Chinese Restaurant Discovery ! And La Loco

Andrew and I stumbled upon this Chinese of all Chinese restaurants while we were in the 13th. I mean everything about it screamed Chinese. The decor, the oversized banquet room. The karaoke stage. The TV screens. Tablecloths. Tanks of fish. Waiters uniforms. You name it. You see Chinese food isn't really great in Paris. At least compared to California, and of course, China. BUT based on the decor, we had to try this place. Now most of the Chinese people in Paris come from Wenzhou. At this restaurant, they had things like Peking duck, and dim sum (which is from the South), but why not try it anyway? I mean come on, the decor was catered for Chinese customers!

Hello, Chinese restaurant !


So we ended up ordering some typical fish stir-fried with ginger and green onions. And also Cha niu hu (yes, my ping-ying is way off), which is a flat, rice noodle with bean sprouts, onions, soy sauce and beef - typically a southern Chinese dish. All in all, not bad! Especially for Chinese food in Paris. Granted, it wasn't the best per se, BUT it was good enough to satisfy your Chinese food craving.



It was quite a nice discovery =).

La Chine Masséna
Centre Commercial Masséna 13
18, Avenue de Choisy
75013 PARIS
Tél : 01 45 83 98 88

After dinner, we met up at Canadia's place to pre-game. I think it was about 1am when we decided to leave his apartment. The metro closed already, so we were waiting for a taxi. This random guy asked us if we wanted a ride so we hopped into his car. Why not? I was with three guys, no biggie right? He decided to be a really nice guy. We gave him 20 Euro for driving us all the way to the 18th to meet up with Ede at a club called La Loco. A very Euro-club that played a lot of trance, but they did have a good 10 minutes of hip-hop and NELLY FERTADO. The crowd was a bit icky at first, but it got better towards the night.

Looking sharp


Hi Ede !


Afterwards, we went to a pub next door which turned out to be free and played better music. The entertainment was quite interesting as well.


The night ended at 6am. SIX AM. I need to remind myself that I am older now and that I can't pull all night partying anymore. I was so tired the next day. Never again! HAHAHA

Le Menu Regional: Perigord

Perigordian food:

Rillettes de canard, tranche de pain de campagne.
I love rillettes.


Look at all that fat!


Escalopes de foie gras aux pomelos. And I love seared foie gras!


Carpaccio de Saint-Jacques. This was me and Andrew's dish. A bit tedious slicing the Coquilles St. Jacques but fairly simple.






Aiguillettes de canard saute au poivre, pommes Sariadaises (LOVED it. Duck is my new favorite thing. I think I might like it more than beef!)


Gateaux aux noix. Glace au miel.


So Amanda ended up burning all the walnuts for this dessert. It was a walnut tarte. Chef was like "do you have any idea how expensive that was?" Stuff like this always happens to Amanda.


So far this is one of my favorite regional menus next to Provence.

C'etait très bon !

Poissonerie + resto service

On some Wednesday mornings, we have poissonerie class. Yes, that's right. We start at 8am and don't finish until around 11pm restaurant service. And we do another 8-10 hours of school Thursday and Friday as well. Good training, eh?

Here is a snippet of some of the cool things we get to see and do.







This is fishmonger, Alan Paton. He can filet a fish in like 10 seconds.


It's a race to the finish line!


There is a technique in French called "chatrir" where you have to twist the middle of the tail and pull the intestines out.





Baby












We learned to shuck a bunch of shellfish. Then we ate it with some bread, cheese, and wine.


Class in "action"


After poissonerie class, we have a pause for lunch. Then off to start our mise en place for tonight's service. Today was a bit special because we couldn't work in the big restaurant kitchen. We had to share one kitchen for both classes. On top of that, the school was filming their marketing videos. Lucky me, they asked to interview me in English and French on why I chose the school. I did the first part in English but never got around to doing it in French. I am not too confident in my French speaking abilities to say the least.

Crazy Eldar - we are waiting outside the kitchen


Amanda, Andrew, and I were on the lotte (monkfish) dish. What a bitch it was to peel the thin layers of skin on this thing. Omg, we spent way too much time doing it.


Teamwork!


Cooking risotto - Chef requested that we actually overcook the risotto because 1) most of the clients tonight were much older 2) the French tend to "overcook" pasta, rice, vegetables etc etc. I have learned the French are not a big fan of al dente which sucks because I don't really eat pasta and vegetables at school since they are all cooked to shit.





Plating - for some reason, in the beginning I kept picking up the plaque of fish without a torchon and continued to burn myself. I don't know what I was thinking because I knew those plaques were being flashed in the oven.


Our dish - Risotto de Lotte à l'américaine. , We didn't have a sauce Americaine (obviously) because we kinda fuct up. But it's okay - we fixed it and made another sauce instead. Well actually, we were a bit dans la merde tonight.


Pigeon




Look how hard Eldar is working


End result: Pigeon piqué au réglisse, poire caramélisée, pomme de terre confite


Canada made Civet d'escargots but the only photo I was able to get was this. haha


Anglo B creations:




And pastry








Here is a quick clip of that night (I am not in this one). My chef always tells us to make things more sexy. hahah!



And now the marketing video - can you find me?

Want to be my lil bon-bon ?

It's time for candy, bon-bons, and more candy ! Super cool pastry classes!

Caramel d'amandes avec sel (salt). I can't imagine having caramel without salt now. Heavenly!




Home-made marshmellows. We flavored them with ginger, orange, passion fruit, rose, etc.




Pâtes aux fruits - pretty much jelly candy. This was passion fruit which was delicious.


But we forgot one of the ingredients and had to start over. Look at this mess.


Rasberry






I had cut my marshmellows and jelly candies a bit too big. My chef mentioned it to me and I said in French "Oh the big ones are the American portions and the little ones are the European portions." He got a kick out of that one. =D

Now onto the CHOCOLAT!

Making the praline filling. Doesn't this kinda remind you of.... oh, that scene in Team America? HAHAHA




Don't play with your food.


Spray-painting the filling with chocolate before we coat them in more chocolate. We learned how to temper chocolate in order to have a certain shine to it. Pretty cool!


Action-shot !












I was working pretty quickly with my chocolates and got them done a bit faster than everyone else. Chef was like "deja?" (Already?), and Eldar said "of course, she is Chinese. She is like a factory!" HAHAHA

It's in my blood, I guess. =)