Day 2 (part 3) La Rochelle at last! (one for the foodies)
Yes, you may be wondering... what a long day.
Having lost the argument of to toll or not to toll, we took the N road that then was declassified to D road, D-137; either our road map was wrong or the road had been very very naughty. This gave Phil the opportunity to drive properly i.e. to overtake tracteurs, cows, Brits on holidays and those ever so prevalent F numberplate Finns that you can find all over the place.
The fun stopped when we got stuck in traffic "exceptionnel" at Les Marais for a long, long, long, long time... now this was one long, long, long vehicle that Phil could not overtake - now we know how wind turbine blades are transported. Nevertheless, the sun had actually come out and we had the chance to enjoy the open top again, blast the music and monkey around singing out of tune and dancing like middle aged parents
.
Anyhow, we DID get to LA ROCHELLE and, man, did it feel like we were on holiday? Ohh yes! Proper mediterranean hectic "ruelles" full of tourists, cyclists, dogs, random cars, big "Yello" buses, ourselves driving on the wrong lane...
Zis is a photo from the car (thus lack of lustre)
Zis is ze port, check out the summer feeling!
Once all that jazz was overcome, we got to find the hotel. Again, thank the gods for the sat-nav, as it would have been impossible to find it so straightforwardly without it. In fact, it happened to be that corner house with a wall and a palm tree that we had driven past at least a couple of times. To my surprise, this hotel, well, B&B, is located two streets away from the port and it is a most wonderful jewel. But I will talk about the B&B later on... because not only did we find a fab place to stay, we also did find a fab place to have dinner in!
The place is "Restaurant Ô5" http://www.o5restaurant.fr/ located in the merrily named...
So, Phil had:
- Aumoniére (purse) de Mignon de Porc, Vinaigre de tomate et Sirop d'Erable
- Boeuf poelé, reduction de bearnaise au basicil et tombee de Girolles.
I had:
- Gaspacho de pasteque , faln de Parmesan et Pistil de Safran (I had to ask the waiter what pasteque was, in perfect french, so I though I was a bit special needs, looked at me with a blank french face and then, with very subdued arm movement and pursed mouth tried to mimic the shape of a watermelon - could have been football gazpacho if you ask me! I only found out what it was when the soup arrived)
- Pavé de veau, mille feuilles de champignons et coulis de tomate a l'huile d'olive.
(and yes, we thought they would charge us per word used)
Et voilá, ze funky whatsit "gaspacho"
Phil's verdict: starter better than mine, pork sweet, balsamicky, oniony, pastry just on the spot - very thin but not dry.
My verdict: Phil thinks the starter's cheese flan was superbly light; I think it killed very "almost not there" watermelon gazpacho - which was a surprise of a fruity soup.
Mains: meat-wise, Phil preferred the veal, but his mushrooms were just very surprising, lovely texture and flavour... they came in a stack with a roof of paillette potatoes. The dish came with carrots; very peppery and with some green thing that we are not sure how to describe... it was... green... very green... alien green... even shaped like an UFO, in green... madeleine au "basil".
My main; veal very nicely cooked, the mushroom paste in the millefeuille was very creamy - took me a while to realise what it was. Crown-shaped roast potatoes and a nest of threaded raw beetroot (well, purple thing that tasted of raw vegetable).
No puds but nice wine from the region "Thierry Jullion 2007", Charentain.
The restaurant itself had a lovely minimalistic industrial design, with a garage-like indoors, lots of empty space, open airy well fitted kitchen and secret garden at the back. Very handsome toilet in white and purple, stylish and unisex.
Night menu comes up to 28€ x 3 dishes,, which is good value for the different, innovative & young product it offers. Fun menu display despite the typos in Spanish grammar and hey, including some sections in Latin. Funky artwork on the walls.
As a complimentary mouth opener, we got some goat's cheese mousse with almond and honey in a shot glass. I tried it and liked it; could be described as a "whiff" of a goat which disappeared in seconds - which sounds awful - and then came back for the wine - naughty goat.
And to finish the restaurant plug, here's photo of the entrance in case you are in La Rochelle and want to find it. Just a piece of advice, dress slightly better than us, as we did stand out like sore thumbs in that place with our scruffy tourist gear.
... So... 85€ lighter (plus the overly generous tip we left) and also under the influence of spirits (of the alcoholic kind, don't go about thinking a XVIth century freemason has taken over my body and is scribbling in undecypherable cryptic freemason hand - actually, maybe he has! I don't make any sense!), I will duly continue my report on the rather middle aged and middle class adventures of us two in "ze" continent on the next post, as digestion time beckons.
Bonne nuit, mes cheris, and remember that blog time is flexible and never real, so we may remain on day 2 for a couple of weeks more!
Having lost the argument of to toll or not to toll, we took the N road that then was declassified to D road, D-137; either our road map was wrong or the road had been very very naughty. This gave Phil the opportunity to drive properly i.e. to overtake tracteurs, cows, Brits on holidays and those ever so prevalent F numberplate Finns that you can find all over the place.
The fun stopped when we got stuck in traffic "exceptionnel" at Les Marais for a long, long, long, long time... now this was one long, long, long vehicle that Phil could not overtake - now we know how wind turbine blades are transported. Nevertheless, the sun had actually come out and we had the chance to enjoy the open top again, blast the music and monkey around singing out of tune and dancing like middle aged parents
.
Anyhow, we DID get to LA ROCHELLE and, man, did it feel like we were on holiday? Ohh yes! Proper mediterranean hectic "ruelles" full of tourists, cyclists, dogs, random cars, big "Yello" buses, ourselves driving on the wrong lane...
Zis is a photo from the car (thus lack of lustre)
Zis is ze port, check out the summer feeling!The place is "Restaurant Ô5" http://www.o5restaurant.fr/ located in the merrily named...
So, Phil had:
- Aumoniére (purse) de Mignon de Porc, Vinaigre de tomate et Sirop d'Erable
- Boeuf poelé, reduction de bearnaise au basicil et tombee de Girolles.
I had:
- Gaspacho de pasteque , faln de Parmesan et Pistil de Safran (I had to ask the waiter what pasteque was, in perfect french, so I though I was a bit special needs, looked at me with a blank french face and then, with very subdued arm movement and pursed mouth tried to mimic the shape of a watermelon - could have been football gazpacho if you ask me! I only found out what it was when the soup arrived)
- Pavé de veau, mille feuilles de champignons et coulis de tomate a l'huile d'olive.
(and yes, we thought they would charge us per word used)
Et voilá, ze funky whatsit "gaspacho"Phil's verdict: starter better than mine, pork sweet, balsamicky, oniony, pastry just on the spot - very thin but not dry.
My verdict: Phil thinks the starter's cheese flan was superbly light; I think it killed very "almost not there" watermelon gazpacho - which was a surprise of a fruity soup.
Mains: meat-wise, Phil preferred the veal, but his mushrooms were just very surprising, lovely texture and flavour... they came in a stack with a roof of paillette potatoes. The dish came with carrots; very peppery and with some green thing that we are not sure how to describe... it was... green... very green... alien green... even shaped like an UFO, in green... madeleine au "basil".
My main; veal very nicely cooked, the mushroom paste in the millefeuille was very creamy - took me a while to realise what it was. Crown-shaped roast potatoes and a nest of threaded raw beetroot (well, purple thing that tasted of raw vegetable).
No puds but nice wine from the region "Thierry Jullion 2007", Charentain.
The restaurant itself had a lovely minimalistic industrial design, with a garage-like indoors, lots of empty space, open airy well fitted kitchen and secret garden at the back. Very handsome toilet in white and purple, stylish and unisex.
Night menu comes up to 28€ x 3 dishes,, which is good value for the different, innovative & young product it offers. Fun menu display despite the typos in Spanish grammar and hey, including some sections in Latin. Funky artwork on the walls.
As a complimentary mouth opener, we got some goat's cheese mousse with almond and honey in a shot glass. I tried it and liked it; could be described as a "whiff" of a goat which disappeared in seconds - which sounds awful - and then came back for the wine - naughty goat.
And to finish the restaurant plug, here's photo of the entrance in case you are in La Rochelle and want to find it. Just a piece of advice, dress slightly better than us, as we did stand out like sore thumbs in that place with our scruffy tourist gear.
... So... 85€ lighter (plus the overly generous tip we left) and also under the influence of spirits (of the alcoholic kind, don't go about thinking a XVIth century freemason has taken over my body and is scribbling in undecypherable cryptic freemason hand - actually, maybe he has! I don't make any sense!), I will duly continue my report on the rather middle aged and middle class adventures of us two in "ze" continent on the next post, as digestion time beckons.
Bonne nuit, mes cheris, and remember that blog time is flexible and never real, so we may remain on day 2 for a couple of weeks more!
Labels: food, France, holidays, La Rochelle, Restaurant Ô5
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