We were really enjoying Toulouse. It had a totally different vibe than Paris, more grounded, mellow, down to earth. We wanted to do a bit more exploring, so I had booked train tickets to Albi, a town with quite a history. As a plus, Elyse of Toulouse Guided Walks informed me that Saturday was Market Day in Albi which was well worth checking out. Our location right at Place du Capitole made it a snap getting to Toulouse Matabiau via the metro. We took an early train (725am) to Albi-Ville, arriving just past 840 on this crisp Saturday morning. From the train station, it was a short 15 minute walk to the main square and the immense Sainte-Cécile Cathedral (Albi Cathedral) a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also said to be the largest brick cathedral in the world.
The red brick buildings really catch your eye.
The Market stalls were being set-up. We walked on over to the Marche Covert passing stands with some humongous produce. Check out this frisee.
Or these Cepes.
We were both shocked at the size of the veggies!
We stopped for a coffee at one of the local shops.
Before heading into the covered market.
There wasn't much going on as most shops hadn't opened yet. The bean vendor was open and I saw actual Tarbais Beans being sold. I was quite excited as I use the wonderful beans we get from Rancho Gordo and wanted to compare. Then I saw the price; it was 35€ a kilo! Yikes, that's like $20 a pound! For beans? Still, I went ahead and bought a half kilo.
From here we decided to cross over the Tarn a check out the view from there. So we headed down the atmospheric streets….
Down the Quai Choiseul.
And down to the river before crossing over on Pont Vieux which dates back to the 11th century.
Things were even more quiet on this side of the river. And the views were wonderful.
Things got more lively as we headed toward the other, larger bridge to cross on back. And a market was going on here as well. This one was more bustling.
We eyes the produce before crossing back over the Pont Neuf.
It was now getting close to 10am, when the Cathedral is opened for visitors, so we headed on over.
As much as the church really looks like a fortress, the interior was quite stunning. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the enormous mural of the Last Judgement which dates back to 1474.
It is the largest Last Judgement mural from the Middle Ages.
After wandering about for a while, the Missus was ready to head on back to Toulouse. So we strolled on over the Albi-Ville and caught the 1126am train.
Arriving back at Place du Capitole, we decided to look for a place to get some lunch. Walking toward our hotel, we passed this Ramen shop.
It was pretty cold, so some ramen sounded pretty good. Of course we wouldn't be having our ramen outside either. The drill was interesting. Ordering was done on a machine, memories of Japan, but payment was not. You basically got a number from the machine and placed it on your table. Once your order is ready it is delivered.
As we would often do at these places, we got a rice bowl, in this case the Sukiyaki Don.
We had ordered an extra tamago with this, which was a shade on the over cooked side and not marinated well. The egg yolk in the bowl was also too hard and over cooked. The rice was on the mushy side, but the beef was fairly tender, with a decent soy-sweet balance. What was interesting was that a good amount of togarashi was used giving this a bit of a kick.
As for the ramen. We got the Shoyu Ramen.
As you can see, the Missus was all about the tamago on this day. This bowl had a lot of "stuffs"; scallion, spinach, bean sprouts, cabbage. The best item in the entire bowl was the menma which had a wonderful texture and the earthy-soy sauce tones were on point. The two slices of "chashu", I use the quotation marks because the two thin slices were not pork belly, it was lean and tough.
The broth was really "flat", lacking in richness, hardly any shoyu flavor, and was the color of muddy water. And this was one of the rare occasions where I think the soup needed salt!
The noodles were overcooked and mushy.
You can't win 'em all……
Ebisu Toulouse
3 Rue Lafayette
31000 Toulouse, France
At least we were just steps from our accommodation. It was time for a nap!
Ramen was the first to arrive. The broth is indeed lighter, though there were some nice globules of fat in it. I thought it was on the overly salty side and pretty one-dimensional in flavor, though that might be written off to the sodium overload. The chashu; which had a nice "fat cap", was thinly sliced, with a wonderful soy-porkiness to it and very tender. The tamago was also nicely cooked and marinated but was ice cold, a pet peeve of mine.
This version came with a small "pile" of veggies – mostly bean sprouts, some carrots and spinach, etc…..for what seems to be a two dollar upcharge that's not really worth the price. The shio broth seemed even lighter than the shoyu version, less rich, but not as salty. For some reason, there was a pungency like that of white pepper that resonated with me. I preferred this broth to the shoyu version.
Apparently some noodles were stuck together during the cooking process and melded into a hard, inedible ball of gluten madness. Oh man, what a bummer. I showed this to the young man working who was speechless and told me "sorry" and then walked away. Soon someone else brought me my check! So, perhaps I was in an alternate universe at that moment having lunch at Kita-"
I enjoyed that the bread was airy, crusty, and slightly yeasty. The bright and acidic pickled veggies pared well with the good amount of cilantro which was mostly leaves…having a banh mi full of cilantro stems is a pet peeve of mine. There were two slices of sinus clearing jalapenos in the sandwich. I enjoyed the savory, slightly sour, nem nuong, which also had a nice slightly chewy-meaty texture.
The building, signage and interior has remained the same and survived Covid-19.
I chose (as always) the wonderful, vegetable filled minestrone soup as my side
to the 1/2 eggplant parmesan sandwich ($9 on the board at the door specials). This is a favorite order, served on a wonderful toasted Italian bread-the tomato sauce, crisp fried, breaded eggplant and melted cheese is a blend of comforting flavors and a texture filled meal. 
The Mister ordered the baked (cheese or meat) ravioli from the menu at the door ($9). The serving comes with the bread, as well as a choice of meat or meatless sauce as well as the optional mushroom topping (of course He wanted that!). He also ordered a side salad ($2); quite large and we shared it. Great, tasty ricotta filled ravioli, meat sauce, fresh mushrooms. Just perfect.
The menu at the door also offered an individual size white pizza ($8). We had to. Quite large for an appetizer (we thought of it that way) (there were leftovers) and exactly the way I like pizza- simple with a thin, somewhat crisp dough and toppings which conveyed the flavors of the cheeses.
