lexdrive11

[lexdrive11]

My Swedish coworker came back two weeks ago and we missed each other. We then caught up of what happened in the past weeks. Like we never talk at all everyday and eve. the weekends since my life right now is just work, hangout with work people, and dream about travel. Okay, I’m actually traveling this upcoming August to Japan and this weekend to visit family in Virginia Beach. She’s my walking buddy as she assigned herself as my PT to train me for my Mt. Fuji hike. We went to De Clieu which is out favourite cafe in town then walked around the hood for about an hour or so. 

New Marabou flavour as pressie from coworker. Straight from Sweden. Oreo layered chocolate. It’s pretty good. Tip is to put it in the fridge for now since it smelting hot outside. 

The weekend after that, we borrowed my other coworker’s car since she went back to Chicago for the weekend. We had a busy weekend since it’s a luxury to drive around for me who doesn’t own one. Friday, I met up with her after work to go to Osteria Morini at Navy Yard. For her love of Italian food and my love for, well, any food, I told her I’m willing to explore the Italian cuisine of DC. This restaurant is dubbed as the top Italian restaurant and won the best burger in town last year by thrillist DC. I wanted to order the burger but they don’t serve it during dinner time. Womp womp :( So I got the ducky agnolotti instead. To be honest, I’ve had better pasta dough than this one but thumbs up for having the ducky flavour inside. Although no duck texture. We then ate at Ice Cream Jubilee. FINALLY. I really really wanted to go try this place! I went on the safe side and ordered caramel popcorn and strawberry white chocolate. Next time, I’ll be adventurous and order Mango habanero, gin & tonic, or Thai iced tea. Saturday, we woke up early to go the Great Falls Park to do some mini-hike/trail exploration. She really wants me to be fit for Fuji. We actually parked at the border of the actual park and the northern side park named Riverbend Park. We first explored the northern side but got lost (even with GPS, embarrassing) and ended up on the roadside. We managed to get back inside the park and saw the Great Falls. I told her we are not leaving until she sees it. And she did. After the hike, we dined at Barnside Diner for some diner experience then went back to freshen up for IKEA. We drove down south to Woodbridge to IKEA then went to Potomac Mills mall. It was pouring rain out and we needed shelter.

Great Falls hike

Sunday, we just went around the hood for errands like groceries and eat ice cream. Again. Yes, because it was National Ice Cream Day. The states and their weird national days, we joined the party. I made pancit for Vicky while she made me homemade Swedish choklad boller. We drove to Vicky’s place after.

National Ice Cream Day on July 17th. Must get ice cream from Woody’s Ice Cream located in downtown Fairfax.

[lexdrive11]

Two weeks ago or so, Tori and I went to see a indie film at Angelika Pop Up Film Center in DC. It’s really close to Union Market and dayum, if we aren’t just in our healthy guilty diet and got there early, we would have eaten at the market. Takorean has a stand there.

The film we saw as Seoul Searching. It’s about the 1986 camp that Korea hosts for Korean kids that grew up in foreign countries so that they can know more about their Korean heritage. It’s so indie that there is no wiki page :O

It has the Breakfast Club movie-esgue depiction which hits the spot to me because I also like the film the Breakfast Club. After the movie, we walked around the National Mall. It has become the summer tradition. The breeze is cooler and no sun rays stinging to our skins. In the end, we were hungry and went to Annendale, our favourite area and went to Yechon. 

[lexdrive11]

Long long time ago, I made beef pot pie. It was pretty bomb but I can’t remember where I got the recipe.

[lexdrive11]

Out of the three places I went to in my short Asia trip, Singapore tops the list on food because I was able to eat more than my expected appetite. It was so hot and humid that I just get hungry after 1 hour of walking or just hanging out. I stand in the intersection and I sweat. On top of the smog from Indonesia’s burning forest. These 10 upload limit is definitely annoying.

My Singaporean friends were also foodies so my work is done. They were just taking me to places where to eat specific dishes and also asked on the places I wanted to go to. I definitely enjoyed hanging out at the Hawker Centres where I ordered drinks and dishes separately. I missed that about Asia. Amazing food courts. In the states, the food court menus are combo styles so all can be ordered at once.

I ate durian desserts. I do not mind the smell of durian and the fact that I grew up in the Philippines, I enjoy tropical fruits of any kind. I browsed around Chinese sweets that were rated and recommended by most travel blogs that I follow. Like the egg tart at Tong Heng. The Hawker Centres were the highlight of my Singapore trip! I visited quite a couple on top of specific joints. Albert Centre, Ang Mo Kio, and Tiong Bahru Market.

[lexdrive11]

My HK eats summed up. Not really. 10 photos are not enough to show how much I ate and enjoy eating while hanging out with friends who have moved to far distance places to catch up with life. 

I honestly cannot remember all the names of the places we ate at. I suggested places we eat at and at the same time I got dragged to the places my friends know.

My first request was to eat ramen in HK since I have this life long travel quest of eating ramen noodles around the world. It’s probably not possible to try in every place I visit since it’s not the most common dish in many places like, let’s say, Italian food. 

I wanted to check out many design cafes such as Taekha and Coffee Academics but I only ended up in Coffee Academics. Haha. I still enjoyed chilling at their Harbour City location.

Another place on my bucket list was to try the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in the world, a dim sum place in HK named Tim Ho Wan. My friend and I went for lunch and there’s obviously a line. Locals and tourists. I learned that the good dumplings are when the wrappers are thin and it sticks to the meat. The siu mai and har gow were in those standards. The baked bun with BBQ pork was definitely the star moment. Tender juicy flavourful pork in this soft bun. NOMS.

[lexdrive11]

I did a day trip with my coworker to Macau. I basically casino hopped and ate amazing Portuguese food there as well! It was a holiday in HK so most people did an excursion to the island. It was pretty crowded.

First stop was breakfast south of the island for Portgueses tarts. Yes, weird but I cannot miss the opportunity to try Lord Stow's Bakery in Coloane. When we arrived there, it was already packed with tourists and locals. We grabbed a set of four and two iced coffees. I absolutely love Portugese tarts! Back home, there's this European bakery that I drive 15 minutes to just to get them. There's also Starsky ones but it still doesn't do justice. The tarts ate Lord's Stow was very firm. Perfect crust. The insides weren't soft that the custard didn't fell apart. We took a taxi to Cotai area to check out the casinos in the area and the village area. Grabbed a milk tart and a pork bun to try. She also took me to this very local eatery where they serve inerts. I think of pig because definitely not chicken. We ate more at the casino because she really wanted me to try this curry dish with squid and fishballs at the food court. We eneded up at the most touristy spot of Macau around dinner time. Near the Ruins of St. Paul. Many Bak Kwa stores so we sampled a couple. We ventured out the red light districts too. She wanted to take me to Fat Siu Lau which serves Portugese food but they were closed due to the public holiday. I was quite surprised. The Chinese closed for business. We just went back to the city and ate at Tsui Wah Restaurant. She ordered so many dishes like spicy noodles soup, HK buttered french toast, chinese brocolli on ice, and a beef stir fry.

[lexdrive11]

My summer activities extended until September. Even after I got back from two big trips (Laura’s wedding in Hawaii and France trip), I still explored around DC area. I was already pretty broke around this time: two big trips, crashed a car, and student loan. Oh well.

August. I went home for a week to Canada for my niece’s baptism. On one Saturday weekend, Tori and I went to Hirshhorn Museum. I am pretty knowledgeable of the Smithsonian museums in the city but I have never heard of this one until recently. It’s been there for a while. I just never noticed it. I learned about it from a trover user whom I copied the Believe Doubt photo from. It’s a museum that showcases modern art unlike the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Gallery of Art. I really enjoyed walking around the museum since I appreciate modern art more. It has the same vibe as the higher level floors of the National Portrait Gallery. 

September. A very very busy month. I had to plan my Asia trip and book most of it, I was at a client site in the city, went to a couple of festivals/events around the area. I was in the city for almost everyday at a client site in the month of September. It was prime time moment to try and explore DCEats. Obviously I did that! There were a couple of goods eats around the office and since it’s close to Farragut Square, food trucks were present. YAS. Some of them I scouted and tried out. I may post another one about them (depending on my lazy radar). There was a Labour Day dinner at my coworker’s place which I went to. Although there was already food, Laura obviously wants to cook for these get togethers so I made fresh lumpia. My boss, who also loves making food went overboard and became extra special. Bought a small pig to test out his new grill which he got as a wedding gift. Cray. Yes. It was pretty good. They also nagged me to make sisig for them to try. Bar food. Lol. The fact that most of us were ethnic, it wasn’t that weird to make this dish in front of everyone. It was definitely the highlight of the night. I also went to my first Korean Festival. Ever. Not a K-pop even but a local Virginia festival for the Korean community. It’s called KORUS Festival. They had performances, food, and local businesses. I watched a performance by a Korean female rapper Hee-Sun Lee. She is a Christian rapper and as a Christian myself, her music was very inspirational. I even met a celebrity, a Korean model who was in the America’s Next Top Model. I think his name was Justin Kim. I actually cannot remember. But. I felt pretty special to see famous people.

[lexdrive11]

Nice. One of the three cities I stayed at on my France trip with my uni girls. As one of the French Riviera city and close to Cannes, I knew my wallet has to stretch pretty far to eat and afford the things to do in this city and daily trips around it.

Nice overlooking from Castle Hill.

We arrived in Nice around noon on a Sunday. The train ride was absolutely breath-taking! Along the coastline. Overlooking expensive vacation houses (of I’m pretty sure star-studded celebrities and business retirees own them). The hostel we stayed at was right beside the train station and close to the main road, city centre, and the beach. We ate quickly at this French cafe chain named Paul and went to our first stop which is the beach. Nice has a pebbled beach so it was hard to walk on bare feet. Vince hilariously did stone therapies to us. Cleansed us with Nice pebbles and Balearic Sea water. We found out it wasn’t Balearic waters abut Mediterranean instead. Hilarious. So we weren’t cleansed at all. The beach we went to has water sport activities such as parasailing, water ski, and them hot French guys motorbiking you around. We were so down to water sport! We chose parasailing and they helped us to put on the gear. Lol. Such swooning chicks. I went with Yang and while in the air, we sang Drake’s Started From the Bottom and when he dipped us, we sand GFR. It was my first time and I was pretty scared at first. I’m scared of water but I faced my fears. After the beach, we walked back and it rained. We stopped by a small grocery store to buy rotisserie chicken and some greens salad that we ate back at the hostel. We chilled for a bit. Waited until the rain stopped then walked around the city centre. We got some desserts at Pinocchio. A dessert chain in Europe where they shape the ice cream flavours into a rose.

Yang and I parasailing.

Monday was dress-up day. We went to Monaco for a day trip. The main point of this trip was to eat at a two-star Michelin restaurant Joël Robuchon. It was my second Michelin experience. The first one was in NYC. This one was way better for the customer service, food quantity, and interior. It was inside some fancy hotel with great weather everyday. Overlooks the sea. A good pre-fixe lunch menu for 55 Euros. Even though it’s pre-fixe, the desserts were unlimited. They had a whole cart full of desserts so we definitely asked as much sweets as we wanted. The service was great. First time being ushered to the bathroom and ushered back to my seat. Pulled it out for me too. I will never forget my experience in this restaurant. After a filling lunch mean, we walked around Monte Carlo area before heading to Monaco-Ville. Yachts everywhere. Yachts after yachts docked and also cruising the waters. Took a couple of photos of the casino and was expensive cars. Took photos of them too. Ogled at expensive jewelries at high end shops then walked to Monaco-ville to see the castle. We went back in the afternoon and ate dinner at the hostel. A very simple one because lunch money drained away our food budget for the day (not really, we just though of it that way). We still ate culturally. Ham, cheese, pate, and some salad. On the train station, a guy took my seat when I went to validate ours tickets. Vince made it obvious to the guy and said, babe sit beside me there’s space. Hilarious. He definitely shied away and felt guilty. A very simple one because lunch money drained away our food budget for the day (not really, we just though of it that way). We still ate culturally. Ham, cheese, pate, and some salad. That night was Jen’s first wine bottle opening experience.

Rich people tanning, waiting for their yachts to fuel up.

Tuesday was the third and last day in Nice and we decided to stay in the city. We went to Castle Hill first. The hill is where you take that photo that everyone has that overlooks the city. Basically the post card photo. This day was the most memorable day out of my 10 days France trip. I was walking on a downhill slope, went out of balance, and fell to my knees. Full on bruised my right knee oozing with blood. I have no idea how it happened. It was so quick. My knees just gave in and all I knew was I was on the floor. Good thing I didn’t roll down and hit my head. I literally went #GDFR as we joked afterwards. We looked for the nearest pharmacy to get bandages and antibiotics. We found one and I explained to the pharmacist what happened. The lady said she’ll get my stuff and at the same time she can clean my wound. At first, I was skeptical and surprised she said that. My first thought was ‘does I have to pay?’. I asked and she said no, it’s free. The beauty of French healthcare system. Even for tourist, it is free. So I was handicapped starting from this leg of our trip. We continued to walk around until we passed by a really cool cafe concept that also sells and rent bikes called Cafe Du Cyclists. We asked a chick at the cafe for a place to get socca bread. She spot on gave a good one. Apparently, she used to live on the flat above it. Coincidence! The place is called Bella Socca. After our snack, we walked some more and Jen got her ears pierced. We bought some cheap local wine to try and ate at McDonald's for dinner. They have potato wedges! Not something you can get on a North American menu. 

Nice and up the top Castle Hill.

[lexdrive11]

Labour Day weekend in the states and I was as always, invited to Laura’s place for dinner. Of course, I gotta bring some ethnic dish they goinna eat. It was always lumpia and pancit or adobo since she eat those Filipino dishes. I decided to make it different this time. It’s still deep fried lumpia but the insides are veggies and some ground pork. The dish is called fresh lumpia because, unlike the meat, this lumpia doesn’t need to be frozen before you deep fry. I made 50 hand-made wrapped and they were all gone when served as an appetizer.

[lexdrive11]

I haven’t updated in a while and even finished my France trip blogging yet. I haven’t even finished Euro trip. One more post about France then I’m done though. Hopefully tomorrow when I sit at a cafe and type away I’ll have some accomplishments. 

I was back in Canada for about a week last August for my niece’s baptism and that also meant that I get to eat in the city again. Try new places and also visit my friends foods. Also eat homemade Filipino food. NOMS. I only went to the city twice: Wednesday and Friday. Well, because I needed to be home most of the time too. Also, I was on cooking duty for the days I was home. I made my family spam musubis due to post-Hawaiian phase from Laura ’s wedding. And sushi. Ridiculous amount of rice for one night. Sister-in-law made crinkles desserts. They’re called sugar coated brownie cookies in the western world. When my buzzfeed glutton cousin was over, he insisted we make nachos and buzzfeed’s pizza muffin with 4 ingredients. 

Wednesday, I went to Koreatown to meetup with two of my high school friends. They’re doing well with city jobs and life. I took them to try a taco/pupusa place Taco El Asador and a new neighbourhood bakeshop Bean & Baker Maltshop. They serve maltshakes on top of milkshakes and I heard they have good pies. I actually got the last apple pie. Friday was a crazier foodtrip moment with Jen. As we are both yelpers, we checked in at all the places we went to. She was also the person who made me active on yelp. A yelp account I had since 2009. From Kensington to Dundas West. It made me miss Market 707 as i passed by Bathurst and Dundas. Food crawl started at Frank’s Hotdog. Got a free fry from yelp check in. We then head inside Kensington streets to go to Seven Lives and it was open!! Every time I trek to Seven Lives to eat at least one taco, they’re closed before the closing time because they ran out of ingredients. Jen enjoyed it too! They ran out of carnitas though so I got baja fish. I took her to Millie Creperie as well and I got Black Sesame ice cream. I can’t believe she’s never been knowing she’s a sweet tooth. We walked to Ossington after to go to a pizza place and Bang Bang Ice Cream. Unfortunately, Pizza Libretto doesn't sell slices. Too fancy. It has to be a sit down. But the highlight was Bang Bang Ice Cream!! There was a line up at 9 pm lol. Long one on a Friday night. I definitely enjoyed checking out their flavours and try all but i went here to try that one flavour. LONDON FOG ICE CREAM AND TRUE TO THEIR WORD IT TASTES LIKE LONDON FOG. Funy enough jen and i were discussing about places and i told her about Bakerbots, a Toronto bakery that’s highly rated. It turns out, Bang Bang Ice Cream and Bakerbots are owned a husband and wife duo. Mind blown.

[lexdrive11]

I baked a whole chicken with the help of this Food52 recipe without the sumac. I couldn’t find sumac at Safeway.

It took longer than 1 hour to bake so I used meat thermometer to check internal temperature to 165 F.

[lexdrive11]

The last day in Marseille was dedicated to lavenders. The lavender fields taken care by the monks of  Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque. It was quite an adventurous trek to get there. No car and it’s out in the boonies so it was all public transportation. We managed and it was worth it.

We took a train ride to Cavallion which was the closest city that is accessible by train to Gordes. From the schedule we have, there is a couple of hours before the bus arrives to the station so we decided to have lunch in the city at  Paris Cafe. Lol, strange name. I got beef carpaccio and fries. I ate a lot of raw food in France. After lunch, we walked to the it turns out, the bus that gets to Gordes from Cavallion it didn’t run on that Saturday. France or maybe just the Provence area have different schedules depending when kids have school or not. The buses don’t run on weekends when they don’t and apparently, June season is no school for kids. 

We freaked out a bit and wondered if we ever going to see lavenders. One friend asked a bus driver where are the taxis. He helped call the taxi company but line was busy. Another friend asked the ticketing agent and said that the taxi drivers may be having coffee break and she looked very serious saying it. Luckily, one guy pulled in the taxi lot. We explained to him that we wanted to go the the abbey and he was willing to take us there and pick us up at Gordes. He said 3 hours is enough to do both since the area is small.

It was a 20-30 minutes ride to the abbey from Cavallion and yes. Good thing the lavenders were in full bloom! I was going to throw a fit if they didn’t. It was absolutely gorgeous. Hot since it was in the middle of the afternoon. There weren't that much insects and bees which is a good thing. The scent was faint through the breeze and very pretty to see rows of bloom.

There is also an area of lavender that's fenced right in front of the abbey. It's most likely private just for the monks. There is a shop there where they sell everything lavender and souvenirs. Visitors can go in the abbey but they must adhere to a dress code posted at the entrance door. Before leaving the abbey, I wanted to take some last shots of the abbey and I went by the fence. A wind flew by and my hat went over the fence. A souvenir to the monks in exchange to my purchased lavenders and honey lavender.

[lexdrive11]

For the France trip, I stayed at 3 main cities: Paris (first and last night), Nice for three nights, and Marseille for 4 nights. The last place I stayed at was Marseille. Marseille is quite a character of a French city. It is apparently one of the poorest cities inFrance. That would mean prices are relatively cheaper, right? NOT. Well, I was in France and it’s Euros so prices look hiked-up for me. 

Fun fact, it's actually spelled without the s at the end. Whenever I had to type  it on my phone, it auto-corrects me to the one with the s at the end. I don't know where Marseilles is used/known for. Plus, this city does everyday street cleaning. It’s ridiculous. Morning and night. There were tons of litter on the streets, to be honest. I actually explored mostly outside the city. I went to Sugiton, the closest Les Calanques area, Aix-en-Provence, and Gordes/Senanque Abbey for the lavenders. Finally.THE MAIN REASON WHY MY FRIENDS AND I WENT TO SOUTHERN FRANCE AROUND LATE JUNE. Talk about saving the highlight of the trip for the last few days. Those lavenders were quite a story. Let me tell you.

Day 1 in Marseille was the most unproductive day of this trip. We left Paris very early in the morning and the nap on the train was not enough. We spent the afternoon sleeping at our airbnb. To be honest, we didn’t research much on what’s in Marseille. So after lunch at Ver Mid Vini, I napped for a couple of hours. This restaurant though was quite a character and very local. It’s ran by one guy and one guy only. He ran around the two floor restaurant to serve, take orders, clean out table, put away plates, prepare food, and the works. Seriously. I have never seen a restaurant ran by one person. The place is about average in a European level. It can sit about 15 people. We came around 2-ish and the lunch rush is over and there’s not much left on his menu. He tried to serve us whatever he had left over from lunch. It was still a hefty meal: salad and a bit small rattatoui, smoked duck and mozarella fixed on a salad. Went out I'm the afternoon to see palais longchamp. Went to monoprix to grocery to buy meat, salad (camembert and smoke duck), a sorta ratatouille meal.

Day 2 was the most leg workout I did in this trip. My friends and I started with breakfast at the apartment with eggs, cheese and yogurt. The first stop was Notre dame. Marseille also has a Notre Dame. I feel like every major French city has a Notre Dame. There were a lot of stairs and steep hills to get to this basillica. A lot of leg workout for an injured person like me. It’s way up in the mountains since you can see it from far when you arrive at the main station. It was a pre-hike before our actual hiking experience for Les Calanques. We hang around there in the blazing sun taking tripon photos. A lot of tripod photos. I never felt so Asian in my life.

We then went back to the city centre for a late lunch at Le Café de la Banque, a brasserie that French people rave on Yelp. They were not joking. That was one good fall off the bone lamb shank. After a good lunch, we bused to Sugiton, the closest Les Calanques area from Marseille. To be honest, the plan was to head to Cassis and from there, we hike for a day to get to the most scenic Les Calanques view. Unfortunately, I was injured and my other friend’s feet were sore so we abandoned ship. We still walked a lot. Walked around the area for about 5 hours. I managed to walk decently on some pave and gravel but to get to the water was a struggle. Rough and tough since I'm injured and the path to the water proved to be a hike experience to me who was wearing flipflops. I was stupid to forget sneaks back home. I totally went down on my knees. As our France trip song says, I literally GDFR. Everyone peed in the bushes. LOL. Prickly and there was not much around besides prickly bushes. The water of Les Calanques. All my pain went away. Even though I couldn’t swim, I still enjoyed dipping my feet and relaxing with good company. Water was very clear and cold. Soothing cold. There were fishes, crabbies, barnacles, and snails. Around dusk, we started to head back to the city and caught the last bus leaving the area. We went to brassarie Paulener. Paulener. Yes. The beer. I German place. It was the one open around the stop and we were hungry like a wolf. I just rinsed the food with three shots of absinthe.

Day 3 was a day trip to Aix-en-Provence. This day trip was very chill as we mostly ate in front of a fountain, sat down at a cafe, walked around some more, and shopped. We actually bought most of our gifts and personals here. A lot of fountains here. Big and small. Every corner, there was a fountain. Like Frenchies, after we ate pizza, we sat down at a cafe. I’m pretty sure no one wanted to walk longer than normal as we were too tired from from yesterday. I got some calissons here since it’s a Provence sweet We also walked around to the narrow streets then stopped by to eat tapas at La Cita. Since everything in Europe mostly close early than North American standards (not even Asian standards), we had to get our pre-drinking drinks in Aix and we lugged that all the way to Marseille. What champs! We tried to eat out but a friend got nauseous so we just got some sort of kebobs since the doner place didn't have much meat left. It was around 11 pm that we started to get ready. Pre-drank then went to old port to checkout bars and clubs. We first went to Shamrock Irish pub. The French really like Irish pubs. The music was randomly new and old pop music. It was refreshing to the ears to hear them again. Suddenly, people were trying to make human tunnels with us. So we did. I was so confused at first but everyone was a good sport and joined. It went on for a while until we were at the front door of the bar. We went to a club after. Le trolleybus. The club type with rooms of different music genre. It was so packed with no space for dancing.

[lexdrive11]

Petit Biscuit - Sunset Lover

I am such a sucker for songs where lyrics are incomprehensible.

[lexdrive11]

I was in France for about 10 days with my university classmates. It was a mini-reunion for us. We haven’t seen each other for almost a year since we are all over the place working. I’m in the states, one in Calgary, and two are in Toronto.

Paris. Our first and last stop. We all flew to Paris and met up. I lost a day of sleep when I flew to Paris because couldn’t sleep much on the plane plus I ended up watching movies that I wanted to check out before. One thing that was quite noticeable visiting after two and a half years is the amount of military men with assault rifles roaming the streets. It was probably the pre-cautionary act due to the Je Suis Charlie incident. I ate a lot of macarons in this trip. Even though most were bites. Most likely every flavour possible. Even rose and yuzu. I don’t even like citrus-based sweet. Just cause. I was in France.

French pastries at Le Grenier a Pain.

First day in France and the tourist activities starts. The first stop was Sacré-Cœur. It was obviously mobbed with them said tourists on a sunny Saturday Parisian weather. There was this area where it’s over crowded with guys who wants to tie red thread on your wrists. I just looked down, put my hands inside and crossed them so they won’t get a hold of me. It was creepy. Stayed there for a couple of hours and was able to get in the church. Pretty and old and colourful glass art. 

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris aka Sacré-Cœur.  

For lunch, my friends and I hunted down the winner of of the best baguette in Paris for the year of 2015. The place is called Le Grenier a Pain. The street where it’s at was pretty crowded with locals buying lunch food. We also grabbed serano ham and foie gras pate at a local boucherie as well as heart-shaped brie at a local fromagerie. OH FOIE GRAS. NOMS. We then met up with Jen at our airbnb place. And the reunion starts! I napped for a couple of hours to re-energize.  

In the afternoon, we went to Notre Dame area. Mob of tourists. I ate a crepe with Nutella as a snack then went to Ile Saint-Louis to eat Berthillon ice cream. It’s my second time seeing Notre Dame so no surprise. The food didn’t stop there. We ate more French pastries. Of course, one thing the French are good at is making delish sweets. We pastry shopped at Galeries Lafayette: macarons from pierre herme, bamboo cake from Sadarahaku Aoki, and éclair from L'Éclair de Génie. All bombdotcom quality. Expensive but bomb. For dinner, we went to Au passage. It was one of the places recommended by Anthony Bourdain’s Layover Paris episode. This is probably why it’s only my list and my friend’s. We tried it out. It’s tapas style with changing menu on the board. It was my first time eating an actual whole artichoke. It’s a waste of money although the dressing was good and we dipped it in other dishes other than the artichoke. There is not much to eat on the leaves outside and I had to keep peeling to find what’s edible. It’s 1/4 of the insides and some bottom bit.

Whole artichoke at Au Passage.

Last day in France was also in Paris and it was grandeur. Though it was unfortunate that my friend got pick pocketed in the train and no one noticed it. She was the most cautious person out of the four of us too. Last day was on a Sunday. We chilled at a cafe for a couple of hours to get my friend sorted out while we waited for our airbnb check-in time. We then chilled around 4th arrondissement. Man, I love this district! The neighbourhood has tons of kosher eats. Lively. Drinks outside. I’m all for that. The kosher influence is probably due to the history of the nieghbourhood. Ate the most delicious falafel at Chez Marianne right on the street. Next time I’d sit down there and just chill chow. We hurried to Centre Georges Pompidou right after that. It’s a three floor museum located right at top floors of the building. Tons of escalator climb. The floors below are for the library. It’s mostly modern art which I like.

The French just like to chill. Right outside Pompidou. Anywhere on any ground. It’s not even grass. 

At night, we just roamed around the district. For dinner, we went to Le Temps des Cerises courtesy of Yelp and I got duck. For the last time. The district was poppin in the afternoon. It was cray! Most restaurants served sangria and beer on the street in front of their places and there were many live bands and music just playing outside. We then realized we were at the gay district and there are probably some event going on. The cops were even in the area.

Gourmand brioche for some Parisian humour at the 4th.

Street party #1.

Street party #2.

Street party #3.

The nth street party we saw.

[lexdrive11]

I was in France about two weeks ago to meet up and catch up with my girl friends from my class. I haven’t seen most of them for almost of a year. It was quite nostalgic to hangout with them and joke around with new ones we came up with as well as the old inside jokes. I was there for 10 days. Jam packed with walking, blood, GDFRs, drug dealer talks, and food. Oh the food. The French knows how to tickle my stomach with their wine, cheese, and pastries. It was also in France where I started my Yelp career. Yip. I’m a yelper now. My friend convinced me to actually use my yelp so I can get to Elite status and get free food. Wow. Just for food. What happened to me. I didn’t even know I had a yelp account. Time to actually use it now.

My France trip was quite adventurous in terms of food. My friends were such foodies and they tried to hunt down the gourmet pastries as well as highly rated restaurants and french. I couldn’t complain because I enjoy eating too. 

I had the softest fall of the bone lamb shank in Marseille. I got to eat the baguette that won the 2015 Best Baguette Competition in Paris. Éclair flavours that I couldn’t dream of existed where. Yuzu was a popular ingredient in their dishes. The smoothest textured, creamiest non-starchy, and consistent mashed potato I ever had at a 2 star Michelin restaurant in Monte Carlo. Ruined all the future mashed potatoes I will eat in the future.I got to try the local Nice eat called socca bread recommended by an actual local. She even wrote down the most on point direction to get to the place. I tried, at least one per meal, to order duck because it’s more served in restaurants in France than the states. My last dinner in France was an asian french fusion dish with duck and bananas at Les Temps des Cerises. The French like Spanish food and gelatos. A lot of tapa places. We even ate at two tapa restaurants. And pizzas. Unavoidable in Europe. Every corner was a gelateria. I was a bit surprised. A lot of sitting down, people watching while sitting at cafes. A lot of cafes. I even couldn’t yelp almost half of them. Only the important ones. Tons of croissant eating too. I also finally got to sit down at Angelina. I tried french sweets from places such as macarons from Lauderee, Pierre Hermes, and at some local patisseries in Paris, Marseille, and Nice, bamboo cake from Sadaharu Aoki, and ice cream from Berthillion. I mostly had wine for every meal possible. It’s 2,50 EUR. I couldn’t complain with that affordable price.

Honestly, 10 photos are not enough to showcase the amount of food I consumed and photos I took of food. These are just the food highlights of my awesome France food adventure.

[lexdrive11]

Dominique Ansel Bakery. I’ve heard a lot of things about this bakery and the well-known cronut made popular by the guy. He even trademarked the word so no one can steal it which made other bakeries just sell it as a ‘croissant doughnut’. Curiosity got me and went to the bakery when I arrived in NYC last Saturday for a day trip to hangout with a German friend that was visiting town.

I was in the city at 6:30 am because I took a night bus and didn't wanna spend a dime for accommodation. Day trip. I went down to Spring street and looked for the bakery. I got there at around 7ish. Surprisingly Obvious enough, there was already a line. I was the 21st person when the lady counted. At the same time, she also mentioned the flavour of the month which was lemon and ricotta cheese. When I heard lemon, my face went sour as lemon because I don’t like citrus-based dessert. Lemon meringue. Lemon tart. Lemon bars. Not a fan. Anyways, I was about to leave or maybe even try otha things on the menu (like the other famous DKA) when I looked back. The line went around the corner even before it opened. I know it’s a Saturday but I didn't know it was that popular. When am I ever going to get back here and if I do, I hope the flavour ain 't lemon. So I man up and was able to get in at the second round when the bakery opened. Ordered my cronut, almond croissant, and coffee. I was totally having my fat girl moment although I didn't eat until around 7 pm that time. I sat in the back area. Took a photo of my baked good. Soaked the sun.

Verdict. I’m a fan. I like crunchy stuff and this dessert made no errors in making it one of the crunchiest baked goods I have ever tried. It was quality. The layers of the cronut has fillings. From what I noticed: there were two layers of lemon glaze, one layer of cream, the other non-obvious one maybe tints of ricotta cheese, and on top was lemon/ricotta icing. The almond croissant was quality as well. Although it became really sweet after the two desserts that my palette couldn't handle anymore. I only wish that I was there when the flavour of the month is not lemon. If it’s, maybe, green tea macha or strawberry then I’d be hands down digging into that. Next time I go, DKA. Totes DKA.