Lunchtime in Paris

Another Sam Neua lunch

I just had such a marvellous time in Laos. If you are interested you can read my day by day postings here on  my page on travelblog (I'm Emilyk; on this site). Travelblog is an excellent resource for anyone who wishes to post from far away...check it out for your next vacation. I also have some pages here on virtualtourist.com where I rate various places that I've travelled to (and I'm aemilys on this site).

Anyway, I guess I should provide some background, I'm American from MA, I live in Paris and at 44 this was my first ever trip to Asia. I visited Thailand (mostly Bangkok) and Laos. My big adventure for 2006.

So today's lunch, well I had such a lovely and marvellous time in Sam Neua that I think I will present another lunch from there.

and so upon seeing all this greenery I guess you know what's coming next and yes it's

only just the best noodle soup I ever ate in my life and as such I'm going to post some more photos:

soup and greenery, take me back please...

I must say, if you want excellent pho with very tasty bits of pork and lots of fabulous greens you just must go to Sam Neua. This was a little roadside restaurant, no one spoke English so when I arrived and saw some girls eating soup I just pointed to it and then pointed back to me and...wow, it was so good.

Pho dac biet for lunch

Alas, although the pho was quite good (went to Dong Huong again) I failed in my quest. As those of you who visit regularly are aware, I get lots of good info from Kirk at mmm-yoso!!! and when he wrote about tendon and how much he likes it I decided I wanted to try some too.

So, on Sunday I went back to Belleville and got the Pho Dac Biet (Pho Special - the pho with everything...so they say). And just for those of you who want to practice your French, here is the pho entry in wikipedia.fr.

This is the small bowl for 6,10 euros and ok, it has the raw beef, it has the brisket, it has the tripe, and the beef balls but where oh where is the gân (tendon). Unfortunately it was not in my soup so I will have to head over to the 13th sometime soon.

In order to console myself I also ordered:

A strange drink. On the menu it is called the four seasons (quatre saisons). I've often seen these in Asian restaurants but never had the courage to try.

Here it is all mixed up. It turned a much lovelier shade of pale green as time wore on. Anyway, this drink contained julienne strips of green jello, bright orange tapioca pearls, some strange ingredient that was like a rice crispy, crushed ice, and milk. It cost 2,80 euros.

And, how did it taste? Actually it was not that bad but I don't think I'll order it again. The nearest thing I can compare it to is the milk left over in the bottom of the bowl when you've finished your fruit loops.

And that, fellow lunchers, was how I spent my Sunday afternoon, happy lunching to all of you!

What's pho lunch?

Oh sorry for that bad pun. Today I went shopping in Belleville. It's Paris' second Asian neighborhood after Chinatown in the 13th. I had lunch at Dong Huong (cool name). Some pho:

This was the very delicious chicken pho with an egg. And I learned something. A lot of Asians eat in this restaurant so I watch them in my quest to learn perfect chopstick etiquette. Anyway, as I was watching I saw a women taking out bits of meat from her soup and dipping them in the sauce (lower left hand corner). I thought the sauce was supposed to be added to the soup (I did and it gives a nice color) but no, it is for dipping the meat. So there you go.

And the pho after I added all the lovely green herbs (and one small bit of chili pepper). Excellent lunch today.

I will soon be posting this month's guest luncher photos. Dana was kind enough to send me some pics from her husband's trip to New Orleans. Very nice so stay tuned and

happy lunching!