Lunchtime in Paris

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!

Malaysia: Laksa for lunch

First of all, Ramadan Mubarak, a joyous and blessed holiday to all my Moslem friends and visitors!

And now for today's lunch (which was prepared with a halal chicken from my neighborhood Islamic butcher shop...quality meat and reasonable prices). As I stated in my last post, I've decided to do a recipe for every flag that appears on my sidebar. Today's recipe is from Malaysia, a very delicious Laksa.

I got the recipe here at www.soupsong.com. If you want to follow along you can get today's recipe precisely here: soupsong Laksa recipe.  An excellent site and a must for you soup lovers out there. Also, there is an extensive collection of international soup recipes, enough to keep me busy making soup for many weekends to come!

I actually made three trips to the supermarket for this recipe and here are some of the ingredients (the easy ones).

This is where I ran into difficulty. There are just so many Asian herbs...is this Laksa leaf? It's the very essential ingredient and so I did not want to make a mistake.

Or is this Laksa leaf? The recipe calls for "Asian basil"...I live in Paris and everything has a different French name, even Asian herbs. The first herb was labelled rau ram in the Asian grocey store and the second was labelled "Thai basilic" who's to know? In the end I went to www.asiafood.org where the Laksa leaf entry refers to "Vietnamese mint" and I chose the first green herb pictured above...what a lovely smell it has.

This recipe has several steps to it:

First you must have cooked chicken and four cups of stock (I suggest you make your own it's so much nicer),

Secondly you must make a spice paste for the flavor,

Thirdly you must cook some noodles and prepare everything for the final soup, and

Finally you put the soup together and make the garnish plate.

Since I would be needing cooked chicken and stock, the first thing to do was make both. I decided to follow my instincts on this one and so I made my stock using some of my green herbs (I bought lots of different kinds), fresh ginger slices and scallions.

This is the start of the spice paste: lemon grass (only the tender hearts), galangal (like ginger but milder), shrimp paste, garlic, scallions, and some red hot peppers.

This goes into the food processor and the recipe says it should look like "a speckled mush" well, perhaps.

Then once that is done, you add some chopped coriander, some tamarind paste, some sugar and some tumeric.

And I put the food processor back in the cupboard and get out my trusty morter and pestle...the food processor makes everything just too watery and this is supposed to be a "paste".

Here is the cooked chicken (from the chicken I used to make the stock with)  and the cooked rice noodles.

Here is the sauce that I made by frying the spice paste in two tablespoons of peanut oil until lightly colored, then adding four cups of my homeade stock plus a mix of 1/4 cup chopped coriander and 1/4 cup chopped laksa leaf and then adding  a can of coconut milk.

And here is the final Laksa lunch. First I put some of the noodles into a bowl, then I added some chicken, and then I ladled some of the sauce on top. Serve with a plate of various greenery and condimets...really delicious and your kitchen will indeed smell wonderful if you make this.

Just a bowl of Laksa.

Wow, what an adventure but I still have so many questions. I liked this dish and my daughters liked it too but...was this really Laksa and did I pick the right leaves? I would really appreciate any comments, criticism, or suggestions on how to make an even better Laksa! What a fun afternoon cooking.

So, next weekend I think we will head to Mexico and I am going to spend the week searching for a most traditional Mexican dish. In the meantime I will be posting my usual sandwiches and various other things from the office...

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Lunching!

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!