paris: le comptoir du relais

saved the best for last. for my best meal in europe i'm torn between this and trattoria zaza. i cannot forget the simple pasta dishes i had in florence and truffles really makes my palate super happy, but foie gras is love too. so let's just say this is my best parisian meal.

i made sure we made it to le comptoir du relais before lunch time because the lines could get horrific. i was only set on two items and the rest were just random choices.

foie gras toast (13E) - oh this is love. i love foie gras. the salt and jam/jelly on top made this entire dish a party in my palate. love love love.

terrine boudin (12E)- don't know what happened to me but i suddenly had a craving for this. i simply cannot forget jinlovestoeat post on this and was happy that le comptoir had it on their menu as well.

salade nicoise (13E) for my healthy mom...though this doesn't pass with all the beans and anchovy that have high uric acid. but i digress, this was mighty flavorful thanks to the anchovies, i liked it.

daube joue de boeuf (18E) - one of their bestsellers is this beef cheeks stew. though it was melts in your mouth tender, i felt that it lacks a certain oomph. so i had to agree with my dad that this was nothing extraordinary.

pied de porc (19E) - pardon the photo i forgot to rotate the mash so the spoon won't block the pied de porc. if you like soft mushy mashed potato then this one is for you. it depends on my mood but i normally like the heavier mashed potato and not something that is practically runny. the pied de porc is not the typical fried pork trotters. this one was made into a terrine and then deep fried. the pork cubes were a tad too small and maybe that's why i felt that the pork was overly seasoned with the herbs.

we came a couple of minutes before the opening time and there was already a line. i don't know if my experience was mind blowing enough. but i would like to try l'avant comptoir next door which is their version of a tapas bar, i think they have more interesting dishes :).



le comptoir du relais
6 carrefour de l'Odeon

paris: angelina

angelina is synonymous to hot chocolate. well, that's what they are known for. for chocolate lovers this is probably heaven. we were at the chateau versailles and suddenly felt the need to get a mid morning snack.

tried their famous hot choco. maybe it's just me and i don't like hot chocolate but there's really nothing special. it was just a rich hot choco. i'd rather have mcdonald's hot chocolate :D. 

i think this was chicken caesar salade baguette. gheez i forgot. remind yourself that sandwiches in paris are huge and one can easily feed two people. but we bought 3!!! one for each...had them for lunch at the tuileries because we couldn't finish them at the versailles.

i think that angelina, is a parisian icon and you must try it if you love hot chocolate. i wish i was able to try their pastries which they are also known for. they have branches at famous tourist spots like across the louvre and 2 locations in chateau versailles if i'm not mistaken.  angelina and i are not yet over, i have yet to try her pastries =).

angelina

chateau versailles

http://www.angelina-paris.fr/

paris: leon de bruxelles

another place i wanted to try because of blog posts i've read before is leon de bruxelles. the mussels and different methods of cooking looked so enticing. and though this is a actually a belgian restaurant, we tried it in paris.

the moules, forgot which method of cooking i chose, this was sad. the mussels were very small. the frites were unimpressive as well.

because my mom wants rice haha, huge shrimps/prawns dunno what they were came with quite a hefty price tag and it's nothing spectacular.

similarly, mediocre fish and chips.

creme brulee, i think it was part of my meal. it was so so as well.


totally disappointed and i've read quite a number of reviews on this one, oh well charged to experience.




leon de bruxelles
boulevard saint germain

paris: cafe du marche

i love duck confit. it's one of my fine dining staples. when i read divasoria's post, i've never forgotten about it. years later i finally get to try it :D.

it's mind blowing haha...ok maybe it's an exaggeration but it's far from any of the duck confit that i've eaten in asia. this one was very tender and not dry at all. the duck skin is brown and crispy. there was a good amount of fat which can be cloying but nothing that a good french mustard couldn't fix.

my dad had steak, which was so so. the servings were quite hefty especially with those piles of potatoes. i forgot what my mom ate...i don't have a picture!

cafe du marche
rue cler
paris

my first parisian meal or not

our first meal in paris was thai. it was the closest resto from our hotel and we were famished. there are two bien bien restaurants along rue bergere. don't know which is which. coming from rue de fauborg montmartre it will be the first one. they served decent thai food, forgot the prices but it's around 10 euro per meal.

tomyum soup?

spring rolls vietnamese style

thai green curry chicken?

chicken with basil?

yellow curry chicken

happy tummy, sometimes you need some asian flavors to jazz up your palate with all the european fare you've been eating.

bien bien
30 rue bergere
near grands boulevards
paris

florence: da nerbone

when you look up on good eats in florence you will always come across da nerbone a famous food stall in mercato centrale. i love that florence has an accessible market. it is filled with italian food items, it felt like i was in a specialty store...but then again these are normal food items in italy!

but i digress, da nerbone is an institution in florence. they serve one of the quintessential florentine dishes - lampredotto. it's the cow's stomach. you know me, i love offal =). so when i read about this i knew i had try it.

panino lampredotto

lampredotto is served in a sandwich, but you can also opt to just order it sans the bread. i requested the two sauces as everyone recommended. salsa verde and salsa piccante - one is parsley based and the other is chilli based but it's only a bit spicy. i find the bread crusty and perfect to absorb the juices of the lampredotto. other reviews recommend bagnato wherein the entire sandwich is dipped in the broth.

it's a bit bland. but i like the texture of the lampredotto, i wonder whether they can add more sauce for free :D.

panino bollito

the bollito is basically like a roast beef sandwich, thin beef slices with the same sauce as the lampredotto. i didn't get to try this anymore because i was stuffed with the lampredotto.


not exceptional, but it's a good cheap eat and it's very filling too.

da nerbone

mercato centrale

florence, italy

florence: la capanna

la capanna is right next to our b&b and it's a place i've read about in one of the blogs i follow. my first visit was when my parents didn't want to eat dinner and decided to eat fruits. i, on the other hand wanted a comforting meal. so i went downstairs and ate by myself...wee deliverance hahaha!

i wanted to eat rice, i was actually avoiding any wheat/gluten so i opted for their one and only rice meal. kept my fingers crossed on this one.

beef stew with rice pilaf and roasted potatoes. it was decent actually. the beef stew was more like beef cooked in gravy, the rice pilaf was more like plain white rice but surprisingly fluffy and the roasted potatoes? were the best! there was something different with the potatoes they were soft inside and very crisp on the outside i'm actually thinking they were store bought frozen potatoes that were deep fried, but i didn't care, the rosemary and garlic made a huge difference. 

second time was a lazy night again but my parents joined me. we haven't eaten pizza and we've been in italy close to a week already! so we had pizza for dinner. i was tempted to order gluten free pizza but the price is twice as much as a regular pizza so i said, screw my diet!

marinara pizza - my mom loves plain pizza, and this surprisingly flavorful. it was really good if you want a light pizza this one didn't have cheese so she was really happy on how plain it was.

pizza melanzana -  i thought it would have cooked eggplants, but i was wrong. the eggplants were topped raw on the the pizza before cooking. the thing is, i like the caramelization of eggplants when they are cooked with a little oil, so this one turned out to be boring and cloying because the eggplants didn't add any dimension to the flavors.

spaghetti bolognese - because my dad can't get enough of spaghetti...actually he's easy to please. he can survive in europe eating just sandwiches or pastas or chicken mami haha. almost the same as zaza's but has more tomato flavor.

la capanna

via cavour 112/R

florence, italy

http://www.la-capanna.it/