The mottled cream-colored walls at CafГ© Rabelais resemble old plaster, and somehow the rural look is absolutely charming, despite the inevitable shopping-center parking lot outside the window. If you're in the mood for a salad, it's a little overwhelming. Today at lunch the blackboard menu also includes steak salad, warm goat cheese salad and a blue cheese, apple and walnut salad. Of course, if you love those old-fashioned flavors (I do), CafГ© Rabelais has lots of other variations on that theme - like a Bayonne ham-and-butter sandwich, merguez et frites (lamb sausage and french fries) or a goat-cheese-and-olive tart. It isn't as salty and oily as the old-fashioned dish. CafГ© Rabelais's salad has a moist slice of salmon fillet cooked in parchment paper on top of greens and potato slices. I suspect this salad is inspired by the traditional French harengs pommes Г l'huile, a salad of pickled herring and potato slices with oil. But I am too busy chewing to ask about the details. 'But what really works best are wine tastings and French cooking classes,' Joan says with a sly grin, as she watches me wolf my grilled salmon and oiled potato salad. Its mission is to promote French language and culture around the world by teaching French classes and sponsoring lectures and cultural events. It's a nonprofit organization that was founded in Paris in 1883, she tells me. 'So what is the Alliance FranГ§aise?' I ask Joan, a lively blond with sparkling eyes, pouty lips and a taut athletic physique. She owns CafГ© Rabelais in partnership with her husband, Christophe Paul. Laurence once taught French classes at the Alliance FranГ§aise. It is owned by Joan's old friend Laurence Paul, whose parents, Georges and Monique Guy, are the proprietors of the beloved Chez Georges and Bistro Provence. I thank Joan, executive director of L'Alliance FranГ§aise de Houston, for bringing me to this remarkable place. But otherwise, the new restaurant has done a faithful job of re-creating lovable peasant dishes from the French countryside. My only regret was that after I polished off the entire mound, I was informed that the next course was hen in cream sauce.Д¬ompared to those farmhouse inns, CafГ© Rabelais in the Rice Village serves virtuously dainty portions.

Although I never would have ordered it, it proved to be one of the best salads I have ever eaten. That salad also included thick fried bacon chunks and sliced potatoes, and was served as a multilayered pile covering a huge platter. It sounded like an odd combination to my American ear, but it was served automatically as part of the prix fixe deal, so I ate it. The first time I encountered this combination was in a ferme auberge (a restaurant in a farmhouse) in southern Burgundy. I love the way the egg yolk and creamy chicken-liver bits coat the fuzzy, bitter frisГ©e and combine with the vinegar to form a warm and sticky salad dressing. Joan offers me a bite, and I take a huge one. For instance, the plate of greens with sautГ©ed chicken livers and a poached egg that Joan Patrick is eating is not your typical 'ladies who lunch' low-fat selection. In France, having a salad for lunch doesn't necessarily mean you are on a diet.

Utopia restaurant