U Palazzu, Pigna, Corse, France

Pigna is a medieval city in Haute Corse, near Calvi, and known as one of the "most beautiful villages" of France. The best place to stay in this pedestrian village is probably the rehabilitated Genoese palace U Palazzu.

U Palazzu has also a restaurant featuring beautiful Corsican food that is best enjoyed in the garden of U Palazzu. For those who know us (and to answer the new mummy J.), this is THE restaurant.

We ate twice at U Palazzu. Once, for lunch, we had a steak tartare and roasted lamb cutlets with sauté potatoes. Not exactly suitable for a hot and sunny day but very nice though. And we can not only eat salad during summer, can we?

Steak tartare

Roasted lamb

For dinner, we continued our carnivore diet, with a nice Corsican red wine.

The great reveal samosas

The "Feuilleté a la reine" was a vol-au-vent with veal, mushrooms and quenelles. I can't say this dish was refined, but it tasted delicious and besides, I absolutely LOVE quenelles.

Vol-au-vent with veal,  mushrooms and quenelles

The other main was a Saltimbocca in a rich, creamy sauce. Very filling and yummy.

Saltimbocca

As a dessert, we had some fresh brocciu (how original) and were offered some limoncello and orange wine to celebrate unforgettable holidays.

Cost: EUR 10-20 for starters, EUR 20-23 for mains

L'Hippocampe, Marseille, France

Last week I craved for a Bouillabaisse, and had it in the Old Port of Marseille as it must be.

 Bouillabaisse, croutons and rouille

Fried cuttlefish with grilled vegetables and saffron rice

Bouillabaisse, which used to be made with fish remains is now an expensive dish. It can be prepared with up to 10 different fishes but an anthentic bouillabaisse must contain at least those three: scorpionfish, conger and sea robin. I am not sure my bouillabaisse was authentic but I love fish soup and this one tasted good.

The fried cuttlefishes were also fresh and nicely prepared with garlic and parsely.

Al fresco dinner, overlooking the Old Port of Marseille was a very good way to conclude the week-end.

Cost: 39 Eur for the "small" bouillabaisse

15 Eur for the cuttlefish dish

Brasserie des étangs, Brussels, Belgium

Last week, I had lunch at the terrace of Brasserie des étangs, in the prosperous Woluwe area of Brussels. Resolved to have a typical Belgian meal I ordered grey shrimp croquettes. Unfortunately I was not the only one with this craving and was told the kitchen was running out of croquettes! Devastated, I ordered a tuna carpaccio instead, followed by a casserole of mussels with fries une fois. My guest went for the cassolette of violet artichokes and tomatoes, and chose also to start her mussel season.

Tuna carpaccio with rocket salad

Violet artichokes and tomatoes casserole

Mussels cooked in white wine

The tuna tasted good, but the slices were too thick to be called carpaccio, or the Chef seriously needs to sharpen his knife. The mussels were big and meaty. All in all, Brasserie des étangs is decent place for a business lunch but next time they would better have some croquettes!

Cost: Starters: 10-15 EUR, Mains: 20-25 EUR

The menu:

Le Gabin, Paris, France

Le Gabin is a small local restaurant located  in the 18ème arrondissement, serving traditional French bistro dishes.

More than the food, we enjoyed the pleasant terrace where we could seat a party of 15 people. The waiters were not particularly nice (Paris sera toujours Paris) but still, we stayed until 2am drinking affordable beers on the slopes of the butte Montmartre.

 Sea bream and avocado tartare

Le Touquet new potatoes and pan-fried Foie Gras

 Sirloin steak

 Slow-cooked lamb shank with eggplants and green beans

The Sea bream tartare was lacking seasoning, and the sirloin steak was less than average. Apparently, the new potato salad and the lamb shank were excellent. For once, Mister Sardine made a better choice.

Overall, Le Gabin was a good venue for al fresco dining in a quiet street of Montmartre, even if standards were miles behind Chez Bruno's, an amateur trattoria next door.

Cost: 2 courses for 20 EUR, 3 courses for 25 EUR

Affordable wines

 

The menu:

Some pictures from Chez Bruno:

Paris mushrooms teriyaki

Melon and duck breast salad

 Cheese platter

Redcurrant meringue tarte

The sommelier's choice

The Chef at work

Parador de Granada, Granada, Spain

Like most people who tour Andalusia, we saved a day to go and see l'Alhambra in Granada. In order to get some strength before the visit of that magnificent Moorish palace, we indulged ourselves with some "nibbles" at the bar of the restaurant of Parador de Granada.
The latter, also name Hotel San Franciso is Spain's most popular parador as it is a luxury boutique hotel built in a fifteenth century convent, inside the Alhambra.

The restaurant menu looked nice but we wanted to enjoy the fair weather al fresco, and picked some very decent dishes from the bar menu. Their gazpacho was actually one of the best I have ever had (I hope it is not a bottled gazpacho, otherwise my reputation is ruined) and I liked it much better than the Salmojero from Cordoba.

The octopus was well cooked and came with some tasty vermicelli pasta. The pork loin was all we love about Spanish fast food, a good old “plato combinado” with fried eggs and delicious peppers. Great!

Overall it was a good experience. Service was fast, the terrace was relaxing with a nice view of the valley and the food was substantially above average for a quick lunch break. Go there if you pass by. Or even better, stay at the hotel…

Andalusian gazpacho

Grilled pork loin roll with fried eggs and peppers

Paul the octopus with angel hair pasta

Cost: 10-20 EUR per dish (from the Bar menu)

A sample of the menu:

Vineria San Telmo, Seville, Spain

Located in the Santa Cruz barrio, Vineria San Telmo offers fresh and delectable tapas at a very decent price.

It was after savouring an extensive selection of tapas at the terrace of this crowded eatery that I decided to support Spain for the World Cup. Not that I care much about football, but the country which produces the mouth-melting bellota ham definitely deserves my full devotion.

As its name suggests, Vineria San Telmo also offers a large selection of wine, but having spent the day under the burning sun of Andalusia, we went for sangria instead to cool down.

The menu was enticing and we wanted to try everything. Despite the temperature at 45°C we were ready to have a proper feast and the waitress had to calm down our enthusiasm as we started to order frenetically one dish after the other. Apparently 10 tapas would be enough for two. Indeed, it was.

Marinated raw salmon with olive and caper tapenade

Raw gambas carpaccio with sesame seeds and soy sauce

 Jamon ibérico de bellota

 Sauté mushrooms with deep-dried onions

Tomato, eggplant and goat cheese "rascacielos" 

(=skyscrapers, why on earth this name?)

Tuna a la plancha with onion tempura and garlic sauce

Argentinian veal with mustard sauce

 Foie gras a la plancha with lichi

 Spanish beef filet with dried grapes and pine nuts sauce

Chorizo criollo

Our favourite tapas were the raw salmon, the raw prawns carpaccio (so fresh), the bellota ham (yummy), the "skycrapers" (!) , the veal and the beef. Personally, I also enjoyed the foie gras very much but the texture may not suit everybody's taste.

The weaknesses were the mushrooms (not savoury enough, which is quite surprising as Spanish cuisine tends to use a lot of salt) and the tuna (I like my tuna steaks pink and those were slightly overcooked).

We were so full after our ninth dish that we hardly tried the chorizo criollo. At that point I would have gladly swapped it for a lime sorbet. Had it been served at the beginning of the meal, we would have certainly appreciated it.

We paid 60 EUR for ten tapas and two jugs of sangria. It is probably possible to find cheaper tapas in Seville, but given the freshness of the ingredients you will find at Vineria San Telmo, it is worth paying the extra.

Cost:  3-5 EUR  per tapa, 5 EUR for a jug of sangria.

A sample of the menu: