L'Ourcine

Rafael and I went to L'Ourcine today after a recommendation by Amir. I had been anticipating this trip as I have also read some amazing reviews of this place.

Amuse bouche - carrot soupe (which was put in a siphon, then plated) with tiny croutons. Delicious.


Fish soupe - Raf loved it


Terrine de celeri rave and foie. Very refreshing and light even with the foie.


Rabbit. This is probably the best rabbit I have had. Meat fell off the bone and melted in your mouth.


Filet de couchon. It was perfect.


My side of brussel sprouts


Riz au lait. The best I have had thus far. It had dates and caramel on top.


Tarte l'inversée. Pineapples on the bottom, fromage blanc, and pate sablée. F'in good sh*t. Rafael was crazy about this dessert (and so was I).


Everything here was perfectly cooked and plated. Raf and I were so impressed with this little bistro hidden in the 13th. It's passing up Au Fils des Saison... and up there with L'Ardoise simply because they did both cuisine and pastry without error. It's simple food done extremely well - no frills.

L'Ourcine
92, Rue Broca
75013 Paris
Tel: 01 47 07 13 65‎

Au Fils Des Saisons (again)

Went back to an old favorite of mine - Au Fil Des Saisons. Raf, Amir, and Nina have not been here yet.

I ordered foie again (call me crazy). It wasn’t as good as last night but still ok.


I had to order the goose again. I loved it.


They added grapes, and onions cooked in red wine and jus which was an excellent idea.


And they changed the potatoes to gratin which was also a good idea. The potatoes last time were too rich. These were still rich but tastier.


Raf and Nina both got the confit de canard (cooked for 7 hours, their signature). Raf left the plate totally clean.

Here is Amir with his dish of cote de veau in a truffle jus. He LOVES truffles, can’t you tell? This dish was really good.


For dessert, trio of 3 chocolat fondants.


I was so stuffed by this point but managed to eat one of them and a bite of the rest. I didn’t want to insult the owner of the place by not finishing my food. ;) Nina got a lot of shit for not finishing everything. It was hilarious.

Another excellent meal. I think that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

Au Fil des Saisons‎
6, Rue Fontaines du Temple
75003 Paris
Tel: 01 42 74 16 60‎

Oh yah ~ Happy Halloween!

Chez Flo + Jazz Club

Met up with Nina for an early dinner at a very traditional brasserie called Chez Flo in the 10th.

Had SUPERB foie gras.


However, my fried merlan dish wasn’t that great. Too much batter and over-fried. I remember when we made this at school (it was excellent, of course). It’s okay, I was still quite satisfied from lunch.


Nina got the Alsatian plate.


Chez Flo
7, Cour Petites Ecuries
75010 Paris
Tel: 01 47 70 13 59‎

We had to hurry since we were running late for the jazz concert that was playing closeby.

30 minutes late, but on time. They started playing 15 minutes later. (Pee Wee Ellis, Fred Wesley - Americans)


The Froomies (French). Unfortunately, the singer, Kristle is not pictured.


Was really cool !

Ferrandi visit + Robert & Louise

Stopped by ESCF Ferrandi so that I could finally show what I had been doing for 9 months. Raf was quite impressed and a little inspired to take a class or two.

Here he is in my chef whites. It fits him perfectly! Wth!


Here is Chef doing a demo.


And Amir working hard! (More like hardly working)


And here we are trying to look tough.


We had reservations at lunch at Robert & Louise right after. Sound familiar? It was presented on Bourdain’s show when he visited Paris. I had been anticipating this visit for quite some time.

Here I am showing off my new favorite t-shirt that Raf bought me.




All the meat here is cooked over a charcoal grill which I LOVE. The tiny restaurant is semi filled with smoke when you walk in.




It was an f’in good decision to come here. We ordered the Cote de Beouf for two people.


SO GOOD!!! Perfectly cooked, medium rare beef. Duck-fat fried potatoes. Fresh salad. Red Wine. Fresh baguette. Water. Everything you need for a healthy and balanced diet, non ?


And they gave us a free lemon meringue tart !


Ahhhh we were definitely happy after this meal and did a pretty good job finishing 99% of everything. Food coma was taking over quickly so we met up with Amir, Amanda, and Anistar at Café Malonga.


What a wonderful day so far.

Robert et Louise
64, rue Vieille du Temple
75003 Paris
Tel.: 01 42 78 55 89

Aki + L'As du Fallafel

I’m SO HAPPY that Raf has come to visit me in Paris.

Where did we go for his first meal here? JAPANESE! Ahhaha. He got Tonkatsu-don and I got Katsu-curry. It was really good!


Isn’t he adorable?


And for dinner we went to L’As Du Fallafel. OMG, I LOVE this place!


The tzaziki is bland but everything is great. I never realized how delicious the fries are here. Raf claims that Amir’s Fallafel in NYC is better (sans the pita bread).



L'As du Fallafel
32, Rue Rosiers
75004 Paris
Tel: 01 42 77 89 94‎

Degustation de nous

This morning, Amir and I went to the market to prepare a degustation for dinner. Afterwards, we stopped by a Chinese restaurant in Belleville for some lunch.

This restaurant served hand-made noodles. Here is their version of Beef-noodle soup. The broth is really bland compared to the real stuff, probably because the French don’t like too many spices. It was more like noodles in a beef stock. But it was fresh and light.


We didn’t start the mise en place until around 16h30. It was all good though.


First course (Amanda)– gambas marinated in coconut milk, ginger, and lime juice.


Second course (Amir) – scallops in a yogurt/curry sauce, and epinards.


I invited Rudy over for dinner. The other girl is the cousin of Amir’s roommate.


Third course (Amir) – monk fish and artichauts in an olive marinade.


Fourth course (Amir) – Duck breast, pear and noisette with brown butter, potatoes


Fifth course (Me) – Filet de beouf marinaded in olive oil, oregano, and garlic, then roasted with lardo. Sauces – reduced port, tzaziki sauce (not pictured). Epinards with crisp lardo.


Sixth & Seventh course (Amanda, me) – Bailey’s chocolate ice-cream, figues financiers.


Eighth course – Fromage, of course !


Dinner was so delicious! It was nice to make things the way we wanted to.

And we did some arm wrestling afterwards.




By the end of the night, we were all having food coma. Especially Amir. His eyes were half-closed while he was still standing up. I think our meal was a success.

Dîner de Camaroon

Today Nina invited me to a little soirée at her apartment – she made a delicious meal, Camaroon style. She also made this delicious baked loaf of duck wrapped with lard and cheese. I love home-cooked food. Nina is an excellent cook and was a cuisiniere many many years ago.



Roasted chicken, peas and peppers, and a peanut sauce made with coconut milk.


We made smoothies for dessert to accompany the brownies I made.



Bon App !

Kitchen Design class

Today was the last class of a series of kitchen design. A couple of the directors of the Anglo program graciously allowed me to take a couple of the classes. The class was for the Anglo pastry class and was taught by Monsieur Nian, a former pastry chef, and current consultant for miscellaneous things like chocolate mold-making and of course, kitchen design.

He's really good and knows his sh*t.


My special notebook that I bought from Muji - strictly for any restaurant ideas or food-related business ideas. This is my very rough sketch of my kitchen.


Monsieur Nian


The last class, he focused a lot on chocolate mold-making. He gave the class some clay to create molds (I did not participate since I don't plan on having a chocolate shop). One of the students in this year's pastry class is hardcore and went all out. He even went to a store outside of Paris and spent 60 Euro on this special kind of clay.

Imagine eating a huge piece of chocolate molded like this:


Ferrandi is on the map!


Monsieur Nian's creation. Cool, huh?

The mold on the left is the final piece used for chocolate.