Banh Mi - Paris

New Banh Mi Shop Opens in Lil Wenzhou
I love banh mi, Puffin - I cannot seem to get enough of it. It's cheap, quick, fresh, spicy and delicious. This new shop is genius - it's simply named after the sandwich! It opened this week, within 50 feet of my front door in Lil Wenzhou. That's what I call the small area near Arts & Metier which is chock full of Chinese restaurants and shops, many opened by immigrants from Wenzhou, China.

Huré - Paris

The Rich Get Richer...
Some blocks in Paris barely have anywhere to eat, others have a place sprinkled here and there. Then there is rue Rambuteau - specifically, the two blocks between rue Beaubourg and rue des Archives. It's ridiculous: 3 green grocers, 3-4 brasseries, two Chinese restaurants, a Greek traiteur, two butchers, a creperie, an Italian restaurant, a fish monger, and the patisseries Pain de Sucre, Pralus, Berko Bakery as well as an outlet of LeGay Choc and probably 3-4 more things I'm forgetting. Now, out of nowhere, a brand new patisserie called Huré.

Djakarta Bali - Paris

She Was So Pretty, With Ribbons in Her Hair...
I spend a lot of time wandering the streets of Paris, it's one of my favorite things to do. On Saturday I was meandering near Les Halles when I saw her. She was stunning. Gorgeous. I crossed the street for a closer look. She was unlike the French ones - dressed in Indonesian finery and exotically perfumed. My throat tightened slightly. It was the hope from searching a long time for something and finally finding it.

Le Mirage - Paris

You Say Lactose, I Say Intolerant
When your body rejects dairy, there's nothing so stubborn or rebellious as four cheese pizza. It's self-hate, quatre fois! I'm still on a anti-French food kick deep in the middle of Paris, which can set you searching far and wide during lunch. Luckily, Le Mirage is an Italian spot about 10 minutes walk from the job that serves pasta and pizza.

Paris Hanoi - Paris

We're On a Vietnamese Kick These Days.....
Hey, what do you want from me? I'm tired of French food at the moment so I'm looking for other things. When I learned of a nearby Vietnamese restaurant I talked a somewhat reluctant colleague into joining me for lunch. I couldn't resist when I saw Banh Cuon on the menu. It was ok, but since I was mentally comparing it to this, there was little chance for it to stand out.

Gérard Mulot - Paris

Surprise, Surprise.....
You probably already know about the incredible cakes at Gérard Mulot. They stand at attention in the window like a small army - polished and attentive.

Saigon Sandwich - Paris

Cheap, Fast, Spicy! Are We in Paris??
Kinda tired of French cuisine at the moment so I was looking for a spicy jolt out of the doldrums. I'd read some nice things about this banh mi spot in Belleville called Saigon Sandwich (not to be confused with Paris Sandwich in NY's Chinatown) and went to try it for lunch. Belleville's not exactly around the corner from where I work, but thanks to my employer's generous two hour lunch rule (ok, I actually made up the rule) I had plenty of time to jump two trains to check it out.

Rose Bakery - Paris

Waiting for Pancakes.....
I'm back in Paris after a few weeks in SE Asia and have slammed on the brakes to slow to Paris pace. It ain't so easy to do, things can be agonizingly slow here. I'm all for the slow food movement, but not when the slowness is a 40 minute wait for pancakes. Rose Bakery opened a branch close to my apartment in the 3rd and I go there from time to time for breakfast. Pingle is a huge fan of the pancakes so I ordered some because I was missing her. That's when I opened up my International Herald Tribune and began to read. When I got to about page 10 I heard someone at a nearby table asking what happened to their pancake order.

Baba Charlie's - Malacca, Malaysia

Lesser Men Just Use Their Garage to Store Their Cars
Day two of our Malacca food tour we headed to an out of the way spot for some Nyonya Kueh, which can best described as bite-size treats. I mean "out-of-the-way" literally, as in down a dusty side street in a residential area, far from town.

Bukit China Stalls - Malacca, Malaysia

The Mee Goreng Steals the Show
On our foodie road trip from Singapore to Melaka, Malaysia we made our first stop at Bukit China, just outside Malacca town. The word Bukit means hill in Malay, so literally we were stopping at the Chinese Hill, the bottom of which has some food stalls that sell various types of noodles. Pingle had been here before and was returning for the mee rebus, a boiled egg-noodle dish served with a gravy made from curry powder, potatoes, soy beans, dried shrimps and peanuts. Some boiled egg and sprouts were thrown into this version for good measure.

La Place Cafe - Hanoi

A Different Kind of Juice Place
We tried the street juice in the morning and turned in a different direction later in the day. La Place cafe had air conditioning and even colder juices, hard for the street sellers to beat when it's close to 100 degrees.