Monthly Archives: October 2013

Roasted half pigeon – L’Epigramme

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Roasted half pigeon - L'Epigramme
Demi pigeon roti, aubergine. Roasted potatoes, eggplant, two types of root purees. Entree/Plat/Dessert option 28€
L’Epigramme, Paris FR

Roasted half pigeon - L'Epigramme
When I saw pigeon on the menu, I know I had to try it! And I’m SO glad I did because everything on the plate was absolutely amazing! The pigeon was fairly pink so I was initially wary (maybe I should have asked for well done), but it actually tasted great and was super tender. I immediately fell in love with the potatoes and eggplant; they were expertly prepared and SO delicious! The purees were also very flavorful and I just wanted to lick my plate clean. NOM NOMS!

Chardonnay and rose - L'Epigramme
Chardonny and rose wines.
You really can’t eat a meal of this caliber and not have some wine! This was a perfect lunch and a great way to spend our last full day in Paris.

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars. Wow, the area around the Eiffel Tower is so unreal. The place is completely unique and doesn’t remind me of anywhere else in the world. There’s so much green space and the tower is an enormous and majestic beacon visible from anywhere. SO awesome!

Beef roll ups – L’Arganier

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Beef roll ups - L'Arganier
Flatbread filled with beef, cheese, tomato, pickle. Complimentary
L’Arganier, Paris FR

We had sat down outside this restaurant for a quick drink break from walking around. After we had ordered our drinks, the waitress brought us this plate of roll ups which we weren’t expecting. We really liked her and thought that this was cute. We noticed that we were the only table to get the complimentary snacks in our area and we really weren’t sure why. It’s times like this when it would’ve been great to know French. 🙂

Les Invalides
L’Hotel national des Invalides (Les Invalides). This huge complex is pretty impressive, but the Hardouin Mansart chapel dome is certainly the centerpiece.

Smoked “andouille” board – Breizh Cafe

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Smoked andouille board - Breizh Cafe
Assortment of local, artisanal chitterling sausages from Guemene and Cogles regions, cornichons, pickled onions, butter. 8€
Breizh Cafe, Paris FR

The waitress made sure that we understood that this dish wasn’t like American andouille sausages. Andouille in this case refers to chitterling sausages from Brittany which are made from pig intestines. I had already tried a piece of andouille at Ma Bourgogne but I wanted to try what I thought would be a more authentic product from Breizh Cafe since they specialize in food from that region.

I always love trying new and regional food items, so this was a challenge of sorts because I’m not a huge fan of intestine in the first place. I will say that this andouille was much better than the one at Ma Bourgogne. I definitely liked the variety pictured on the top row a little more because it had a more smokey flavor and that helped to mask the intestine taste. I really liked both their textures though, and eating them with buttered bread helped. 🙂

Bread - Breizh Cafe
Bread. Complimentary

Silverware - Breizh Cafe
Silverware.

Palais Garnier
Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House), Place de l’Opera. This is one of the most famous opera houses in the world and is the setting for Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera.

Evening drinks – La Favorite

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Lillet Blanc - La Favorite

Lillet Blanc. 5 cl 5,50€
La Favorite, Paris FR

Paris is beautiful at night and probably even more lively. People seem to be everywhere, and why not? There’s so much to do and even the sights you saw during the day take on a completely different look and feel in the dark – it’s quite magical. Of course, it’s always good to intersperse some drink breaks throughout the evening. 🙂

Kronenbourg beer - La Favorite

Kronenbourg beer. 25 cl 5,20€

Window street art
Window street art, Le Marais.

Pistachio gelato – Pozzetto

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Pistachio gelato - Pozzetto
Pistacchio del re de sicilia. 4,90€
Pozzetto, Paris FR

It takes a lot of energy to walk around sightseeing on a hot day, so I totally earned this large cup of gelato! 🙂 It tasted pretty good and I liked the texture. I just wish it had a bolder pistachio flavor.

Arab World Institute
Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute). We came here because they have a great view of the city from their rooftop which is open to the public and free – heck yeah!

Foie gras cuit au torchon – L’Epigramme

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Foie gras cuit au torchon - L'Epigramme
Duck liver cooked “in a towel” (usually shaped into a log shape using cheesecloth or plastic wrap), watermelon gelee, sprouts (+3€ supplemental). Entree/Plat/Dessert option 28€
L’Epigramme, Paris FR

Like I said in a previous post, this was our favorite meal/restaurant during our trip. The place is actually really small without any sidewalk tables, but I think they can seat a few people outside in their adjacent patio. There seemed to be 5 people working here – an older man and woman along with a younger lady worked the front, and two guys worked the small kitchen which was visible from the small dining room.

The woman (probably in her 40’s?) was our waitress and she was amazing! She knew just a little more English than we knew French (which is barely anything), but she did a great job explaining all the menu items through gestures and broken English phrases, bless her! There were no paper menus, but a 3-foot tall dry erase board that she brought to the table for us to look at. Later, she had to grab the other dry erase board hanging outside the front door because there were more tables ordering. It thought that was charming. 🙂

Foie gras cuit au torchon - L'Epigramme
I’m sorry to all the animal activists, but I had to order foie gras since it’s banned in California. Ok, I’m not actually sorry, hehe. I love this stuff! What I do feel bad about was having to eat this entire thing on my own because my dining partner doesn’t like foie gras. But I was NOT about to let a good thing go to waste! It was absolutely delicious, but way too much for just one person. I thought the presentation was beautiful and the little watermelon gelee logs were super cute.

Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe, Place Charles de Gaulle. This triumphal arch commemorates the soldiers from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It’s a pretty magnificent sight to see!

Kir cocktail – L’Arganier

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Kir cocktail - L'Arganier

Creme de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) topped with white wine. 4€
L’Arganier, Paris FR

We stopped by this place to grab some quick drinks before dinner. We sat outside at a table on the narrow sidewalk, awkwardly positioned to avoid passersby. Our waitress was hoot! Her English wasn’t the best, but she was SO friendly and accommodating with our lack of French. That’s one thing I appreciated about our Paris trip – everyone was SO nice and we didn’t get any flack for not knowing the language. But then again, we’re fairly well-traveled and try not to be the quintessential loud, annoying Americans everyone. Lol! 😉

Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis church

Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis church, rue Saint Antoine, Marais. This beautiful Roman Catholic church was around the corner from our hotel and near the Saint Paul Metro station.

Falafel sandwich – L’As du Fallafel

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Falafel sandwich - L'As du Fallafel
Pita stuffed with chickpea fritters, hummus, lightly pickled red cabbage, salted cucumbers, fried eggplant, tahini, harissa. 5,50€
L’As du Fallafel, Paris FR

This place is a MUST visit when in Paris! It’s supposedly the best falafel in the city and some would argue the best in most of Europe. Those are some strong words that I’ve read on other sites, lol! I will say that this falafel was absolutely delicious. I didn’t try another falafel in Paris for comparison, but that didn’t take away from the enjoyment I felt from eating this one or how tasty it was.

L’As du Fallafel sits on the Rue des Rosiers which was relatively near our hotel. It’s a really cool section of the Marais that boasts an unexpected Jewish neighborhood complete with synagogues, kosher butchers and bakeries. It’s quite surprising to first walk into the area and feel completely transported to another city. It’s somehow starkly delineated from the surrounding neighborhood by the people, stores, and general vibe – quite exciting actually.

There’s always a line for this place because everyone seems to know about it, but it goes fairly quickly. A guy works the line and gets your order and payment before giving you a “claim check” for your order to turn in at the window. I feel bad, but we were standing in line talking when this random guy came up and started asking us something that we couldn’t understand. I mistook him for some street person trying to sell us something so I think I responded in a rudish kinda way. I immediately realized my error and apologized for not being about to speak French, lol! I’m such a dork!

We both ordered our falafels “hot” so they came with extra harissa. These “sandwiches” were HUGE! We didn’t want to sit in what limited indoor seating they offered so we just found a curb nearby and sat with everyone else. I think it took me 15 minutes or so to eats this monster! And it messy and fun! I would take little nibbles and immediately reach for napkins to wipe off my saucy mouth. The tahini-based sauce and harissa are a killer combination. Besides the perfectly cooked falafel, the eggplants were one of my favorite components. NOMS!

I think I’ll always remember that simple meal, sitting on the dirty curb alongside other tourists, watching people pass by while trying to fend off a throng of expert pigeons, and reveling in our communal enjoyment of a special piece of Paris.

View of Notre Dame Cathedral
View of Notre Dame Cathedral from Pont de la Tournelle bridge.

Lemon basil sorbet – Raimo Kiosk

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Lemon basil sorbet - Raimo Kiosk
1 scoop 3€
Raimo Kiosk, Paris FR

I guess this flavor won some contest in Paris for the best sorbet in the city. Hmm, I’m not convinced, lol! This was a little too tart for me, and it was too icy and melted quickly. We went to the kiosk at the Jardin de Plantes so it was at least a really pretty location.

Raimo napkin
Raimo napkin.

The Pantheon
The Pantheon, Latin Quarter. This building now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. It was under construction during our visit.

Cucumber gazpacho – L’Epigramme

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Cucumber gazpacho - L'Epigramme
Gaspacho de concombre. Entree/Plat option 24€
L’Epigramme, Paris FR

We came to this randomly located restaurant for lunch because I read good blog reviews for it online. OMG, I’m so glad we did because this was the BEST meal we had in Paris! I will qualify that statement by saying that we really didn’t do any crazy fancy, expensive restaurants because we still had a wedding to attend followed by a London visit. And we knew that our wallets were gonna feel really empty after everything was said and done.

Anyway, L’Epigramme offered an appetizer/entree or entree/dessert option for 24€ OR an appetizer/entree/dessert option for 28€. Because we’re not big dessert people, we had one of each option so that we could at least try one of the desserts. For the quality of the food we received, these prices were amazing!

This cucumber gazpacho was so refreshing and had a wonderful flavor. I think it was beautifully prepared!

Cauliflower spread - L'Epigramme
Cauliflower spread and crostini. Complimentary amuse bouche
We weren’t expecting an amuse bouche, so this was a pleasant surprise. It seemed a fairly simple dish, but it was SO delicious and the texture of the finely chopped cauliflower was great.

Fountain at the Champ de Mars
Fountain at the Champ de Mars. This green space adjacent to the Eiffel Tower is really pretty, but seems SO large on a hot day filled with nonstop walking, lol!