Lunchtime in Paris

Gung Xi Fa Cai!

And here to start things off, because I just can't wait until Sunday, is a link to the very interesting Chinatown Paris site and some really nice things that I bought today at Tang Freres (Tang Brothers - link in English) in Belleville on my way home from work. And please if you have the time check this out as well it's the Yellow River Concerto!

A really nice lunch of roast duck, mixed vegetables and noodles for only 5.50 euros.

One half of a roast duck with soy sauce for 7.50 euros. Very tasty.

Here is the styrofoam container it came in with the duck motif.

And I''ve been trying to increase my fruit and veg intake (5 per day for good health and a long life) so here is the very delicious, wonderfully juicy orange I had for dessert.

Tomorrow I will be going to the first of the Chinese New Years parades starting at the Hotel de Ville in central Paris at 2 pm. Let's all pray for nice weather.

Happy lunching!

Lunch from Tang Gourmet - Paris Belleville

First of all, Happy New Year and  Bonne Année 2008, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Today I went to Belleville to have some soup,

This is a Soupe Phnom Penh and costs 5.80 euros. It was pretty good but I think I still prefer pho (which they also serve) - soup is much more fun when served with a bunch of greeenery and sprouts to mix in.

I got the soup here at Da Lat. I've been eating here for years. And then, after my soup I was wandering around and discovered:

Tang Gourmet in Belleville! Hurray, I will no longer have to go all the way to the 13th arrondissement. Now Tang Gourmet is only two metro stops away. There is a lot of take out stuff and they also have tables inside where you can have a very inexpensive lunch. Sandwich (banh mi) fries and a beverage for 4.20 euros. That is cheap for Paris and there are a bunch of other different combos that won't cost you more than 6 euros.

Here are some of the interesting things I bought:

Mini nems - 10 for a euro. I've never seen mini nems before and these we really cute and delicious.

Check out the size - this 10 cent euro coin is 19.75 millemetres in diameter.

I also got this white radish paté. I'd never tried or even seen  this before. This slice cost 0.60 euros.

Here is the inside, and it was really pretty good. I just think perhaps it should have been accompanied by something. Next time I will ask for suggestions on what to serve it with.

Here is the lotus flower cake which cost 2.10 euros. I had to take the photo while it was still in the bag because it was a fragile thing and somehow started to come apart during the metro ride home.

This is a close up and I'm sure it is some kind of fried pastry because it reminded me of those Swedish rosettes my grammy made...mmmm. I'll try to get another one sometime and I'll be more careful bringing it home because it was a beautiful thing.

And so all was going well and I was getting along quite inexpensively until I saw the barbecue counter...and so I splurged for 500 grams of échine de porc (pork something - the cuts are different here).

Delicious, succulent, and much much better than salad. The 500 grams cost 6.50 euros and it was well worth it.  So I suggest that you check out Tang Gourmet the next time you are in Paris.  Nice friendly service, good food,  and the price is right.

Happy lunching 2008!

Wenzhou lunch in Belleville

I'm just home from my Arabic class (hopefully we'll be going to Syria for summer vacation next year) and my head is exploding...Arabic is not easy. But anyway, I've got photos to post from last weekend so here goes.

On Sunday, Aisha and I went to "Maison de Wenzhou" in Belleville. We've been there before and as I mentioned in a recent post this is my new favorite Chinese place.

And as you may be able to guess we ordered the barbecue. This was so fun because I'd never done Chinese barbecue before, wow, what a blast!

Barbecue is on the Chinese menu only. The  first time we went to Maison de Wenzhou I saw Asian people eating things that did not seem to be on the menu (and they looked really delicious too),  so I asked the waiter what these things were and he explained that they did indeed have a special Chinese only menu...

This time we were smart.

Maison de Wenzhou is not a fancy place but the waiter who works there on Sunday afternoons is really helpful and friendly, after all he did let us in on the secret Chinese menu... he explained that we had to start with the cabbage.

And then we should add the beef.

And even some onions. There was lots of good sauce too. One for the cabbage and another one with peanuts to dip the beef in. yum!

It was all really delicious. The beef barbecue at Maison de Wenzhou  costs 35 EUR but it is easily enough for three people and so much fun. Considering Paris prices it's an excellent deal, there is really a lot of meat and very fresh too.

It was really cute because not only did the waiter patiently explain exactly how to do the barbecue (and also did not complain when I managed to send several pieces of cabbage and onion off the table and on to the floor, sorry gotta work on chopstick dexterity...) he also spontaneously offered to take our photo when he saw that I was taking photos of the lunch (I didn't look particularly fab but I think Aisha looks radiant).

So, what a lovely lunch and we gave our chopstick skills a good workout too. They also do a seafood barbecue so perhaps we'll have to go back and try that someday soon...