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 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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The rest of my adventure in Paris: Part I

Phew! I loved Paris and still love it, but I'm just so over writing about it because there are too many things to write. So this will be primarily a photo blog. I should've just worked on posts while there or something instead of just saving it to be one big (too big) project.  So here goes!

We walked past tons of Starbucks and it was really our go-to when we need a bathroom break.  But check out there dessert case offerings!!! We sure don't have any of that where I live. I have to say their dessert case is better than the ones I've seen in the U.S.

This was from Amorino which I've heard has opened in the U.S. - one in New York and I believe the other in Las Vegas. On the left, I got the chocolate sorbet, stracciatella, and I can't remember what the other flavor was, maybe rum raisin? I absolutely looovvveeed the chocolate sorbet, it was so rich and dark. Mom got the mango sorbet, pistachio, and I think it was either hazelnut or coffee. Pistachio is always a safe choice and I get obsessed with it. She loved the mango and she was right to - it was so fresh and bright, like eating a frozen mango.

We stopped by Angelina at the Galeries Lafayette and they had a special strawberry jam filled mont blanc. It was divine.

So I had to take a picture of their vending machines - all the bottles are upside down! And their vending machines have way more junk food than the ones in the U.S.

Being a peanut butter lover, I always looked for it at the supermarkets. They always ended up being in the foreign foods section which kind of humored me. But man! Talk about sticker shock, it was 6,99 euros for Reese's. I was in Paris when the euro cost $1.30.

I really wanted to try a babu au rhum but since my mom got a little too obsessed with eating sandwiches, we didn't get to try many restaurants. This was a baba au savarin at the bread shop near my hotel. It was alright, but I still want to try a fresh babu au rhum at a restaurant.

That's a matcha green tea and adzuki bean mousse/filling and a matcha macaron. I remember not really getting much matcha flavor, but I'd have to try this place out again (oh darn) to see if maybe I had too many sweets that day to really distinguish anything from SUGAR. This was from Sadaharu Aoki at the Lafayette Gourmet. If you're reading this blog, then you're a foodie and you MUST VISIT Lafayette Gourmet.

The name of this place escapes me and I can't even remember where it was... I think somewhere near Fauchon. But that was a honey-ish glazed chicken and I thought my mom wasn't going to like it since she's not that fond of chicken, but she ended up really liking it.

I had much too much food in the form of sweets and really couldn't take in anything else, but was was hungry... you know that feeling? It's called being nutritionally deficient because you stuffed your face with nutritionally empty cakes and sweets. So I got a salad.  It was delicious.  I like how it was a salad mix of raw lettuce and cooked vegetables. It came with prosciutto which was the first time I've tried it, but now it makes absolute sense to have prosciutto with everything. I think it's even better than bacon. Those are slice of bread from the famous Poilane.

This was a raspberry eclair from Paul bakery - we stopped by for lunch one day. I got suckered into their prix fixe deal when I saw their pastry case.

And of course, mom got a sandwich. I opted for a salad. I was suffering from lack of vitamins, minerals, and FIBER. TMI? Well, that's the truth.

Ya can't go to Paris without visiting their famed bridges full of locks!!!

Breakfast at Eric Kayser one day. Those financiers are addictive. That's a pistachio financier, I bought a bag with a mix of vanilla, chocolate and pistachio. They're dangerous and absolutely worth it.

That was a sandwich full of flax seeds on the bread. It was alright. I need to try the long baguette style sandwiches with prosciutto. This was a ciabatta type bread.

Part II and the last pics from Paris will be coming up soon!

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