cia – Page 175 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Winter Melon Soup

Adapted from chinesefood.about.com

Ingredients:
winter melon, green skin, seeds and pulp removed, cut into smaller pieces
chicken broth
3 slices of ginger
1 scallion greens, chopped
handful of spinach
rice noodles
fish sauce
lemon juice
salt and pepper

1. Place winter melon in a pot of chicken broth, bring to a boil and simmer until winter melon is tender, about 15 minutes.
2. Add ginger and noodles. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Season with fish sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add spinach and turn off heat.

Gyu-Kaku

34 Cooper Square off 6th Street and Lafayette
212/475.2989
about $60 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥

I’ll group Gyu-Kaku under my Korean and Japanese restaurants list because they had both Korean-style barbecues and Japanese yakitoris. They had several kinds of soups served in clay pots that tasted like Korean chigaes, but udon or ramen noodles were added. They also offered a nice-sized bowl of bibimbap but they had ahi tuna and shrimps we grilled on the tabletop stove ourselves.

It’s a spacious restaurant off the hubbub of St. Mark’s Place. The attentive service is perfect for bigger groups, plus the happy hour price of drinks ($2.50 for Kirin beer on tap) and meat specials (50% off on filet mignon meat to grill) are hard to say no to.

A Summary of Paris: Itinerary

We rented an apartment on 78 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile via Paristay.com, so most of the stops we made were around the island of Saint-Louis. It was the perfect space for three people complete with a loft bed, a bathroom, a fully-equipped kitchen and a sofa bed in the living room. The neighborhood in itself is one of the most coveted in Paris because residents are on their own island on the Seine River, away from the hoopla of the city but right by most necessities and all kinds of luxury.

Thank you so much for traveling with me this past week!

Day 1

– Le St-Regis Brasserie, bistro filled with smokers on rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile off quai de Bourbon
– CathÃ©drale Notre-Dame de Paris, RER C to St-Michel Notre Dame
– Patrick Allain Fleuriste, beautiful flowers on 53 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– La Taverne Du Sergent Recreteur, bistro with a nice prix fixe on 41 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile

Day 2

– Boulangerie Saint-Louis, fresh bread every morning on 78 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– Cacao et Chocolat, hot chocolate on 63 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– Eglise St-Nicolas, rue de Pontoise
– Le PanthÃ©on, #10 to Maubert MutualitÃ©, â‚¬8
– La Paillote Dâ€™or, Vietnamese food with friendly service on 30 rue des Carmes
– Jardins et Palais du Luxembourg, RER B to Luxembourg
– Eglise St-Sulpice, church with Delacroix frescoes, #4 to St-Sulpice
– Le Prestige de l’Alimentation, Moroccan-owned grocery store with everything we needed on 67 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– Aux Anysetiers du Roy, bistro with English-speaking waiters on 61 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile

Day 3

– MusÃ©e du Louvre, #7 to Palais Royal-MusÃ©e du Louvre, â‚¬8.50, closed on Mondays
– Cafe Med, good duck confit, crepes and pasta lunch options on 77 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– Le Sarrasin et Le Froment Creperie, crepes to eat-in or take-away on 80 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– Eiffel Tower, RER C to Champs de Mars-Tour Eiffel, â‚¬11 to the top
– Le Tarbouche, Moroccan restaurant with as good tagines as their service on 81 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile

Day 4

– MusÃ©e d’Orsay, RER C to MusÃ©e d’Orsay, â‚¬7.50, closed on Tuesdays
– Jardin des Tuileries, via an underpass after crossing the Seine from MusÃ©e d’Orsay
– ObÃ©lisque on Place de la Concorde, right outside Jardin des Tuileries
– Champs Ã‰lysÃ©es, a tree-lined pathway all the way to the Rond Point with brand-name stores along the way
– Arc de Triomphe, #1, #2, #6 or RER A stop there, â‚¬8 to climb the top
– MarchÃ© Franprix, small grocery store on 135 rue Saint-Antoine, #1 to St-Paul
– L’Epicerie, beautifully-packaged oils, jams, vinegars and mustards on 51 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– La Ferme Saint-Aubin, cheese, sausage and wine shop on 76 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile

Day 5

– SacrÃ©-Coeur Basilica, the highest point of Paris, #2 to Anvers and up the Montmartre hill
– Montparnasse Tower and Montparnasse Cemetery, #4 to Montparnasse
– Paris Chinatown, #7 to Porte de Choisy on avenue de Choisy and avenue d’Ivry
– Thai-Vien, affordable Vietnamese, Laotian and Thai food on 56 avenue de Choisy
– Place de la Bastille, #5 to Bastille
– Les Halles, historically a food market and now an ugly shopping complex, #4 to ChÃ¢telet-Les Halles
– Eglise St-Eustache, a church that looks abandoned inside, right by Forum des Halles
– Glacier Berthillon, home-made ice cream shop at â‚¬2 a scoop on 31 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile
– La Petite Scierie, foie gras shop on 60 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile

Day 6

– ChÃ¢teau de Versailles, RER C to Versailles
– Le Domaines qui Montent, sells wine at the same price as the producers’ on 136 Volatire Boulevard, #9 to Voltaire
– Le Caveau de l’Ile, bistro with friendly staff on 36 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile

Versailles, An Hour Outside Paris

We woke up earlier today to catch the 10am train to Versailles. My father wasn’t feeling well so he opted to stay in and wait for us in the apartment. Not wanting to deal with drama our last full day in Paris, my mother and I left for the RER C train to ChÃ¢teau de Versailles. The ride was less than forty minutes; the walk from the train station to the chÃ¢teau was less than ten. We joined the queue for the “A” entrance and paid â‚¬8 each for individual passes to the Grand Apartments, the Hall of Mirrors and the Queen’s Suite.

And grand it was! The ChÃ¢teau de Versailles is sumptuously gaudy, yet impressive. The frescoed ceilings, the Rococo woodwork and all the marble tell you how preciously the monarchy lived. They loved themselves, too, because there are murals and statues of Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette everywhere. Our favorite was the exhibition of Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe’s gouache paintings. He was a battlefield painter and he produced detailed accounts of what he saw during the wars. We used the magnifying glasses attached to the paintings to look at the details–obviously Flemish in style and skill–of his miniature soldiers, animals and weaponry.

After walking inside the chÃ¢teau, we braved the cold and visited the gardens, over 815 hectares in total. Trees and plants were pruned to shape and there are fountains at every turn and even more statues of gods and mermaids on every corner. Apparently, they all dance to classical music in the summer.

We went to the cafe downstairs before we took the train back to Paris and ate a quick bite of horrible pizza and instant tea and coffee. We picked up my dad from the apartment and we started off again to Voltaire Boulevard to buy some wines to take home. Les Domaines qui Montent sells bottles of wine at the same rate as their producers. I walked in and told the super-friendly bearded guy to help me pick four bottles of French wines. He gave me a Bourdeaux, a CÃ´tes du Rhone, a Burgundy and a Cabernet-Merlot blend.

A couple of hours later, we went to Le Caveau de l’Ile for dinner to celebrate our last night in Paris. I was surprised that my father wanted the frog’s legs (meron nyan sa Ilocos!) with the squid and my mom wanted the duck. I chose the lamb chops with the salmon tartare.

Everything was delicious. We also ordered a bottle and a half of CÃ´tes du Provence rosÃ©–yes, I drank most of it–and black currants sorbet for dessert. We walked by the restaurant this afternoon and saw that the menu posted outside was in English and we figured it was “safe.” As expected, the waitress spoke English and was very accommodating to us and to the other Americans that came in after we did.

We toasted to our week in Paris. I half-joked at how we will never go on vacation together again because my dad is so maarte. But if you put all the father drama aside, I have to admit that we all had a good time. I liked spending time with them; sharing a new city and at the same time getting lost with them. We all experienced something new and we were together as a family in a country we’ve never visited before. We wished kuya could have joined us but I think we had a good time because we wanted to show him that we’re that kind of a family–the B family.

Au revoir, Paris!

Sacre-Coeur, Montmartre, Les Halles, Berthillon Ice Cream

It didn’t rain at all today but it was nippy enough to keep us awake and active all day. On our way out, we stopped at the boulangerie near the Seine to buy some fresh croissants. The bakery downstairs was closed. We took the #7 to ChÃ¢telet, transferred to the #4 and got off on BarbÃ¨s-Rochechouart to transfer again to the #2 for the Anvers stop.

Montmartre was the home of Picasso and other artists in its heyday, but today it is as busy as 34th Street in New York, full of stores selling everything from cheap trinkets to housewares. We climbed the hill to SacrÃ©-Coeur and saw the view of the entire city–it’s the highest point of all Paris. We realized once we got to the top that if we’re not walking, we’re climbing up steps during this vacation.

The basilica looks like it’s from the Byzantine times, but it was actually built later in 1876 to atone for the sins of the French during the revolution. They were being killed by the Prussians so donations from all over the country poured in to build a church and strike a deal with God. It’s a pretty funny story if you think about it. It’s so French. My dad did the Filipino thing: he bought a small statue of the Sacred-Heart to atone for his own sins.

From the north of Paris, we took the #4 all the way south, to the Montparnasse Tower. If Montmartre was the home of successful artists, Montparnasse was where the opposite end of the economic, social and political spectrum strived. Artists from all over the world came here to take advantage of the cheap rent. It was like the Brooklyn version of SoHo; well, before the hipsters moved to Brooklyn and made it expensive, too.

We walked to the CimetiÃ¨re de Montparnasse and checked out the, well, dead scene. My dad didn’t like being there and he was opposed to my taking of photographs of the graves, so as soon as we entered, we walked towards the exit. At Denfert-Rochereau, we took the #4 to Place d’Italie and transfered to the #7 towards Chinatown on Porte de Choisy.

Paris’ Chinatown is like Vermont’s–it’s not there. There was construction on the main boulevard and the cranes were all in the way. If I didn’t see the Chinese McDonald’s, I would have walked back to the train and given up. But we ended up having lunch at Thai-Vien where we shared some Laotian sausages, grilled pork chops and tom yang kung, a shrimp hot soup that I like to eat in lieu of phá»Ÿ because of the lemongrass.

From Chinatown, we took the #7 back up to transfer to the #5 and to Bastille just to take a photo of the tower. And here it is:

There’s really nothing to say except for the fact that the Spirit of Liberty is on top, erected to commemorate the 1830 July revolution when “Citizen King” Louis-Philippe replaced the autocracy of Charles X.

From there, we made one final stop at Les Halles, Paris’ main food market until it was replaced by an ugly shopping complex. (And also the namesake of the New York City bistro where Anthony Bourdain used to work.) It used to smell like produce, now it just smells like pee.

What’s interesting is that you can still see the remains of what Ã‰mile Zola called le ventre de Paris, the stomach of Paris, even though it is now referred to as le trou des Halles or the a-hole of Les Halles. (I wanted to go to Rungis, where the market is located today but waking up before 7am has been very difficult. Perhaps when I return.)

Back on St-Louis-en-l’Ile, I finally managed to buy ice cream from the famous Berthillon shop before it closed for the day. They’re famous for their all-natural ice cream, and oh-man, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted better pistachio and apricot flavors in my life!

I went up the apartment to save some for my parents who went straight to the supermarket from Les Halles. I ran back downstairs to catch the prettiest store on St-Louis-en-l’Ile, La Petite Scierie, before it closed and spent a fortune on foie gras and duck meat.

If you’re in Paris but you don’t like foie gras, visit the store anyway and check out the good looking Frenchie at the counter who gave me a taste of the Loire wine they carry with the foie gras I bought.

Mr. and Mrs. B made it back without my help and we spent the rest of the night chillin’ with red wine, ice cream and foie gras on fresh baguette. Life is so good in Paris.