Friday Five Things: More foodies finds in Paris…

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to take a petit pause from the mildly stressful pace of college to hop across to Paris for a couple of days. I was travelling with my Italy companion Orla, so of course, plenty of food was on the agenda. We had planned out in advance all the places we just needed to see, and apart from a minor crisis when I realised my old favourite local boulangerie had gone out of business (no more papillons au chocolat – the horror), everything went swimmingly. So here I am sharing 5 great places that we visited over the weekend (Credit for most of the photos goes to Orla and her Iphone 🙂 )  Enjoy…

1. Angelina
As clichéd as it may be, I insist on bringing all those who come to Paris with me to queue outside Angelina on Rue de Rivoli. And each time, I have to convince them that yes, the hot chocolate is worth it, and no, you won’t mind that you paid the same amount for it as you paid for lunch. I know all the tricks – when there is a huge queue or you are in desperate need of a chocolate hit, go into the patiserrie and get one to go – cheaper and immensely quicker, but with less ceremony (it doesn’t taste quite the same out of a paper cup). There are branches elsewhere around the city, and we frequented the Luxembourg one – it was the best treat after braving scary French exams (or just a tough day of lectures).

Haters gonna hate, Angelina has to be done.

2. Relais d’Entrecote
Another clichéd, quasi-touristy entry. Yes, there will be as many Americans as French in the queue, and yes the prices (26 euro a head for a salad and steak-frites) are most definitely not the best value in Paris, but honestly, a trip to Relais d’entrecote (either Montparnasse or Rue Marbeuf) is worth having.

There is only one item on the menu, and as you are seated, the waiter will likely bark ‘la cuisson?’ at you. Many a ‘I got an A in the LC’ french-speaker has been flummoxed by this – she is just asking how you like your steak cooked. For those who eat it medium-well in Ireland, respond ‘Bien-cuit’, for those who like medium-rare, ‘à point’, and for those who like it rare to mooing, ‘saignant’ or even ‘bleu’ (Literally bloody (rare) and blue – you’ve been warned). You will get a nice walnut and frisée salad to start, and plenty of bread – don’t eat it all now, you will want it to mop up the deliciousness that is the mystery sauce that comes with the steak. Also, don’t be alarmed when the waitress comes over and shovels more food onto your plate – the portion comes in 2 halves. I’ve never tried the desserts, as I’ve always been full to the brim with steak-frites, but I can say with certainty that the choux pastry thingy with ice-cream and chocolate sauce looks absolutely divine. Maybe next time?

3. Popelini
A great find stumbled upon by accident when Jane came to visit last February, Popelini sells mini choux buns filled with creme-patissiere of all varieties, and sold individually or in beautifully packaged boxes for your most chic of Parisien hostess gifts. Having discovered the branch on Rue des Martyrs in Montmartre, I then scoped out the more convenient one in the Upper Marais. I’ve tasted almost all they have on offer, my all time favourites being the Chocolat au lait avec confit de passion (Milk chocolate with passionfruit), Praliné (tastes like posh nutella), Citron (lemon, of course) and the Fruit de la Passion (unadulterated passionfruit goodness). I love these so much, I brought a box of twelve home, via 2 taxis, a plane ride, a bus journey and in the car down to Clonmel. They did look a little worse for wear, but tasted amazing. So worth it.

4. Les Cocottes
A little more upmarket than we expected, Les Cocottes turned out to be a cool, buzzing winebar style of restaurant, surprisingly close to the tourist trap of the Tour Eiffel and Les Invalides, an area notoriously difficult to find quality food at earth-prices. Given that the walls of the bar were home to laden shelves bearing hundreds of copies of the proprietors cookbook, we cleverly deduced that said proprietor must be a celebrity chef. In French, a ‘cocotte’ is a little earthenware dish, used to bake gratins/cassoulets in the oven. So naturally, we both went for cocottes – mine a langoustine ravioli with an unbelievably rich aubergine foam thing, and Orla for the more sensible vegetable gratin. Both were delicious, and judging from the constant stream of customers jostling for seats, they must be doing something right. One I’d go back to.

5. Dose, Dealer de café
This last one is a bit random, because it is totally un-French. It is styled like a typical posh Australian/American/Irish coffee shop – similar to Café Grey or Fixx on Dawson Street. However, it is a rare gem in Paris. I don’t know where I came up with the idea that the French were good at coffee, but it is a fallacy – they rejoice in bad coffee – and God forbid that you were someone who prefers their coffee with milk? This is one of the few places near me that would serve a latte or a cappuccino that resembled something close to what the Italians intended. The prices are Starbucks-style, but so much better than resorting to the dreaded MNC when trying to be all sophis and urban. It is on the charmingly tacky Rue Mouffetard, which incidentally is one of the best places to head to on a Sunday morning – enjoy banter with the stall-holders on lower Rue Mouffetard before popping over to Marché Monge to pick up some goodies

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Musashi

As I mentioned in my last post, I am lucky enough to live close to a great sushi restaurant. I’ve been three or four times, and each has been wonderful – the fish is fresh, there is enough variety to keep things interesting, but it is also accessible for the sushi-newb in that there are ample dim-sum type options, as well as cooked sushi rolls such as tempura prawn and crab.

The decor is Ikea mixed with your local Chinese restaurant, but the plating of the food is lovely – really clean presentation and interesting crockery. Another nice touch is that they give you green tea upon arrival. There is also a smaller Musashi on Capel Street which is hugely popular – this one is great in that there is plenty of room -the place would be regularly  3/4 full even on a week day night.

We usually get 1-2 dishes each and share – my favourites are crab and avocado rolls, and spicy tuna (though it does have a major kick). I also have a soft spot for the pork or prawn gyoza – it is just delish, and really pretty! This is definitely a place to try, especially if you are unsure about how much you like raw fish.

Friday Five Things: Foodie finds

So. much. alliteration. Have a great weekend xo

1. Moloughneys, Clontarf

A couple of weekends ago we enjoyed a beautiful brunch in Clontarf at Moloughneys – we really and truly felt like we had fled the city, even though we were hardly 10 minutes in the car. Clontarf has a wonderful village feel to it, and reminds me of my all-time favourite town Dungarvan, mostly because of its stunning coastline, and the fact that almost everyone who is not lazily brunching is running, cycling or rollerblading along beside the sea. The menu was lovely, predictable in the absolute right way – I mean brunch is not the time for experimentation! Two of us had the delicious pancakes and maple syrup with crispy bacon, but the rest of the fam enjoyed granola parfait, an italian omelette and copious amounts of coffee and tea. A definite recommendation..

 

http://www.moloughneys.ie/

2. Clement and Pekoe

I must have been here upwards of 10 times, but I’ve never taken my camera, and as I am one of the few remaining souls under 60 sans smartphone, I haven’t the photographic evidence 😛 Anyway, it is a fab addition to my normal coffee shop route – the tea is excellent (my fave being the Lemon Caprihana Green tea), they graciously provide refills, and there is a good selection of paleo treats on offer, allowing for my favourite type of virtuous sinning.

http://clementandpekoe.com/

3. ALDI cookware and baking items currently on sale!

I was thrilled when I was wandering around the supermarket on Sunday to come across lovely little kugelhopf cake tins – the perfect size for a cake I think, and no need to faff around with icing when they look this pretty. They also had a good selection of loaf and sandwich tins, and best of all, it only cost me three yo-yos.

4. Mak @ D6

I made my way over to the Southside to meet Jane on sunday evening for a long-awaited catch up, and she suggested we have dim sum in Mak in Ranelagh. I have loved dim sum since my first glorious experience of dim sum in a very trendy but authentic restaurant in DC a couple of years ago, so needless to say I jumped at the chance to see what this place had to offer. We ordered about 6 different types of dumplings to share, and we delighted by the spoils – I particularly liked the prawn and pork gyoza (though not quite as delicious as my stand-out local Musashi)

http://www.mak.ie/

5. Wild Irish Foods Chillax Tea from the Temple Bar Food Market

When last at the Saturday market in Temple Bar, I picked up a bag of the ‘chillax tea’ from Wild Irish Foods – all the herbs are organic, Irish and contain amazing properties which could potentially cure world peace or something. All I know is that it tastes great, and is a nice change from the drip of peppermint or green tea I seem to be attached to. As I’ve yet to acquire a tea strainer (though I’ve my eye on the ones in tiger that are shaped like a house), this is the perfect excuse to bring out the tea pot.

 

Roma: Pizza da Baffetto

In an 8 day trip to Italy, not stopping south of Rome, it would be foolish to claim to have scratched the surface of the foodie delights the country has to offer. Countless Italians have told me that nothing north of Naples is worth talking about in terms of Italian cuisine, and though Rome has its own treasures, it can’t touch the regional styles of other areas. All of this aside, we ate incredibly well over the week, and even lay claim to stumbling across some of the finest pizza in the Eternal City.

 

Pizza da Baffetto was strongly recommended to us by some good friends, but we had kind of forgotten to look up its location or anything. It was more by serendipity that we wandered past, and it was hard to miss given that a queue stretched out the door, down the street. Following my rule of thumb from Paris (follow the queues), we joined the back of the snaking line.

The street, Via del Governo Vecchio, is not far from the magical Piazza Navona, and was buzzing at 9.00pm on Thursday night. The queue moved quickly enough, and we were hustled briskly to a table around the corner, almost on top of an Italian couple already enjoying their pizza. We had a cute jug of house red, but the pizza was the reason we were there, and did not disappoint.

In Roman style, the pizza base was wafer thin, and irregularly shaped – no concessions to form were made here. While in the queue we got a good look at the chef churning out pizza, and most excitingly, the beautiful wood burning oven that they shoveled pizza in and out of at an alarming rate. Incidentally, we had been warned prior to our trip that one of the worst tourist faux pas in Italy is to order pizza for lunch. Italians would never do this, for several reasons, but the most pertinent being that the wood burning ovens take a long time to heat up, and depending on when the restaurants light them, are at their prime cooking temp late in the day.

We shared 2 pizzas, one with salame, and one with grilled aubergines and courgettes. In reality, there is probably no beating a simple Margherita – anything else is gilding the lily. The pictures were rushed – we feared provoking the wrath of the waiters. It seemed like the customers were more of a hindrance to their art of pizza making than much else. Don’t expect to linger – this place turns tables at a rapid tempo.

http://www.pizzeriabaffetto.it/default.asp