Since we were spending two weeks in Paris, the Missus decided that She wanted to get Her hair done. So, after doing a bit of research She found a place in 10th Arrondissement. So, we headed off, up Rue du Temple past Place de la République.
Crossing over to the 10th, which we were not familiar with. There seemed to be a real "local" vibe to the area.
I've seen dog walkers, but this woman carted pooches around…..not sure what this is called? Kinda cute though.
We found the salon without much of a problem. While the Missus was having Her hair done, I decided to take a walk around the area and find a place to grab a cup of coffee.
There was quite a bit of interesting street art in the area. There was a place named Holybelly that was the subject of one of the Earful Tower's Podcasts and since it was in the 10th, I thought I'd walk over to check the place out. Hole smokes was the place busy, with a line waiting to get in.
I had done a bit of research the night before and did have a coffee shop on my list of places to check out.
This one was on the other side of Canal Saint Martin.
Which by the way, I had never visited in all our trips to Paris. Go figure.
It was a nice, mild, winter day, so the walk was quite pleasant.
Right across Canal Saint-Martin, down Rue de la Grange aux Belles is a location of specialty roaster Ten Belles, which I believe has three shops in Paris.
The folks working were quite friendly. I tried to order an Americano in French, but the girl laughed and started talking to me in English and told me "good try"!
And it was a decent Americano to boot.
I took a seat at an empty table and just had a nice relaxing moment. A few minutes later, I saw the gentleman on a small single table next to me greet a woman. Unfortunately, he had no room, so I scooted over and made the hand signs to trade tables with him and we switched. He made sure to walk over after and shake my hand, giving me a nice, warm "merci beaucoup"! As I left the couple both waved goodbye to me. Such nice folks….
Ten Belles – Paris 10
10 Rue de la Grange aux Belles
75010 Paris, France
As I strolled back down along the canal, who should I see but the Missus walking up to meet me!
It was still fairly early, we decided to grab a bite to eat. Both the Missus and I had heard and read about the chain of Crepe shops in Paris that were highly recommended; Breizh Cafe. So many folks mentioned this place and they have several shops in Paris, Lyon, and even one in Tokyo if I recall. The Marias location on Rue Vieille-du-Temple is very popular, but we easily got a table.
So Breizh Cafe specializes in crepes from Brittany, that would be buckwheat "galettes". We aren't into overly sweet main sweet dishes for breakfast-lunch-brunch, so we both went with savory galettes.
The Missus got the Complete Champignons, which included jambon, Comté, and a sunny side up egg.
I got the Complete, which is jambon, egg, and comté.
Both the Missus and I were quite underwhelmed. The food lacked seasoning, the galettes were bland and this just wasn't too our taste. Perhaps galettes aren't our thing?
At least the people watching was fun.
Breizh Café
109 Rue Vieille-du-Temple
75003 Paris, France
We've run into folks who've been to Briezh and they echo our opinion. And the owner of Hola Paris told me that buckwheat galettes can tend to be on the bland-dry side as well. So, like I said, perhaps galettes aren't our kind of thing. But we're glad we tried them and will again if we're in Brittany.
We had a nice walk to our last stop before heading back to the apartment.
During a previous visit to Paris, we dropped by Edwart Chocolatier. And even though we had a good amount of chocolate on hand from other places we visited earlier during the trip, the Missus wanted to add to Her collection.
And after a few samples, the Missus added to Her ever growing chocolate collection.
Edwart Chocolatier
17 Rue Vieille-du-Temple
75004 Paris
I'm guessing Edwart is now a regular stop on our visits.
We'd headed back to the apartment for a break before doing a bit more exploring and heading to one of favorite restaurants in Paris for dinner.
Thanks for stopping by!
That's what things looked like when I opened up the boxes back at the office. I did a quick taste of the tomato topping which was super bland, you couldn't even really taste tomato. The version of Mul Kimchi provided was weird as it had a real strong anise/clove flavor that wasn't very pleasant.
And not a hint of truffle flavor to be found.
The wings had held up better this time. I tried the sides first. The corn slaw was terrible, the "dressing" was really watery and this lacked flavor. Very little corn, you might as well just give me raw coleslaw mix.
The batter had peeled away from two of the pieces, which had been turned face down in the box. The sauce was not overly sweet, but I still would have preferred a bit more saltiness, this was much milder than the versions at other places. The chunks of chicken were on the dry and tough side.
I'm not going to beat a dead horse about that Mul Kimchi. I just don't care for the flavor.
Really friendly folks, a nice selection. I got the Missus a French Press and I got an Americano before we hit the road.
Of course we're talking about good pork XLB. This was basically, meh…. The wrappers were too thick, there wasn't enough "soup" in the dumplings, and the pork filling was tough.
It was good. I liked the wrapper, which was tender, with a bit of heft, and a nice al dente pull to it. The filling was also nicely seasoned, more of a course chop with large pieces of tender, briny-sweet shrimp. There were perhaps a bit too much Chinese chives in this, but overall no complaints. I did not care for the dipping sauce that came with the jiaozi, it had sweet tones I didn't care for. I just ended up using the black vinegar provided on the table.
Here’s another fairly quick name change! The place just opened in January. Based on my 
The broth was a bit richer than what we had on our previous visit here which was nice. The tamago a bit over-cooked but nicely flavored. For some reason, I like the savory-sweet flavor that the black garlic oil adds to this bowl. The noodles were perfectly cooked on this visit as well.
The plate was quite heavy on the proteins. Personally, I liked having only one scoop rice as I will often tell the folks at turo-turo places to give me "half rice" these days. 
I've yet to find decent Huli Huli Chicken outside of Hawaii and versions I've had 
The mac salad, though a bit over-mayo'd was nicely seasoned this time around. I could make out hints of vinegar which really elevated it. 
I liked the kalua pork, it was moist and tender, not overly salty, with a decent smokiness to it. In fact, the Missus tried the leftovers and said it 
Man, these were super stuffed, full of porky goodness, hint of sweet- savory tones, and wrapped with rice paper. It was slightly more chewy than I prefer, but man, the overall package was much better than anything here is San Diego. This also heated up well in the air fryer!