[This post is dedicated for the food review assignment]
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There will be a total of 3 different dishes from 3 different brasseries at France – around Paris to Toulouse areas, which will be the main food objects in this review. To be exact, the first dish is a plate of appetizer from Versailles, second will be main course from Toulouse, and the last dish is a dessert from Paris. Well, Enjoy the food tour!
Appetizer from Versailles
The 1st food that of this review is no other than the appetizer from:
La Flottille Brasserie, Parc du Château de Versailles (http://www.laflottille.fr/)
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| La Flottille's Menu Book |
with their: Salé Crêpe avec L'oeuf et Salade (Savory Pancake with Egg and Salad)
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| Savoury Pancake with Egg and Salad |
When I decided to order this, I was in the state of hungry but I did not felt like eating pastas or steaks, so I went with this savory pancake.. – and yes, I ordered some appetizer as my main course and it is not strange, it was just me and my appetite. LOL! – Anyway.. thus, since this is the first pancake/crepe that I ordered in France (it was just during our 3rd day in France), I was expecting something more similar like many other savory crepe that I ate before back in Indonesia and Malaysia where they usually put all the fillings inside the crepe and roll it together.
So, when the server bring me this crepe I was kind of surprise and excited to see something different and new! Yeah, I know you guys probably be thinking about "it just the matter of how they plated it, what is to be excited about?" – Okay.. maybe I was just hungry back then or maybe to be able to see the fillings 'un-wrapped' or 'un-folded' by the crepe really boost up our appetite?
Well, but I cannot deny that I was having a concern that it might be a bit tasteless since crepe skin is usually not so rich in taste and the egg itself cannot be more salty, cause then it will be categorized as too salty and those will not compliment each other! Moreover, what to expect from a salad rather than its normal taste? you know.. Oh, but they did gave me a bottle of cheese powder anyway, so..
Then, I was still so eager to taste it and prove my concerns and because my stomach starts to grumbling! So I cut through the crepe without expecting anything else other than chewing it right away, but I was really amazed that I found something else folded inside the crepe! It was some delicious mozzarella cheese with jambon (ham)!!
I was stunned because it was so eyes-openingly out of my expectation! Sure enough, it proven that my concerns is no longer valid because it taste just heavenly! The crepe's skin and the mozzarella was so delicate with the ham and the egg yolk! Oh and did I mention that when I cut the egg and the yolk was half-cooked and so it just perfectly flow down to covers my mozzarella and ham? It was beyond good! – or it was just me and my hungriness again? Nah!
Unfortunately, although even the salads were also beyond my expectation.. where it did not taste as normal as what I expected, but it did not taste as good as my fancy too. For my liking, they mixed too much mustard inside, I could not taste anything else rather than the strong-offensive smell of mustard running up through my nose! I thought it was a joke because we are Asian at first – anyway to my shame.. I thought they put wasabi inside. Excuse me, it was my first time to taste a real mustard and for me it just tasted so much alike with wasabi so.. I kind of mixed up! Sorry.. *LOL*
For another twist, turns out, the cheese powder were actually for my friend's pasta and do not worry the servers are all good and friendly! Definitely, no racism I promise. Cheers!
Main Course from Toulouse
The 2nd dish came from:
Le Bristol Hôtel et Braserrie, 75 Rue Bayard, Toulouse City Center, Toulouse, France 31000
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| Menu Sheet of Le Bristol |
with their special dish: 1/2 Magret du Canard (1/2 Duck Breast)
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| Half of Duck Breast |
Alright, so this dish craved a quite deep memory in my mind. This was eaten during our last day in Toulouse right before we depart back to Paris. So, we are all hungry and wanted to stocked up our stomach because we knew from experience that the 10 hours bus rarely stop by to a proper dining place and we happened to came across this restaurant where they actually offered heavy food already and for your information in France, as long as I observed when it is breakfast time, it will be kind of hard to find a restaurant that serves heavy food (like the food for lunch) some restaurant even only open during lunch time and close back until dinner time.
Back to topic.. – I ordered this 1/2 magret du canard (half duck breast) because one of my friend said that they ate it somewhere else before and it was nice. So, there I went to order my duck breast. But sadly, due to my poor french and the waitress was unable to speak English too so when they asked how I want my duck (the rare-medium rare-medium-medium well-well done things) I get confused how to said that I wanted it to be medium well.. so with the help of a barely helpful dictionary and some body language and crossed my fingers, I hope that they get it right!
When, the food arrived on the table, I was kind of excited again because finally I saw a different kind of fries from what we usually get these past few days. They actually gave potato wedges rather than a normal fries and it was in a perfect golden brown color and very crisps!! It was the most delicious fries I ate during my trip I would say..
Well the duck seems promising too with the fresh herbs sprinkled on top to make a perfect blend of color palette with the duck's fat on both side of the duck breast's meat, I have never seen anything like this.. poor me! – and the sauce seems perfect too, not split or anything.. also from outside, the duck smells as nice! Some grilled meat smell..
The problem came after that though.. when I cut through the duck, I saw a reddish pink color from inside of the meat and I realized it was not a medium-well but more like a medium-rare.. At that moment I was worried that I could not finish it because I know medium-rare most of the time will smells fishy – or in this case, smells-ducky – when eaten. Sure enough my concern was right. It smells! I hardly chew it.. The texture of the meat was good actually only the smells that I could not take. It feels okay the first time you chew it but the after-taste was horrible for me. I was forcing myself to swallow it because it will be such a waste if I'm not. So by eating it together with the delicious potato wedges, I found that it was kind of blurring the smells out, and it helps!
After I almost done (finally!) there is this part of the meat near the end that actually a medium-well, so I ate it without the fries and it actually taste.. very parfait (perfect)! The meat was still tender, not too not hard and most amazingly no stinks at all! In facts, it has that very fragrant grilled meat smell and a hint of herbs smell dance through your nose while you chews.. heaven! It taste so good completed by a bit of crunchiness in it, which I suspect came from the fat.
I think if the waitress get my broken-'message' correctly, or if I could speak more proper French, I would be more than satisfied with the meal! I still wanted to went back there and order it correctly in the future though.. it was actually so delicious! But, if you do not mind with the smells and a fan of medium-rare, or can speak French and able to order it well, I would recommend to check out that place..
Dessert from Paris
The last but not least, is a dessert from one of the brasserie in Paris nearby Musée de Louvre;
Le Carrousel Bar et Brasserie, 194 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
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| Le Carrousel's Menu Book |
with their dessert du jour or dessert of the day: Pâte Brisée - Tarte aux Baies (Shortcrust Pastry - Berry Pie)
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| Tarte Aux Baies |
Not too difference with the second dish.. I ate this dessert during my last day in France before we flew back to Malaysia. It was after our visit to Musée de Louvre (The Louvre Museum), so we are randomly walking around the Rue de Rivoli (Rivoli Street) searching for some souvenirs shop and we found this restaurant just 2 stores away from the souvenirs shop. So, we decided to stop by and had our lunch. I was ordering the 'main course+dessert' set meal back then. The main course that I ordered, it was poulet (chicken) and it was very satisfying and my friends foods taste very good too according to them.
Then, when the super friendly waiter came and ask for our choice of dessert of either some Tiramisu or their special dessert du jour - Tarte Aux Baies (dessert of the day) in which is no other than the Berry Tart/Pie. I picked the berry tart!
When this beauty arrive in our table, it looks so delicious that I could not refused to snap some pictures of it. It looks gorgeous too on the camera! Also they actually sprinkled some icing sugar too if you look closely. Such a simple yet chic plating, yes?
I wonder how it will taste at that time. So the moment I secured my barely-able-to-relax camera back into its place, I start to work with this dessert. I cut through it with the spoon and the De-excitetement came. Cutting through the berries? No problem. Cutting through the custard filling? Good. Cutting through the pie's skin? Failed! Yep. there I unloading the flaw. The pie's skin was so hard that I barely able to cut it apart without worrying that it will flew away to the next table!
Still with the hope in mind, I ate it to taste if it is good. But, I was disappointed again. The berries smells a bit like alcohol which is okay maybe it was the rum, no concerns. The problem is, it taste no good, not fresh, it was like a canned berry which had been opened and made into this pie and stand for too long in the chiller! So I removes the berry and ate the custard instead since the custard is the only part which taste good with the rich milk and vanilla smell. As for the pie's skin, it left un-eaten too since it was too risky to cut it and I thought it was just a matter of time and luck before it flew to the next table!
Well, what "a way" to eat some pie..
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Reviewed without offense to any parties :) There are still so many other delicious meals in France so don't worry to visit and try the foods! It was a very gorgeous country too anyway..
This is not the end of the story. This is
just the end of another pieces of stories. So brew your tea, bake your
cookies, be back later and flip the page--
Enjoy the little treat,
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