Tartines: French sandwiches, American playfulness

A recipe and a bunch of ideas

Hello! Hello!

The last day that Michael and were in Paris, we had lunch, as we often do, at the Bar de la Croix Rouge, and I had what I always have, the Saint-Germain. Sometimes I’ll have it with a glass of red wine, sometimes with rosé, but while I switch up the wine, the Croix Rouge never – never, ever – switches up the Saint-Germain. It’s their signature and it would be foolish to mess with a crowd pleaser (as we’ve already decided).

HERE'S WHAT IT IS: A slice of country bread – at Croix Rouge, they wisely build the dish on a slab of bread from the Poilâne bakery, which is just around the corner from the café; a slick of mayonnaise; a smattering of sliced cornichons; and one or two slices of very rare roast beef cut so thin that you could read the New York Times through them if you had to. Once assembled, the sandwich is cut crosswise into fingers. The Saint-Germain is presented on a plate with more slices of the pickles, a few ribbons of lettuce and a slice of tomato, probably there…