Merguez tartine @ Epicerie Fine
449 Smithdown Rd, Wavertree, Liverpool, L15 3JL
Authenticity is a concept that comes up a lot when people – myself included – talk about eating. Can food ever be authentic once removed from its original context? Is the idea of trying to serve ‘authentic’ Mexican street food in a sit-down restaurant in the UK absurd on its face?
What happens when you aren’t able to stick authentically to a recipe? Is som tum inauthentic if it uses cucumber rather than green papaya, even if it’s made by a Thai chef?
And what’s the purpose of reaching for authenticity in food? Is it a bourgeois obsession with cultural voyeurism or an attempt at preserving a link to a shared past, even an imagined one.
Obvious to say, but I don’t have a real answer to any of these questions. I’ve eaten fantastic Lebanese food at a café in Malaysia and awful steak and kidney pie at a gastropub in Yorkshire. But I can’t deny that sushi somehow tastes better sat up at a wooden bar, even if it’s in Oldham rather than Osaka.
Where does Epicerie Fine stand in terms of authenticity?
The restaurant is bright and calm, you are allowed to take your time here. The music is kept at an unobtrusive volume, a steady stream of regulars come and go. You feel happy to dine alone, to have a demi pression of beer – you feel, even, that this is the best thing you could do. In this sense it’s exactly like the ideal French bistro.
The menu is certainly, very recognisably, French – a greatest hits of cookery from around the country; Provencal prawns in pastis to Normandy cotelette de porc.
Best of all though are the merguez, North African sausages which are – now, latterly – considered as authentically French as onion soup. Long chipolatas of coasely minced, spiced beef, they’re served in the evening with a bean cassoulet or at lunchtime on toasted baguette spread with fiery harissa and topped with a fried egg. Perfect.
Epicerie Fine also stock a range of wines, tinned foods, cured meats and cheeses. Our friend who is French and lives locally often shops there. She also says it’s one of the most authentically French restaurants she’s been to in England, for what it’s worth.
