Friday 4 March 2011

Paris Part III

I wrote about how much I loved Tien Hiang on my last visit to Paris & I was super excited to take Nick there on this trip.

We decided to order a whole load of food to share as we couldn't decide what we wanted to try. To start we went for the grilled dumplings, I'd tried the steamed ones last time but this time we wanted to try the chicken & vegetable filling.


We also chose the Salt & Pepper Chicken...


Mmmm deep fried chickeney awesomeness! These both came with a hoi sin dipping sauce, my favourite!

Next up we ordered Nems, now we had no idea what these were going to be but we were intrigued so we had to get them!

We certainly weren't disappointed with our choice, Nems turned out to be deep fried spring rolls - awesome!

I also insisted we order the Radish Cake, a few years ago I went to New York & met up with some PPKers at a restaurant in China Town. I let everyone else do the ordering as they'd been before & they insisted that I try the Turnip Cake. It looked creepy & I wasn't sure that putting it in my mouth was going to be a good idea but now, two years later, I still think about that turnip cake so it must've been good!

This version apparently came with grated carrot but I couldn't detect any. Man, just looking at this makes me want to learn how to make it!

I knew I had to have the Cashew Chicken Bamboo again, Nick loves chicken style mock meat & cashews too so it was a good choice.


This came with big chunks of tofu alongside the chicken & we chose to have plain boiled rice to go with it.

Next up we went for one of the 'Marmites' which I think translates (probably very roughly) as cooking pot.


We chose the Satay Beef Marmite & were slightly worried when it arrived as it looked like it had a lot of chilli in it. Neither of us are great with spice but this was perfect, slightly spicy but not burney & there were loads thick noodles, chunks of beef and, as with the Cashew Chicken Bamboo, tofu. Yum.

I really love Tien Hiang, I often wish that I could hop on the Eurostar & just go there for dinner...but that would be ridiculous & incredibly expensive so I won't!

One thing Paris definitely does well is Falafel, we stopped off at Maoz after a morning spent wandering around the Musee d'Orsay.



It was a little hard to find because our map didn't really have a clear representation of the area we were looking in but the streets surrounding it are interesting and fun to wander around so we didn't mind getting a little lost!

I went for the small falafel sandwich in preparation for gorging myself on ice cream at Berthillon the famous Parisienne ice cream store on the Ile St Louis but sadly they were closed for refurbishment so I'll have to try to go there again next time.


We also shared some delicious frites.


These usually come with mayo & ketchup so you need to make sure that the person making them understands that you want neither or just ketchup.

The next day after a day of sightseeing by boat we headed to L'as du Falafel, again this is somewhere I visited on my last trip but I wasn't going to deny my falafel loving husband the chance to try this monster sandwich.

It was just as good if not better than I remembered, their falafel balls are deep fried to perfection & it makes me happy that the salad isn't just lettuce cucumber & tomato but also crunchy cabbage & aubergine - yum.

Hopefully I'll end up in Paris again some time in the not too distant future because I don't know how long I'll be able to last without my Tien Hiang fix!

9 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for these Paris recaps, everything looks fabulous. I'm actually going to be living in Paris for 9 months as part of my university year abroad starting this autumn so it's great to have some vegan recommendations :)

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  2. It looks delicious! Nice recommendations.

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  3. I never heard about tien hiang before. Every single thing you ordered there looks mighty delicious!
    We went to the same Maoz when we were in Paris. I love their salad buffet and of course, their falafel.

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  4. Okay, it's now clear that I'm going to have to go to Paris to get good Asian food. I have serious food envy. And fries with falafel?! They need to start serving it like that in the States!!!

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  5. Oh, L'as du Falafel is simply the best! I would go back to Paris just to eat there if I could...

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  6. The food all looks so great, it's making my mouth water! Definitely want to visit Paris soon!

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  7. That last falafel sandwich looks incredible! And to think I almost believe my French professor about the lack of vegan food in Paris!

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  8. Thanks for all your Paris posts! I went to L'As du Falafel this weekend when I was in Paris for 2 nights and the shutters were down, I missed that they are closed Fridays and Saturdays - epic fail :( The falafel pita I got in the shop just on the next corner was nice but not all that. But Maoz the next day was AMAZING. Oh my how we need one of them in Edinburgh. ;)

    And Berthillon ice cream is sold in about 5 shops on the Ile de St. Louis, maybe someone else has it if the main shop isn't open? Sunday, I had dark chocolate sorbet (not sure if it was dairy free) which was lovely, and also raspberry rose sorbet which seriously was beyond stunning - my mouth is watering just thinking about it...

    Next time I need more room in my bag to bring goodies home... ;)

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  9. I didn't realise Paris was so vegan friendly...I never really ate much at all when I went to Paris! Least I know now...although I always worry about *language*

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