il duca spaghetti alla bolognaise

Spaghetti alla bolognaise - €13

When I'm in a new Italian restaurant and when I'm in doubt, choose spaghetti bolognaise (yes, what a boring choice, but it has served me well so far). Unfortunately, Il Duca did not have spaghetti bolognaise in their menu, but I asked the waiter anyway and he said that there's no problem to arrange it for me. I think you can only request this kind of thing in a small restaurant. Big restaurants won't have the patience in making something specially for you.

Il Duca is a very small restaurant, like most restaurant in Montmartre, but this one is especially small. You can hear everyone's conversation. We sat next to two British ladies, I was totally eavesdropping! The waiter (singular, one waiter in the restaurant) was very friendly, understood English perfectly well. My mere-male husband managed to singe the menu with the candle on our table, but the waiter was totally understanding and got us a new one. Ooops!

new naoko yakitori

We had a reasonably nice meal in New Naoko in Montmartre. It's not authentic Japanese, the chefs and servers were speaking in mandarin, but the food was top notch in quality. Before the meals arrived, came a side of edamame, crunchy and salty. The sushi was fresh, though I didn't much care for the ugly parsley garnish, if it doesn't improve the taste of the food don't put it in there.

Menu D (4-piece sushi & 5 skewers) - €16.90

I ordered Menu B, it had the skewers of beef ribs, prawns, mushrooms, chicken and duck. They were all yummy. The salad that came with menu had this great tangy wasabi salad dressing. The menu came with the standard rice and miso soup.

Menu B (8 skewers) - €14.10

New Naoko
3 Rue Abbesses
18e arrondissement, Île-de-France
Open Tuesday-Sunday 12pm-2.30pm & 7pm-10.45pm

boulangerie ravignan croissants

In Paris, it seems to me that there was at least one boulangerie (english: bakery) in every block of land. I really love that about Paris. I love that it's not Starbucks or McDonald's that are ubiquitous, it's the great old fashion bakeries. I just hope I won't be proven wrong in a few years time.

As you may have read from my previous posts, we stayed in Montmartre for our honeymoon, and our little apartment was near the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. It would take about a 15-minute walk to get there from our apartment. One night, the weather was nice (not too cold and the sky was clear) that we decided to go there on the spur of the moment. We walked and we climbed the many steps and the hills.

View of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur from Place du Tertre

robert et louise cote de boeuf pour deux

Escargots les 6 - €8

Another French thing to do is to eat the infamous snails, a.k.a. escargots, which we did get to eat at Robert et Louise in the Marais district. But that was not the reason why we came to this place, it was just a coincidence that they had it there. I came because Robert et Louise was highly recommended by Lonely Planet to be serving home-style, rustic French cuisine, which it most certainly did.

The restaurant was decorated in a traditional home country style, with a lot of knick-knacks and bric-à-brac here and there. The proprietor (which I assume was Monsieur Robert) sat at the bar, keeping track of the comings and goings of the guests. We almost didn't get to eat here because we got lost, as usual, trying to find this place plus we didn't make any reservation. Luckily, we beat the crowd and sat at the bar for dinner, but only just. Few people who came after us were turned away as there were no more seats left.

crêpes sucrées

crêpe avec nutella - €2.50

In Paris, everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, there are numerous crêperies to be seen, especially in the touristy places like Montmartre. The French must have known that we tourists are such fools for novelties. I mean what kind of street snack would we eat in France if not crêpes. It can be made in a jiffy, it warms you up in a cold day and it won't fill you up.

From my tone you may deduce that I am a bit bitter about this whole crêpes thing. Well, you're right. I mean, these crêperies would only have to have the crêpes' batter, then either sugar, nutella and/or bananas. You know how much they charge for a piece of nutella crêpe, €2.50, that's AU$3.70 (current exchange rate) and that's considered cheap because we were in China Town (4e arrondissement).

In other places like Montmartre, you'd have to pay at least €3-5 for a nutella crêpe. With AU$7, I could have gotten a really filling meal. But when you're a tourist, you won't care about a few euros here and there.

groceries in montmartre

I find it curious when I'm in a country where I don't understand the language of, suddenly everything seems such a novelty. A trip to the grocery, which normally takes 10 minutes, would take triple the time.

ladurée macarons

Someone once told me that macarons are Les incontournables des Paris (english: Paris must-haves). It's dainty, it's colourful, it's like eating art. And no other place in Paris more famous for its macarons than Ladurée.

Ladurée is more like an institution than a simple macaron shop. As I was opening the door to the Champs-Élysées branch, I was greeted by a long queue at the counter. I was really tempted to just turn right to the restaurant and warm myself from the bitter cold I have just escaped from. Second option was to relax at the bar towards the back of the building. But, I was there to buy the macarons, get out and move on with the day. So, I queued.

kunitoraya ténpura-udon

Ténpura-udon - €13

What could be better than a bowl of udon with hearty soup to warm you up when it's bloody freezing outside that you couldn't feel your toes, all your joints ached, your ears felt like ice blocks and your nose could pass off as Rudolph's nose? That's exactly the question I asked myself while we were freezing our butts off outside the louvre. So, we went and searched for, apparently, one of the best udon in Paris.

may fa poulet sauté sel & poivre

Another cheap eats near our apartment was at this Chinese restaurant, we found quite accidentally really. We were starving at lunch time and were walking back to our apartment. Just few metres from the apartment, I saw these huge fried prawns on display.

picard surgelés frozen food

While you may think that being in France we would eat fabulous 5 michelin star cuisine every single day, the fact of the matter is, we were travelling on a budget. We kept costs down by not going to every museums (not our thing anyway), we did not stay in a 5-star hotel, we did not eat crazy expensive French food every day. We chose to go to only a couple of museums, we stayed in a charming little pied-à-terre in Montmartre and we ate in local restaurants. But when we got lazy eating out, we bought some Picard Surgelés frozen food, there's actually a store just steps away from our apartment (to me, it sort of look like a dental surgery from the outside, maybe it's the blue and white colour scheme).

mcdonald's royal cheese

I arrived in Paris at 5 in the morning after a very long flight, even then I still had to wait for my husband to arrive on another flight at 12pm. I was not in a jolly mood. But, I somehow managed to struck up a conversation from a guy from NSW and a girl from Hong Kong.

I was quite amazed to find someone from Australia to talk to. For the life of me, I can't remember his name (and lost his email too. sorry! hope you found me in the world wide web so I can give you your picture), but he was the one who looked outside the window, saw Colin Firth and proceeded to tell me. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have met Colin (yes, we're on first name basis now). Colin's so nice, he saw me stalking him, taking a picture of him and so he asked me if I want to take a picture together with him. Tell me, is there any sane girl out there who would have passed that up?!!