Sa.Qua.Na (1st visit)

Took a trip up to Deauville again, this time stopping by Honfleur first for lunch at a Michelin 2-starred restaurant. Superb food. One of the better restaurants I've tried so far in France, and very reasonably-priced too! Took their "half" set menu at 65€ pp. (Menu at the end of this post but it's in French).

1. Some pancake thing with truffle oil. 2 to 1 pancake. We were a lil worried initially as it looked heavy. But no, it was so light and aromatic that we finished it in no time.. Impressed right from the start!
2. Nice presentation

3. I love the creamy medium-done cod fish (hidden beneath the greens) although the others thought it was alright. With minced duck innards (i think), fried bread crusts and cod foamed cream.
4. Salmon. Very fresh and soft. With tempura which complemented the fish very well.

5. Main dish - the best pigeon everyone at the table has ever had. Too awesome for words.
6. Cheese platter

7. Now that we've arrived at our 6th course, we definitely didn't think this tart crepe dessert could fit anywhere in stomach! Hesitation hesitation. And so the glutton (namely me), did the test run. I took a bite and boy was I surprised. The passion fruit-flavored cream was wayyy lighter and yummier than expected. I just continued eating and the others immediately followed suit. Everybody finished their share. :)
8. More desserts. At this point, all of us thought our tummies have reached their limits. But guess what, we still managed to eat them all! Tsk tsk. Cappuccino ice cream and raspberry sorbet. Oh, save for the fact that we "took away" the caramel cake.

Took a total of 4 hours to finish this lunch. How absurd but necessary! A real keeper. What still amazes me is how we managed to polish off every course. I guess it just shows how well-balanced the dishes were.

Name: Sa.Qua.Na

Website: http://www.alexandre-bourdas.com/

Location: 22 place Hamelin, 14600 Honfleur

Expenditure: 80€ pp with wine & coffee

After the crazy lunch, we had to take a walk around the yacht area which was rather lively that day. There were stalls with smoked fish, smoked salmon, oysters etc. but nah, no chance.

Cooking Adventures

I love surprises from the market. Remember the bamboo clams a while ago? My new discovery beats it hands down! Ta-da....

Freshest uni (sea urchin) ever, straight from the shell. Credits to JD (S' bro) for opening. Didn't look too difficult but I haven't tried it myself yet. Can't believe I could find such a delicacy at the market! ~3€ per piece. Lovesss.

The next one isn't as exciting but still as (if not more) delicious. The legs looked so pretty all lined up on the satay stick I had to get it! Was really expensive though. This much for 19€. Oh wells, thank goodness it turned out great. And so this gave rise to my most successful dish thus far - Kung Pao Frog Legs with cashew nuts. Recipe taken from: http://hochiak.multiply.com/photos/album/274/Gong_Bao_Frog_Kung_Pao_Tin_Kai To complement it, I cooked cantonese porridge with minced pork & century eggs. Yums too.

On left: Small honey-glazed chicken, vegetarian hot and sour soup, bean sprouts with salted fish, and almond jelly with longans.
On right: Largest party held at our place so far - dinner for 7 :) Good thing everyone contributed. There's my famous roasted quail, S' bak kut teh, JD's broccoli and assorted vegs, as well as his gf (joanne)'s sambal prawns. Paired with champagne. What a complete meal! Oh and 7 because S invited her friends (elaine, che pong & their kid) over.

Deauville Film Festival

2 weekends ago while miss hongxi loo & her boy clarence came over on a Hermès quest, we drove to Deauville to attend the 36th Deauville American Film Festival (http://www.festival-deauville.com/GB/accueil_GB.php). It was held over a period of 10 days but we could only squeeze in a day trip on Sunday. There were even photo calls and press conferences featuring people like Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl's Nate Archibald) & Zac Efron etc.. but time was too tight for us to catch any. Anyhow, we wanted to catch 3 films at the 3 different theatre sites (Deauville International Centre, Casino's cinema, Cinema Le Morny) but only managed the latter two.

First film called 'Nowhere' - A sex & drugs film which was a bit too arty and ?! for the other 2 that they left halfway, while S & I felt it was alright and some parts stuck to the theme quite well..

Second film called 'Dr. House' - YES, house as in Hugh Laurie house! They screened the first 2 episodes of Season 7! It was so entertaining. S & I loved it. Enough to make the 1h45min drive worth it. :D

Since Deauville is supposed to be a rich man's vacation spot/resort, we weren't surprised to have spotted Hermès, LV, Printemps... The decent-size casino looked good too but we forgot to bring our passports :(

Now I know where to go if I ever miss the beach too much..

On left: Lunch at a nearby restaurant called 'Barbara' was not too bad. Interesting foie gras spaghetti (generous portion of foie gras) which was good albeit a tad rich, beef carpaccio excellent, prawn & calamari fritto better than expected. Too full to try their popular runny egg pizza. This weekend perhaps! (heading there again hehe). Warning: service is very s-l-o-w. On right: Seafood platter at a restaurant called 'Le Centrale' recommended by the Hermès staff, in the neighboring town of Trouville. Average quality. Fish was like chicken, only tougher. Only thing good was the pot of mussels.

Cooking Adventures

S surprised me with this. My favorite! Or rather, one of my many favorites :D If I'm not wrong, it's kinda difficult to get bamboo clams at the market, even more so for the huge ones like those sold in Chinese seafood restaurants. Reasonably priced too: 6 for 12€. Anyway, cleaning took a lot of effort. You need to cut it up and dig out (lots of) intestine & shit. But of course it was worth it. Tasted super fresh with minimal marinate and loads of garlic!

Looks plain first time round but the second time we bought it we added parsley and "tang hoon" (vermicelli). 80% close to restaurant quality. Heh. Totally made my day.

Baked sambal stingray with onions. Shiok. Would have been better barbecued though, but we were too reluctant to smoke up the house.

Seafood noodle with kick-ass grilled prawns - biggest we've ever eaten! Super ex though, 9€ per piece. And sambal sotong as a side.

Seriously seafood overload this couple of weeks. Even a seafood queen like me needs to take a short break. Now, back to meats. :)