A Birthday in Paris!

Hi all! So, last Sunday, March 8th was my birthday but I started celebrating on Saturday and took myself out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate my experience here in Paris, France.

 

The Restaurant is called Le Epicure. It is inside the Le Bristol Hotel. I was kinda nervous going there because it is upscale and I am kinda a down to earth person but I wanted to experience how the other half lives.

So, I got dressed up (all black - safe!) and took off for Le Epicure!

So, I am trying to take a discreet picture of these guys who open the doors for guests and they are peeking out and waving to me knowing full well that visitors want pictures of them!

Then I enter the hotel and am met by a lovely woman, Leah Marshall, the tiny woman in the front, who is the Hotel Manager who personally asks if she can help me. Boy did I get the red carpet treatment!  She introduces me to all the restaurant staff then proceeds to show me around the hotel, introduces me to the original owners of the hotel who, buy the way, are celebrating the husband's birthday that day and tells me about a few of the celebrities that are there at the hotel today.  Did you see the movie "The Devil Wears Prada"? The Meryl Streep character (but the real life person!) was just a few feet away from me! The following Tuesday, March 10 was Runway Week and the new Chanel line was being shown then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boy, do they pay attention to detail! Isn't this place beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

This course was compliments from the Chef.  The green is, I think they said, goose liver, the brown parallel thing is a mini Croque Monsieur, then the thingy on the stick (I asked if the stick was edible because everything so far was)(and no, don't eat the stick!) was some type of clam or oyster covered with an airy puffy thing. (Boy am I articulate!) Anyway, nothing like the cooking classes I was taking back home! I was loving every minute of this! 

 

The staff were kind enough to let me look at the book that was published about this Chef and his recipes so that I could see the food that I was eating and see how complicated the process was for him to prepare these delicacies.

So, Bread . . .

. . . and butter. Salted or not.

 

Then on to the next course! 

 

  

This is sea urchin with a whipped topping which also has a type of scrambled egg underneath. Behind you can see a type of melba looking toast. It comes with, it looks like, wrapped candy, but it is a type of seaweed butter for your toast. Very international!

 

  

This next course, although it doesn't look very good, is leek that is burned on the outside, warm and tasty on the inside with oysters. Very nice!

This is  lamb with a seaweed wrapping. Very unique!

 

 

Now, this is a whitefish with a thin wafer on top with toasted almonds. The green and red sauce on the plate was delicious!

 

 

Now it is time for the "aperitif" to cleanse the pallet, It is a lemon sorbet with berry sauce and the stick is also a berry flavor that has been rolled in a ground nut or seed. Also delicious!

 

 

And look at this! isn't it beautiful! (my favorite word these days!)

 

 

And look inside! The lemon was like a stiff meringue with a lemon gel on the outside and the inside is a runny lemon sauce with nuts! The green leaf on top is also edible!

Magnifique!

 

  

And it just keeps coming! For my birthday they did this little number for me. It comes out looking like a closed nut shell then they remove the nut shell top (it is on the small plate to the left) and reveal more chocolate delights, and I have a mini-madeleine on the plate to the right of the plate. Also, it may be hard to see, but the candle is gold! Oh, did I forget to mention, a long stemmed red rose!

 

 

These are two spoonfuls of joy! They are very delicate in that you have to put the whole thing in your mouth because the gel on the outside will pop and the liquid will melt in your mouth!

 

 

And of course, what French meal would be complete without their signature macaroons! This flavor is like a boysenberry!

 

Off the charts, non?

 

So, I finish my meal, sat outside the restaurant and used the hotel's Internet and prepared to leave the hotel. On the inside of the hotel all is calm, but when I walk outside . . . there is paparazzi, police, fans all over the place. I think someone accidentally snapped a picture of me thinking that if I am walking out of the hotel I must be someone important. I actually had to fight my way through the paparazzi to get out of the hotel and the photographer was not too happy that he had to move to let me out! 

 

So, I see a hotel attendant by another entrance and I ask him what is going on. He says to me: "Just wait and see".  Well, then there is a mad rush of photographers snapping pictures and someone rushing to their car and police escorts and the like and then I ask him again, "Who was that?"

 

Lady Gaga! It felt like I just had a Forrest Gump moment!