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Post by fumobici on Nov 14, 2019 5:49:17 GMT
This, oddly, is making me miss Paris more than a photo report would. Maybe I should plan on spending some days there in the Spring when I have to pass by anyway and the weather is less $%^&.
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Post by bjd on Nov 14, 2019 7:18:42 GMT
It wasn't a restaurant meal but on Tuesday I met up with a friend from Toulouse in Biarritz. She is from there and took me to a fancy and very well-known pâtisserie/salon de thé called le Miremont. It dates from the 1860s or so and has most of the original decoration. (There are pictures on the internet). The view is over the ocean, although mostly rain and big waves on Tuesday.
I had expected fancier cakes but just saw mostly big cookies. I had a cannelé and tea.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 26, 2019 13:20:21 GMT
I had lunch with a friend today, one who has to keep actual office hours, so we had to keep an eye on the clock.
I had pumpkin soup, followed by boeuf bourguignon with coquillettes (that's miniature elbow macaroni) and a crème brûlée for dessert. My friend had bulots (sea snails) with aïoli, then an andouillette with fries and a dessert of poire Belle Hélène.
With a carafe of Bordeaux and 2 espressos, we spent 47 euros. We were both quite satisfied.
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Post by lugg on Nov 26, 2019 18:47:06 GMT
yum - sounds lovely and beats my lunch at my desk for sure.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 29, 2019 17:34:20 GMT
I went to Prêt with a former colleague for lunch today. I had the "spicy Mexican bean soup" which was actually a sort of soupy chili con pollo but quite tasty. For dessert, a little açai bowl with sliced banana, grated apple and a bit of pomegranate. Lunch for less than 9 euros is always a good deal.
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Post by bjd on Nov 30, 2019 8:57:56 GMT
We went for lunch yesterday in Bayonne. Nice light place overlooking the river. We all had the day's special: croquettes de cabillaud (cod croquettes) with risotto rice and thinly sliced vegetables. Only two out of the four of us ordered the starter (chipirons, calamars with lots of garlic and spices) but they kindly put them on 4 plates, 2 large glasses of Spanish white rueda wine that we also shared, one dessert that was lime cream with pineapple bits and crumble on top, and a coffee. For the 4 of us it came out to 83€. The original price was 9€50 for the day's special main course.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 30, 2019 11:15:50 GMT
I went for the 15th time in a month. It was Momo la crevette in Waterloo - fish and shrimp specialties. I had a choucroute de la mer. Miam. Too much wine - good and not that expensive - before an Irish coffee that I should not have had had I been reasonable. Don't know the bill. My wife paid. On Thursday I had a risotto with osso bucco - fantastic.
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Post by lugg on Dec 1, 2019 11:20:12 GMT
Last night I went to a new Turkish restaurant in town. Well it is new as a sit down restaurant but had previously opened as a stall selling take away food in the Butter market. The huge popularity of it led to the family expanding the business. It certainly was very popular last night and the food was scrummy.
Everyone gets two types of freshly cooked Turkish flat bread with a selection of cold meze as they sit down . Then I shared carrot fritters and potato & chick pea dish followed by a chicken Çökertme Kebab.
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Post by rikita on Dec 3, 2019 21:45:39 GMT
does take away count? it wasn't even in a take away box, but with a plate and a big bowl, as i got it at the place downstairs in my own house and thus know the owner - they currently have steamed mussels (if that is what you call it in english?) as their lunch offer, so that was my lunch today, but i wanted to eat at home when for once i manage to finish work early ...
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Post by whatagain on Dec 4, 2019 6:58:12 GMT
A restaurant Kerouac might like yesterday. On rue notre dame de Lorette. Le grain de folie. Seating about 18 people max. Short menu. Had the plat du jour plus half a liter of red plus water plus 2 desserts (good it seemed) plus Irish coffee. 110 fir the 3 of us fir a good evening.
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Post by rikita on Dec 4, 2019 21:33:35 GMT
as we got home late again and i was tired, a. had an easy time talking me into going to our local indian place. just a normal indian restaurant geared at german customers, but we like going there as the people working there know us and agnes loves eating bhatura. she ate more than half a bhatura actually, and also quite a bit of rice and mango chicken, and we shared a mango lassi for dessert ... i had the other half of the bhatura, mango chicken and rice, and some samozas ...
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 4, 2019 21:52:44 GMT
You are making me drool except for the part about "geared for German customers" but I understand that since at least 80% of the various ethnic places in Paris are geared for French customers.
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Post by lugg on Dec 6, 2019 19:08:41 GMT
I had to google bhatura as I had no idea what it was. It looks delicious. It maybe that I am too cocooned by the few Indian restaurants in Herefordshire but I cant remember seeing it even when I lived in UK cities such as Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham all of which have a wealth of Indian restaurants.
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 6, 2019 19:24:56 GMT
lugg, I have no idea why either but it wasn't something I came across in the UK. Maybe because you are supposed I think to leave it overnight before frying and maybe it just took too long to prepare. I've often eaten it in India but preferred normal roti or nan because of the calories associated with deep frying it.
I've just checked online the menu for the Indian I used to visit often at what was my home and can see they have nans, rotis, parathas and chapatis, but no other breads. I think that is a quite normal selection. I also realised something I didn't know which is another bread, called kulcha is bhatura but not fried.
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Post by rikita on Dec 6, 2019 22:03:53 GMT
maybe it has to do with different regions of india? no idea which breads are from where ... but for example they don't have paratha in most indian restaurants here (the only place i can get it is a tamil restaurant), chapati is not very common here either. or maybe those are just things people don't order often so most restaurants don't offer them?
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Post by mockchoc on Dec 7, 2019 23:23:51 GMT
Proper Japanese dinner then the other day sushi too. I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so. Anyone remember that song? Wayyyyyyyyyy back.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 7, 2019 23:26:25 GMT
I don't know the song, but I would eat Japanese much more often if it were less expensive.
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Post by casimira on Feb 9, 2020 16:57:45 GMT
With all the Carnival madness in town already which also seemingly coincides with President's Day weekend the week before, and Valentine's Day , all our regular go to places for an early supper were going to be inundated with tourists. So, we went to one of our favorite neighborhood, walking distance Middle Eastern restaurants and had a fabulous meal ('twas just a small group of 4 girlfriends) and imbibed in a more than we had expected appetizers of various classic Middle Eastern standards. Tabbouleh, hummous (one with roasted red bell peppers and jalapenos along with feta cheese, a new introduction to their menu, falafel, dolmades and jeezums, I know I am forgetting somethings. Sated we were. (Bixa, you were sorely missed as I know you really love this place and your name came up as I was wearing one of your lovely rebozos.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 10, 2020 23:52:14 GMT
Oh, how I would love to have been there! I'm thrilled to hear that the place is still going strong & still good.
You know, there is always chatter about an anyport meet-up venue, but I don't think New Orleans has ever been mentioned. A giant oversight!
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Post by whatagain on Feb 11, 2020 10:04:27 GMT
Had 6 restaurants last week. Burps. The nicest was in compiegne where I had a Cote de boeuf limousin maturee. Am expecting 3 restaurants in the next 2 days. Burps again. I actually long for a good meal at home ! Too much of something kills the fun.
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Post by casimira on Feb 11, 2020 16:40:38 GMT
Oh, how I would love to have been there! I'm thrilled to hear that the place is still going strong & still good. You know, there is always chatter about an anyport meet-up venue, but I don't think New Orleans has ever been mentioned. A giant oversight! Yes, the restaurant is still going strong and very popular. My friends and I go once a month and have so for years now. The owner knows us well. With regard to NOLA being a meet up venue, I think it would be too difficult for many, especially Europeans to get to. If Kerouac couldn't make the trek into NOLA when he was only 20 minutes away back in 2013 to meet up for a beer and a cup of T's gumbo, I hardly think that folks having to travel overseas would find it feasible.
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Post by rikita on Feb 12, 2020 20:57:41 GMT
we went to a restaurant by the ski slopes a few times during our skiing trip. wanted to go to the one up at the top of the lift, but agnes preferred the one down near the bus stop, as she knew that one ... didn't have big meals there, though, but usually a sweet dumpling (filled with plum jam) with vanilla sauce, sometimes before that a soup ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 13, 2020 1:10:48 GMT
Went to the same restaurant yesterday and today for lunch, just with different people. A winner both times. Yesterday was tostadas with sausage from the town of Ejutla, not only a beautifully balanced dish, but fun to eat. Today I also had the special of the day, fettuccine dressed with some kind of drying basil stuff -- very nice. It was followed a plate of chorizo adobado cooked up with nopal strips with a big mound of guacamole on the side. Comes with an apertif of mezcal and a nice big glass of tamarind-ade, plus bread. (my dogs wound up with most of the chorizo & my lunch companion with most of the guacamole -- that was a lot of food!) Companion had fish (white, salt water, didn't pay enough attention) al mojo de ajo with rice & vegetables. We both had Mexican craft beer, then finished off with a digestif of mezcal. It's a lovely restaurant with sometimes iffy service, but open air & the music was great today. I feel the reviews are overly harsh & to say the place is overpriced is just wrong. www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g150801-d814834-Reviews-La_Biznaga-Oaxaca_Southern_Mexico.html
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 11, 2020 16:59:56 GMT
I didn't actually have this meal in a restaurant, but I bought it to take away in Bordeaux since these are still the times of covid, and anyway I really don't like eating alone in a restaurant in France.
But I had an overwhelming urge for sushi, and it turns out that this is not on every street corner of Bordeaux as it is in Paris, Lille or Strasbourg. But my telephone told me that I could find a place about 800 metres away, so I followed my GPS. To say that the place lacked charm would be an understatement, but I didn't care since I wouldn't eating there. In fact, they had stacked up all of their tables and chairs since they were only doing take-out and delivery, so it was bassically just a big empty room.
The manager and staff-of-one were unmasked and ungloved (currently illegal), but they were as eager to please as anybody can be when you have never been any closer to Kyoto than Casablanca. I chose my meal from an electronic tablet so that I would not contaminate any of their paper menus. The Moroccan preparer (I have no reason to label him as Moroccan because he could have been Algerian or Tunisian, but Moroccans are the Maghrebi nationality that has embraced 'foreign' cuisine the most.) was hard at work for a few minutes, and then I paid for my order and received it. They even added an additional box of 6 maki as a bonus. There was the miso soup, wasabi, pickled ginger, a big cabbage salad, my large selection of sushi and also a Singha (Thai) beer. I scurried back to my hotel room.
You know what? It was some of the best sushi that I have had in a long time. The soup was excellent, the fish was ultra fresh, the beer hit the spot. Actually, there was too much food due to the bonus maki, but I forced it down because it was too good to waste any of it.
Hooray for Moroccan sushi restaurants in Bordeaux!
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Post by whatagain on Jul 12, 2020 6:07:13 GMT
I had a nice lunch close to home in an industrial area. The friend i was meeting who works in thatvarea told me he selected a good wine. I said let us go, then i picked the check since i had come with my daughter. Shoot, the wine could be good... i never spend so much for a bottle and not for a lunch. But it matches my idea of picking the check : you do it to please the other, and it oleased him to get that bottle.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 12, 2020 14:06:12 GMT
No restaurant yet. Loads have closed for good. I read your views and enjoyment of sushi Kerouac. You are indeed lucky to be able to just select a place and trust the chef and ingredients. Not here I'm afraid. We often went to a Thai restaurant as their lunch menu was excellent value for money but sitting sipping our drinks in full view of the sushi bar put us off ever ordering it there. The chef walked in from smoking outside. Once behind his counter he launched straight in to picking up and touching the raw food. As a matter of fact on one occasion he picked up his towel off the floor that wipes the knife and stuck it back on his belt. From what I have seen in Paris the Japanese chefs are working in an almost operating theatre clean space. I just can't face careless cooking or preparing methods - it costs too much money here for a violent attack of the upset stomach.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 12, 2020 14:32:35 GMT
Well, one good thing about covid is that you cannot swallow it. Even a contaminated chef can prepare an acceptable meal as long as you don't breathe his air.
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Post by lagatta on Jul 12, 2020 16:57:20 GMT
I've known Tunisians preparing Italian food, but perhaps they don't see that as really "foreign". They also eat a lot of pasta, and of course the seafood is the same as in Sicily. Then, there is couscous alla Trapanese food52.com/blog/22956-sicilian-couscous-alla-trapanese-recipe-history-behind-it Tunisians also eat seafood couscoua. I'd love to visit our southern cousin New Orleans, but don't dare risk the border crossing these days, as I've already had problems... There is supposed to be a new triangular liaison Mtl, NOLA, Port-au-Prince, but I suspect that it is merely theoretical these days.
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Post by lugg on Oct 2, 2020 7:17:01 GMT
An old friend of mine is in town so we met up for a meal last night. We had to use firstly the NHS app to get into the restaurant, then put masks on, then hand sanitiser on wall inside to be used before going further and then a very empty almost soul-less social distanced space.All felt very safe but lacking atmosphere. However the service was fantastic, food just great ...Turkish...Served with lovely flat breads and various relishes whilst we chose our meal.... we shared carrot and feta fritters, halloumi fries then had koftas,finished with Turkish pistachio coffee which was so so good. Really lovely time as I not seen my pal since March and I dont know when we will be able to meet again given the deteriorating situation here.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 2, 2020 23:01:14 GMT
That does sound heavenly, Lugg, although I know what you mean by "soul-less social distanced space". The only time I've ventured out for a restaurant meal was not nearly as nice, partly because of the sub-indifferent food & partly because of the lack of the buzz from other diners.
My favorite restaurant in Oaxaca has reopened in a new spot with a large patio. I'll be trying it on Sunday and will report back.
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