tag: food

There are some restaurants that do just one thing, and do it so well that every person who visits the town it graces is compelled to visit.

You see that plate of langoustines? €22. For serious. And they were head-sucking, finger-licking good. Simply grilled with some mystery herbs and seasonings, served with a big pile of hot fries.

I mean, there are other things on the menu. These mussels were good, too. But every single person in that fully-booked restaurant was there for one thing.

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Posted in: dining out, paris | Tags: bastia, bastia restaurant, corsica, dinner, food, france, langoustine, langoustine restaurant bastia, langoustines, restaurant recommendations bastia, seafood, shelllfish, travel | 16 COMMENTS

I’ve had a mild obsession with Jamie Oliver for years — I used to come home from school and watch him on Food Network. It’s cooks like him that started me on the road to being the food-obsessed girl I am now. So, I couldn’t go to London without visiting one of his restaurants.

Barbecoa is on prime real estate with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on Saint Paul’s Cathedral, specializing in dishes centered around meat and fire, whether it’s steak on grills, chicken roasted in wood-fired ovens, or pit-smoked beef. It’s a testosterone-filled menu, though with the occasional delicate touch like my cocktail: a Death in the Afternoon with a rose petal for garnish.

Honestly, I felt a bit out-of-place. We went during lunchtime and were quickly surrounded by suits. Not that there’s anything wrong with suits, but the folks around us were clearly more interested in closing the deal than the (quite good) food in front of them.

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Posted in: dining out, travel | Tags: all the meats, barbecoa, barbecoa london, bourgeois, england, food, jamie oliver, jamie oliver barbecoa, london, london restaurant, lunch, meat, o, restaurant, suits, travel, uk, united kingdom | 0 COMMENTS

Duck Soup is the little wine bar I mentioned on my last post about London. We passed by it on the street and I did a double-take: I was sure I’d read about this place somewhere. The menu looked good. We walked in, and were immediately seated at two empty bar stools.

It’s in the same vein as some of my favorite spots in Paris: mostly natural wines and seasonal cooking with smallish, shareable plates. I would eat like this every day if I could. Serendipity, right?

But it was our first meal in London, so it felt wrong to get a glass of Bordeaux. We went for beer instead.

Wikipedia says that hipsterism “fetishizes the authentic.” Well I guess that makes this a hipster bar, what with the hand-written, daily-changing menus (with both smaller “bar” plates and larger “kitchen” plates), the wine menu scrawled on the wall, and the bring-your-own-vinyls policy for the record player, which was spinning Nirvana and the B-52s that night. Not to mention how of-the-moment the plates are.

Torn bits of rich, milky mozzarella atop warm sweet peas and a puddle of olive oil. Spring on a plate.

Wee olives for snacking are always appreciated with a beer or three. Continue Reading

Posted in: dining out, travel | Tags: duck soup, duck soup london, duck soup soho, england, food, hipster london restuarant, hipster restaurant, hipster wine bar, hipsterism, london, london restaurant, neiman marcus chocolate chip cookie, o, restaurant, soho london, soho restaurant, travel, uk, united kingdom | 5 COMMENTS

My new go-to lunch spot is conveniently the same as my go-to wine spot: Verjus bar à vins, which is now serving up excellent sandwiches during the day.

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Posted in: dining out, paris | Tags: food, france, paris, travel, verjus, verjus sandwich, verjus sandwich paris | 6 COMMENTS

Are you on Instagram? Of course you are. Here’s my last month or so via our favorite square photo based social networking platform.

It’s been a month of late nights, lunches, beer, and bourbon. If you’d like to see what’s going on through the lens of my iPhone, you can find me under dianeabroad.

Posted in: life, paris | Tags: food, france, instagram, paris, paris instagram, photos, social networking, travel | 4 COMMENTS

One of the things I miss most about LA is the wide array of ethnic restaurants available. From Korean to Persian to Ethiopian to Chilean, it’s easy to find solid, authentic, and often cheap eats from all over the world there.

Don’t get me wrong, Paris does have quite a few restaurants specializing in cuisines from other lands, but often (notably as is the case with sushi), it’s mediocre and overpriced. That’s why I love Happy Nouilles so much.

Located near Arts et Métiers, Happy Nouilles is a solid Chinese restaurant that specializes in noodle soups with hand-pulled noodles.  I always go for the “Zati,” which has minced pork in a spicy miso broth. It’s one of the spicier things I’ve tried in Paris, with a heat that seems mild at first slurp but slowly builds up until you’re panting by the end of the bowl. This time around I tried it with filaments de ble instead of the hand-pulled lamen. The knife-cut noodles, similar to Korean kal guk soo, were thick and chewy and will be my new go-to.

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Posted in: dining out, paris | Tags: 75003, asian, cheap eats, cheap paris restaurant, chinese, ethnic restaurants, food, happy noodles, happy nouilles, noodle soups, noodles, paris, paris restaurant, restaurants, travel | 2 COMMENTS

Les Cocottes is one of those restaurants I’ve been hearing about for ages. Two years ago, when I visited Paris for the first time, a friend of mine in LA who had spent part of his honeymoon here insisted that I try one of Christian Constant’s restaurants, as he had had his favorite meal of his entire trip at Le Violon d’Ingres.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to visit this place, but what better way to visit than with resident expert, Carin? I think she goes to Les Cocottes as often as I go to Frenchie bar à vins, which is kind of saying a lot.

Ravioles de langoustines, mousseline d’artichauts

I started with the langoustine ravioli, which has been lauded far and wide in the Paris blog scene as the entrèe to get, and not without cause. The shellfish was as tender and sweet as any I’ve had,  matched perfectly with the rich artichoke mousseline. And hiding the unattractively-colored mousseline under a blanket of creamy foam? Clever trick, that.

All of the dishes here — even the desserts — come in cast-iron Staub cocottes and pans, hence the name. It’s a cute concept, even though lots of these dishes were clearly not actually cooked in the cocottes in which they are served.

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Posted in: dining out, paris, Uncategorized | Tags: 75007, christian constant, food, gaufre, langoustine ravioli, les cocottes, les cocottes paris, paris restaurant, pigeon a l'ail, restaurant, soupe d'asperges, travel, wine | 12 COMMENTS