So we were all getting hungry after the events of the morning and decided to roam the streets of Paris for some lunchy-munchy.
And the first thing we did was to have an argument on what to eat. Duh, French food should be the obvious choice. We just landed in Paris!!!!! My mother, on the other hand, was extremely loyal to Chinese food and would vote for it at any given opportunity. My dad couldn't care less so long as he didn't go hungry (although deep down inside I knew he was partial to Chinese food).
I won the argument at last and we settled for this place:
Touch in Paris, a little restaurant nested in the quiet back lanes of Champ-Elysees.
I mean, I wanted French food and you just simply can't go wrong with a name like this right? Besides, we really needed a reprieve from the summer heat. It was about 34degrees out.
The bar and restaurant oozes of French charm.
A cozy touch: collage of pictures make up the feature wall while a chalkboard displays the specials
A well laid out table. Only thing it needs now is food.
I was half right about the name, but everyone won. In addition to French cuisine, there was fusion French-Asian food available as well. Plus, it really wasn't that cool inside. There was no aircon. It dawned on me then and there that most of these places don't have aircon because it was cold most of the time. I guess that means they love to melt in Summer.
Hard rolls were served up first, along with our Evian water and my dad's beer.
Tap water wasn't an option at all, and beer is actually cheaper than water. So much for being healthy. One other thing to note. In France, they serve their baguettes just like that. Don't expect any butter or olive oil to go with your bread. I did love these hard rolls though, they were crisp but not hard, and soft and fluffy on the inside. Yummm.
An English menu was presented to us upon request, and through several hand gestures and laughs, we managed to communicate with the friendly waiter who spoke a little English.
The parents ordered Vietnamese rice wrap with smoked salmon, fresh mango, ginger, coriander and organic bean sprouts and a lobster salad with mango vinaigrette and fresh mango.
(I apologize for the lack of food pictures. The food got attacked before my camera even had a chance.)
I went for Ravioles du Royan in chicken and black truffle jus as a starter, along with cod on risotto as a main course.
And unlike *ahem* others, I had some self-restrain.
Ravioles du Royan is a traditional French dish not to be confused with its Italian counterpart Ravioli.
I have never been a big fan of cheese or French food, but this dish really took it home. The herb and cheese stuffing was well balanced and not overly cheesy - something I'd really hate. This generous portion filled me up pretty quickly and I had to enlist the help of my parents to finish off my next dish.
Perfectly pan seared cod topped the mountainous portion of creamy risotto
The cod risotto (I confess, I forgot what the fancy name was) was even better. The sweet flavour of the cod blended well with the medley of toppings and the risotto. Fish was always a dangerous choice to me because I'm really picky but this was one of the best fish choices I made so far.
Well, how the hell was I supposed to know the portions were so huge. Pretentious French food always boasted of ridiculously miniscule portions that left you so hungry you'd eat a $3 plate of chicken rice after your $500 per pax 7-course French meal. But then again, this place oozes of love for food. Mainly mine though. The food was fresh, flavours, awesome and everything was affordable. Almost all dishes we ordered was less than 15euros except for the lobster salad and the cod risotto.
Totally stuffed, it was time to hit the streets of Paris again.
