After the beach, Franck and Phillip took us to this crazy French restaurant on the beach. Because it was on the beach, guess what kind of food they served? You guessed it! This is what I saw on the way in... needless to say, I was slightly nervous.
Here is our menu. Feel free to enlarge it. With no pictures this time, Franck and Phillip spent a lot of time detailing the menu for us. It was a three-course meal. For the starter, I got the white fish with coconut, for dinner, the bas, for dessert, the chocolate cake with red fruits on top. Let's see how I fared...
Here's the white fish with coconut. Umm... they forgot to mention that the fish was
raw!!! Eww! Gross. I didn't even realize it until my fork was
almost in my mouth. Y'know, the point where you just can't stop it. And once it was in, I couldn't just spit it out. Talk about rude in a fancy, shamancy restaurant. So I swallowed. But not w/o gagging first. I had no napkin in hand, so I just put my hand in front of my mouth to hide my rudeness. But JP saw the horrible look on my face and busted out laughing. I quickly swallowed and drank a bunch of water and joined her in her continued giggling. We both giggled randomly throughout the rest of the night. In fact, if you mention it to her, I'm sure she'll start giggling again. Needless to say, I
did not even attempt to finish that one. Tom finished it and Dennis got really close. Kudos to both of them. (Though, I did see Dennis struggling with a straight face a couple of times.) The stick in front was some sort of pastry and it was really good. The cherry tomatoes to the left were super potent (Travis' worst nightmare, I'm sure) and the brown stick they were sitting on wasn't a stick, come to find out, it was some sort of tomato paste. Remarkably good, actually. (Thanks to JP for being brave and trying it first!) Oh, and what's that stuff on the garnish that looks remarkably like bits of raspberries and blackberries?
... caviar! (Gross. And no, I didn't eat it.)
Now on to the main course. The sea bass. This was decidedly more tasty. Quite good, in fact. It is sitting on top of a bunch of apparently really expensive mushrooms. "Ehh.. not too bad. Probably two one hundred euros per kilo." That's like, $300-400! "But eet ees not as expenseeve as zee ... what you call it? black, under zee ground [we later figured out they were truffles]. Zose sell for one or two sousand euros per keelo." No wonder these people have no problem forking out 38 euros for dinner as if it were McDonalds.
Check out JP's shrimp! That thing is huge! Though, once you got past the shell and all that (which she had to pull off by hand), it ended up being about the size of the shrimp back home. She ended up trading her plate with Franck to have the same thing I had. (That was the plan from the beginning. They'd get different plates and she'd try both. If she liked his better, they'd swap.)
Finally, dessert! Once again, the French have outdone themselves. This chocolate cake was super moist, even still a bit doughy (but in a good way... like undercooked brownies) with really delicious french vanilla ice cream on top. It's sitting on top of some sort of sauce that I couldn't quite place. It was a little tart, but really sweet, too. If that's possible. There was also some raspberry sauce at the bottom which was amazing. Then there was one raspberry (which was a shame, because that raspberry was packed full of flavor) and one... I dunno what. It's the orange thing on the left. It looks like a cherry tomato when you bite into it, but it doesn't taste like a tomato at all. More like an... apricot, maybe? The flavor was familiar, but I couldn't place it. Tom said he accidentally planted some one year in his garden... he thought it was a tomato plant. It had some clearish leaves (That turned yellow upon drying) that apparently grow around the fruit. Anyone know what it is? And lastly, there was the stick-looking thing. If you recognize it, you know what it is. A pastry-like thing with chocolate flavoring. Mmmmm.. Seriously... the best way to end any dinner.
And lastly... guess what I ate? You'll never guess. Escargot! That's right, snail. Don't believe me? I didn't think you would. So JP took a video for us. (After I did it, the pressure was on. Tom did it, then Dennis (I have pictures of both), then JP did it. She was rather nervous, but we peer pressured her into it. And we got a video of her, too. Now no one can doubt!) (Also, I kept the shell to bring home as a souvenir. Though, they took it with my plate and I had to have Franck ask for it back. Every time the waiter came near our table for the rest of the meal, I guess he said something about it, then would leave. Finally he brought it back. Did you know that when snail shells are wet, they are really super soft? To the point of easily tearing? Learn something new every day. Don't worry, it's really hard again, and you can't even see the torn part unless you know where it is.)
It's not as easy to see on this little screen, but the couple on the right of the video realize what I'm doing halfway through and are really entertaining to watch. She looks so full of pity for me. Bless her heart.
it was really busy, so I couldn't blame her for being frustrated at taking longer at our table.) When she left, Franck informed me that it was entirely up to the cook and whether he was in a good mood or not. I crossed my fingers. I guess we caught him on a good day, because they ended up putting everything on the side. (Yes, the ham was raw.) I have to say, the tomatoes and mozzarella were really good together. (JP says one of her favorite treats is melted cheese and tomatoes on toast. I must try this. It also had some unknown spice, some crazy pepper that has to be a mix of peppers and sea salt. The salad had sprouts and tomatoes and lettuce and was again drenched in some sort of vinaigrette that was far too strong for its own good. Poor Franck always looked up when I was pulling a face because the dressing was too strong. I'm sure he thought I hated it. It wasn't too bad. Especially with the cantaloupe that was divine... even with the spices and dressing on it. Though, I will admit that I was coveting JP's potatoes. She let me have one and they were good. Really good. But I do tend to favor potatoes... I'm an Idaho girl! :) But by the end, I was too full to even eat what she had left over.
Next... dessert! Having been impressed by the île flottante at the Hippopotamus, I decided to have another go at it. I forgot to take a picture until I had eaten half of it... so it looked a lot better about 3 minutes prior to this. But let's just say, it was delicious. These amazing desserts make the crazy gross food almost worth it. :)
i2s (pronounced eye two ess) decided to take us to lunch. Nice of them, really. So they took us to this restaurant called the Hippopotamus. (This picture makes it look like a hole-in-the-wall, but it's just the back. The trees block the rest of the building which was decently sized.) First they gave us menus in French. Luckily, they had pictures. You think I'm indecisive at American restaraunts when I can read the menu? Hah! You ain't seen nuthin' yet. We all probably sat there for 15-20 mins, just trying to decide. Well, except Dennis. He just always gets steak. Wouldn't it be nice to always just know what to order? Also, they brought us out English menus halfway through. They were much smaller... much less detail. Though, to be fair, we couldn't read the detail on the French menu. They didn't do a very good job explaining what everything was, this time, though (They have since improved dramatically). Even in English we couldn't figure out what everything was. And even the stuff I did understand, I had never tried before.
To make up for the less-than-stellar main course, JP and I happened upon the best thing about France... their desserts. This dessert takes the cake. (No pun intended.) It was a sampler platter including (starting on the right and going counter clockwise) strawberrie, chocolate ice cream with chocolate chunks (which was quite amazing), pineapple that tasted remarkably like cobbler or something, crème brûlée (thought of you, Kristy!), and île flottante. That was divinely delicious. It's basically beaten egg whites (meringue, if you will) atop a vanilla-like pudding. I may have to learn to make it.
. Then there was fruit. The strawberries were good. The peach was yummy. (I ate some before I remembered to take the picture.) The kiwi had a very interesting cut and was really good... at least the part that wanted to come out. The core was pretty stuck. Bananas were good. The eggs were divine... oh, so good. And we grabbed some bread (we're in France!) on the way out. Sorry, no picture. JP got some filled with chocolate, though. I got a croissant. Both were good. Crazy part? It was 15 Euros! (Well, JP's blog says 14.50 euros. My door says 15. Maybe the extra .5 is if you get room service?) Seriously people, does that plate look like it's worth $23 to you? Not to me! My favorite was the little do dah pictured at the right. "Value: Top quality, the best selection at an affordable price guaranteeing excellent value for money." (emphasis mine) $23 for a handful of fruit is affordable?! Who are these people?! I'm starting to think that all French are super rich. Though, I have a suspicion it's only because we're staying in a super nice hotel and being taken to dinner by the company we're visiting. Hopefully Paris won't be this bad. Granted, I'm not paying for anything but tourism and souveniers, but if prices are anything like here, no one is getting anything. Just be grateful if I return alive and healthy. Maybe I'll give you a toothpick from the plane. (Don't think that I won't!... Ok, I can't get all of you a toothpick from the plane...)
So... you remember St. Peter's fish from Galilee? Remember how I ate that whole fish, including the fish eye? Yeah, that was gross. So tonight we went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. (About time, too. I was starving, what with having dinner cruelly taken from me and sleeping through breakfast.) I looked at the menu and laughed, because they were all super expensive and foods that I've never heard of, or have never tried. Things like Duck Minon. They had a Mixed Grill, which seemed very Middle Eastern, except it was duck and a few other fancy meats. Dennis got a steak, but I'm not a huge fan of steak. But I was too scared to spend that much money on something I might not like. So I had her skip me. JP got the Catch of the Day, to which the waitress replied with something none of us understood, but she looked at JP with anticipation, as if waiting for a response. I then stopped paying attention, because I needed to pick a meal. Then Tom picked something, which I didn't hear, and she came back to me. I decided to be safe and went with lamb. The waitress left, but came back a few minutes later to tell me that they were out of lamb. [rolls eyes] Of course they were. Then she turned to JP and said that mysterious "troot" again. What in the world does "troot" mean? At some point JP got frustrated and just told her she'd have whatever Tom was having. She kept repeating "troot" to JP, which confused us all, until she said, "Troot. Catch of the Day." [light turns on] Me: "Trout?" Waitress: "Catch of the day, yes?" Me: "Yes. Trout?" Waitress: [light turns on] "Oui, oui. Troot!" Me: "Y'know what? I'll have that. The Catch of the Day. Trout." Waitress: "Ok. Troout." (This was an effort to say trout, though troot still wanted to be said.)
Awhile later our food came out. The three steaks came first. JP wanted hers well-done, so she asked to make sure she got the well-done one. The waitress examined JP's and Tom's and finally switched the plates, but then switched the sauces back. Turns out, Dennis got the well-done one. We're all confused as to what happened. Then out came mine. It was a trout alright. In fact, it was the catch of the day. Probably caught that very morning. There before me lay a full trout. Head, tail, everything. It wasn't even sliced along the ribs like the St. Peter's fish was. (I also think the eyes were removed from this'un. Either that or trout have much smaller eyes than do St. Peter's fish.) The only slice was down the belly, making it easy to lift the skin up and over to get at the meat. Also, the fish bones were everywhere. I don't understand how anyone could eat this without using their fingers. It's just not prim and proper to pick bones off the meat on your fork. But I wasn't about to eat all of those fish bones, either. All in all, once I got over the fact that the actual animal was sitting on my plate, staring up to me, it was really good fish. Mmmm...
