Totò - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (22 days late)! After a long break, which was spent in lots and lots of restaurants acquiring new information for my blog, hence eating, I have the pleasure of writing this post. I hope I will accomplish my goal of awing everyone with this new post. Not because of my writing skills, which haven’t changed much, but by the food I have to present. This meal, ladies and gentlemen, was epic.

First, I must say I come from a culture where every single type of food can be sold in “all you can eat” style. In Brazil, we have the famous churrascarias, where meat is served to your table during the entire length of your meal – I know, amazing! This concept evolved through different kinds of cuisine, so now we have “all-you-can-eat” style sushi, pizza, pasta, and even beer! How crazy is that? You pay a certain amount and you sit at the bar and they keep the beers coming. Again: I know, amazing!

I recounted this to demonstrate that I am used to eating a lot. I love eating (big news), and I also like to get my money’s worth, so I would always dive in – who are we kidding? I still dive in!  So it was surprising that I – my extremely glutton self – would be impressed (and a little scared) of the Italian-style meals.

Me and my handsome "baby" brother

My dear family and I reunited on Christmas’ Eve in Rome, to start a trip of a lifetime through the beautiful country that is Italia. After Rome, we went to Venice and then to Florence for New Years. Our most pressing problem when we got to Florence was to find a good restaurant (we had an extensive recommended list) to have our celebratory capodanno meal on the night of the 31st. After seeing a lot of crazy-priced deals, we bumped into this little place called Totò which had a long list of plates and wine and champagne included in the 65€ per person fee. I know it seems like a lot, but the prices were not going any lower than that in the other restaurants. The place looked very Italian and smelled amazing when we walked in at 4 in the afternoon to make our reservation, so my parents decided to go with it. The menu was at follows:

·      A cart of antipasto

·      Gnocchi with truffle sauce and porcini mushrooms

·      Potato tortellini

·      Bistecca à la Fiorentina (T-Bone steak their style)

·      Florentine sausage

·      Deep-fried artichokes

·      House salad

·      House dessert

·      Wine

·      Champagne glass

·      Coffee

Let’s begin: the cart of antipasto was actually a cart! In the middle of the restaurant! With dozens of choices of antipasto! There was shrimp cocktail, octopus ceviche, prosciutto rolled in a breadstick, deep-fried olive-stuffed olive (!!!!!!!), chicken salad, roasted eggplant slices, boiled shrimp… and many other things that I couldn’t even try because I knew there was more food coming. And it did.

Genius!

The second part of the meal, also called “first course” in Italy, is almost always pasta. Amazingly enough, in the menu they had two different pastas listed – from which I assumed we would pick one, but no! Both came. Happiness… I have to say, the Potato-filled Tortellini (one of Tuscany region traditional plates) was delicious, but I am a sucker for mushrooms, especially when they are in a truffle sauce. Seriously, what can compete with that?! Mushrooms AND truffles. On colorful gnocchi. Beautiful! 

The third part of the meal, called “second course”, is generally a type of protein of some sort, such as beef, lamb, rabbit, sometimes fish. In our fortunate case, we got half of a T-bone steak grilled in Florentine fashion – a.k.a. wonderfully – and a Florentine sausage. The beef was very tender and cooked to perfection, still very red on the inside (they way it’s supposed to be) but almost crispy on the outside. It wasn’t the best we ate, but it was pretty good. The sausage was very different to me, used to the American southern usually over-processed sausages, because you could kind of feel the meaty texture in it. It was also divine. To accompany our outrageous meat selection we got fried artichokes and salad, which I obviously didn’t even touch – I was in too deep to care.

For meat lovers only

Artichokes

By the end of this, we were all on the verge of a food coma. Imagine pairing all of this with some bread and wine… two whole bottles of wine for three people (my mom barely drinks). But there was still dessert! The house dessert of choice was profiteroles. And then the glass of champagne came. I couldn’t drink all of it. Swear to God. I just couldn’t. There was too much in my system.

After this eating marathon, we had to walk somewhere, just to make this settle a little. The city was packed and there were free concerts going on in six different squares in the city for the 3809834723 tourists that were there (approximate number). We found a nice little spot in the Republic’s square, where there was a band playing bossa nova and then a jazz band came up. Dancing in the below freezing temperature of that Florentine night, we celebrated the coming of a new year, happy to be together.

Restaurant: Totò

City: Florence, Italy

Food: Great

Service: Good

Price: OK

Adolf Wagner

Whenever I told people I was going to travel to Germany on the first week of December, before our exams started, they would say I was crazy. For two simple reasons: because it's December, and because it was Germany. "Yes, it's going to be cold," I would say, "but I'll be fine."

Little did I know. The week before we left a cold front came in the country, lowering temperatures and bringing in snow. A lot of snow. Throughout the week, we would face hasher and harsher conditions... it seemed like the cold was slowly progressing to prepare us for our last day in Frankfurt - also the last day in Germany. After facing the coldest wind I had ever felt in Munich and a walking tour under snow for an entire afternoon in Berlin, we got to a sunny Frankfurt.

Frankfurt is different. It seems like the city is geographically set into centuries, by chunks. The part closest to the main station is the 20th century, with relatively tall buildings and a more sober architecture. When you turn away from the station and walk a little further down, you enter the 21st century, full of skyscrapers and modern buildings. After you pass that, the cutest town from the 18th and 19th centuries emerges, with little houses, churches and towers. It's crazy, but true. Also really interesting. So, that first day we walked along the city, observing the cute buildings and taking lots of pictures. It didn't take long for us to find a Christmas market.

 

Christmas tree in the middle of Frankfurt's market

I have to say, the Germans know what they're doing. Christmas markets are the most fun, wonderful Christmas things I have ever seen in my life. I love them. In Germany, they sell loads of sausage and Glühwein (mulled wine), along with artisan crafts and other types of food. Every single city we visited had at least one Christmas market, one greater than the other.

Glühwein

 Frankfurt's market was huge. It was so big we initially thought there were two different markets, very close to one another. Well, of our first day in the city, I have to say half was spent in the market. First because all the tourist attractions (read: churches) were along the market. Second because the food is cheap - and amazing. I had for lunch whole button mushrooms and onions, served in a creamy sauce with bread. Yuum. Unfortunately I was way too hungry to take a picture of it (that happens a lot, still haven't got used to registering every single meal I have...)

Sausage stand. Yes.

I could go on forever about Christmas markets. But I am here to talk about a restaurant in Frankfurt. As I have said, the cold seemed to be slowly progressing in degree, maybe to prepare us for that Sunday, the last day in Germany.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I woke up. There was snow - so much of it. Falling horizontally from the wind. I couldn't see anything outside. Ouch. Although we took our time getting up, taking showers and having breakfast, snow wouldn't stop falling, so we took to the streets and headed towards the Goethe house, a museum.

After three and a half hours of shelter from the cold in the museum, we decided to walk to a restaurant that was highly recommended by the guy at the reception desk in our hostel. By that time, it wasn't snowing anymore, it was sleeting. Yes, when it snows and rains at the same time. Great. Just great. We simply slowly walked, moaning and whining all the way to the restaurant, which was on the other side of the river. "This restaurant better be good and cheap" was all I kept thinking.

The restaurant on the outsite

On the inside

It was. We were expressly directed to order apple wine ("Don't order beer there, it's a waste of money") and something called Handkäse mit Musik (something to do with music) because they were two typical things from Frankfurt. We sat down in the large dining hall in a long table were a couple was seated on one end. I liked that about Germany. It is very common that people that have never seen each other sit at the same table, because the tables at restaurants there are generally wide and long. 

We did as we were told and ordered two apfelwein and a Handkäse mit Musik. The apple wine was delicious. It came in a soda glass, which made us think the guy had brought the non-alcoholic version to us - "why would he do that?!" - but no. That is just the way it's served. The Handkäse mit Musik is a local cheese topped with vinegar and onions, served with a slice of bread. Honestly, I didn't really like it. The cheese had no specific taste, leaving plenty of space for the vinegar and onion, which are not that different or delicious anyway. But it was worth trying. For the main course, I decided to go with sausage. Excuse me, I meant sausageS. Five sausages over a bed of sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Yuuuum... I like sauerkraut, although it has a pretty strong taste that one can get tired of during the meal. But potato and sausage and simply the perfect pairing for it. Because potato has the gift of breaking into its strength and delivering a more neutral taste, while the sausage compliments it. I loved it. I ate all of it (surprise, surprise.)

Handkäse mit Musik

Yes!

For dessert, I couldn't resist. It was my last day in Germany and I still had not tasted one single apple pie, a typical German dessert. So I ordered one. And it made me even happier than I already was. It was served with custard, a little warm. It reminded me of my grandma's apple pie, even though I usually ate that with ice cream - who would want ice cream in Germany anyways - instead of custard. I actually even prefer custard. It's delicious! It goes perfectly with the pie, because it's not strong, but it's also good for eating it by itself. I was so excited about eating the pie I almost ate it all before taking the picture... that would be a shame, look at how well presented and beautiful it is. 

Pure beauty

Meanwhile eating our main dishes and dessert, we kept the apple wine coming. I believe it only cost us 1.80€ a glass, and it was so good we didn't see the point in not drinking it. The long meal and the successive couple more glasses of wine we drank kept us sheltered from the snow and the cold for another good three hours and a half, when we finally decided it was time to go back to the hostel. 

What followed was a funny walk home after all the wine, with snowball fights and melt over cute children and babies in winter attire. Oh dear.

City: Frankfurt, Germany

Restaurant: Adolf Wagner

Food: Great

Service: Good

Price: €

Le Gil

Église Notre-Dame

After writing so much about other cities and feeling the suddenly creeping moment of my departure, I would like to post about another good restaurant in Poitiers. Although I haven't stayed long enough and haven't had the money that would allow me to try all the places I have passed by and interested me, I managed to have some good food here. Everyone seems to have a love/hate relationship with Poitiers, which in my opinion is this cute little French town (not so little, about 120.000 people) in the Poitou-Charentes region. When I arrived, Poitiers was all I imagined it to be and more. At the start I couldn't deal with the medieval buildings and look of things, I would squeal every five steps I took - I'm surprised I made any friends here at all. I live in the center of the town, in a very old building... next to me is a house from the 16th century and in the end of my street the Cathédral Saint Pierre, from the 13th century. It's so much history bundled up together that it takes some time to get used to. Now my friends and I joke that anything built from the mid 1800's is almost brand new. I mean there is a church from the 4th century here... how mind-blowing is that? 

I believe that it's only when people visit me that I am reminded of that early stage of amazement I was in the beginning. Unfortunately I tend to get used to the most stunning of views after living in them for a while - I would think most people do. So good thing for me my Brazilian friend that lives in London came to visit! Her excitement while we walked through the streets I am now so used to taking on every day made me revisit that same feeling. And I loved it.

Cathédrale Saint Pierre

I took advantage of the fact she was here and ate out a lot. One of the places I took her was Le Gil, a cute little bistro on the Charles de Gaulle square. Every day of the week they have a "plat du jour" for 8€, which isn't bad. I had eaten there before with my mom and the crème brulée was perfect - I risk saying the best I've had in France so far.

The first time, the choice of the day was a diced turkey in a creamy sauce, served with spaghetti, a tomato purée and spinach. The food was great! But the best part was the presentation. The plate was organized and the tomato and spinach came in little balls. I love eating out of beautifully set plates. Don't they say "We always eat first with our eyes"? Or is that only in my country? Well, I definitely eat first with my eyes. If the food looks weird or is badly presented, it will probably not taste as good as it is. If it is well-presented, maybe it might even taste better, just from the pleasure of looking at it. After the main course, we ordered a crème brulée which was divine! The crust was perfect and warm, the cream was cold and it all tasted incredible. That's why I went back again!

Preeetty!

When my friend was here, the choice was a kind of braised beef arranged in a stick, with diced potatoes and salad (some leafs in a sauce and some carrots). The meat was delicious, specially now that I eat so little of it - I only appreciate it more when I do. The potatoes were crunchy but not greasy, sprinkled with some herbs. The salad, well, it's salad. It's hard to say that salad is great. I felt the potatoes were a great combination with the meat sauce, which was strong, so they cleaned the palate a little. I loved it, my friend loved it, we were ready for the crème brulée! 

Preeetty again!

And it came, in all its glory. I knew what to expect, but she didn't. It was as delicious as before, except that they made a change - no whipped cream ball on top anymore! What the hell? So it looked kind of plain, but it was great. I just liked the presentation of the first one better. Below you will see what I am talking about... 

Before

After

See what I mean?! Crazy people, giving up on whipped cream ball, powdered sugar and the little green leaf. One would feel much more comfortable paying 5.90€ for the first crème brulée than for the second one, all because of the presentation. Anyway, the both were great. Both put a smile on my lips and filled my heart with joy. 

The desperation came later when my friend insisted we should go again so she could have another one, this time with some coffee. No deal! They are only served after food, as a dessert. Who are you, crazy person that wants to have dessert at five in the afternoon? The French have weird ways of serving sometimes... I don't get this strange rule. My friend was obviously very upset but became calmer after we bought some éclairs to drown our sorrows. Not bad.

I will definitely miss France. Not just the food, although OBVIOUSLY the food. The people, the feel, even the language. I was in Germany this weekend (post about sausage and glühwein coming!) and whenever I heard French being spoken I felt a little warmth feeling (little because come on, I was in Germany, there can never be a huge warm feeling, it's too cold). I will also miss the friends I made here, the people from all over the world and the whole experience of being in a different culture... And I will miss Poitiers! I am leaving Poitiers, but Poitiers will never leave me! "Aller Poitiers!!!"

City: Poitiers, France
Restaurant: Bistrot Le Gil
Food: Good
Service: Good
Price: €

Los Caracoles

Boyfriend and I decided to continue our little vacation with a visit to Spain. First we went to Barcelona and then headed to Madrid, where we had friends and family. It was interesting to see the contrast between the two cities, in architecture, language and, most importantly, prices. 

The performance in front of the Cathedral

The fact is, Barcelona is more of a tourist city than Madrid. Every corner you turn in Barcelona there is someone doing a performance, a concert, playing something. At one point, we stumbled upon a performance of an orchestra (!) in front of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, probably playing some traditional style of music from the region, because there were circles of elderly people dancing. It was so amazing! And then we walked ten steps far from them and there were two guys doing break dancing to the sound of "tchetchereretche" - to those who don't know what this means, it's the incredibly catchy brazilian song "Balada Boa" that has been played all over Europe. Five steps, there were two guys playing Spanish guitars in a small alley... oh I wish I had seen more Spanish guitar players... regret number one. Barcelona also had some tourist traps. For example, the prices in the menu will not always be the price you pay. If you are sitting outside, you will pay 10% more of the price that is written on the menu. Obviously, no one will tell you that until you actually ask. Being the amazing tourists we were, we only found out about it on the last meal we had (of course). Other than that, it is an incredible city. The works of Gaudí are insanely beautiful, and even more impressive when compared to their surroundings, which are not plain at all. Here are some of them: the Casa Batlló, Sagrada Família and La Pedrera

Aside from the beautiful architecture, Barcelona also has amazing food. I mean, amazing ham. I mean, AMAZING jamón!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even explain how much I love the Spanish jamón ibérico. I made a point of eating it every single day for at least one of my meals. The result was I didn't eat a lot of paella (regret number 2). But it doesn't matter, I wouldn't have done it any differently. The Spanish know what they are doing. They classify their pigs for what they EAT. I'm dead serious. Depending on what the pig eats, the ham is more or less expensive, because it tastes different. How hardcore is that?!

yumyumyum

Instead of eating it at restaurants, where you pay 15€ for a plate of jamón that is not even the best one, we found a small shop close to the hotel where we could buy 100grams for around 7€. A hundred grams of ham is a LOT of ham. It was great! Needless to say, we were at the shop a lot, even if we just spent 3 days there. One night, we bought a baguette at the baker, then we bought the jamón, some fancy cheese and a bottle of wine at the shop, and then went to a supermarket and bought arugula and tomatoes. BAM! Budget fancy dinner for less than 20€!

"Los Caracoles", however, is no place for budgeting. One of the oldest and most famous restaurants in town, it is quite hidden in one of the perpendicular streets from the famous Ramblas. On the outside, it is just a simple, small old-looking little door. When you get in, you go through a bar - at least we did because we went to dinner super early and it had no lines - and then through the kitchen (!) to get to your tables. The restaurant must have three floors of seating, which was a huge surprise. Considering the amount of people they had waiting at the bar when we left, I would suggest making reservations. 

Snails

We started with caracoles (snails), because we had never tried it and we were curious. I have to say, they were good, but nothing special. They came in a brown, earthy sauce with a little bit of parsley. It wasn't what we were expecting... very plain. Funny fact: they served it with two breads, in the shape of a snail! AH - another tip about Spain: they put bread on your table, but don't be fooled: you pay for it (only if you eat it). Yes, they bring to your table even if you don't order it. Yes, in every single restaurant they make you pay for it. So, if you don't want to pay, you can't touch it. This system seems very unfair to me. I mean, you just brought me bread, unexpectedly, didn't say anything about why is it there and then left. How do you expect me not to eat it?! It's bread! Either make it free or don't bring it without me ordering it. Or, at least, tell me I'm gonna pay for it! As I said, we were the perfect tourists.

Snail-shaped bread

For our main plate, we ordered the seafood paella. We had been having long discussions about paella the whole time we were there, because the paellas we saw seemed very different from what we had eaten in Brazil or the States. The rice wasn't bright yellow, but brownish. It looked more like a risotto than like a paella, because there was a lot of sauce. Still, we were in Spain, and we wanted to try it to see why it was so different. And we weren't disappointed.

It had mussels, shrimp, crayfish, and i'm gonna say calamari too... and some other seafood that I did not identify, but tasted good. The plate was delicious, but very different from the paellas I have eaten. My conclusion was that probably there is another part of Spain that makes paellas differently, and that's where we got it from. Nonetheless, we were happy with the meal we had and ready for dessert! I was, anyway. I chose what they call crema catalana, a dessert that resembles the French crème brulée. Since the last one is my favorite dessert ever, I had absolutely no problem enjoying the catalan cream. It was very rich, with a soft, full texture under the crispy sugary crust. Yum...

Crema Catalana

We had a great night and a delightful meal. The only downside of the whole night was the waiters, a little bit. Maybe I have a weird age complex, but I feel that because we are young, at times we don't get the best treatment in restaurants - especially more expensive ones. I find it very annoying, since to me the quality of the service should always be better than the quality of the food. To me, service changes everything. If you are at a restaurant and the service is amazing, you just want to love everything about your time there. At "Los Caracoles", they were not very friendly during the night and took a while to clean dirty plates. Until then I was not that bothered. But when the waiter came to give us the check, he very "kindly" pointed out that the price did not include the tip. That was just plain rude. Yes, I know it only includes the 10% you make from every single table. If I were to give you a tip, you just lost half of it right there. It was really a shame, because we having such a pleasant night. 

And it was our last one in Barcelona, too. Then we headed to Madrid, where the food was cheaper, as was the beer and we were WAY more prepared for the tourist traps. We had a great time, even though it was freezing cold. Since it was the end of our trip, we were on a tight budget, and did not eat out that much. We found a place called "Museo del Jamón", where the glass of beer was 70 cents (!!!!!!) and a jamón sandwich was 1€ (!!!!!!). Granted, the "sandwich" was more like one slice of ham inside of plain bread. Still, it was one euro. Again, it became our favorite place to go to (I wasn't joking when I said I made a point of eating jamón every single day.) They have restaurants all over the city, which was even better. We would just wish for it to appear and there it was: 

Look for it if you're there! It's not hard to find at all. 

Oh, Spain, you treated me well, even with your little traps to trick me into spending more money with you. Hope to see you soon!

City: Barcelona, Spain

Restaurant: Los Caracoles

Food: Great

Service: Average

Price: €€€

Mare e Monti

On the last week of October, I received a visit that I was eagerly awaiting: my boyfriend. We had planned a great two-week trip, counting on a mid-term break I got at school. The first week of the trip we spent in France, during which we headed to Toulouse, "la ville rose" (the pink city).

The Hotel de Dieu

Sunset at Garonne river

Yes, it is. Pink, I mean. Everything is built with small red bricks, which gives the city a certain romantic air unlike the others I had visited in France before. Toulouse is also famous for its university, the Université de Toulouse, one of the largest in the country (which explained why there were SO many people our age walking down the streets.) Some of its famous landmarks are the Capitol, and of course loads of churches. My favorite part, however, was walking by the Garonne river. On the first day, we bought a bottle of French wine in a small shop, got ourselves two plastic cups and waited for the sun to set... 

Let's get to the interesting part though: the food. Toulouse is situated in the Mid-Pyrénnes region, which is famous for the duck breast and foie gras. I must warn you from the beginning: I am not a big fan of duck. I have eaten delicious duck, which I liked very much thank you, but it is not my favorite type of meat. I'd much rather have lamb, for example. So, unfortunately, this post is not going to be about the amazing duck I ate at this cute little restaurant. Or the amazing foie gras we bought at the shop in the corner. It's going to be about risotto! 

Walking around after our little late-afternoon drinks (the bottle of wine mentioned earlier), we stumbled upon a small, cute alley which had a restaurant with outside seating - this is a little redundant in France, I know. It looked like the most romantic place, so we chose it. They had the foie gras my boyfriend was dying to eat and were reasonably priced, so we thought "why not?"

The little alley

Why not indeed. I ordered a risotto. No wait, let me rephrase that. I ordered THE risotto. The most amazing, delicious, tasty, mouth-watering risotto ever. Ever. It was just that good. 
It had mushrooms and a different kind of dried beef, called viande de grison, produced in Switzerland - you can find more info about it here - and loads of parmesan and heavy cream. I know, it sounds like your average risotto, but no. No. It was delicious. The flavors were all there, the meat was strong but not overwhelming, the parmesan was enough to make it pleasantly salty and the mushroom was a nice compliment. None of the different ingredients clashed, in every single bite they all came together perfectly.

THE risotto

Eating good food just makes me so happy! 

Moreover, the service was great... it was a Monday night and even though we were the only customers left, we felt super comfortable to stay there and have a long, nice meal. The price was not cheap, but it was worth every penny. 

City: Toulouse, France
Restaurant: Mare e Monti
Food: Excellent
Service: Great
Price: €€€

Tabl'O Gourmand and the five stages of hunger

This weekend my friends and I went on a quick trip to Nantes, a beautiful city on the margins of the Loire River. The region is close to Brittany, home to delicious crêpes and apple cider. The result was a majorly gastronomic experience, and we were all so happy about it.

On the second day, after getting to the center from our hotel (which was far, far away – a little logistics mistake), we decided to go to a part of town that we hadn’t explored yet, so we headed west (I think). I should just mention that it was Sunday and in France NOTHING works on Sundays. NOTHING. It’s incredible, but it’s true. So, it was raining, so cold and everyone was hungry. But we ended up heading, inadvertently, to the fancy side of town, where all the (closed) shops were. All we could find were sandwich and fast-food places, which had no inside seating – thus no heating.

After a good hour of walking (which later turned into dragging our bodies) around, we found a small little café called Tabl’O Gourmand with several choices on the menu. We walked in, all kind of half dead from starvation, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited a little more.

And when we were about to get up to leave, the waitress came. After taking our orders and cleaning our table (which had been disgusting for the half hour we waited), she disappeared. While we waited (again) for our food, my friends and I came up with what we called The Five Stages of Hunger:

Stage 1: Acknowledgement

That is when you realize you are hungry. Your stomach does a little rumble, which is pleasant in a way, and you get really excited about eating. You start thinking about your options and mentally picking what you are in the mood for. That is the only pleasant stage of hunger.

Stage 2: Denial

That’s sometime after you’ve realized you’re hungry, but hasn’t been able to grab anything to eat yet. Since you have been feeling hungry for a while, it’s like your body gets used to it and you deny your hunger. It’s the famous phase: “I’m not even that hungry anymore.” – don’t fool yourself.

Stage 3: Hysterics

That’s when you start to get a little crazy from being hungry. All of a sudden you get really restless and can’t concentrate on anything. Your stomach starts doing very long, loud rumbles. Like my friend says, “you feel like it’s eating itself.” If someone tells a joke, you start laughing and you can’t stop. You have little fits of laughter from desperation. You find every action in your body very hard to control.

Stage 4: Depression

In this stage, your energy is out of the door, into the train, waving you a long goodbye. You’re so hungry, you’re just sad. You almost feel like crying and whining like a little baby. This is the lowest stage of hunger. You’re miserable, and so is life. Some people also get VERY grumpy in this stage (myself included).

Stage 5: Fulfillment

This is when the food arrives. It’s funny what happens then. You barely even register what you are eating, how does it taste, what’s its texture. All you need is food, so you can get out of the sadness you were feeling five seconds ago. When I am in stage four and the food arrives, I always try to eat slowly so at least I can taste whatever it is I am eating (of course, it doesn’t always work… sometimes you’re just too desperate). After fulfillment, the world is a better place and your life does not suck anymore. Life is worth living again, and all your problems will solve themselves.

Well, let me tell you that at that little café in Nantes I went through every single one of these stages to their depth and back, until I could get something in my belly. Since the service was terrible, we had to wait an eternity to get our orders taken, and it didn’t get much better afterwards.

I ordered the Traditional Breakfast, which consisted of a hot drink, bread, a muffin, an apple and raspberry juice and honey. To accompany the meal, we had jars of homemade or just unique spreads of different things: we had strawberry jam, a weird jam I can’t remember the name now, hazelnut chocolate spread, dark chocolate spread, white chocolate spread and butter biscuits spread (a.k.a. heaven).

My hot drink of choice was a Nutella Belgian hot chocolate, which was divine. The muffin did taste good, though not incredible. The bread was freshly cut (right next to us) and delicious, as only bread can be. However, we did have to remind the waitress that hey, we need bread, and water, and napkins, and the honey that was supposed to come with our food. We never got proper silverware and we just ended up not bothering to. 

Although the service was terrible, the food was amazing. Everything was fresh and delicious and seemed to be very high quality. Still, it was an hour and a half long meal that could’ve been waaay shorter. Granted, the waitress was alone to attend all the tables in the small café, which sat no more than 30 people.

The price wasn’t so bad, but a little more to the expensive side. We ended up paying 9.20€ each, but I just attributed the cost to the amazing hot chocolate and bread with spreads.

After we left the café, the day had become sunny and people were in the streets (which was a pleasant, but enormous, surprise). The rest of the day was mostly dedicated to sightseeing and picture taking. There is still one more place we went to though… just wait until the next post!

City: Nantes, France

Restaurant: Tabl’O Gourmand

Food: Great

Service: Poor

Price: €

Le 7ème Vin

"Is there any other food but French food? Isn't all other food just something we live on because we are not French?" - Alton Brown, celebrity chef. 

Although I do not agree with Mr. Brown, I think I have to agree that French food is truly amazing. I thought this quote would go along with my next finding in Paris: Le 7ème Vin. 

Mom and I were walking from Les Invalides, towards the Tour Eiffel and looking for a place to eat that looked nice and wasn't ridiculously expensive - quite hard in that area, let me tell you. Since it was close to midday, lots of restaurants offered the "formules", which is essentially a deal of a choice of determined plates for a set price. I love formules - obviously - but they always make me eat more than I was planning to. 

Le 7ème Vin

So, strolling down and doing our research (isn't the part of looking for a restaurant almost as exciting as actually choosing one?), we ran into this cute little red bistro. Looking at their chalkboard, we found out the "formule" of an appetizer and a entrée cost only 13.50€! And they seemed to serve very typical French cuisine. On we went, and we were not disappointed. 

The inside was almost as cute as the outside, decorated with red and white checkerboard towels over the tables and wines on the walls. Even though the space was really small inside, I never felt like it was tight, but rather cozy. 

By the time we sat down at our table, my mom and I already had in mind that we wanted to make that experience as French as possible - we wanted beef bourguignon (yes, I had to google that)

Yuum

As a starter (in French, entrée), I ordered a roquefort salad. What I got was melted roquefort on top of a toasted french bread, and in the middle some lettuce with a weak vinaigrette. 

I am not complaining though. I love blue cheese - when my brother and I were little our favorite dish was pasta with a Gorgonzola sauce that mom makes. So, the roquefort was creamy and delicious, all melted on top of that crunchy toast... yuuum. First dish: approved.

The main dish was the beef bourguignon we were dying for. And this was worth it. The meat was falling apart with the touch of the fork, just a little bit of pink on the inside so the it was cooked to perfection and the sauce tasted amazing. It was served with tagliatelle, which didn't have any particular taste and fitted in perfectly with the richness of the meat. We paired the whole meal with red house wine, and its flavor went perfectly with both our dishes. 

YES! 

 The entire meal - two formules and the wine, which was around three glasses each of us - cost 40€. I thought it was a great deal, given the ambiance of the restaurant and the food. Plus, we got kind of tipsy which was really fun afterwards (never thought the Eiffel Tower would be so amusing to look at)

City: Paris, France
Restaurant: Le 7ème Vin
Food: Great
Service: Good
Price: €