Le Loir dans la Théière

Today I got a break from my end of term work-load & caught up with a friend in my favourite area, Le Marais. Just a short walk from St. Paul's metro is 'Le Loir dans Le Theiere', a cute coffee shop/cake paradise. From the outside, it promises to be a pretty cool joint, owing to the tell-tale clue of a queue snaking its way out onto the cobbled pavement. I mentioned Le Loire dans le Theiere in this post so I'm glad I got a chance to go back & try out something sweet :)

From the chilly outside we peeped in & saw a promising cosy tearoom, with squashy leather armchairs, happy chatter and walls covered with artsy posters. Instead of choosing cake from the menu, we got to ogle over a counter cluttered with massive cakes, cakes & pies, from which the waiters cut fresh, gigantic slices.

Mine was an amazing layered cake with biscuit, dark chocolate & white chocolate - it was absolutely huge. My friend got a banana-ry, chocolatey cheesecake, & I can confirm that both were delicious. Other sweet things on offer included orange cake, a baked alaska-y meringue dream, a coffee & walnut cake & lots of chocolate creations.

(Sorry for the quality -taken on my friend's Blackberry!)

The cakes were quite expensive at €7.00, but when it's big enough to make you miss meals I guess it's ok for an occasional treat! I decided to walk the last part of the way home, & I never regret it when my local area looks like this! Photos from the Grand Palais & Petit Palais near Champs-Elysees Clemenceau. 

À Bientôt !

x

Holy Guacamole!

Tonight, I went out to for the best Mexican food of my life! The ambiance, the open kitchen where you could watch your fresh tortillas being rolled and the friendly patter from the chef only served to make my quesadilla taste even scrummier, and it was pretty good to start with.

The Mexican adventure was a suggestion from an American friend, who knows her Southern food, being from Florida. In celebration of having finished a particularly nasty test you may have heard me whinging about, we looked up recommendations on an amazing app called "Le Fooding". Choose your cuisine, read the reviews & Bob's your uncle. Apparently there are only a handful of Mexican restaurants in Paris, and the owners at El Nopal gave a pretty fair summary of them, telling us which were amigos in the Mex food industry and which were places best avoided!

When we arrived the shutters were down, it was drizzling & I thought it was the premature end to a pretty short-lived evening. However, the owner heard us waiting & opened up half an hour early, let us inside & took our orders. I got a quesadilla filled with smoky chicken, guacamole, chorizo, salsa, melty cheese & other goodness, and saw it cooked before my eyes by Jose, head chef. Manu entertained us with friendly chat & gave us advice on where to go in Paris for a fun time. 

The other girls got beef 'burrones', which seemed to be fresh tortillas wrapped around rice with other scrummy fillings. With a can of pop, some nachos with guacamole and dipping sauce to share and my main, my meal came to below €10.00. Not half bad for Paris! The atmosphere is so friendly, they play great music & speak French, Spanish & English. The guys originate from Mexico, so you feel like they know their stuff. Regulars popped in to pick up hot food to take away, & a Texan swung by saying that their buddy over in America had told him he just had to check it out.

I left with a stomach full of good food & a big smile on my face. Please go & try it if you get the chance! It is tiny, so although you're welcome to stand, eat, and chat in front of the counter, be aware that there are no tables to mull over your food in private. It has more of the flavour of a one-in-a-million pop-up stand than a polished Parisian restaurant, but I guess that's why I love it.

Hasta Luego 

(À Bientôt !)

x