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.

Juice Sellers - Hanoi

Vietnamese Juice With a Smile
Forgive me, this is likely to be the least informative post I've ever done. I don't know the name of this place, the address or what juice I drank. It's hard to find certain things out here in Hanoi if you don't speak Vietnamese. Puffin is good at jumping into stuff and pointing, but not the local language. And me? Well, I'm practically useless. All I know is we were thirsty, it was like 100 degrees and the mom and daughter of this juice shop looked very friendly. Pingle pointed at a juice and they invited her in to sit on one of the small seats against the wall.

Banh Cuon Nong - Hanoi

Diving Into the Street Food Scene
You know how someone you love makes you better? That's Puffin. I do stuff with her that I wouldn't do by myself. Case in point - we were walking around Hanoi last night looking for food and she saw a street vendor making something unknown. Check it out. After she watched, Puffin said "that stuff looks good, come on."

Hidden Cafe - Hanoi

Half the Fun is the Climb Up
I will explain what the means shortly. Café Pho Co (Hidden Cafe) has some interesting coffees - this is Egg Milk Coffee. Yes, a coffee with a thick foam of egg and milk on the top. Puffin says it looked like brain, but it was actually quite nice. Thick rich coffee at the bottom with an extra-rich foam that tasted like heavy cream to me. Puffin said it was too "eggy" but I disagree.

Moca Cafe - Hanoi

Warming Up with Something Easy
Puffin and I arrived in Hanoi this afternoon and were starving. We looked for something quick, easy and undaring (more adventurous eating to come.) We were in luck because the Moca Cafe was right across the street from our hotel. She got the beef noodles which were studded with greens, red peppers and mushrooms. (Shhhhh, don't tell her Dad, the practicing Buddhist vegetarion.) She described them as "not bad", which in a Singaporean way means she will eat it but won't necessarily list it for her girlfriends, who arrive a month from now on their own trip.

Chez Xu - Paris

The Many Benefits of Dating a Mandarin Speaker
I probably wouldn't have gone into Chez Xu (pronounced Shay Shee) for breakfast without my mandarin-speaking girlfriend. That's not to say they don't speak French in Chez Xu - I don't know if they do or don't - it was all Mandarin from the moment we stepped in. Works for me - I got to lay back for once (I do all the ordering in French, which can get exhausting if your French is as bad as mine.) Now, that of course means I have to eat whatever she orders, but she generally has good taste. If you've never had a Chinese breakfast then you must try it with an open mind - they eat rice, noodles and things a Westerner doesn't usually associate with his morning meal. First up, Luo Mi Fan - otherwise known as glutinous rice. This version, I think, had some ground pork and chives added to the sticky rice. I was surprised how much I liked this.

Au Bascou - Paris

Tasty Visit to the Basque Country
Many years ago I was in JFK airport waiting for a flight to Madrid. A guy walked up to me and said something like "Erkeetat ruggamerdfriopaoaia." At least, that's how it sounded to me. Turns out, he had sized me up as a fellow Basque and spoken to me in Basque. He was really surprised I wasn't Basque - apparently I look Basque. A couple of years later I was driving with some friends from Madrid to Paris and we made a stop at a gas station in the Basque countryside. The gas station attendant spoke Spanish to my friends, but addressed me in Basque! Last night, on the way to Au Bascou, a Basque restaurant in the 3rd Arondissement in Paris, I told Pingle these stories. She just looked at me like "whatever, silly American."

Des Gars Dans La Cuisine - Paris

Some Boys Can Cook
The name of this restaurant translates into "Boys in the Kitchen." Pingle and I visited after a weekend spent in Sevilla, Spain. Why do I brag? Sorry, don't mean to - there's a point. I didn't get to eat Gazpacho while in Spain and was regretting that when I peered at the top of the Des Gars menu. Voila - Gazpacho! While I waited for it to arrive, second-guessing took over. What the hell was I doing ordering Gazpacho in Paris? One spoonful into it and all questions were put to rest - it was rich, zesty and deliciously cooling.