La Grignotiere in Villefranche-sur-Mer

Getting between cities and towns along the Côte d’Azur couldn’t be easier. For only €1, you can hop onto a bus in Nice and hop off anywhere between the city and Menton. On our day off, we chose to visit just the next town along the coast – Villefranche-sur-Mer. It’s utterly beautiful with a beach surrounding a deep natural harbour and we spent the morning exploring its citadel and the old town.

We happened upon the restaurant La Grignotiere in the old part of town and I got a good feeling when I realised that most of the people lunching outside were locals. A sign announced that the restaurant offered a set lunch menu for €16 for three courses for lunch so here we stayed. We were unable to get a table outside but inside was just as comfortable if a little bit dark.

On the lunch set menu, there were about five choices available for both the starter and main course. I started with a giant salade Niçoise. I do love these and never encountered a bad one while in Nice. Boiled egg, canned tuna, anchovies were all encountered but never a boiled potato!

My main course was one of the specials of the day – une Petite Bouillabaisse (I think a simpler version of the classic bouillabaisse from nearby Marseille). Two large fillets of fish (different types), a pile of mussels, a large prawn and a large potato were nestled together in a very large bowl full of a delicious thick fish soup. This really hit the spot – it was fantastic and quite a big portion too.

A list of desserts was recited to us – we did notice that some that were available earlier were no longer on the list. Ah well, that’s our own fault for having lunch so late! Luckily, what took my fancy was the profiterole. I did think there would be a few profiteroles but what arrived at our table was a single huge profiterole filled with vanilla ice cream, surrounded by whipped cream and topped with lots of chocolate sauce. Excellent.

After lunch, we proceeded to burn it all off by…um…. lazing around on the beach. It was clearly a very productive afternoon!

What a beautiful town. The only downside? Well, its bay is naturally very deep and so is the perfect stop for cruise ships, with one blighting our view that day. Luckily they don’t stay for long and the one that day was off again after lunch.

La Grignotiere
3 rue Poilu
Villefranche-sur-Mer
06230 France

That’s the end of my short series of posts of my trip to Nice and the Côte d’Azur. All my photos (including a night trip to Monaco) can be found in this Flickr photoset.

 

Nice, Part 2

There was certainly some good eating throughout my work week in Nice. Even my work conference offered up some proper three course lunches (with wine!). On one night, a couple of colleagues and I managed to get a last minute table for dinner at La Merenda (which runs a “no telephone, no cards” policy), near the Cours Saleya. The tiny restaurant is packed with tables and you’ll be eating elbow-to-elbow with your neighbours. And I’m still not sure how they manage to churn out all those dishes in their tiny kitchen.

It turns out we got the last table for the last seating that night and we had to patiently wait our turn to see the chalkboard menu. Though service was brusque, they did answer our million questions about the menu and the local specialities offered on it. And they kindly let us split a large portion of Soupe au Pistou (pistou being the Niçoise version of pesto) by three to start! We had seen other patrons slurp up this magical elixir and yes, it’s as good as it looks. Cheese, ham, vegetables, basil…it’s all in there.

Beignets de Fleurs de Courgette were just that – battered courgette flowers. This was the first time I’ve ever had them not stuffed! They were fine but not particularly exciting; this does seem to be the way they’re prepared here in Nice though.

A Pâtes au Pistou (pasta with pistou) was perfectly al dente and bathed in a luxurious basil- and garlic-rich dressing.

Of all the mains available, we were all drawn to the Daube de Boeuf à la Provençal. What emerged was a hearty beef stew served with…chips? No, the texture was too smooth, too…wait, do I detect the flavour of chickpeas? The large golden chips sitting alongside our daube turned out to be panisses, fried cakes made of chickpea flour. I believe the flour is first cooked like polenta and when its cold and stiff, it’s sliced and fried. They originated down the coast in Marseille. They were beautiful and so good with the thick, wine-rich stew.

Desserts were also good. A Compote de Figues was sweet and simple with its dollop of fromage frais.

A Mousse au Chocolat was a little stiff but still went down easily. By this point, we were pushing the remnants of our desserts to our colleague with the largest appetite but even he was starting to have trouble. Oof.

To get a table in this tiny restaurant, you’ll need to book and to do so, you’ll need to pop into the restaurant (remember: no telephone!).

La Merenda
4 rue Raoul Bosio
Nice, France

As I mentioned previously though, not all was brilliant eating in Nice. Meals at Le Safari and Du Gesu were fine, if not spectacular, but our dinner at La Zucca Magica, Nice’s highly lauded vegetarian restaurant and which came recommended by a friend of a friend, was distinctly mediocre and unmemorable.

Back to the good. My favourite pizza place turned out to be this takeaway joint – Pili Pizza. Any pizza on the menu for €6,50. And they were excellent! Great crusts and very good quality toppings. I have no shame in saying that we even tried their kebab pizza – good stuff.

On our penultimate night in Nice, we all ordered pizzas and took them to the beach to eat by floodlight. It was brilliant.

Pili Pizza
24 rue Benoit Bunico
Nice, France

I spent my last day in Nice revisiting the Cours Saleya Market for the colours and smells and hustle and bustle.

I wanted to take lots with me but as my next stop was Barcelona (a very short work/play related trip and I won’t be blogging it this time), bringing perishables with me didn’t seem like the best idea.

Finally, a restaurant worth looking out for in nearby Villefranche-sur-Mer – that’s the final post in this short travel-eating series.

 

Nice, Part 1

Nice is nice, to sum up my first trip to the Côte d’Azur. Actually, it’s awfully grand and I wish Blai could have come along on this work trip of mine. As it was, I had my lovely colleagues as company and we did pretty well on the eating front though there were a couple disappointments along the way. But the city, oh the city is beautiful and lots of fun with the sea and the hills and lots to see and do; I do hope to return one day.

I developed a slight obsession with the Niçoise socca during my week in Nice. This soft/crispy baked pancake is made of chickpea flour and is usually served as a snack with drinks. On our first night in the city, I dragged my friend and colleague to Chez Pipo, one of the best places for socca according to David Lebovitz. We grabbed the last available table outside and set to work on the menu. With such low prices (everything was about €2,50 per portion), we ordered one of everything to try. Salty tapenade noire and anchoïade were served with little toasts.

Their pissaladière was delicious and I could easily have handled about three portions of this. However, there was cause for restraint as I’ll explain in a minute.

We had quite a wait for our portion of socca as only a tray’s worth is made at a time (each tray being about the size of a wagon wheel). It was incredibly addictive with it’s crispy edges and softer centres…but then again, I adore chickpeas.

Chez Pipo
13 Rue Bavastro
Nice, France

After dinner, we strolled through old and new Nice to our next destination, a very important destination.

The reason for our restraint at dinner was this: Fenocchio. One hundred flavours of ice cream. We made it our mission to try as many of these flavours as we could during the week. I think I only managed 7 overall.

My first tasting was of two scoops: an exquisite marron glacé studded with lots of the candied nut and a brilliant speculoos. It was a good start.

Later in the week, two more flavours: a bright and fruity guava and a slightly disappointing, subdued salted butter caramel. I heard that the intensely chocolately flavours were excellent as were the other fruity ones. I can also vouch for the ginger flavour!

We started at their stand in the old city by the tram line but then became loyal to their main stand in Place Rossetti. They have seats in the square and you get to gaze upon the imposing Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate. Oh, and they serve sundaes and waffles there too.

Fenocchio
2 place Rossetti (main shop)
6 rue de la Poissonerie (not open every day)
28 boulevard Jean Jaurès (by the tram line)
Nice, France

On most days, there’s a fruit and vegetable market at Cours Saleya – more on that in the next post. What you want to look out for is Chez Theresa and their excellent socca.

The large tray of socca sits on an oil drum stove, frying gently. It’s not cooked there but in an oven of Chez Theresa, located in the Old City; you can buy your socca at this location but it’s not quite the same. To get the socca from one site to the other, there’s a man and a moped and a trailer for the large tray.

Theresa herself serves the socca. It’s a pretty no-nonsense affair – hand over your €3 and get your portion. She’ll direct you to the salt and pepper (both recommended) and off you go with your snack.

Her socca isn’t much of a looker and could certainly be improved by being more crispy (it’s soft almost all the way through). However, what’s amazing about it is its flavour – all toasty and coated in extra virgin olive oil and so so good. It’s hard to stop burning your fingers as you reach for more. It’s highly recommended. On weekends, you can expect a queue for it.

Were these the best soccas in Nice? Well, I did try a couple others but mainly their flavour was weak. These two were certainly the best I tried on this visit.

Chez Theresa
Cours Saleya (stall in the market)
28 Rue Droite (shop in the old town)
Nice

When in Nice, you can’t swing a cat without hitting a place that serves pizza. Nice is located very close to the Italian border (and was itself under Italian rule until 1860) and this shows in its local cuisine and well…all those pizza and pasta joints. We grabbed a random takeaway one from a cafe in the old city and took it over to the base of the castle. It has a good thin crust and good quality toppings – it sure beat most of the takeaway pizzas in London.

I love that every takeaway pizza comes with a sachet of sauce picante, which turned out to be some pretty good chilli oil.

We had also grabbed some pastries from the renowned Patisserie Lac. My friend’s intensely chocolate macaron filled with chocolate ganache almost did her in (in a very good way). I tried Lac’s version of the Niçoise tourte de blettes, a Swiss chard tart that comes in both sweet and savoury varieties (here be sweet). It was delicious with the raisins and pine nuts coming through rather than any vegetal flavour.

Our lunchtime view was nothing to sniff at either.

More in Part 2!

 

Astier, Paris

Unbeknownst to us, our Paris hotel on rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud was a short distance away from lots of good eating. Our hotel’s free wifi was a great help, with a quick search finding us Astier, a very traditional French bistro, only a hop, skip and jump away. A reservation was made for our second night and off we went for our dinner date in this quaint red and white checked tableclothed restaurant. A four course set meal (starter, main, cheese, dessert) was on offer for €35 (with about 4 choices for each course, except cheese) and we both chose that. There’s also a choice of going a la carte as well as specials of the day on a separate chalkboard that can be had as part of the menu at a supplement.

My Harengs Marinés, Pommes Ratte en Vinaigrette first came as an empty plate and a bowlful of deliciously nutty potatoes in a tangy vinaigrette. The marinated herrings came separately in a huge terrine dish that was thunked unceremoniously next to me. I love these help-yourself dishes and I certainly did help myself but don’t worry, I didn’t clean out the communal herrings! The herrings were gorgeous – not at all fishy but almost meaty and the pickled pink peppercorns and onions that swam alongside them were so perfect with them.

Blai’s Caillette de Canard aux Herbes, Effilocheé de légumes, jus de viandes was slices of what appeared to be a fat sausage of duck on a bed of boiled green beans and it was delicious. It was a great start to the meal.

For mains, a Pressé de Jarret de Veau Braisé, Légumes à la tomate et olives noires de Nyons was very tender and had very southern French flavours – fresh tomatoes, olives – that I never would have thought to pair with veal. It all made up for a very fresh and relatively light dish.

The Cote d’Agneau Rôties au Thym Frais, Pommes de terre et aubergines à l’ail doux was fantastic. These was some the best lamb I’ve ever had and each lamb chop was cooked to a perfect rose inside. The accompanying mashed potatoes and aubergine puree were equally good.

During our main course, we had been watching the progress of the cheese platter around the restaurant with envious eyes! Finally, it was our turn! Two fresh plates were set in front of us and then Le Plateau de Fromages d’Astier appeared! Oh, what a spread – we helped ourselves to a bit of almost everything but my particular favourite (and always has been) was a brilliant Époisses – you can just see it on the small plate at the back.

Dessert was of the same excellent standard as the rest of the courses. Blai’s Clafoutis et Sorbet aux Framboises was full of butter and fresh fruit.

My Biscuit Tiède aux Abricots, Glace à la vanille Bourbon façon Melba was equally delicious with half an abricot baked into the cake and another half roasted and placed on top. Their accompanying ice creams and sorbets are also to be commended.

We were stuffed. I managed to find some space for a coffee but that was it – roll us out please.

Service was excellent and very jokey (“€200!” announced our waiter as he brought the bill and he laughed as my eyes bulged out of their sockets. Our bill was less than half that.) It’s a fantastic place to take a very traditional bistro meal and yes, it’s good for cosy dates too! Bookings are advised. It was emptier when we went which can possibly be explained by it being the last weekend in August.

Astier
44 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud
75011 Paris

And that ends my posts from our long weekend in Paris. All my photos from this short Paris trip can be found at this Flickr photoset. It’s back to London for a bit before I start writing about the south of France!

 

Le Relais Gascon, Paris

Blai and I had ourselves a long weekend in Paris at the end of the summer, something we felt we had to do as it had been four years since our last visit. Four years! We were going to use this opportunity to finally visit Montmartre and thoroughly explore the Left Bank and also um… miss Versailles again. On our first night there, we had built up an appetite walking from our hotel near République all the way to Montmartre and we were ready for some eating.

I’d read about Relais Gascon on Robyn’s blog and her description of their salads topped with garlicky fried potatoes made me put the restaurant at the top of my Montmartre eating list. We found the place quite easily, chose from the menu and then settled in to dinner. Sure their name on the menu (Salades Géantes) should have given us a hint as to their size but they were still shocking!

Each of our salads was a huge brown bowl of lettuce and tomato dressed in a mustardy vinaigrette and then scattered with toppings before being buried under a pile of those thinly sliced fried potatoes that have been tossed with fresh garlic and parsley. My Salade Gascon (€15,50) was the most expensive on the salad menu all thanks to its slice of foie gras on top. In addition, there were slices of smoked duck breast layered in there.

Blai’s Salade Fraîcheur (€12,50) seemed ironically named, fraîcheur meaning freshness. Freshness is probably the last thing you’d think of a salad topped with black olives, ham, lardons, a fried egg and, of course, the fried potatoes with garlic! And what a quantity of lardons too!

They were fantastic. The crispy edged potatoes were very addictive and the actual vegetables were excellent for refreshing the palate in between bites of all that richness.

I was glad we didn’t order starters and after these behemoth salads, unfortunately there was no room for dessert too. If salads aren’t for you (and if they’re not, are you sure? Have you looked at these salads?!), there are other traditional dishes on the menu too – such as steak or confit de canard – and a lot of them are served with those potatoes.

Le Relais Gascon
6, rue des Abbesses
75018 Paris