When I was seventeen, I had the good luck of moving to Paris to start my college education. Back then, I was a disgustingly self-entitled brat who thought it was perfectly normal to live it up in Paris at the tender age of seventeen and I would get seriously annoyed at my parents for calling me every day to check up on me (mom had daily visions of my dead, hacked-up body lying in a Parisian sewer, which only intensified when I didn’t answer the phone). Despite her visions, my favorite pastimes, during my first year in Paris, did not include getting mutilated, killed or floating in sewers. Instead, my favorite pastimes were: chain-smoking, playing backgammon and eating steaks at a place called Hippo with two friends, both conveniently named Alex (distinguished by the clever and literal nicknames of ‘Big Alex’ and ‘Russian Alex’). Now, Hippo was, at best, a run-of-the-mill steakhouse chain and, at worst, a bit of a dump, but back then, it was the best thing ever. In 1998, sitting at Hippo’s and eating a juicy steak with sauce béarnaise was what made life good. I’ve had many good steaks since but the ones from Hippo’s were somehow most memorable and delicious. So, here goes my homage to those days – Mesdames et messieurs: Filet de bœuf avec sauce béarnaise…
