Paris, je mange

My plans of eating my way around Paris are still going strong - our class decided to go a Korean restaurant in the 15th after class on Wednesday night. I ordered "dolsot bibimbap" - a rice dish served in a heated stone pot which is usually served with raw minced beef, raw egg (the beef and egg cook in the pot), a mixture of vegetables and a generous lashing of "gojuchang" spicy sauce. It was good, but nowhere near as good as the restaurant I go to back in London (Nara). The search for good Korean in Paris continues....

This weekend, I met up with a fellow pastry student and we went for lunch at Breizh Cafe, a little place in the 3rd which specialises in Breton-style crepes. We arrived at 1:30pm only to be told that there was an hour wait so we put our names down, had a wander around the area and came back for a late lunch. We each had a savoury crepe ("galette") which was made out of buckwheat flour and has a very distinctive lattice shape, mine was filled with cheese, ham and mushroom, delish! We followed these by tucking into sweet crepes for dessert - OK, but not as good as the galettes. We also couldn't figure out whether our salted caramel was meant to taste slightly burnt or not?? Despite this, it is worth paying a visit! (word of warning, the steps leading up to the toilets are mighty steep, the descent back down to the restaurant is not recommended for vertigo sufferers!)

Before heading home, I popped into Gérard Mulot on the recommendation of another pastry-obsessed student. The place was mobbed, I spent ages trying to decide what I wanted and eventually, decided to try some of the mini-macaroons (a speciality with distinctively vibrant colours) - raspberry, chestnut, passion fruit and basil, pear and caramel, caramel and nougat. Have just finished tasting them, some of them were very yummy (chestnut, passion fruit and basil) but others were a little over-sweet (caramel). I still stand by my claim that Ladurée make the best salt caramel macaroons....mmmm :)

I rounded off my weekend of eating by heading to Chinatown for some pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) with another fellow student craving Asian food. Originally, we were trying to find a restaurant recommended by David Thompson but got lost, so decided to go with Clotilde's recommendation of Pho Mui. Had a gigantic steaming bowl of pho for 8 yoyos (check out who's the fatty with the big bowl in the picture compared to my friend's "petit" bowl!), will definitely be going back. Another top tip from Clotilde - however, am gonna steer clear of her Chinese bakeries recommendations, went to both and the buns were terrible. As we say in Cantonese, "deng say yun!", ie. they are so hard that if you throw them at someone, you can kill them!!