Ô Petit Club Africain

The restaurant Ô Petit Club Africain offers African cuisine and ambiance in the western Paris suburb of Puteaux.

Ô Petit Club Africain – façade
© Discover Paris!
Chef Raoul Dufy has regaled customers here for the past five years. Born in Senegal, he learned to love cooking in his mother’s kitchen and studied the culinary arts at the Ecole Ferrandi in Paris. After working in several prestigious kitchens in France, he opened Ô Petit Club Africain in 2012.

On the day Tom and I lunched there, we were the first customers to arrive for lunch. We got our pick of the tables and settled upon a place on the spacious, bright, and well-ventilated terrace at the rear of the restaurant. Original art works and crafts enlivened the space and music from Africa played over the sound system.

Terrace table, crafts, and original art work
© Discover Paris!
A bottle of bissap-flavored rhum arrangé, complete with what must have been hundreds of rum-steeped hibiscus flower petals, beckoned to be sampled.

Bissap rhum arrangé
© Discover Paris!
Our server informed me that the restaurant had several other flavored rums to choose from, but I stuck with my original selection and ordered the bissap variety as an apéritif. It was more potent than I expected and because I’ve been conditioned by drinking bissap juice, it was not as sweet as I thought it would be. I will try another variety next time.

Tom ordered an apéritif-sized portion of pastels and received three tender, piping hot fish and parsley fritters in a tangy red sauce. He forewent an alcoholic beverage and ordered a glass of jus de bouille (baobob juice) instead. He described this cloudy, camel-colored drink as being slightly grainy and having a faint banana flavor.

Pastels
© Discover Paris!

Jus de bouille
© Discover Paris!
The menu consists of four entrées, three salads, eight main dishes, six desserts, and a whopping fourteen (14) selections of artisanal ice creams and three sorbets. The ice creams are made locally by Nicolas Poilevey. Non-alcoholic beverages included natural juices of tamarind, bissap, ginger, and the bouille mentioned above.

I did not order an entrée for fear of being too full upon leaving the restaurant.

For my main course, I selected Poulet DG, a traditional Cameroonian chicken-and-vegetable stew served with plantains. I received a plate piled high with a tender chicken leg topped with sliced carrots, red and yellow bell peppers, sliced spring onions, and steamed plantains. The chicken thigh and drumstick had been separated; they sat in a light and lovely reddish sauce. The plantains provided a touch of sweetness and contrast in texture next to the vegetables and chicken. The overall portion was generous and the flavors melded perfectly!

Poulet DG
© Discover Paris!
Tom ordered capitaine braisé, which consisted of an entire fish braised with herbs and spices and topped with chopped red onions, diced red bell peppers and zucchini, and steamed plantains, all served on a wood plank. Flavored with citrus, the fish was succulent and tender. He consumed every morsel of this delightful dish!

Braised capitaine
© Discover Paris!
To accompany our meals, I ordered jus de bissap (hibiscus juice) and Tom stuck with his jus de bouille. Given the heat of the day and the fact that we planned to take a long walk after lunch, we did not regret this decision. We both found our selections to be tasty and refreshing.

Time for dessert!

We scrutinized the selections for several minutes before placing our orders. Tom opted for three scoops of ice cream – tarot (a tropical root vegetable), cumbawa (makrut lime), and sesame noir (black sesame). We were surprised at the size of the scoops he received – they were almost twice as large as the scoops we’re used to receiving in French restaurants. Of the three flavors, both of us preferred the black sesame.

tarot, cumbawa, and sesame noir ice creams
© Discover Paris!
I ordered one of the suggested prepared desserts – a ginger cake served with crème anglaise flavored with lime zest. A single round cake roughly three inches in diameter and one inch thick was served warm in a bowl. The crème anglaise coated the cake like a thin frosting. Resembling carrot cake, it was moist, tender, and bursting with ginger flavor. I was quite pleased with my choice!

Ginger cake with crème anglaise
© Discover Paris!
The pace of the service was a tad slow but the young women who served us were friendly and kind.

About the time we were finishing dessert, Chef Dufy appeared on the terrace to greet his customers and to inquire about their satisfaction with their meals. Tom and I took the opportunity to ask him to pose for a photograph and he graciously did so.

Chef Raoul Duly
© Discover Paris!
We had an excellent first experience at Ô Petit Club Africain and will happily return!

Ô Petit Club Africain
14, bd. Richard Wallace
92800 Puteaux
Telephone: 01.45.06.76.22
Internet: http://opetitclub.fr/

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Black Women in French Rugby

By Tatiana Balabanis

Rugby dates to the 19th century and though this sport is unconventional in its literal “backwards” nature, for centuries it has brought people together from different backgrounds. As a European alternative to the contact sport of American football, it attracts crowds and spectators at all levels.

France is part of the Six Nations Rugby league, along with England, Italy, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. It had the opportunity to send a women’s team and a men’s team to the 2016 Rio Olympics, where 7s Rugby (played with 7 people on each side) was introduced for the first time in Olympic history.

A few notable French female players of color have made an impact on the rugby world as well as on the communities from which they come.

The first is Julie Annery. Julie has played on France’s 7s team for Six Nations since 2016. Before then, she played for her hometown team, AC Bobigny 93 Rugby.

Julie Annery
RATP.fr press photo
At the early age of 22, Julie has already begun to leave her mark. This year, for its 10th anniversary, Julie was named the godmother of RATP’s “Les Mercredis du Rugby,” an annual program sponsored by the state-owned public transportation operator that promotes “better living together” via rugby. Over 400 students are recruited for this program each year. They are taught the “pedagogical values of discipline-respect, teamwork, and sharing.”

In an interview with French radio station Outre-Mer 1ère, Julie spoke about her experience with rugby and how it is the perfect choice of sport to embody these proposed values. She also mentioned how in all her time playing rugby, she has never been faced with racism within the sport. Nor has she felt that being a woman has caused her more difficulty in the rugby world.

The next notable player is Rose Thomas. Rose was the only woman of color to compete for France on the Women’s Olympic 7s Rugby team last summer in Rio. She is a French-African rugby player of Central African descent.

In a spotlight video on the Olympic Channel, Rose talks about how Central African culture was very much part of her growing up. She shares that her mother speaks to her in Sango, the official language of the Central African Republic, and that she always responds in French. She laughs about how when she visits the Central African Republic with her mother, they see her as “the little white girl” who is fully immersed in European culture and simply a visitor to her mother’s home country.

Rose Thomas
Olympic Channel video
In regard to racism, Rose echoes the sentiments Julie Annery expressed, saying that she has never been faced with racism in her years as a rugby player. She also insightfully adds how racism is the fear of difference and how rugby helps foster integration because of the loyalty and camaraderie you feel towards someone when you are out on the field fighting for the people next to you.

Julie Annery and Rose Thomas outline the values of rugby in a way that I identify very strongly with in my experience with playing rugby. I have never felt an ounce of racism within my rugby team and am proud to say that Stanford Women’s Rugby is one of the most diverse and supportive communities of strong women of which I’ve ever had the privilege to be a part.

I’ve joined some pick-up rugby games while here in Paris and these groups of people have always been more than welcoming. Rugby truly is a sport that brings people together.

Tatiana Balabanis at Les Invalides, Paris
© Wells International Foundation
Having played this sport for over two years, I can attest that rugby builds not only physical strength, but also mental strength. It gives you the power to fight the adversities you’ll face both on and off the field.

Julie and Rose are exemplary role models of strength and discipline for young women of color throughout France and worldwide, both within the rugby sphere and outside of it.

Tatiana Balabanis is a rising junior at Stanford University. She is currently serving as a summer intern for the Wells International Foundation.

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Haïti at Home: La Cuisine Créole - Part 2

No Haitian meal is complete without a little something sweet to finish it off. One of my favorite desserts is blancmangé. This coconut-based gelatin dessert perfectly highlights the sweet island flavor of coconut in an unconventional texture of dessert.

Blancmangé is a well-known and widely enjoyed all across the French West Indies. When I told some Martinican friends of mine that I was preparing this dish, the excited expressions on their faces perfectly captured the sentiment shared among me and all my family members when my aunt brings out dessert at the end of our family celebrations.

To begin my preparation of blancmangé, I started with a journey to TropicMarché, an Antillean supermarket in St. Ouen. This is where I purchased the coconut milk, condensed milk, cinnamon, and vanilla essence.

TropicMarché - façade
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
They also sell a powdered mix of pre-prepared blancmangé which only requires the addition of hot and cold water, but I wanted to make it from scratch.

The most important part of going to an authentic Antillean supermarket to buy my ingredients was finding the right vanilla essence. Back home, my grandfather prepares vanilla essence from scratch and that’s the kind we always used in my household. I wanted to make sure I could get something as close to Grandpa’s essence de vanille as I could find. I found a brand that had a stamp indicating its production was in the French West Indies.

Vanilla essence (extract)
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
The rest of the ingredients, which were simply a packet of gelatin sheets and sweetened shredded coconut, I was able to find at my neighborhood Monoprix.

Ingredients for Blancmangé
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
For the recipe, I had to make a call to my Aunt Chantal, who is the blancmangé expert in our family. She guided me through the process to make sure I captured the right flavors and consistency of the dessert.

The first step was to prepare the gelatin. I used gelatin sheets, but you can also use powdered gelatin.

Be sure to follow the instructions on the packaging for the correct measurements of hot much water to add! This can make a big difference because if you add too much water, the blancmangé will not solidify to its proper consistency.

Soak 5 sheets of gelatin in cold water for approximately 5 minutes.

Soaking the gelatin sheets
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
Then, bring 20 cl of water to a boil. Add the wet sheets of gelatin to the boiling water and stir until the sheets have completely dissolved.

Dissolving the gelatin sheets
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
Next, in a large bowl, mix 400 g of condensed milk, 200 g of coconut milk, the dissolved gelatin mixture, and an additional 15 cl of water. Thoroughly whisk these ingredients together until they are evenly distributed. Add a dash of vanilla essence and a pinch of cinnamon and whisk them in.

Milk mixture and vanilla
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
After you’ve prepared this mixture, transfer it into a relatively flat mold. Any baking mold will do, but traditionally a circular bundt cake mold is used for the most aesthetic final product.

Put this mold in the fridge and let the blancmangé sit for a minimum of 6 hours. For the best results, leave it in the fridge overnight.

Blancmangé in the refrigerator
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
Now, for the coconut shreds. To garnish the blancmangé and give it a little crunch, toasted coconut shreds are sprinkled on top the dessert once it has fully set.

To toast the shreds, simply put a frying pan over medium heat and spread the shreds across the pan, periodically moving them around in the pan until they reach a brownish color.

Toasting coconut shreds
Images courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
Store the toasted coconut shreds at room temperature until you are ready to serve the blancmangé.

Once it has fully settled and you are ready to eat the blancmangé, flip the container onto a plate or any flat serving tray, sprinkle the toasted coconut shreds on top, and voilà! You have yourself a delicious Haitian dessert that everyone is sure to enjoy.

Blancmangé - plated and garnished
Image courtesy of Tatiana Balabanis
Tatiana Balabanis is a rising junior at Stanford University. She is currently serving as a summer intern for the Wells International Foundation.

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Josephine Baker’s Heyday: The 1930s

Josephine Baker reached the height of her career a mere five years after being catapulted to stardom on October 2, 1925, the day that La Revue Nègre opened at the Théatre des Champs Elysées in Paris.

Between 1925 and 1930, her stage persona evolved from savage to sophisticated. Through relentless effort by her manager and lover, Pepito Abatino, she became a music hall icon and the inspiration for a line of cosmetics called Bakerfix. After a tour of Europe and South America, the couple purchased an apartment building in Paris’ 16th arrondissement and the villa, Le Beau Chêne, in the Paris suburb in Le Vésinet.

The stage was appropriately set for what was arguably the most important performance run of her career – Paris Qui Remue at the Casino de Paris.

The show opened on September 26, 1930. Baker performed what would become her signature song, “J’ai Deux Amours,” for the first time. And she became irrevocably identified as an animal lover when made a house pet of a stage prop, Chiquita the cheetah.

Paris qui Remue was updated and renamed La Joie de Paris in 1932. After over 300 performances, it traveled to several European capitals as well as to Alexandria and Cairo.

From 1933-1935, Baker starred in her second film, Zou Zou, with French actor Jean Gabin*;



her third film, Princess Tam-Tam, with French actor Albert Préjean;



and her first serious stage acting role as Dora, the protagonist in Jacques Offenbach’s operetta, La Créole.

She returned to the U.S. to appear in the Ziegfield Follies in New York City in late 1935. The trip was disastrous and led to Baker and Abatino's break-up. Abatino returned to Paris alone and moved out of Le Beau Chêne. He died of cancer a few months after Baker returned to France.

During the last weeks of her NY tour, Baker was recruited by the Folies Bergère theater in Paris to return to their stage for a musical performance run. She opened in En Super-Folies in October 1936 and established a second Chez Josephine club in the Hôtel Frontenac on rue Francois I in the 8th arrondissement. (The first Chez Josephine in Paris operated in rue Fontaine from 1926-1927.)

Baker married a Jewish Frenchman named Jean Lion in November 1937 and obtained French citizenship shortly thereafter. She began a series of “farewell” performances to appease her husband’s desire for a stay-at-home wife. She reportedly became pregnant and lost her baby (one source says that she never conceived).

Shortly thereafter, she returned to performing full time and went on a second tour of South America. She filed for divorce while in Brazil.

Returning to Paris in July 1939, she found France in the throes of preparing for war. She and Maurice Chevalier performed for French troops stationed at the Maginot line and then returned to Paris to star in a revue called Paris-London at the Casino de Paris. The proceeds from the first performance were given to charities – Baker donated her portion to the Red Cross.

Newspaper announcement for benefit performance
Le Journal, 30 November 1939, p. 5**
This same year, Baker was recruited for undercover work by Captain Jacques Abtey and filmed her fourth movie, Fausse Alerte. The film opened in France on May 1, 1940. (It was released in the U.S. in 1945 under the name The French Way.)

When Holland and Belgium fell to the Germans in May 1940, France was overrun with refugees. Baker worked at a homeless shelter in the 13th arrondissement to help the new arrivals. Business at the Casino de Paris dwindled and the theater was shut down. Baker then volunteered for the Red Cross to help refugees. She left Paris for Les Milandes, her château in the Dordogne, in June 1940.

In December 1940, she staged and performed in a revival of Offenbach’s La Créole in Marseille prior to traveling to North Africa to continue her clandestine activities for the French Resistance.

*Baker's first film was La Sirène des Tropiques. It was released in 1927.
** Thanks to Bob Tomlinson for supplying the name of the newspaper in which this announcement was published.

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