Meli-Melo

362 Greenwich Ave., Greenwich, CT - (203) 629-6153

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Posted By Michael Stern on January 27, 2009 12:04 PM

One of the really good things to come out of Americans' discovery of French food in the mid 20th century was French onion soup. We used to believe that the more gobbed up with cheese and laden with bread it was, the better, but we have faced crocks so thickly packed that a steak knife was required to burrow down to the liquid. When we discovered the French onion soup at Meli-Melo, a minuscule 7-day-a-week creperie on the main street of Greenwich, we knew we had found the mother lode. While Meli-Melo is far from typical Roadfood, it is an essential stop on the path of all who seek superior French onion soup.

Chef Mark Penvenne starts every morning at six o'clock with fifty pounds of white onions, which he keeps on the fire a full twelve hours. The long, slow boil saps them of liquid and by the end of the day they have become about a dozen pounds of soft concentrate of onion flavor that is complex and sweet but not at all sugary – ready to be the star of a soup made with chicken stock, wine, and spices. Of course, the crock is topped with a princely, crisp-edged mantle of melted gruyere.

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French Onion Soup

Crepes

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