the whole head of roasted cauliflower was a simple, rustic addition and a definite must-order.
We emerged from Miznon and continued our consumption with a cold filter coffee at Fondation, swiftly followed by a spritz or two at La Perle, which inevitably led to glorious deep fried chicken and wine at Verjus Bar à Vin, and ended at 3am with Cucumber Fumant’s and a very spontaneous dancing session at Le Ballroom du Beef Club with Jude Slaw and Grease Witherspoon.
And so it was that in one fell(afel) swoop the detox was a distant memory and I was back to my greedy old self – what a pita indeed.
xoxo
Paris Stilton
Miznon Address: 22 rue des Ecouffes, 75004 Metro: Saint-Paul Hours: Closed Saturday; Open Monday-Thursday & Sunday from 12pm-12am, Friday from 12-3pmTel: 01 42 74 83 58 (no reservations)
