Mondol Kiri in the 13th

Last time I was in Paris, I discovered this Cambodian restaurant. I had never seen a Cambodian restaurant before, so I was very curious about the kind of food Cambodians ate. Finally, today, I had a chance to try some.

I'm not sure if this a cultural thing or it's only at this restaurant, but they gave me a hot towel to clean my hands. I'm only wondering if it is cultural because they do the same thing in every restaurant in Korea. If they don't normally do this, it's a bit odd, right? They also brought out a free amuse-bouche.

It was two parts : a cone made from spring roll dough, and a small flower-shaped bowl made from a similar dough - the only difference is that there were black sesame seeds. Inside the bowl was peas, corn, spices and pork. Although they must have used grease to fry the dough, I could not taste or feel the grease. The bowl had extremely strong flavours, surprising for such a small bite. The black sesame seeds really stood out.

For the appetiser of my dinner formule, I took satay. There were two beef ones and two chicken ones with a translucent peanut sauce. The flavour of the sauce was strong, but not too strong. The chicken satay was not special and needed the sauce, but the beef ones were juicy and tasted good even without the sauce.

When the food came out, there was a mysterious package.

It was a bamboo container with a plastic bag inside.

If you opened the bag, there was a purple-ish rice.

The beef had sweet bell peppers, onions, holy basil, peppercorns and beef. The basil added a nice flavour at the beginning, but by the end, it was too strong.

For dessert, it was the dessert of the day. This worried me. I expected a custard, which is traditional in Thailand (see below) and I do not like Asian custards. They have a strange texture that I cannot get over and this was no exception. There was hard bits of custard intermixed and this texture really did not agree with my mouth. I could only eat half.

My curiosity for Cambodian cuisine has been sated. What I ate tonight, assuming it is authentic, is the same as Thai food. I know that they share a border, but ... I expected something more different. Vietnam also shares a border and their food is a little different. Still, the food was relatively cheap for dinner and delicious. I definitely want to go back here another night.

This is also my last entry about a restaurant in France for a while.

The Gladines in the 13th

Okay, right ... so I'm going to be completely honest. My professor asked me to write about this place which had impressed him and the other two professors. The portions were huge, but I wasn't impressed with the food itself nor the service. Maybe it's because my table did not have a French speaker other than me (and I'm more of a French writer, not a French speaker if you know what I mean), while the other table had my professor (who was the only French professor on board) and the other three French majors. But the server forgot our table. We were missing two Cokes and several plates for the food. I also think that someone didn't have silverware for a long time. It wasn't good.

The food was okay - I really liked the potatoes, but this Basque-style cuisine paled in comparison to the Basque-style chicken that I learned to make at La Cuisine. Oh, and speaking of La Cuisine, do you remember this dessert?

The floating island. Yeah, usually it looks like this :

It's served in a whole bowl of crème anglaise. It was surprised that it was cold. The meringue was exquisite though - the best thing I ate there. It was sweet and just melted in my mouth. It wasn't too sweet, which is good because that crème anglaise ... yeah, that was really sweet.

I wanted to like this restaurant - I really did - since the three professors seemed to enjoy it immensely, but I just couldn't make the leap.

The Two Windmills Café in the 18th

Hey, you recognise this place? No?

Now ? Still no ?

Okay ... now ?

It's the Two Windmills where Amélie Poulain worked as a waitress. I've wanted to eat here for some time since it's a filming location, so I expected a little bit of touristy-ness ... but I didn't quite expect it to be this massive. Some dishes had normal prices which should be expected since Parisians also come here - but not as tourists. I'm sure the regulars were going here before the film came out. But some plates, like the Amélie prix fixe menu ... well .. you could predict that it would be rather expensive.

Since I hadn't eaten lunch, I was starving (a theme which will be repeated in the future) and chose the basic (and normal) prix fixe of either an appetizer and a main dish or a main dish and a dessert, which is the one I picked. Because Amélie Poulain liked crème brûlée (as do I), you had to pay an additional euro to the menu's price. Whatever, I wanted to try it in France.

The service was excellent and very quick. The server, facing a multitude of tourists, took them in stride and, as far as I could tell, didn't mock the Asian tourists who wanted to take a picture with the sign of Amélie's giant face which happened to be next to me. I, on the other hand, had no qualms in looking at them like they were idiots.

My food was delicious, but I don't know if that's because it was actually delicious or because I was really hungry.

The crème brûlée wasn't bad, but I wouldn't say that it was worth the extra euro.

I thought about coming back after my class ended (while I lived with my friend) to see if the food was actually as delicious as I thought, but I'm not sure if I could deal with the tourists again, and in the end, I didn't return : Montmartre just wasn't easily accessible from the suburb in which my friend lived. Maybe next time ...

The Quincampe in the 3rd

So before I kick off the Parisian reviews, I should explain something to those who don't know much about Paris. The short version is that Paris didn't give names to their neighbourhoods - they numbered them. In the shape a snail (i.e., the first neighbourhood is in centre and they advance in a swirl). To help you place this neighbourhood, I can't really think of a place in the 3rd that everyone knows about Paris.

Tonight, I met some friends at the Quincampe in the 3rd. It was a usual haunt for them, and it was quite obvious when they knew the servers. Despite the limited service due to a wedding reception being hosted there, the service was rather good. I don't know if that's how service normally is, or if was because, as I already said, my friends knew this place pretty well.

My close friend ordered a "hot goat", which is hot goat cheese with bread made from honey and salad.

Our friend ordered a quiche lorraine, which was also served with a salad.

My close friend's fiancé ordered a "fresh goat", which is the same as the "hot goat", except that there is no bread, more herbs and it isn't warmed up. He also ordered a shrimp and oyster mushroom risotto.

I got the plat du jour: a carpaccio of marinated beef, lemongrass and potato cakes with parmesan. I prefer my meat cooked usually, but I remembered a time when I had ordered a carpaccio at Ciao Baci (previously reviewed) and it was gooood. So I took a risk and I really could have eaten two plates of this stuff, although, the salad didn't really add anything to the flavour.

When we ordered the main dishes, I knew that I'd have to save space for dessert. In fact, I already had one in mind. My close friend is a chocoholic, so she took a chocolate cake with Bergamot orange crème anglaise.

Both her fiancé and our friend ordered a "café gourmand", which is mini-desserts with coffee. This time, it was coffee with a panna cotta with strawberries, a cake and a forest fruit tiramisu with powdered sugar lightly spread over the cake.

And the dessert I was waiting for: apple tart. It didn't disappoint me and was gone in seconds.

The Quincampe was yet another successful dinner and I could see why my friends go there often.

Paris : Regional Cuisine

After my first (well, technically second) class at La Cuisine, I had high expectations for the next class and even more so at the idea of trying regional French cuisine. Even though Emilie told us that she wouldn't be teaching this class, there she was. And like the last class, the class was in complete disarray. In fact, I really think it was even worse.

The menu du jour was:

Seasonal vegetables (asparagus, radishes and cauliflower) with aïoli (from Provence)

Basque-style chicken (from the Basque country)

Mashed potatoes with Espelette pepper (also from the Basque country)

Nancy's macarons and roasted fruit (from Lorraine)

Ever since an unfortunate incident with asparagus when I was little (I chose them in the lunch line when I was in elementary school, thinking that they were a different type of broccoli. I was never the same afterwards), I have never liked them. But I gave them another chance (plus, I hate looking picky in front of strangers). I didn't really need to. I still dislike asparagus ... and radishes apparently.

I preferred the duck that we made last time, but this Basque-style chicken was also delicious. I would have eaten more, except that last time, I ate way too much and was almost sick during the cheese plate and dessert. So I ate less in expectation.

"I should have eaten more chicken", I said to myself a little later during the cheese course. I am not afraid of pungent, European cheese, but I did not like these. They just weren't my style.

Usually, we plated our own plates, but for dessert, Emilie whipped these macarons up for us (we made them - just didn't put them together). I don't know which I liked better - the "floating island" or these macarons of Nancy. Yes, they were macarons, but they are quite different from the ones that you see in the pastry shops of Paris. According to Emilie, these were actually the ancestor of those Parisian macarons.

In general, this class disappointed me. The recipes were not as good as the previous class's, and maybe it's because the class did not come together in unity like the other one, despite three of us knowing each other from the last one. I guess it was a matter of chance. Next time, I hope it will be more successful. If there is a next time.

La Flottille at Versailles

My professors, my classmates and I went to the Château de Versailles (Versailles Palace). I already went there two years ago with my friend and her fiancé, so I didn't really feel a need to go inside (plus, I didn't want to wait in that line). The day that we went (two years ago), it had rained, so I wasn't able to really see the gardens other than what I saw running through the rain to the other buildings. Thus, my plan today was to wander through the gardens (which I could even do for another day or two - they're that big) and eat at a reasonably priced restaurant. When I came before, I remembered a restaurant like that around the Grand Canal, where we had bought ice cream. So when I arrived at the Grand Canal, I saw a small place which I think it more for picnics or take out. I wasn't crazy about the prices, so I moved on to the La Petite Venise. Wow! It's so expensive! Too expensive. Moving on. The following place, La Flottille, seemed reasonable. It's funny - these days I judge restaurants based on their margherita pizza prices. If it's less than 10.90€ - the price of the pizza at a pizzeria on Montparnasse (a street in Paris ... think Hugo), I think the price isn't too bad. The pizza at this places was even less, so, um, yes. I will definitely be eating here.

Looking at the menu, there were so many things I wanted to get. Filet mignon with Béarnaise and mashed potatoes. Grilled duck breast with "coco caramel" sauce. A tarte Tatin (like an apple tart) with chantilly cream. Yum! But in the end, I figured out that a ham and cheese sandwich with a plate of fries would actually just as filling (maybe even more filling) and cheaper than one of those other dishes, thereby relieving me of all the stress I had about whether or not to get dessert, which, of course, I did because they had ice cream - my Achilles heel in Europe.

There really were a lot of flavours to choose from, but at the time I thought that raspberry and lemon would go really well together. After all, several restaurants across the US offer raspberry lemonade. It came out with an individually wrapped crispy thing (I used the word tuile except, at least in French, it isn't the right word, but I'm not sure what it is - even in English). Eaten together, it was delicious. The sweetness of the raspberries paired well with the sour lemon, while the cookie thing added a nice crunch which the soft ice cream did not offer. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

If I ever return to Versailles, I will do like I did today: walk a little and eat, enjoying life's simple pleasures.

Paris : Modern Cuisine

Upon entering the cooking school tonight, I'm not sure what I was expecting. Our teacher was a young Frenchwoman named Emilie who had worked in Michelin-starred restaurants. However, unsatisfied with that life, she took a break and ended up working for La Cuisine, where she is now happily working.

But, I'm not sure why she's happy here because the students were going crazy and running around like chickens with our heads cut off. She seemed a bit overwhelmed at times, too.

Instead of cooking individual meals, we cooked together to create the following:

Cold melon soup with Espelette pepper and crusty Bayonne jambon

Duck breast with an apricot and rosemary sauce

Mashed potatoes with garlic and rosemary

Vanilla crème anglaise, meringue and caramel in an inverted "île flottante" ("floating island")

For a moment, I was in charge of cooking the duck breasts, seen here among the apricots and rosemary. This pan was incredibly heavy due to the generous portions (which is not a bad thing).

When we finished preparing, we began to eat, one plate at a time. We would plate, paying special attention to the presentation; eat; and restart with the next course.

Most of my classmates followed Emilie's example, but I felt adventurous for the main course, so I stacked the duck on top of the mashed potatoes instead of putting them side by side. I thought that this was a classic presentation method, but after class, Emilie told me that she was impressed by my presentation.

This inverted "île flottante" is a special plate. Of course it deviates from the standard version of this place since I keep calling it inverted, but that's not what makes it special. Apparently, Emilie comes from a long line (or maybe a short line - whatever, she has chefs in her family) of chefs and this specific recipe was created by her father. I was touched that she shared a family recipe like this.

Despite the odd teaching method, I was rather impressed by the meal, especially the main dish and the dessert. I didn't love or hate the soup, but I'm not sure I will be making it at home. At the end of the meal, I was so full that I was afraid that I was going to puke. It's just that everything was so delicious and I wanted to eat everything on my plate. I couldn't stop eating - it was that good. Well, at least for the next class, I will know how much I should (or shouldn't) eat.