Night drew its shades quite quickly in Montpellier. One moment I was staring out from the balcony, albeit with a sweater on, then "bam" darkness had descended. And along with that came a drizzle, not heavy mind you, just enough to be irritating.
And then the cold arrived.
We'd had decent luck with non-French cuisine thus far and thought some soup would be great. I did some searching for ramen, but those places didn't look to promising. I did better with pho and one of those shops was fairly close to where we were staying, Cuisine S. Getting there was a bit interesting and round about as the place was fairly close to the train station. We walked past several Thai Restaurants and countless Indian places, all of them sparsely occupied. The street seemed dark and quite empty, the Missus was getting a bit nervous. It was a pretty dramatic change when we arrived at our destination.
All those folks waiting outside are food delivery couriers waiting for their orders! The restaurant itself was three-quarters full and we easily got a table. But there was one table where no one sat and the packages of takeout a delivery items were placed there. There was a constant stream of food packages being placed on the table and folks picking stuff up!
The woman working was very nice and we were quickly given menus. We opened it up and started cracking up.
They sure were playing up Obama's Bun Cha experience with Anthony Bourdain! The Missus ended up ordering the Bun Cha avec 2 Nems.
I, on the other hand, got the Pho Dac Biet, which seemed quite pricy at 15 Euroes, but heck, this is France and perhaps the ingredients are difficult to find?
Anyway, soon enough my pho came out.
There were no herbs and veggies on a plate; what little there was had already been dumped in the soup; which had a weird tinge that was almost grey. The broth tasted like salt water with some beef bouillon dumped in it. The slices of beef were tough and tasteless. The banh pho were of the thicker variety and were just a tad overcooked. Man, this was even worse than the stuff we had in Paris a few years back.
The Missus fared slightly better.
The best item were the "nems", which we call Cha Gio, it was light and crisp and the filling while on the chewier side had a nice porky flavor. The bun was overcooked. The bun cha dry, tough, and bland. The nuoc mam cham suffered a from a serious shortage of fish sauce. I'm just going to stop here…..
And still, those takeout and delivery orders kept piling up……
Again, the woman working here was so very nice and sweet. She spoke English, so I asked her about all the delivery orders and she told me: "every day is like this"! Go figure!
In the end, perhaps I pushed for a "bridge too far" this time.
Cuisine S
20 Rue Aristide Ollivier
34000 Montpellier, France
We slunk back to the apartment…..
When we awoke the next morning, I could tell the Missus was getting a bit restless and was ready to move on. So, I quickly tried to figure out what to do on this day. I did some quick checks and found that the Cathedral, which we saw the previous day was open from 1030 – 1145. Luckily, the apartment was fully stocked with coffee pods and I ran downstairs….it was very convenient to have a Carrefour City right on the ground floor along with a large Monoprix in the Shopping Center. I grabbed a yogurt for breakfast. We made a plan for the day, I did a post, and then we headed out at around 945am.
By now I could tell that this part of Montpellier was getting a bit too small for the Missus.
We actually did a loop and followed the tram tracks, passing the old Ursuline Convent.
Which was built in 1641 and became a women's prison during the French Revolution and is now called the Agora, which houses the National Choreographic Center.
Then down the winding streets of the old town; up stairs, down stairs…….
Until we turned the corner and the massive Cathedral Saint-Pierre stood in front of us.
The Cathedral was open for visitors so we stepped in.
The structure was commissioned by Pope Urban V in 1364 and became a cathedral in 1536.
The church is dedicated to Saint Peter. We spent about a half hour exploring a bit. It does really look like a fortress, especially form the exterior with the two huge pillars in the front. Indeed, it is often called "Fort Saint Peter".
After our visit, we felt a bit hungry; it was still fairly early for lunch in France, so we decided to head on over to Les Halles Castellanes and perhaps get something to eat back at the apartment.
After doing a couple of "laps" around the the market, we decided to get some pasta from a stand named Familglia.
All the pastas were made in the stand and they had some really good looking stuff.
In the end we got the Ravioli de Truffe with Pesto and the Gnocchi with Truffe and Champignon (of course). The service was very friendly and nice.
We got back to the apartment and I reheated the pastas.
The Truffle Ravioli was a perfect al dente.
The filling was a mild cheese with a wonderful amount of truffle flavor! The pesto was very weak though. It really didn't have any pine nut flavor, so I'm thinking it was made with walnuts or something similar.
The Gnocchi was surprisingly good.
The texture was smooth and fairly light. The sauce was mushroom and truffle forward, just what we wanted. Decent amount of salt as well.
A pretty good meal from a random stand in the market.
Famiglia (In Les Halles Castellane)
8 Place Castellane
34000 Montpellier, France
Lunch was a success, but my next mission? Find something to do after lunch!
The two sided, laminated/ easily sanitized menu is a bit pared down from pre-Covid-19 days. The majority of choices are Vietnamese with some Chinese choices also.
Still, hot tea is brought out when you are seated; some things are back to normal.
The seafood chow mein (crispy noodles) ($15.99) was quite large, filled with shrimp, fish and scallops as well as very fresh vegetables. Excellent. 
The salt and pepper fish filet with rice ($16.99) was also a very large portion. Light and crisp fry (proper) and onion were all that was needed for this meal. We did have leftovers of both. 
So, I peeled back the bread to reveal watery, runny, flavorless eggs, and though the Spam slices were fairly thick they lacked color. I recall trying to order a 
The herbs and sprouts were sparkling fresh, though there was no ngo gai. The broth was quite clear, perhaps a bit too defatted for me. It was also "sweeter" than I prefer and quite "salty" but better than what I'd recently consumed at Pho Lucky, at least in terms of beefiness. There was a very mild hint of anise flavor in the broth as well.
Admittedly, I was disappointed in not being to get "Dem Bones", but this was an ok bowl of pho especially for the Kearny Mesa area, which may have the most KFC, hot pot, and such, but seems to have seriously fallen off with regards to Vietnamese cuisine over the past decade.
In terms of flavor, I took a quick sip of the broth just as it was delivered and…..sigh…..just slightly beefy and it had that feature of "San Diego Pho"…..the broth was overly sweet and quite thin.
I did notice something interesting as I went to add the bean sprouts to my pho. It was studded with ice! I guess this is what keeps those sprouts fresh and crisp? Not a great move to add to your pho though…..
The place was empty except for two "regulars" who were joking around (quite loudly) with Boo, the gentleman who has taken over running the place from his mom and dad.
When my Bun Bo Hue arrived he said "time to eat" and left me to enjoy my scalding, spicy bowl of Bun Bo Hue. It used to be that I'd have to add chili oil to my soup, but these days it's more than spicy enough. I think my tolerance has waned over the years. The veggies are added, I give things a good mix…….I love to track the change in texture to the veggies as the hot soup slowly works its magic. I do still add a bit on mam tom for that savory "kick". 
Not much has changed since Covid-19. Menu is the same. Tabletops are still sticky. Prices have, of course, increased.
Pho Tai (rare beef) (large, $11.40) arrives with fresh herbs and add-ins, still has a rich deep colored and flavorful broth which is slightly salty. Noodles were not in a 'clump'. Overall, this bowl was very refreshing.
The half order of Spring Rolls ($5.60) arrived with the shrimp and pork still warm. The lettuce, sprouts and mint were crisp and very fresh. Even the vermicelli noodles were still warm. Made to order and exceptionally good.
The grilled pork Bun ($12.60) was quite a large serving of thicker slices of char grilled pork on top of lettuce and cold vermicelli topped with pickled radish and carrot, sprouts and mint and topped with plenty of peanuts. The nuoc nuam sauce/dressing is a wonderfully balanced fish sauce based dressing.
As I walked toward the shop I noticed several gentleman sitting facing the front of the store and then noticed that they have a television facing the parking lot, so folks can watch from outside of the place! Funny thing. Though I'm quite used to the Vietnamese Men "doing coffee" thing…..I don't ever recall seeing them watching Paw Patrol before, which is what was streaming at the time I entered the shop.
The bread seemed to be at that overly dry, almost stale stage as it was quite crumbly and hard. Check out all the cilantro, that wedge of cucumber, and all those pickled veggies! I guess they wanted to make I was getting my daily allowance here! Of course that threw the balance of the banh mi off a bit. The jalapenos weren't overly spicy, the pate nice and funky, the Cha Lua sliced super thin, and the Thịt Nguoi standard issue. 