It would be a intolerable shame to talk about France without talking about the country's much-admired cuisine. So yesterday afternoon, my friends and I decided to celebrate our traditional New Year in a, strangely and at a same time suitably enough, in a French restaurant.
Being newcomer to this town, I turned to my host mom for suggestion of a "reasonably-priced and good" restaurant and she gave me just the perfect address. The restaurant is "Brun'ch"and it is located at number 4 rue Portalis. My host mom is the restaurant's regular and she knows the family that runs the place personally. The people in the restaurant nickname her "Des Yeux Bleus" - Blue Eyes, and that is the name under which our reservation is made.
It's a small and homey restaurant with only 5 tables, so we have to reserve beforehand if we want a place. And indeed we got a place thanks to my lovely host mom. Brun'ch is an essential family restaurant: the owner is a adorable elderly woman; her daughter is in charge of the pastry and her son is the cook.
The restaurant was very busy and we had a little difficulty ordering the food at first but all well that goes well. We were thrilled with what the restaurant had to offer. We ordered the "plat du jour" (special of the day) which was this amazing pataravioli (ravioli filled with mashed potato, topped with tomato sauce and melted cheese). When we arrived there were only 3 left of that wonderful dish (we have 4 people so one of us have to order something else which is no less wonderful). The ravioli was so good and filling that I didn't feel like eating dinner. Now, that was something rare. We also had a glass of wine and I choose not to talk about it since I just don't like alcoholic beverage at all to begin with.
Last but certainly, absolutely not least, DESSERT! We ordered 4 different kinds of dessert: macaron, éclair au chocolat (the best I've had so far is actually in a patisserie called PAUL but the éclair here is good enough), a piece of cake filled with gleaming custard (this is just lovely) and a coconut pound cake.
Oh how I hate myself for not bringing the camera! But I think my friends would appreciate it because I wouldn't let them touch anything before I'm done with all the picturetaking.
Being newcomer to this town, I turned to my host mom for suggestion of a "reasonably-priced and good" restaurant and she gave me just the perfect address. The restaurant is "Brun'ch"and it is located at number 4 rue Portalis. My host mom is the restaurant's regular and she knows the family that runs the place personally. The people in the restaurant nickname her "Des Yeux Bleus" - Blue Eyes, and that is the name under which our reservation is made.
It's a small and homey restaurant with only 5 tables, so we have to reserve beforehand if we want a place. And indeed we got a place thanks to my lovely host mom. Brun'ch is an essential family restaurant: the owner is a adorable elderly woman; her daughter is in charge of the pastry and her son is the cook.
The restaurant was very busy and we had a little difficulty ordering the food at first but all well that goes well. We were thrilled with what the restaurant had to offer. We ordered the "plat du jour" (special of the day) which was this amazing pataravioli (ravioli filled with mashed potato, topped with tomato sauce and melted cheese). When we arrived there were only 3 left of that wonderful dish (we have 4 people so one of us have to order something else which is no less wonderful). The ravioli was so good and filling that I didn't feel like eating dinner. Now, that was something rare. We also had a glass of wine and I choose not to talk about it since I just don't like alcoholic beverage at all to begin with.
Last but certainly, absolutely not least, DESSERT! We ordered 4 different kinds of dessert: macaron, éclair au chocolat (the best I've had so far is actually in a patisserie called PAUL but the éclair here is good enough), a piece of cake filled with gleaming custard (this is just lovely) and a coconut pound cake.
Oh how I hate myself for not bringing the camera! But I think my friends would appreciate it because I wouldn't let them touch anything before I'm done with all the picturetaking.