Mooey's Birthday

Moo's move to Munich has meant that her life is comparatively Asian deprived.  All those things she took for granted in Oz are simply not available in good old Bavaria.  Paris is a city with a large Asian community and Moo needed to take advantage of that and eat Viet food.

Each time I've attempted to eat at Le Bambou has been foiled by one reason or other.  Today was the day when I'd be successful.   It wasn't full for lunch - yay! - and we were seated immediately.  It's a good thing that Moo and I recognise what dishes we wanted from the Viet menu, not needing the French or English translations.  

So happy to eat food on sunny day in Paris. 

Moo hasn't had spring rolls in aeons and wanted that for her main.  Sugarcane prawns for entree.  

What you traditionally do with the sugarcane after you've eaten the prawn mince - pretend to smoke it. 

I ordered my regular - pho special beef.  This bowl was massive.  I ordered the large bowl thinking it would be the standard size in Oz, but this was like a bucket of pho.  I can't complain - look at all that stuff!!! 

This is a big, big, BIG call but I have to say.... this was the BEST BOWL OF PHO I've ever had and well, I've eaten a freaking heap of pho in my life.  It had all the usual trimmings and they were very generous portions.  However, I will point out a few things which may not appeal to other pho connoisseurs.  Most bowls of pho have a fairly clear broth, this one was exceptionally dark.   I would guess that the flavour achieved by the clear soups would be partly (or even mainly) due to the addition of MSG.  The broth was quite sweet and this was probably achieved by adding extra rock sugar or hoi sin sauce.  Not everyone would like that but I always add hoi sin to my pho bowl!!  It was like getting a bowl with pre-added hoi sin.  

The next thing on Moo's to-list-in-Paris-Chinatown list was 'buy a claypot'.  Boring stuff but Moo just wanted to soak in the atmosphere of being in an Asian grocery.  Aaaaah, feels like home.  Afterwards, we did a spot of shopping at BHV which despite my numerous visits to Paris was unaware of it's existence.  

Moo and I decided that we needed extra time to pretty ourselves up for dinner and returned to the apartment to make the necessary transformation.  Dinner was in the Bastille area at Bofinger - no, not Bo-finger mate, it's Bo-fon-zhay *french accent* - a brasserie which has become something of a Parisian institution.  We had super helpful waiters who were obliging with our crappy French but we also had the assistance of two native speakers on our table.  I've read some bad reviews complaining about their service but we had nothing of the sort tonight.  

Some of our food: 

Foie gras.  I learnt tonight that when eating with brioche, you do not spread it like butter (Oh non!  So not French!) but rather you cut it and place it on the brioche.  Moo's langoustine salad.  My omega3 grilled salmon.  

 Well I can't leave a nice restaurant without dessert and I can't enough crème brûlée.  I was even more impressed when they flambé-d it.  I've never had it flambé-d before!  

Afterwards we took advantage of our proximity to the Paris bar district and returned to where Moo and her friends got trashed more than half a decade ago.  

My cocktail.  Served with sugared, soured marshmallows.  Not a nice addition.  

It dawned on us that we weren't getting any younger and the best decision for the night was to catch one of the last Metros home rather than party on like little tikes.  We needed to rest up for tomorrow's fun!