La Duree- Paris, France

La Duree!

   One of my favorite foods in France were the French macaroons, and while I was in Paris, I went to one of the most famous macaroon places of all time; La Duree. La Duree is on the Champs Elysees, the most expensive street in Paris. I guess that La Duree had earned a spot on the Champs Elysees, because their macaroons were anything but cheap. 

   La Duree was a VERY popular macaroon shop.  There was a huge line of people waiting to get in.  The line wrapped around the corner of the block!  You should know that it didn't just sell macaroons, it also had small assorted pastries as well as another whole section for actually eating meals. Since we had already eaten lunch, we decided to just get a box of macaroons to go. Choosing which macaroons

to get was going to be the hard part, considering that there were twenty-three different flavors to choose from. We learned that most of them are there all the time, but some change based on the season.  At La Duree, you could buy a single macaroon, or buy a box and choose your flavors. There were boxes of two, four, eight, ten, sixteen, twenty-one, and forty-eight. Instead of spending a few hours trying to pick and choose flavors, my dad told us we could get a box of twenty-one and just pick the two that we didn't want. We decided to not get a mint-thyme and a basil-lemon.

   I've been to a number of other macaroon shops in both the US and in France and I was impressed that all of the macaroons at La Duree were perfect.  Several other places we've visited would have some macaroons that were cracked or just not right, but here you could tell they were serious!

Mmmmm... Macaroons

  Because you are waiting in a huge line to get your macaroons, inside and out, you can really scope out the place. First of all, La Duree is furnished and decorated in a very Victorian style, with hardwood tables and chairs, and floral carpet and green walls with ornate gold decorations. I found it beautiful and very interesting. Anyways, as soon as we received our macaroons, we hurried outside with our treasure. Right outside of La Duree the restaurant had an ice cream and sorbet cart, and my brother was immediately drawn to it. He picked a cup of raspberry sorbet, and because the ice cream/sorbet cart was part of La Duree, they even put a macaroon on top! My brother ate it so fast no one else got to try it, but after finishing the sorbet; with a huge, sticky ring of pink around his face, he commented that the sorbet was pretty darn good. Over the next few days my family and I ate our box of macaroons from La Duree, and I have to say, they were really good, definitely better than I expected for some reason. All of the flavors were bold and evident, except for a couple macaroons that were different kinds of the same thing - those tasted the same. All in all, a cool experience with great macaroons.  The flavors included: Raspberry, Pistachio, Coffee and Chocolate Coconut, with a few of my family's favorites being: Salted Caramel, Peach and

Fancy Macaroons; Fancy Box

Rose Petal!

  The service may be different if you were eating a meal, but with us standing in the line and buying the box of macaroons for take out it definitely felt like we were being rushed along.

  As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one cookie being old, burnt, stale oatmeal raisin cookie nastiness, and ten cookies being perfect, warm, gooey, chocolate chip (my favorite) cookie goodness! My Cookie Counter ratings for La Duree are:

  

  Food: 8 Cookies

  Atmosphere: 7 Cookies

    Service: 6 Cookies

La Goret- Beaune, France

La Goret; The Piglet

France! One of the most interesting small towns I visited on my vacation in France this summer was Beaune (pronounced "Bone"). It is a small town in the Burgundy region and it was truly beautiful.  We were only in Beaune for one night, so we wanted to take advantage of it.  An online site lists 150 restaurants in Beaune and my Dad 

found one that we thought would be fun to go to.  It is currently listed as the top restaurant in the town but we choose it because of the description of the menu.  Like many of the restaurants there it is quite small and it is on a small side street, so you may have missed it.  Its name is "Le Goret", which translates as “the piglet.”  It was pretty funky and a great experience.

The restaurant definitely had the right name because literally everything on the menu was pork and the restaurant was themed around pork. Almost all of the decorative items were pigs or pig related: pig shaped lanterns, pig shaped bowls, pig shaped chalk boards with the menu, etc.  

This is the menu, pig-shaped of course!

When we arrived at the restaurant we quickly realized that NOBODY in the restaurant spoke English except us.  The place was packed and we thought that it was a good sign that it was filled with locals instead of tourists.  We were greeted by the owner, who is also the chef and it turned out also served as our waiter.  He was really friendly.  We used our limited French speaking skills and played a bit of charades with the chef to try and decipher the menu.  After several funny minutes we figured out that there were only three menu items.  We figured out one was a pork chop.  We also knew that sausage was one of the specialties but we had trouble figuring out the third dish, eventually figuring out it was pig cheek in a burgundy wine sauce.  Because we were with another family and my Grandma, we were able to try everything! My brother, my friend and I, as well as my Grandma all had the pork chop.  My Dad and my friend’s Dad had the sausage while my Mom, my friend’s Mom, went with the cheeks! With the language communication problems we really weren’t 100% sure about what all was coming, but when it came out it had definitely been worth the wait.

My Pork chop!

My pork chop was way better than I had imagined it would be. It had very little fat, was very tender and had great flavor. Now, I usually don't like pork chops because of their fattiness and their lack of flavor, but this pork chop was one that I definitely enjoyed. With no fat and a lot of flavor, I am happy to say it was definitely worth my time. It came with a side of fried potatoes, and those were pretty good, too! They were very crunchy on the outside, but fall-apart tender on the inside.  Pretty good, if I do say so myself! Everyone’s dish came with at least

some of the restaurant’s home-made sausage, which was also very good.

The Dad’s had actually thought their meal, which was called the “trilogy” was going to be three different cuts of pork.  Instead it was three types of sausages.  My Dad was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a chop with his, but the portions were so big that everyone was able to eat some of each.  I think the chops were everyone’s favorite.  The restaurant also served a pesto sauce on certain cuts of its sausage.  My family loves pesto, so we all thought was a great idea and gave an extra punch of flavor to the meal.

For dessert we decided to have ice cream at the restaurant, which was the only dessert they had.  I would say that there were about eight or ten different flavors, but since our French skills didn’t really include knowing the names of tons of ice cream flavors we had to make guesses about what they really were. I had the caramel ice cream, my brother had the chocolate, and my friend had the strawberry. When the ice cream came out, it looked amazing! Not only that, but it tasted great! Unlike all the caramel ice cream that has that fakey caramel taste, this

The Sausage "Trio"

actually tasted like caramel, and as a bonus, it had caramel chunks in it! Everyone else's ice cream was good, but in my opinion my ice cream was the best!

At the end of the meal my Dad asked the owner if we could get a picture with him because it had been such a fun, different kind of meal.  The owner said yes and shocked us by immediately grabbing a hat that looked like a big, pink, pig’s head and pulling it over his head.  He seemed really happy to take the picture and it was obvious that he had done it a lot in the past.  When we were trying to get the picture taken in front of the restaurant some local guy kept photobombing us – jumping in EVERY time we took the picture.  That was weird, but kind of funny too.

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one cookie being old, burnt, stale oatmeal raisin cookie nastiness, and ten cookies being perfect, warm, gooey, chocolate chip (my favorite) cookie goodness! My Cookie Counter ratings for Le Goret are:

   Food: 8 Cookies
   Atmosphere: 8 Cookies

   Service: 8 Cookies

Le Refuge des Fondues- MontMartre, Paris, France

Le Refuge des Fondues!

  While on our three week long vacation in France, we ate at some pretty interesting places. One of them was Le Refuge des Fondues. Le Refuge des Fondues means "The Refuge of Melted". The restaurant is located in the area of Paris known as Montmartre.  We had read about it online and we thought it sounded fun.  It took a little while to find, but once we found it, I knew that this place would be like no other. First of all, the restaurant was no bigger than a hotel room, and only seated about 30 people. There was a long bench along both walls with essentially what was a long table running the entire length of the restaurant in front of it.  Half of the people sit on these benches and if you are going to sit on one of them you had to climb OVER the table.  That was pretty crazy.  We had a party of eight, so we took up quite a chunk of space in the restaurant and four of us had to climb over.  We were there when it opened and it filled up really quickly.

   Probably the strangest thing about Le Refuge des Fondues was also the coolest. Everyone drank out of baby bottles!  Whether you were having water, orange juice, or even WINE (for the adults), it all came in a baby bottle. Watching grown adults and kids alike all drinking out of baby bottles was probably the funniest and strangest thing I have seen in a long time.  I think they do it in case you kick someone's drink while climbing over the table.  The restaurant also has a baby bottle on the

The Crew! (Note the baby bottles!)

front door instead of a door knob! 

  At Le Refuge des Fondues, there are only two fondue options: "cheese and meat".  When we asked what kind of meat the waiter simply answered "meat" which we thought was funny.  Because we were so hungry, we ordered both, and I'm glad we did. When our cheese bowl came out, I was the only kid who really liked the cheese, but all the adults liked it. The cheese was warm, gooey, not very strong or flavorful, but added warmth and more texture to the olives, apples, and bread that were put out for us to eat with the cheese. In all honesty, even after having some cheese, everyone was still starving, and were eagerly waiting to get the meat course. You cook the meat in boiling oil and while the oil and meat were coming out, we met a couple that had just sat down next to us. They were probably in their early twenties. Once we started talking to them, the parents and this couple immediately bonded. Within 15 minutes, the moms were showing each other baby pictures! (okay, that part was kinda weird)  Anyways, the meat course came out, and it was okay, except for two things. One, I found it very difficult to cook anything just right. No matter how long I waited after putting in the meat, the first time it would always still be raw on the inside.  Then if I put the meat back in, even for just a few seconds, it would turn out hard and overcooked. The second thing was that every time you put one of the potatoes in, it would disappear. It always dropped off and we would lose it in the oil, and it was then really difficult to get the potato out. On the very rare occasion that you could get it out, it would either fall back in or be half disintegrated. So in other words, the oil was pretty lame. I mean, burnt meat and disintegrated potatoes aren't all that great. Anyways, this restaurant wasn't really abut the food, it was about the experience and we did laugh a lot. They also let you write your name or graffiti on the walls, which I thought was cool.  Everyone in our group had a fun time that night,and we all agreed it was one of

Me climbing over the table!

the best nights (but not meals) we had on our trip!

   All the staff were nice, and they spoke English, too! I really enjoyed Le Refuge des Fondues, and even though the food wasn't great, the experience more than made up for it. So if you happen to be in Paris at Montmartre, drop in for a night full of fun - and baby bottles!

  As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one cookie being burnt, old, stale oatmeal raisin cookie nastiness, and ten cookies being perfect, warm, gooey chocolate chip (my favorite) cookie goodness. My Cookie Counter ratings for Le Refuge des Fondues are:

Food: 5 Cookies
Atmosphere: 8 Cookies
Service: 7 Cookies

Le Refuge des Fondues Google+:  https://plus.google.com/104769547298971501729/about?gl=us&hl=en