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...
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.
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.
