Leon de Bruxelles; La Defense

S is back in s'pore for the week to run some errands. Lucky her. Able to eat kway chap hokkien mee and the likes. *drools* 3 weeks in and I'm already missing food back home so much! Grr. But I'm also not doing that bad la. Heading over to London tmr to visit my cousin Elaine :D So nice of her to put me up at her place. Will be chiong-ing the chinese food there! Received many food recommendations already so the excitement is boiling. Expecting to spend the bulk of my $ on eating. Wheee..

Ok back to Paris. S' friend Charmaine (when she was here last week) wanted to bring us to this mussel place at Champs Elysees but couldn't find it. So S and I returned another day and managed to locate the not-so-elusive-afterall restaurant. Gosh we loved it. If you're ever in Paris, please go for it. Cheap (by europe standard) for its quality and quantity! So good we patronized it again the next day. Aha. 1 pot has at least 50 mussels. More than enough for 2 persons. We were just saying how we weren't really fans of mussels as they're usually overcooked/tough (like when cooked in seafood spaghetti etc.) But this was soft and juicy and tasty! No fishy clammy taste at all. Chose the white wine base but will definitely do the tomato base some time. Cold prawn appetizer & fried smelts (small fish) were not bad as well. Not forgetting the unlimited fries.

Name: Leon De Bruxelles

Location: Champs-Elysees

Website: www.leon-de-bruxelles.fr

Total expenditure: 30€

And here are just some photos of the La Defense area where I'm putting up right now. The Grande Arche de la Defense. Huge structure/building that houses many offices as you can see from the windows on the inside.

La Defense is actually outside Paris but you can still see the Arc de Triomphe. In fact, you can see the Arc and the Eiffel Tower from almost anywhere in Paris! Just shows you how small Paris is.

Sam's Place

Feasting at sam's place again! Since it's a lil warmer now, we bravely headed upstairs for our starters. Alfresco-style... very nice. Dabao-ed the cheap oysters I mentioned previously and some good sashimi/sushi from a small shop near S' office. SO hard to find good japanese food here, so we're both super thankful for this.

Restaurant Georges at Centre Pompidou

It's warming up already. For the first time, I can step out wearing three quarts and just 2 layers. No more jeans and white jacket (if u have observed from several of my past photos). Whoo!

Met Bel & Sam for dinner again (since they're stuck & i'm sure you know why) at Restaurant Georges at Centre Pompidou. Food not worth mentioning since too pricey for its quality, but the view's definitely nice enough for me to want to head back there again! Drinks this time, at the alfresco area. Huge restaurant although only about 40% filled. Wonder why they always required reservations. But yeah, worth a visit I would say. Especially during the evening when the sun is setting...

Name: Georges Restaurant at Centre Pompidou
Location: Place Georges Pompidou, 4th arrondissement
Total expenditure: 45€ per head

Le Cordon Bleu

Attended a Le Cordon Bleu cooking demonstration last Sat and it was quite enjoyable. The 3-hour class is called 'Cooking for Friends' and the menu that day includes Langoustine (a type of prawns) tartare with virgin olive oil, Sauteed beef steak Bordelaise style with patato gratin and French green beans, and Licorice flavored souffle. Sounds complicated already? Wait till you get down to the real action! Only a list of ingredients were given to us, not the recipe. So we had to copy notes like lecture students throughout the demonstration. Was a little flustered and confused regarding the sequence of steps. Zzz. (Have to compile the 3 different versions of notes later.) Don't think we'll be able to cook this up on our own, especially the souffle! Ultra hard work. Maybe, just maybe, the potato gratin? Looks easy enough :)

Our chef, and his young translator. Quite humorous. Not grouchy like how he looks in this photo.. Heh.

This photo doesn't do the food justice at all!!

Tada, my fav - the langoustine tartare (like prawn sashimi)

And so you can see, we were rewarded with a degustation of what he cooked. Rather substantial actually. Loved it. The other 2 weren't really fans of the red wine reduced sauce for the beef, and also not too used to the licorice flavoured souffle. I, being the glutton, ate up everything :D

First home-cooked meal; Paris Marathon

Our first home-cooked meal.. pork chop. Love our standard everyday entree: cheese, ham/jamon, foie gras/pate, greens & crackers. Getting very frenchy ;)

Went to Foch Avenue last Sunday to support S' friends at the Paris Marathon. A pity we couldn't catch them at the finishing line as our eyes had to fish through 40,000 runners. It was great though to see marathoners of seriously ALL shapes and sizes and ages. We even saw a banner cheering for someone who's 80 years old!

Here are the 3 super achievers: Sam, Sharon and Bel. I have to take my hats off them. Running 40km in the blistering cold!! Well done.

That night, we went to Sam's place, which boasts an absolutely breath-taking view of Paris. Photo taken at the rooftop of the penthouse. I was in awe the moment I stepped into the apartment.

And this is what we saw while we were enjoying an excellent dinner (thanks to the 3 chefs) with excellent wine (thanks S for sharing your 86 Pichon)...

Apparently the Eiffel Tower glitters every night at 10pm and then hourly until I don't know what time. So prettyyyyy...