Cue music...Punjabi MC's "Mundiyan To Bach Ke" (Jay-Z remix, natch!)

An early finish on Friday afternoon meant an opportunity to head somewhere different for lunch other than the school canteen. After boulangerie, a fellow classmate and I made the trek up to Gare du Nord and from there, walked up to Le Quartier Indien for a spot of Indian grub. The destination was Muniyandi Vilas, a no-frills restaurant at the end of rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, at the La Chapelle end. We were more lucky than I was last Saturday and snagged a table straight away, the dining room is not big and was full all the time we were there. I plumped for a vegetarian thali with some piping hot paratha, my classmate went for the full Indian experience and managed to polish off a samosa, a masala dosa AND a full non-vegetarian thali! Delicious food at rock bottom prices, will be coming back to sample their fine-looking biryani.

After lunch, we decided to head back to Pain du Sucre which fortunately, was open this time and picked up some sugary goodies (well, more sugary goodies for my classmate as he'd already bought and ate some gulab jamun on the way there!). I bought a "Tentation" - a raspberry tart filled with almond, pistachio and citron cream with a layer of raspberry coulis and a couple of macaroons (mint and chocolate, salt caramel). To be honest, wasn't bowled over by the raspberry tart, the filling was too dry and was a disappointment compared to the classic crème patissier version I had at lunch at Allard a few years back. The macaroons though were pretty good, nice flavours with a moreish chewy consistency.

Asian craving of the week was Vietnamese bun, which I managed to get at Thuy Long, a small Vietnamese cafe down the road from school. It did the job but I won't be going back, not a big fan of having my food microwaved.... especially when I'm paying for it.  

Buy of the week was a tie between Pierre Hermé's Ispahan croissant  at 2 yoyos (Tip: his shop on rue de Vaugirard is much nicer with no queues of adoring tourists either!) and Tang Gourmet's roast duck, can't argue for half a bird for around 7 yoyos, yum! :)