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Memorial Day Brunch @ Pondicheri

Who doesn't love holidays and what better way to celebrate than with brunch? Brunch/breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, I really can care less about lunch and dinner. There's just something so fun about waking up and eating and starting the day as if you're on vacation. And that's exactly what I did on my day off.

I finally paid a visit to Pondicheri at West Ave. and this place is lovely. Booming with people and fragrant spices, I think I've found my new favorite breakfast place (sorry Barnaby's). That's my plate there, the Masala Eggs which came with a carrot paratha and a choice of either the saffron yogurt or the amchur potatoes. The obvious choice was the potatoes. I really loved this dish and it was pretty decently priced at $8. That carrot paratha is addictive, I can eat that all day. The potatoes are a nice spin on your regular breakfast potatoes and I'm intrigued by amchur/amchoor now.

This is the breakfast thali ($12) my sister ordered which was recently featured on Food & Wine's Houston in 10 Plates article. I should mention that they participate in meatless Mondays... so today their menu offered only vegetarian options. I don't know all the sides, but I tried some of it and it was delicious.

Bro-in-law ordered the Railway Omelette ($10) which is just a mish mash of everything in an omelette atop a carrot paratha. I didn't try but I hear it was good.

Upstairs they have their bake lab + shop, which is a bakery as well as a spice shop. I was perusing the selections while waiting for my sister and was tempted to get the Parsi eggs. Doesn't that look delicious?

These biscuits are humongous and look pretty scrumptious too. I believe on certain days they offer it in an egg sandwich, although I didn't see it on the menu.

A couple of their other offerings... There were a lot more when I came back after eating breakfast downstairs. As I sat there with a cup of coffee waiting for my sister, it was absolute torture to smell all the wonderful baked goods coming fresh out of the oven.

And so I ended up getting some cookies (3 for $6 or $2.50 each). From front to back are: coconut mint (actual mint leaves in the cookie), chili chocolate chip (so gooey), a gluten free chocolate, hazelnut, basil cookie (love the basil against the dark chocolate). The service up here was phenomenal and I didn't catch his name, but the older gentleman who seemed to be heading the area was extremely knowledgeable. We asked if a certain chocolate brioche had nuts and he checked and said no, BUT warned us that their bake shop utilizes nuts all the time so it wouldn't be safe to eat if there was a nut allergy. And I noticed that he used separate tongs for the gluten-free cookie (for all those suffering from celiac disease). And they have a cookie card! Buy 9 and get the 10th free. I'll be taking advantage of this, maybe a little too much.

Pondicheri (Bake Lab is upstairs, accessible via stairs outside)
2800 Kirby, Ste. B132
Houston, Texas 77098
713.522.2022
Breakfast menu served until 3 pm everyday! Don't forget meatless Mondays.

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The rest of my adventure in Paris: Part III (the last part)

Okay, so last post!!!! We got the above cheeses and charcuterie from local shops right next to our hotel, a dedicated cheese shop and a dedicated meat market.  The pate en croute was really good - we didn't have an oven but I bet it would only exponentially make it that much more amazing.  The brie was one of the creamiest bries I've had.  We ate at the Luxembourg gardens where we learned bees were really attracted to our food.

I bought a couple of chocolate from La Maison du Chocolat from the downstairs lobby of the Louvre. It was hot down there!

Tiring of the really rich food in Paris, we opted for some Asian food in Montparnasse.  This was at Rice Noodle and the meal deal came with fried dumpling apps.

I ordered the bun bo - rice noodles with sauteed beef and an egg roll. It's a pretty simple dish that you can't mess up, I was pretty happy with it, considering I never eat Asian food at home.

My mom got pho, which she said wasn't that great. There was no cilantro!!!

And you can see the noodles were all wrong. I found it interesting to have pho from a Chinese place, but then again I noticed in the places we observed in Paris that if you had an Asian restaurant, you cooked all Asian cuisines. Perhaps we should've gone to Chinatown and checked that out. That's on my bucket list for my next Paris visit.

Easy to spot, Rice Noodle.

And of course, ice cream from Berthillon! We never made it to the actual shop, this was form a cart. I got their strawberry sorbet and really wanted their special rose strawberry flavor, but they didn't have it. Mom got pistachio and coffee. They were good, but I still like Amorino better. The sorbet was really, really sweet.

This was my favorite breakfast in Paris!!!! I soooooo want to go back. Eggs & Co. is the brunch destination in Paris if you're a brunch/breakfast fan.

Their brunch menu, which was about 25 - 30 euros consisted of any hot drink (including cappuccinos!), pancakes, fruit, egg dish served with salad and potatoes. They specialize in eggs en cocotte which was AH-mazing. I believe that was creme fraiche it was cooked it and it lended a nice tang to the salty meat and rich eggs.

I ordered just breakfast which was salmon eggs benedict. It was delicious.

This is the cutest restaurant ever. Downstairs has maybe four seats bar-style facing the window. For a dining experience, go upstairs, unless you're tall.

How cute is this little storage area off the dining room? I sat here imagining how people lived in these places centuries ago - it felt so unreal to be in such old historic buildings. I tried to imagine where the bedrooms would be, what the storage area was like and how this whole entire space was used.

This was facing towards the back of the restaurant.  If you turn right, you'll hit the narrow stairs and also the dining room on the other side of the floor.

So, this is it. It only took me almost a whole freaking year to post about my Paris trip. I learned my lesson and won't be so anal about posting links and stuff AND I won't wait to bulk-post about my trip. I'm against taking my laptop on vacations and stuff, but I'll figure something out. I'm in more of a trying new foods mood than trying new recipes lately, so that will be the majority of my future posts for now. I've got a vacation lined up this summer and I plan on eating enthusiastically and posting about those.  Bye for now!

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The rest of my adventure in Paris: Part II

Near the Palais Royal, we visited Japanese restaurant Sanukiya; I think my mom was just done with the common meat and starch dishes and wanted some asian flavors, namely noodles. We actually NEVER go to japanese restaurants at home, but decided to try other asian flavors in a different country. The restaurant is tucked away on a smaller street off a main road and you'll find it when you see the lines outside the restaurant. It's quite a small restaurant with a tiny restroom and when I went, no A/C, but luckily a seat opened up outside. I ordered pork katsu over rice and it came out fast, piping hot, and was delicious. I have a new love for fried food.

It came with a small bowl of soup, which I ended up giving to my mom since I apparently ordered her dry noodles instead of wet and she was wanting a noodle soup.

Look how bit the shrimp tempura was! I think that might've been a poached egg underneath too, yummmm. This place was really good and the food came HOT and fresh. 

The luxor I think is what that's called.

I searched and searched for this place based on the address on tripadvisor and couldn't find it, but ran into it inadvertently on a way different part of town. I can't remember exactly where this was. They sell all sorts of nut mixes and sweet nutty confections, although quite pricey. I'm pretty spoiled by the bulk nut bins at Central Market and Whole Foods, so won't be visiting again.

Walking along the Seine... adding those boat dinners to my bucket list for one day...

The magnificence of the Eiffel Tower, although I didn't really like this area much... at all - it was very touristy and commercial and a lot of pickpockets.

Beautiful structures all around, I'm ashamed to say I didn't really know most of the buildings. 

Another coffee break after shopping on the Champs Elysees. Cappuccino for mom and a shot of espresso for me.

So this was a very fun, cheap, and tasty part of our trip!  We went to Au P'tit Grec on Rue Mouffetard (68 Rue Mouffetard) and there wasn't a line.  I read all about these crepe sandwiches in Tripadvisor and so we HAD TO TRY ONE. 

You can see here how bit they are! I would've split one with my mom, but we couldn't figure out how we would and make it not messy.  We both got the ham and cheese with added egg. Man, do they pile on the cheese! That small amount of veggies does nothing to offset anything. I ate about 1/3 and ended up opening the crepe and just eating the ham and lettuce. This is coming from a cheese fanatic. I would go back here again and it's really so cheap that you don't need to split it, about 6 - 7 euros and it will fill you for hours. But might let them know to go easy on the cheese. I just love the "junkiest" foods sometimes, I miss this place.

So of course we visited Montmarte and Sacre-Coeur. I took the stairs while I paid for mom to take a little trolley thing up... and I beat her! It was a fun run up the stairs. The real feat is getting up the circular stairs to street level from the subway. I thought it would never end.

So inside the church, you're supposed to be quiet and respectful... I saw this man and his mother that gave me quite a chuckle. She was apparently trying to scold him or something but every time she started talking, he just shushed her and pointed to the courtesy signs and this went on for a while and I can tell he was enjoying it. The satisfaction...

I really liked this area, the way the roads were winding and the buildings- it gave me a glimpse into how people may have lived back in the day. 

I don't know how old all the surrounding building were, but I suspect pretty old.

Walking in the shopping areas of Montmarte was pretty fun, although sometimes a challenge for mom because of the hilly geography. I had a hard time getting reception out here on my phone though FYI.

I did some research of a restaurant here that is known for their "gigantic" salads, called Le Relais Gascon. I love big salads and never understand restaurants that serve little tiny salads... I just think, is this supposed to be a snack? Because if I'm eating a meal that is all lettuce, I want a bowl bigger than my face, and that's exactly what I got. Like everywhere else, the bread came out. There wasn't a place with bad bread here. But then again, I love bread, so who knows.

I ordered mom their prix fixe with an app, entree, and dessert. The app was an avocado with shrimp and what tasted like thousand island sauce.  It was alright, shrimp was kinda fishy.

Mom's dinner was a steak and it came with a healthy serving of their famous garlic fried potatoes.

My salad!!! I got the salade du bearnais which came with bacon and bread topped with slices of goat cheese... I also added a chicken breast.  It came topped with their lovely garlic fried potatoes.

Digging my way around the salad - they certainly did not skimp on the bacon. Anywhere I've gone in the states will give you maybe two slices of bacon... I think this place must've given me half a pound!!

I don't know what kind of dressing it was but probably some sort of ranch dressing. The chicken was a lot too underneath the mountain of bacon and potatoes. Gosh, I'm dreaming about this salad and those potatoes!!!

We finished off with some mousse.  Yumyum. By the way, this place is cash only.

The famous Moulin Rouge!!! I didn't see the movie until a a couple months ago and didn't finish. But looking at these pictures after watching the movie just adds a lot more charm to this place.

Stopped by Eric Kayser because I just had to try their praline brioche.

Look at how pretty that is!

With a heapful of it on the inside as well! I don't know if there was much flavor to those pink pralines, it tasted of just sugar, but it gave the brioche some nice contrasting texture.

The real winner at Eric Kayser were the financiers. OMG this was suuuppppeerrrr addictive. It contained varieties of chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio. I thought my favorite would be the pistachio, but it was the vanilla! I brought some back for my sister and she loved them too. These little morsels of almond heaven is making me miss Paris quite a bit.

One more post coming soon for Part III, the last segment of my Paris trip. Whew! Finally.

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