May / June 1989
International events, such as the Monte Carlo Country Club's international tennis championships, and the Grand Prix, attract tourists by the tens of thousands to the Principality. However, not all foreign travellers like eating foreign food. To some of them, foreign food is not an epicurean adventure, but a threat to the digestive tract, which is used to good home cooking! Like racing drivers, they are particular what kind of fuel re-charges their engine.
With 1992 and a unified Europe around the corner, Monaco is polishing up its international image. On the border of both France and Italy, where food is a very serious topic and eating almost a religion, Monaco would like to be known not only as an important international banking and finance centre, but as an important convention and business centre, with a truly international ‘flavour’. International restaurants must be an integral part of a magnificently modern Monaco. (Home cooking for everyone).
Les anglaises have been in situ for years. Many of them just can’t survive without regular injections of fish and chips, steak and kidney pies and bangers and mash. The Ship and Castle, down on the Quay in Fontvieille, is becoming the Mecca of the ‘yachties’ and local English residents and has added an outdoor terrace (with a spectacular view of the illuminated Prince’s Palace). During the summer it will be open until three a.m. In the heart of Monte Carlo, next to the petrol station, a North of England family have opened Alison’s restaurant, specializing in teas with scones, and a real Sunday lunch. I had the most delicious roast lamb with mint sauce and apple pie with custard. I have yet to check out the authenticity of their Yorkshire pudding – a treat in store.
The Japanese are the new millionaires, making their ‘grand tour’ of Europe. With their simple tastes in food, the French sauces we so admire seem too rich. And so, in the new luxurious Metropole Gallery, near the Casino, a de-luxe Japanese restaurant, the Fuji, recently opened its doors. Impressive chefs in tall white hats preside over heated tables, chopping and wokking at the speed of light while sushi lovers are lured by a formidable array of raw fish, twirled and curled with artistic precision.
Chinese food lovers congregate at Le Mah Jong, or the China Town, on Boulevard Rainier III, specializing in dishes from Pekin, Sechwan, or Canton. And for those yearning for kuskus and mint tea and other Moroccan delicacies, down on Quai des Sanbarbani in Fontvieille is Le Marrakech, where you are seated on a magic carpet and wined and dined on pilafs and shishkebabs.
There used to be a little Greek restaurant where you could dance and drink ouzo, but perhaps it was too robust for Monte Carlo, as it closed. I miss the goat cheese salads and fragrantly spiced meats. The restaurant of the Hotel du Siecle, opposite the station, last year offered smoked fish delicacies and roast suckling pig and the Dutch contingent in Monaco held their annual parties there. The owner was a Dutchman, but now he is gone and la cuisine est française. So the Mecca of all things Dutch is the Ariston Restaurant on avenue Princesse Grace, opposite the beach.
South of the Mason Dixon line in the U.S., Mexican food is a hot favourite. In Texas, it is spiced up even hotter for those big-boned hunks of cowboys. “Mish, mash, mush,” said one Monte Carlo lady. “Like those awful squishy, oozing hamburgers; how can one possibly eat it elegantly?” Wear your blue jeans and a bandana around your throat, and head along to Le Texan, off rue Grimaldi, and try one with a tequila sunrise!
Naturally, naturalmente, it is not necessary to cross the border to find Italian food. Opposite the Beach Plaza Hotel is Chez Gianni, home of elegant Italian dining, and next to the Hotel Mirabeau you’ll find the Pulcinella and la Cantinella and, in rue Paradis, La Polopetta where pizza and pasta reign supreme.
Famous visitors, like Renata Scotto and Montserrat Caballe are usually wined and dined in the grand restaurants of the Hotel de Paris with their magnificent wine cellars and champion chefs, but the Café de Paris opposite annually hosts a Bavarian Octoberfest, with accompanying German dishes (and umpty umpty ump music as background)
