Man, the first ten days of our two week stay in Paris just seemed to fly by. At least for me. On this bright, but chilly Saturday morning, we decided just to do the flâneur thing as we headed down Rue Vieille du Temple. We found a couple of shops that caught our attention.
And had fun browsing…….
Man, I want to find an English edition of this book…..
Right across the street was a lovely park and garden.
This is the Jardin de l'Hôtel Salé.
Further down the street is a large community center; the Halle des Blancs Manteaux. Since it was Christmas season, there was a large craft fair going on.
We had a fun time exploring.
We made our way down to Rue Rivoli and saw this Eclair shop on Rue Pavée.
The Missus had been wanting to try some elcairs so we headed on in.
There was quite a collection of beautiful looking eclairs.
After some hemming and hawing, the Missus made Her selection.
And we headed on back to the apartment.
L’Éclair de Génie
14 Rue Pavée
75004 Paris, France
After storing our purchases, we gave some thought to lunch. For some reason, we felt pretty cold on this day. I mentioned a hot pot place we'd seen on Rue Saint-Denis a few days before. Hot pot sounded like just what we needed, so we headed off to Fondue 9.
The restaurant seemed a bit tiny, until we realized that there was dining upstairs as well. Can you imagine carrying hot pot up and down stairs….one false move! We also noticed that the customers during our visit were all Chinese, a bit of change since we'd seen pretty much a 50-50 mix during our visits to various Asian restaurants in the city.
After checking out the menu; we decided on the "lunch special".
After which we headed straight on over to the condiment bar to get our "stuffs".
Not much in terms of spicy sauces and no fermented bean curd. And we started to worry that the hot pot was going to be a bust.
But as our Yin Yang hot pot made it's way to the table we knew this was going to be ok. You could smell the herbs and spice.
Lots of white pepper.
All the usual suspects arrived.
Even frozen tofu! The noodles were quite stretchy.
The tripe was a bit too tough; though the seiche; the cuttlefish was surprisingly tender.
What was most surprising of all was the fish, which had been nicely velveted and rubbed with chili oil.
It was wonderfully buttery and tender after a brief swim in the broth.
The meat were of good quality; especially the lamb, which was so gamey and tender.
This was quite a satisfying meal for us. We had found a solution to the cold; at least for a while.
Fondue 9
168 Rue Saint-Denis
75002 Paris, France
We headed on back to the apartment and took a short nap.
When we woke; it was "tea time" for the Missus. Time to break out the eclairs.
These were a bit too sweet for me.
The Missus, it turns out, is not a fan of crème pâtissière, the custard fillings used for eclairs.
But of course, we had to eventually try elcairs….because, when in France, right?
The plate of sprouts, greens, and herbs were fresh, the bun slippery and nicely textured. For some reason, the broth seemed more spicy than usual; or perhaps I'm just getting wimpy in my old age. That combined with an assertive lemongrass flavor and singeing heat really set my lips on fire.
Man, I still really like the noodles here. It has that perfect ratio of chewiness to slippery pull and girth that I enjoy. The garlic paste went well with the tamago, which was nicely seasoned and still warm. It was a bit much for the broth; which had that nice tongue feel and savory tones I enjoyed previously. In the past it teetered on too salty, but today it was nicely balanced. The garlic paste was too bitter and messed up the balance of the broth. Man, the barrel aged shoyu does wonders for the broth adding a slightly sweet-umami "edge" to things.
I enjoyed this bowl and also the service. As things are now 
On an interesting note; while searching for addresses I found that Onii-San opened a Sando shop named Ototo last years as well! Makes perfect sense.
It was as we remembered; a bit too dense and bready for our taste. But it was fun just to be here again after all these years.
No, your eyes aren't fooling you. That's a fairly small portion. The egg was crisp at the edges just like I enjoy it, but a bit over cooked for my taste as the yolks was hard.
I really appreciate having a place like this fairly close by. It's definitely not "Ameri-Thai", though I do think the proportion of rice to dish is a bit skewed on the starch side and the prices fairly high for the portion size.
I saved the seaweed salad for the Missus, not a fan of the stuff. The rice was moist and cooked decently.
It did seem like my sandwich was sticking "its tongue out at me"……perhaps mocking me? To use a single word to describe this would be "light". From the slightly crusty, yeasty-airy bolillo to the filling. Other than a good amount of heat from the jalapenos this was quite light. In my mind, it could have used a bit more salt (when was the last time I wrote that?), tomatoes, and onions. Still, it was a decent breakfast and the price was right.
This came on a by-the-book, yeasty telera roll. The chorizo was nice and smoky, with a hint of spice. The jamon was a rather thin slice and was made irrelevant by the chorizo. The gooey cheese was the glue (no pun intended) that added a slight milky flavor to things. There was a bit of jalapeno for some zip, but I could have used more beans on this. I think I'll have the papas con chorizo version of this next time.
