Bila Orang Tak Selalu Blog, Blog!

Exam season is almost over, while it is just starting for Miss Nadia. That little outing was possibly the last of those 90's nights and random weekends I will have with them. I am nevertheless, happy to report that the delight that accompanied us, however, was nothing short of a disappointment!!!

Our dear smart Faez suggested they bring along Churros, which I thought were Palmiers. I insisted that I couldn't find any of these churros things, to Nadia, during my trip to Espana, NOT even at that famous fancy patissiere in Sevilla. Being lazy enough to drag myself up to Bayswater for coffee and churros, they brought it here!

I truly think there is a chinese/ Malaysian name for Churros. CAKOI! HAHA.

But yeah, I was slightly mislead. These fried pastries have similar properties of cakoi, yet they were more "filled" and "sturdy." It was properly compact, and the batter was slightly salted, that the clash of this fried saltiness and sweet icing and cinnamon sugar topping was quite extraordinary.

Tried my best to capture the interior texture

I was told nothing goes better than Churros than black, black coffee. So we dipped away into Fez's Americana. Even after havong 20 of these delightful things, they still kept me wanting more!

A typical arrangement

Alors! We had crepe! To my dear friends who had seen crepes for their first time secretly wonders why we are paying €4.00 for a "lempeng". I of course have been there done that. Hahah, I insisted crepes ARE essentially french for lempeng. It is technically simply the idea of a batter of flour, maybe eggs, maybe not, maybe sugar maybe not, maybe milk maybe not, cooked on a flat platter and made into a thin soft round "pastry."

The thing that attracted us into La Banane (The Banana) was well, basically the fact that it was one of the cafes that was indoors, it was raining, and this little "OPEN/ BUKA" sign.

Of which, after having a delightful chat with the owner, was bought in l'Indonesie (haha oh well close enough). But why the banana? I mean haha come on! Apparently the place was famous with mediterranean harvests (Nice is part of Provence Region, "Door of Mediterranean to France")- one of it evidently are Bananas. Underground, in a cellar under the shop, bananas harvested are kept to mature and ripe. Hence, the name of the little cafe. Original. Haha! but still.

The first time I had crepe, was when we were made to sell them at the International Language Festival, at which the French Club of Sekolah Menengah Sains Hulu Selangor (my Alma Matter) had some really colorful characters mending the batter part of the production.

The 2nd time I had crepe, it was in La Rochelle where Annick, my dear French mother, sat us down at a typical french cafe near the La Rochelle dock, looking over the lighthouse. That was my first NUTELLA crepe. So I decided to relive the taste, and opted for a Crepe Sucre (sweet) avec Nutella.

The softness of the pastry, contradicted with the dry powdery flour on the crepe brought back memories. Without a doubt, as expected, the super-thick warm nutella created another sensation in the mouth. I might be exagerrating, u say- it's just crepe! But I love being aware of what I eat, more than anything else. So sue me! ;)

The next day, just to sit, we decided to have another one. This time, a cheaper one. Nevertheless, the experience was much more... unexpected!

This recipe I found, is the basic way to make the crepe base. One can basically put ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING one desires with one's crepe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 eggs
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Beat eggs until smooth. Add milk and butter. Sift flour and salt; gradually add to egg mixture. Beat until the batter is smooth. Batter will be thin, like heavy cream. If possible, let the batter rest for 2 hours at room temperature or 8 to 10 hours in the refrigerator.

Grease skillet or crepe pan lightly; heat until fat is sizzling hot. Pour batter into pan and rotate quickly to distribute batter. If batter seems too thick, add more milk in very small amounts until consistancy is corrected.

Cook crepe until light brown; turn to cook other side. Remove from pan, lightly grease the pan, and continue cooking until batter is used. Fill crepes with desired filling or cool, wrap and refrigerate until ready to fill.

One notable experience I had was a crepe salee (savoury) with a half cooked bulls eye egg on top of salmon and the crepe was wrapped around the egg yolk. My lycee English teacher favoured me the moment she heard me spoke english- (I was always told exchange students should find the english teacher the best bet!)- and hence the delightful experience of the crepe au saumon in a fancy crepe house. And yes, the price can get fancy as well!

Despite the horrendous, lightly raining day the day before, we decided to get our butts off of the wonderful old nunnery-turned-youth-backpackers-hostel we stayed in; Villa Saint Exupery and into Old Town.

The 2nd time we were in old town, I was determined to get something good out of it- and so I went onto my quest for Soupe Au Pistou searching. Sure enough, it was there on the blackboard of "Today's Specials" of Lou Piliha Leva.

Yes. I am afraid this post is only about Lou Piliha Leva, but I assure you- the simple soup au pistou was a remarkable experience. Just from the way the grated cheese melts and thickens the thick vegetable based broth. It is truly provencal (dubbed Provencal Minestrone), one of the must have's of Nice besides other Nicoise delights.

As it turns out, the Pistou- the secret ingredient- is, I quote

I guess, of course, everytime you return to the familiar, you sort of already have an expectation about the experiences you were going to get. The 2nd time round I was in France, exactly about 3 years after my exchange programme, I was by a twist of fate, brought to the a place, in France, I did not anticipate.

The marvelous gastronomical experience I had with the Bellards in the west was filled with rich French tradition- a medley of rich, particular and exquisite of blue cheese and rocheforts on celeries, salmons, thick desserts, homemade crepes, christmas dinners of baked brie pies and turkey with acidic-sweet cranberry sauce, beef koftas on cous cous and a whole range of boiled leek and bitter vegetables.

This time around, the change in taste, atmosphere, influence in the food in Marseille was a bit surprising for my food-ness conscience. Yet the discovery of the heavy Arab-North African influence did not sink in to me until the gang and I opted for the super-cheap plats and assiettes that the seemingly multitude array of restaurants offer. Retailing at €3.00- €4.00, one wouldn't believe how much one will get.

These delightful lamb thingies really were not what we expected. You would never has guessed it would turn out to be this when you put down the menu and decided to "see what it is" when you say "riz viande" which basically is rice meat.

So each and every one of the 4 of us, got each of us' proper portion of the weird part of a lamb. What's interesting is that it's cooked so well in a light, almost clear broth so well, that the usual scent of lamb- that some cannot for their life tolerate- was well, absent! With olives possibly being responsible of the taste that seeps through the broth of the meat, it definitely served well to cure the hungary stomach as well as pushing a right button or two on your tastebuds.

What I like most however, was not how easy it was to pull of the tender, well cooked flesh of off that massive bone. It was the rice that accompanied it.

Coming with a weird but definitely good taste curry-like gravy, almost with peas cooked in it. Indeed the experience of a combination of cooked green peas and rice, I had my reservations. However, the fluffy soft beans medlied so well with the rice, it would have gotten my thumbs up even if it wasn't for the fact that I was starved to death.

To wash it all down, there was the sweetest tea with mint tea leaves to do the job. Very typical in the turkish kebab delis I was used to back in Bressuire in 2004.