Swan Lake; Rugby; Snow; Zo

Watched a Swan Lake ballet (titled Le Lac des Cygnes in french) last night at the Opéra Bastille. The theater is a lot more modern than I had expected. Very much prefer Palais Garnier with its magnificent interior. Having been my first encounter with a full classic ballet, I find the overall pace of the performance slow. The first two acts were a lil boring but thankfully the pace picked up to give a grand ending. I enjoyed it nonetheless as I love ballets.

Last Saturday - Rugby test match between France & Australia at the Stade de France. The French got terribly thrashed by the Aussies with a score of 16-59! It became sort of embarrassing for the 80,000-strong home crowd.

26 Nov - The day we sighted the first snowfall in Paris. November! Can you imagine? We were shopping around Rue St. Honoré and the Goyard store assistant told us that the snow had come 3 weeks too early! Anyway, I'm not complaining because I ♥ snow. You should have seen how excited I was that day. Yes it's painfully cold, but looking at the white droplets really makes me feel happy I don't know why. It seems to have some magical effect on me. But of course I'm not wishing for heavy snow storms! Light ones will do :) As it is, I'm already looking to get a scraper to scrap those frost off my windscreen.

Friday night - Dinner with free-flow champagne! Ladies night though so too bad for the men. Hah. Drank till we were tipsy but I still managed to drive us home :p Food was quite good as well. We had a burger & a truffle penne as our mains. Love this new-found value-for-money restaurant especially since we got a discount by booking through www.toptable.com. Recommended! Not sure when this promotion ends though so you gotta hurry.

Name: Zo

Location: 13 Rue Montalivet, 75008 Paris

Expenditure: 30€pp for 3-course menu + free flow champagne for ladies on Friday (40€ if not booked via toptable.com)

Burgundy Wine Festival Nov 2010

It was the 150th annual Hospices Beaune charity auction last weekend - a 3-day festival held in Beaune, France. Drove 3+ hours out from Paris on a Sat afternoon. It was dark by the time we reached (since the sun now sets at 5pm) so we thought there wouldn't be much to do until the next day. As luck would have it, we managed to catch the last tasting tour at a wine house called Bouchard Ainé & Fils. While rushing there, we walked past the Basillique Notre Dame which was beautifully lit up by a series of light displays. Stopped to admire for awhile...

Due to the event, only a special dégustation (prices jacked up of course) was available. Felt kinda ripped off at first but as the tasting went on we were comforted by the rather unique experience. 5 white & 5 red wines, of which half were paired with small seafood bites. Own time own target, we walked through the cave, stopping by various stations to taste the wines and listen to the servers' explanations. Too bad most of them were French so we understood like only 10% of what they said. Nonetheless, glad to have had the chance to taste a 59-year-old wine!

Next day at 8.30 in the morning, we queued outside Hospices de Beune for their wine dégustation! Because of the auction (held by this house) taking place later on at 1430h, the tasting was only available from 0830-0930. Another unique experience - tasted 20 wines ALL straight from the barrel!

At 10.30, we headed to Sensation Vin for another round of 6-wine tasting, this time with English explanations. Not bad but I think the 10-wine option could have been better.

The auction. For a start, the barrels go at an average price of 5000€. I don't know how high it went that day.. Interesting but I think not really worth queuing to go in. You can look from the outside :)

And here's a restaurant recommendation for you: Le Relais de Saulx. Cheap & surprisingly good

Cooking Adventures

My not-so-authentic-looking pandan cake. Done using Prima's premix. 1st time baking..thank goodness for the hand-held electronic mixer that I just bought! But I didn't have the right mold so it turned out much flatter than it should be. Delicious nonetheless :)

Fat, juicy and spicy sambal chilli clams which tasted really similar to those back home. They're more commonly known in Singapore as la la (in chinese). Credit goes to Joanne's mum for the excellent home-made sambal chilli.

Our own version of shabu-shabu for dinner and leftovers for a teppanyaki lunch the next day! Was really happy to have found the ingredients at a couple of Japanese grocery stores in what is known here as the Japantown (2nd arrondissement).

London for the 4th time

What a dampener (after a nice weekend in London) to have found my car broken into and my gps stolen. Not really broken into per se since the windows & all are still intact, but I must have left it unlocked or the doors not properly closed. Anyhow, damn the person who stole it & also damn my carelessness for keeping my guard down. When I first had the car, I'd always lock the gps in the glove compartment. Obviously I had become too complacent & too trusting of Paris' security.

Oh well, if we were to look at the bright side of things.. at least I didn't have to sit on glass pieces while driving back home, my rayban glasses (which I usually leave in the car) were at home for some reason, and my gps isn't the most expensive around (~100€). So yep, when bad things happen, we can always say: "it could have been worse".

Pleasant weekend in London, but I think 4 visits in a year is about as many as it gets. The food may be (darn) good, but it's time to explore elsewhere. Won't be back anytime soon, except maybe for Wimbledon, IF we get the tickets!

Watched a play titled 'Design For Living' at The Old Vic theatre. We really liked it. Funny & well directed with an interesting plot in a warped way. As quoted from http://oldvictheatre.com,

"Old Vic Associate Anthony Page directs Tom Burke, Lisa Dillon and Andrew Scott in Noël Coward's wickedly witty dark romantic comedy.

Initially banned in the UK, this provocative play returns to the London stage for the first time in over 15 years.

From 1930s bohemian Paris to the dizzying heights of Manhattan society, a tempestuous love triangle unravels between a vivacious interior designer, Gilda, playwright Leo and artist Otto - three people unashamedly and passionately in love with each other."

More info can be found at wiki (Design For Living). Catch it if you can.

Ate at the usuals (tagged London in my previous posts) and had Indian food at 'Zayna', tripadvisor's top indian restaurant, which turned out really overpriced. Food and service were average. They changed our tandoori chicken to prawns (just cause they ran out) without asking us! What audacity. So what if they charged the same. We didn't have any choice since they were closing the kitchen soon. Okay, they made it up by giving us complimentary bryani but still. Also, the card machine didn't work & S had to walk quite far to draw cash. Overall, disappointing experience and definitely won't return.

On the last night, we headed to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and tried their pre-theatre menu. Great value at 22£ for 2 courses and 27£ for 3. Like our dear friend YT once said, only we can turn something with such good value into something so expensive. With an extra entrée of iberico ham and a bottle of wine, the bill came up to be a whopping 111£. =X

Langoustine soup, creamy egg, sea trout, pork belly.

Name: L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Location: 13-15 West Street, Soho, London

Expenditure: 111£

La Table de Joel Robuchon

It has been raining everyday, non-stop (the persistent kind that lasts all day, only to lock you in the house and spoil any outdoor plans). And so I thought I'd better get some rain boots to tide me over this season. Voilà pourquoi (that is why) I drove out to La Vallée Village which is the nearest outlet shopping from Paris. Not your everyday shopping place since it's a 45mins drive away but well worth my effort as I found the perfect rubber boots from Aigle! Plus some stuff from Agnès b., Paul Smith and Longchamp..all at really good prices. Right now, I'm a very happy me also because I just collected my 'carte de sejour' which is my residence permit in France :D No more fear of being chased back to Singapore. Lastly, I finally managed to give this elusive beef noodle shop some business! They weren't open the last 3 times I went there. But sorry..more on this shop next time as I have better things to post today. Aha.

Okay, what follows is a lil back-dated (about a month ago?). You will know later why it's a bit too late now.

Anyway, this restaurant has the most value-for-money lunch menu ever. Entrée + plat + dessert + cheese + 1/2 bot of wine + unlimited evian water + coffee/tea for just 65€ (inclusive of tax). What's more, it's a Michelin-2-star! After the meal, I had set myself to recommend it to all my friends vacationing in Paris. Best choice for a good french dining experience without burning a hole in the pocket.

There were 4 of us that day. Interestingly everyone picked different courses so we tasted a wide variety of foods in one sitting. I cannot upload the original menu because it's copyrighted so I'm going to translate using google.

Left: Entrées:
Egg & eggplant with cumin ♥
Monkfish carpaccio with bits of raw artichoke & coriander ♥
Kidney beans in a salad with ham
Head of veal (to be confirmed)

Right: Plats:
Beef entrecôte ♥
Back of cod with mashed broccoli & virgin hazelnut oil
Fried whiting fish with herbed butter ♥
Poultry kidneys (to be confirmed)

Left: An extra entrée which we shared. Freshly cut iberico.
Right: Desserts (only 2 to choose from)

Before you start salivating, I need to break the bad news to you. They are closing this Sunday!! I don't know for what reason but they've decided to close this branch and open a 2nd L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Champs Elysées which I'm sure is gonna cost twice. Sigh. I've been trying to get a reservation for the past few days but they're full. Argh. C'est la vie...

Name: La Table de Joel Robuchon

Website: http://www.joel-robuchon.net/

Expenditure: 75€ pp

Btw, FJY if you're reading this, I miss you too. Buy less & save more please! You & Rena should go get a piggy bank together.

The day after - Giverny

The Israeli couple whom we met at the dinner at Hidden Kitchen told us about Claude Monet's house in Giverny and that's how we ended up there the next day! 1 hour drive from Paris. Easy peasy. Now that it's autumn here, the colors of the leaves were beautiful. However, the season also means that flowers were dying & drying up. A pity really. Will definitely return in spring when they are in bloom!

The visit to his house & garden (of which many of his later paintings were based on) was more significant to us because we went to the exhibition just 2 days ago. We were also really lucky to have caught the last opening day (since it opens from 1st April - 1st November). Overall, love that we could see his exact perspective..

The Japanese bridge

Halloween night - Hidden Kitchen

Actually a not so halloween night

Dined at a private supper club which I think is relatively popular among tourists, especially Americans since the chefs themselves are Americans. Interesting concept about this is that we weren't at a restaurant but in an apartment in central Paris. Each night, they serve 16 people (seated around a big table) 10 courses with paired wines (menu will be shown below). As a result of the arrangement (and of the wine), everyone began chatting with each other non-stop throughout the dinner and decibels were rising towards the end. We made a number of friends: an Israeli couple living just outside Paris, a French manager working at a Michelin-starred restaurant and his British girlfriend, and an American gay couple. The food wasn't extremely impressive (if you were to compare to other fine-dining restaurants) but we absolutely love the whole experience of dining at someone's house and making new friends over good food & good wine. The casual atmosphere made us feel quite at ease.

The courses that I liked: linguini with mussels & clams, stewed rabbit, crispy pork belly

The hosts: Braden & Laura, as well as Meg the assistant posing beside their really really petite kitchen!

Nearing the end of the meal, their terrier came out to greet all of us :) It's cute how he rest his head & paws on the table..not to beg for food or anything but just to say hi.

The meal lasted 4 hours. Wanted to head out for some halloween party after that but we were too tipsy after 6 glasses of wine & 1 vodka. Heh.

Name: Hidden Kitchen

Website: www.hkmenus.com

Expenditure: 90€pp with wine pairing

Cooking Adventures & more

1. Hainanese chicken rice with 油菜
2. Oriental pork chop with 'lee kum kee' sauce
3. Chinese-style steamed fish with 'chai po' omelette
4. Half a cooked cold crab with lots of roe (only 3.70€ from the market!)

Visited Claude Monet's exhibition at the Grand Palais last Saturday night. It was awesome. Such a rare opportunity to be able to enjoy all (if not most) of his famous paintings in one place. Took us 2 hours to finish viewing some 100 pieces. Tiring but worth every minute!

Runs till 24th Jan 2011. Tickets should definitely be bought in advance. More info at http://www.monet2010.com/en#/home/.