What's for lunch?

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...

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!

Lunch: a tale of two sandwiches

First of all if you can read French I would like to recommend an excellent restaurant review site mmmm!  and yes, that's the name: mmmm! I like the name and for my money it's the best Paris site for restaurants.

I went back to Belleville today and although I didn't eat here this time I'm posting the photo because perhaps it will make you smile.

The Hawaiian restaurant. Look closely at the sign in the upper right hand corner: it's the laughing cow!

Anyway getting down to today's lunch. I decided to do a taste test and compare two Vietnamese sandwiches. They were both purchased on the same street about twenty meters from one another. The first sandwich was purchased here:

And it looked like this:

The "special" for 2,20 euros.

The second sandwich was purchased here:

Panda Belleville? I think this may have been a Chinese place in a former life and they must just have left the sign...ah, the charms of Belleville and mixed Asian neighborhoods.

Here is the sandwich:

Once again the "special" and it cost 2,50 euros (,30 more than at Hoa Hung).

Here are the sandwiches side by side:

The Hoa Hung sandwich is in front and it is slightly bigger than the Panda sandwich. Now for a close up of each sandwich and my review.

Hoa Hung, this sandwich on a buttered baguette contains somekind of luncheon meat (perhaps chicken), sliced pork, diced chicken, shredded carrot, onion, cucumber, very hot chile pepper (yes I am a daring luncher), coriander and some sort of Vietnamese sauce. It tasted good but unfortunately it got points off because the baguette was kind of stale.

And so the winner is:

Although these sandwiches look similar the Panda wins for two reasons. Firstly it was served on a crispy unbuttered baguette, and secondly, it just tasted better. It contained the same luncheon meat, sliced pork, diced chicken, shredded carrots mixed with some shredded white vegetable, cucumber, onion, chili pepper, coriander and Vietnamese sauce. Somehow the white vegetable mixed in with the carrot soaked up more sauce and just gave that little extra flavor. So, for 2,50 this was a good sandwich!

Tomorrow is Easter so I'm going to the big Chinatown in the 13th for Easter dinner.

See you then and as always, happy lunching!

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!