Lunchtime in Paris

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!