"Restaurant" Review: Angelina

Angelina - brunch on January 2, 2014

When I first went to Paris after I graduated from business school, I remember passing a place supposedly famous for its hot chocolate. Back then it was 6 euros, I had just graduated with a load of student debt and wasn't scheduled to start my post-b-school job until after I returned and I was using the last of my savings to pay for the trip. Therefore, forking over 6 euros for a cup of hot chocolate was a little outrageous to my thrifty soul. So at the time, I passed on it.

 

This time around, I'd been working for a number of years, all debts except my mortgage have been paid off and I had enough discretionary budget to splurge on a visit to that same tea room so famous for its hot chocolate: Angelina.

Croissant

My nieces and I went here after the Louvre and before Notre Dame. We joined the line coming out the door and waited 20-25 minutes before we were finally able to get it. There's a little gift shop at the front and a large room that serves as the tea room behind it. The lighting was rather dim so I didn't get a good picture of it. Like most places in London and Paris, the tables are placed rather closely together and there's not much room to maneuver but that's okay since we were there for the pastries and hot chocolate.

Tarte Fromme (Apple Tart)

We each got a pastry: croissant, apple tart and chocolate éclair and shared so we could get a taste of each other's orders. Overall I'd say they were pretty good - remember, you can't get bad food in Paris. It must be some kind of city ordinance or just national pride. However, Angelina is pretty pricey and I have to admit, while the pastries were good, I don't know if they were worth what we paid. Not when there are a million other patisseries in Paris just as good that charge less. So going to Angelina was more about the experience than what we actually ate.

Eclair Chocolat 

I will say however, the hot chocolate was delicious. Thicker than the hot chocolate made from cocoa powder and hot water that I'm used to, it was like sipping a liquid truffle of the highest chocolate caliber. It was smooth, creamy, perfectly chocolaty but not overwhelmingly so and just rich decadence. It probably redefines both "rich" and "decadent" in any culinary vocabulary. The only time I've come close to something like it was when I took a class at Sur La Table with Emily Luchetti as the instructor and she made her hot chocolate recipe from A Passion for Desserts. That was also like sipping a liquid truffle but Angelina's hot chocolate was even more creamy and decadent than even that. Another item to check off my foodie bucket list.

The Famous Angelina Hot Chocolate

But much as I enjoyed the Angelina hot chocolate and much as I have an appreciation for fine chocolate in any form, I have to admit that I don't know that one little pitcher of the best hot chocolate I've ever had was worth 8,20 euros. At today's exchange rate, that's over $11 for hot chocolate. I don't pinch pennies when I'm on vacation and I don't have any problems indulging while I'm traveling but that's probably not something I'd spend $11 on again. I'm glad we went and Angelina is worth experiencing once to try it but I'm okay not going on a repeat visit. There are other places to go in Paris to get great food and drink that won't break the bank.

I also have to mention, I wasn't overly impressed with their service. Everyone was nice but they took an inordinate amount of time to take our order. Once we had given our order, it came out very quickly so no complaints there but afterward, there was another interminable wait for the check. We tried to be sensitive to the cultural differences and not be the impatient Americans demanding service so we politely waited to catch someone's eye to both give our orders and later to ask for the bill but there definitely wasn't much concern about turning the tables over and getting people in and out to make room for the others still lined up outside. Sometimes it felt like the wait staff went out of their way not to make eye contact so we had a harder time getting their attention to ask someone to take our order. Since we had time while we just sat there waiting, I noticed this phenomenon occurring throughout the room with other people at other tables. Maybe it's a French thing or an Angelina thing.

After we had eaten our pastries and drunk every drop of the expensive hot chocolate, I went to poke around in the little gift shop outside the tea room while my nieces agreed to wait for the check. It was fun to look around. Not as fun as at Laduree but it was set up so that I could actually browse the shelves and the display cases. And we know I can look at nicely packaged, delicious food for hours on end.

Angelina also offered macarons but since I had already eaten the ones at Laduree, I wanted to try something different.

Angelina macarons

I ended up selecting this Florentine cookie and a chocolate-enrobed disc of caramel for our snack on the train.

Of course they were both pricey but at that point, in for a penny, in for a euro so I just went with it.

Both were good choices that we enjoyed on the train ride back to London. The Florentine cookie was good: caramelized sliced almonds with one side covered in milk chocolate. It was more chewy than crisp and thicker than the more traditionally wafer-like Florentines I've had. But the caramel confection was my favorite of the two. I love caramel anyway and it's hard to go wrong when it marries chocolate but one bite of this and my immediate thought was "this is the good stuff". I don't expect anything less from Angelina or Paris or France for that matter.

Paris Day 8: Louvre, Notre Dame and back to London

Day 8 - January 2, 2014

Our last day in Paris was a busy one. We were scheduled to catch the Eurostar back to London that afternoon and this time I doublechecked the departure time and had Lauren look at the tickets as well since I didn't want to miss the train again and buy 3 new train tickets. Once we were all assured of when we had to leave, we planned the day accordingly. Our first stop was the Louvre.

Outside the Louvre

On my first trip to Paris many years ago, I didn't get a chance to go to the Louvre as my friends and I ran out of time. We only saw the famous pyramids outside but the Louvre was closed in the short time we had left in Paris. So I was pleased to be able to go inside this time. Our mission, of course, was to see the Mona Lisa in person.

Inside the Louvre

I'm no art aficionado and what I know about art can be written on the top of a pin. I just like looking at the paintings and sculptures and some things I like from an aesthetic point of view and some art is just impressive in their style, colors and creation. Michaelangelo's David, for instance, impressed me from the first moment I saw it in Florence. The Sistine Chapel gives me the same sense of awe. I would like to say the Mona Lisa had the same impact but....I can't. I don't have enough of an appreciation for art or DaVinci to understand how she got to be so famous. It's a small painting, well roped off to keep all the tourists and gawkers at bay and yet she was crowded enough that it was difficult to get close enough to get a picture. Thank goodness for the zoom function on my camera or I wouldn't have been able to even get this shot without someone's iphone waving in the air as they try to get their shot. But hey, it was the Mona Lisa and now I can say I saw it in person at the Louvre. Bucket list - check.

After the Louvre, we went to Angelina (next post) as another place several friends told me, "you've got to go to Angelina". So we did.

Then we hustled to Notre Dame. I love Notre Dame. Call it another place/structure/cathedral/tourist attraction I could look at all day long. It's just so majestic and impressive. My nieces weren't as familiar with it as I was and I assume Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame wasn't one of the books they read in high school English so I tried the tack of "Remember the Disney movie? Quasimodo and Esmeralda?" "Ohhhh yeah." Whatever lets you connect with the millennial generation.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Alas, by the time we got to Notre Dame, it was almost the middle of the day and the lines to get inside were worthy of Disneyland in summer with the newest ride, even down to the rope lines snaking around. Since we didn't have hours to spend in line and we wanted to do some souvenir shopping in Paris before we went back to pricey London, we skipped touring the inside and instead took off to buy gifts for family and friends back home. Chocolate was our main mission because you can't go to Europe and not bring back European chocolate but we also managed to find some prints of the Eiffel Tower, L'Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and Notre Dame to commemorate our trip as well as other tsotchkes for my nieces to take back to their friends.

Then it was off to a crepe place (future post) for authentic French crepes for our last meal in Paris, back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and a final Metro ride to Gare du Nord to transfer to the Eurostar. This time our ride back was uneventful and direct to St Pancras. We had another transfer on the Underground at Kings Cross to go to our last London hotel, this one near Heathrow as our trip headed into its final day.

Laduree, Paris - the Mecca of Macarons

Laduree - visited January 1, 2014

Before Paris, I had never heard of Laduree. Oh I had heard people wax poetical about macarons (no, that's not a misspelling, that's how the French spell their ganache-filled meringue sandwich cookies, not to be confused with the American macaroons of coconut) and where to get them but since I've never really liked macarons, I never paid much attention. But since I was in Paris, I yelp'd where to get good ones and at nearly the same moment, I had no less than three friends tell me I must go to Laduree.

Fortunately Laduree has several locations, one of them being on Champs Elysees which is where we went on New Year's Day. Even more fortunately, they were one of the places actually open on New Year's so I had the opportunity to join the line of people out the door waiting to get in to line up some more inside. Boy, these had to be some kind of macarons, right? I figured if I didn't like Laduree's macarons, I wasn't likely to ever like them at all.

Despite not being a macaron fan, I enjoyed my visit inside Laduree tremendously. It was just so....French. Beautiful confections, not just macarons, were lined up invitingly behind glass counters manned by neatly attired Laduree personnel ready to help the customers and move the line along. When it was finally my turn, I wish I could've lingered and stared at everything but mindful of all the people behind me, I had to be decisive.

The  famous Laduree macarons

The smallest box of macarons you can buy is a box of 6 for 15.80 euros. Ouch ($21.50 USD!). The box was pretty but since I wasn't a macaron fan, that seemed excessive for 6 mini macarons. But of course you know I bought them anyway. They give you a flavor brochure while you're in line so you know what to select when it's your turn. I chose the praline (1), chocolate (2), lemon (1) and salted caramel (2) for my nieces and I to share. And, because I couldn't resist it and I was already there anyway, I chose two individual cakes, both having some form of chocolate, because they were pretty and I wanted them :).

And they have very pretty packaging as well so in this case, you can judge the book by its cover. I don't know the official names of the cakes I bought, just that they were chocolate and they were pretty. That's all I needed.

My review of the macarons: I can understand why people like them so much, some flavors are better than others, the ones from Laduree are the best of all the macarons I've had, the meringue cookies were crisp and airy while the ganache fillings were rich and creamy. The praline was good, the lemon was lemony, the chocolate was almost too chocolaty for me (as hard as that is to imagine) and the salted caramel was my favorite but probably the only one I'd get again if I happened to be in Laduree again. But I don't think I'd go out of my way for them. I'm just not into macarons. But I'm glad I've had what's reputed to be the best of them so I know what a great one tastes like.

Praline Macaron

But can I tell you this hazelnut praline confection (below) was one of the best desserts I've ever had?? While I can remain somewhat indifferent to the best macarons of Paris, I would line up multiple times for another one of these hazelnut praline slices. By all that's sacred in desserts, this is the Holy Grail. Or close. The bottom layer was crunchy, the mousse filling was creamy decadence and the overall look and taste was just scrumptious. It's just as well I don't live in Paris or I'd be as big as a house because I'd have to eat one of these every day just because I could. And as proof of how much I like this cake, it doesn't even bother me that it was 6.10 euros. $8.30 a slice? I don't care. It was worth it.

Hazelnut Praline slice

The second chocolate dessert I got from Laduree was this chocolate square, layers of chocolate cake sandwiching a chocolate mousse filling and topped with chocolate ganache and a decorative nut crunch with a bit of edible gold foil. This was good too and had similar elements as the hazelnut praline slice but it wasn't quite as good. On a scale of 1-10, this would be an 8.5 while the hazelnut praline would be a 43. Still, it was a good choice and I'm glad we were able to sample more than macarons from Laduree.

Oh and for anyone in Southern CA, rumor has it Laduree will be opening a branch in Newport Beach so you don't have to go all the way to Paris for a macaron or the hazelnut praline slice. Not that I minded the travel....

Paris Day 7 - 2014 A Quiet Day in Paris, dinner at an "American" restaurant

January 1, 2014 - Happy New Year!

The first day of 2014 was rainy in Paris. Instead of walking like we normally would, we took the metro to L'Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs Elysees when there was a break in the weather. Champs Elysees is lined with shops and was fairly busy for a holiday but quiet compared to a "normal" day. Only half the stores were open so I imagine it would've been more crowded on a non-holiday.

Laduree (next post) was open on the Champs Elysees and other than a visit to the famous store, we didn't do much shopping. We tried going to Bon Marche but they were closed for New Year's. Lunch was at a casual, point-and-choose Chinese restaurant but I was getting weary of taking pictures of food places and what we were eating (I know, shocking) so I don't have any record of it.

After an afternoon of rest, downloading pics onto my laptop and catching up on my blog, I rallied for dinner though. My nieces and I had originally hoped to try out a crepe place and we had earmarked one from yelp that got great reviews which was within walking distance of our hotel. Unfortunately, when we headed out to find it, it was closed. It was raining again too so we had to find another option. After walking around a bit longer and checking out the sidewalk menus, we ducked into one restaurant too quickly for me to take a picture of where we were so I waited until after dinner to snap the shot above.

4-cheese pizza

I don't have a picture of the inside but, like most places in France, it was on the small side, with a larger room partitioned off to make 2 smaller rooms. We were shown to the room in the back and seated at a table right next to the kitchen which was mostly closed off except for the steel counter where they placed the finished orders and the wait staff came to pick them up. Some people may not like that kind of location but it turned out to be a great place to sit as we could watch the mouthwatering dishes being plated and see what made its way out of the kitchen onto the tables. The menu was mostly Italian with pizzas and pastas and the decor reminded me of Sardi's in New York with wall art depicting movie stars. Not quite the French experience you expect in Paris but we were hungry and lucky to get a table on New Year's without a reservation so we went with it. Besides, remember my mantra that it's probably impossible to eat bad food in Paris. This was no exception. We did "French-ify" our order though with the pizza. When in France, you have to have everything with cheese. So we went with the 4-cheese pizza. This was good (it's cheese, it's France). The only jarring note is one of the cheeses was bleu cheese and it tended to overpower the other cheeses.

Pesto Pasta

The pesto pasta was also tasty. You can taste the freshness and assume the chef probably plucked the basil leaves off the plant minutes before serving this up. I had a birds' eye view into the kitchen and it was really amazing to see how quickly they plated the food yet there was no one rushing around frantically and no histrionic sounds of tempers flaring. Instead, the 2-4 people I glimpsed all moved efficiently but weren't rushing or panicked. No reality TV restaurant shows in the making here.

Banana and Nutella "pizza"

Dessert was the "banana nutelle pizza" but it came out more like a calzone, hot with fresh caramelized bananas and nutella packed on the inside. We made short work of it and were happy. It also seems pretty easy to make and in between bites, I was advising my nieces on replicating the dessert: buy the fresh pizza dough from Trader Joe's, roll it out in a thin circle, spread nutella over it and lay sliced bananas over half of the dough, fold over and seal the edges to make the calzone and bake until brown. Easy. And don't think I'm not going to make it myself someday.

We were armed with knives and forks - the banana nutella "pizza" didn't have a chance

The joke was on us when we left the restaurant and I was able to take a picture of the outside to see where we actually ate at: an "American" restaurant that serves Italian food. I couldn't find them on yelp or google so I don't think they have much of an internet presence but it was a good find on a cold, rainy night. If we had planned better or if more places were open, we might have had a more typical French meal but for an American restaurant serving Italian food, it served our needs just fine.

Les Bateaux Parisiens - lunch cruise on the Seine

Les Bateaux Parisiens - lunch cruise on December 31, 2013

Thanks to my friend, we went on a lunch cruise on the Seine with Les Bateaux Parisiens. "Bateaux" means boats in French and Les Bateaux Parisiens offers a lunch cruise, dinner cruise and a sightseeing cruise. The boats depart from the dock near the Eiffel Tower so they're not hard to find. When we checked in at the pier, we were given our table number and handed a menu of our lunch selections. We made our way to where our boat would depart just in time as it started to rain when we got there. Fortunately the boat was flat-bottomed and fully enclosed so we could enjoy the views in dry, warm comfort.

I have to say, the cruise was one of the highlights of our trip, if not the highlight of the whole week and a half of vacation. When we boarded, we were shown to our table, offered a selection of nuts and libations and away we went. The tables are arranged so there's not really a bad seat. Since it's fully enclosed in glass, you could get a great view anywhere you turned. The tables right against the window were lower than the inside tables so even from an inside table, you had an unobstructed view of the sights.

Our starting point was the Eiffel Tower

Bread rolls, nuts and drinks to start off with while we waited to sail

But what really made the trip so fantastic was (of course) the food. I've been on dinner cruises before in San Francisco Bay and they've been fun but I can't say the food was really striking. Not so with Les Bateaux Parisiens. I'll be remembering this meal for quite some time and not just because I have a good memory when it comes to food. Everything was roll-your-eyes-to-the-back-of-your-head delicious.

Veloute of pumpkin, chestnuts and pine nuts

The menu lets you select a starter, an entree and either cheese or a dessert for the third course. For my starter I got the pumpkin veloute. Our very nice waiter served it initially with the cream in the center of the bowl then he poured the hot pumpkin soup into it in front of me. A completely nice touch, especially considering he and the other wait staff had to do that for every diner who ordered the veloute. The soup was hot, creamy and the perfect pumpkin flavor.

Duck Terrine with foie gras and fig chutney

Shyla got the duck terrine and Lauren the escargots. Both enjoyed their starters and they were literally a good start to our cruise. In the midst of the food being served, we were already under way, cruising the brown waters of the Seine. Since this wasn't the sightseeing cruise per se, they only made sporadic announcements of some of the sights we were passing, including Les Invalides, Le Musee d'Orsay, and La Bibliotheque Nationale de France but the announcements over the loudspeaker did offer some informational tidbits about some of the bridges and monuments we were passing.

Cassolette of escargots from Burgundy, 'Meurette-style'

For my entree I ordered the "Braised Pork spare rib with gratin Dauphinois". It was amusing for me to see the singular "rib" as I had in mind the American version of ribs, always in the plural. Were they going to give me one rib? Turned out the answer was "yes" but it was more like a boneless pork loin. Tender and very flavorful in a yummy sauce. I wish I had a better way to describe it other than, "wow, this is really good and I'm eating all of it". But my favorite part was the "gratin Dauphinois". The boat didn't have wifi so I couldn't look it up before I ordered it but I retained enough high school French to figure it was some kind of scalloped potatoes with cheese. OMG. The words "potatoes" and "cheese" are wholly inadequate to describe how good this was. Cheesy, perfectly cooked, and tender - did I mention cheesy?? They were so good. I never knew potatoes could be that good.

Braised Pork Spare Rib, gratin Dauphinois

Shyla got the shrimp and spinach in a crayfish sauce. The foam you see below is the crayfish sauce and she enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed my potatoes. As in, several hours later, she would burst out, "OMG, that foam was so good!" Yep, we're related.

Jumbo Shrimp, Spinach, Crayfish Sauce

Lauren got the veal stew. I didn't get the picture in action but, like my pumpkin veloute, it was served with an individual touch: our waiter brought her the plate then proceeded to spoon the stew onto it from an individual sized little pot. Very cute, very classy.

Paupiette of Veal cooked in a casserole dish, stewed vegetables

While we were eating, we were zipping along the Seine and I took random shots of what we were passing. Whenever I managed to look up from my plate, that is.

Le Grand Palais (I think)

The announcer over the loudspeaker also talked about some of the bridges we were going under but since I didn't write anything down, I confess I didn't retain the knowledge beyond our next course.

Since we were in France, our third and final course was a choice of cheese or dessert. We all opted for dessert but I managed to take a picture of the cheese plate before they delivered it to another table.

Fromage (cheese)

On my foodie bucket list of "desserts to eat in Paris", Tarte Tatin is one of them so I was pleased this was one of the dessert offerings. It's essentially a caramelized apple upside down cake. For a traditional Tarte Tatin, you line a cast iron pan with sliced apples, prettily arranged if you're skilled enough (I'm not), cover the tart crust, bake, then flip over onto the serving plate once it was done. If all goes well, you have a beautifully caramelized apple top with the tart crust underneath. If all doesn't go well, er, like when I made it in culinary school, let's just say, mine never came out looking like the one below. This was also good but it's hard not to like a warm apple tart. In Paris.

Tarte Tatin

Pot de creme (pot of cream)

Lauren got the pot de creme which is literally a pot of cream. Just like the creme brulee from Bistro La Petite Rotonde, this was sinfully rich and creamy and very good. And I say that as someone who doesn't often like cream-type desserts. Creme brulee and pot de creme are notable exceptions.

Praline Paris Brest

Shyla chose the Paris Brest which is a pate a choux filled with mousse. That was good too but each of us only had a bite to taste. She was already full and Lauren and I were focusing on our own desserts.

The Paris version of the Statue of Liberty

Did you know there's a Statue of Liberty in Paris? It's a smaller version of the one in New York City and was a gift to the city in 1889 from the American community in Paris on their centenary. Pretty cool. I think we passed this somewhere along the dessert course or shortly after so I did actually notice something other than what I was eating.

Coffee to end a delicious meal

The whole cruise took a little over two hours and we went along the Seine at a pretty steady clip, enabling us to circle the route twice while we ate. We got lucky in that our waiter served us first so we had plenty of time to enjoy our food before the cruise ended. We got even luckier that the rain stopped before the cruise ended so by the time we emerged, we could continue our travels without getting (too) wet. If you're ever in Paris, this is a fun cruise to go on and a great way to enjoy more delicious food.