Posts Tagged ‘Chinese’

Les Pâtes vivantes — Paris, Maubert

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

A fairly authentic Chinese noodles restaurant in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

22 Boulevard Saint-Germain

75005 Paris

Google Maps

The noodles are home made and the room where the chef makes the noodles is open to the main room (through a glass). They also have other dishes (haven’t tried them, though) but they specialty is obviously noodles, sautéed like these with vegetables and beef, 12 euros (see the small beer bottle and glass around the plate for scale — pretty substantial):

or the same with vegetables and chicken, 11 euros:

or in a spicy soup, 9.50 euros (again look at the glass for scale — that’s a large bowl!):

I wouldn’t say these are my absolute favorite Chinese dishes but as far as noodles are concerned I wouldn’t know better in Paris, especially with home made noodles. Safe choice!

Update: some more dishes from the same restaurant.

Carnet de Voyage — Paris, Saint-Lazare

Friday, August 14th, 2009

When it comes to Chinese food, Sichuan dishes usually get my votes, but here’s a pretty good restaurant with dishes from the Yunnan for a change!

4 rue de Budapest

75009 Paris

Google Maps

I didn’t actually write down the price for each dish, but total (with the dishes below, two bowls of rice – their bowls are large enough for two in my opinion – a large bottle of Chinese beer and another small bottle) we payed about 70 euros. Now the dishes.

We started with this (cold) cucumber dish:

and this was surprisingly good. The cucumber was raw but marinated in a light lemon sauce, probably with a bit of white vinegar and maybe a little bit of sugar, so that these thin slices were still deliciously crunchy, fresh and with a perfect taste. The red ones are peppers and there are also some raw sliced onions in there. Now officially one of my favorites!!

One of this restaurant’s specialties is to serve a wok on your table and keep a slight fire under it, we got the chicken one (about 20 euros):

Their shrimps are also pretty good and tender, nothing really special about them though:

Another one of my favorites from now on is their tofu, cooked in some kind of skin, fairly different from all the kinds of tofu I’ve tried until now:

We also had a dish of deep fried red beans, very interesting although maybe not a strong enough taste for me (but other people on the table loved them):

Lastly we tried a dish of sweet deep fried corn, not sure it was designed to be a desert but it’s very sweet so it’s probably a perfect desert (avoiding the usual artificial deserts to fit Western taste, like litchis or bad ice cream):

Overall a very good choice! I will definitely come back again and I’ll be sure to order the cucumbers and the tofu again!

新旺茶餐厅 — Shanghai, People’s square

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

A good Guangdong-style restaurant franchise in China, this instance is near Shanghai’s People Square.

上海市卢湾区淮海中路138号无限度广场2楼

Google Maps

Dishes are around 20-40 yuans. The tofu with salty (duck) eggs, 咸蛋滑豆腐 (xiandan hua doufu), the duck eggs provide a very original taste and an interesting grainy texture:

A bit more conventional, the sautéed vegetables, 新旺炒素 (xinwang chaosu) had a very light taste and, I thought, were a bit undercooked, but I guess it’s the way they’re supposed to be:

An interesting variant over the rice soup (粥, zhou) is their 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pidan shourou zhou), the soup itself is really well cooked, and contains bits of “hundred years” eggs and some pork:

Last, their 椒盐黄鱼 (jiaoyan huangyu), fish — no idea what the English name is — cooked in a very simple manner, fried with salt and pepper:

Overall, I think it’s a really good choice if you like this kind of cuisine, though I usually prefer dishes with a stronger taste (like Sichuan cuisine).

佳味 — Paris, Rambuteau

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

This is one of my favorite Chinese Sichuan restaurants in Paris, perhaps equal to “家常菜”. Okay, nearly equal. If you’re making a trip to the “Centre Georges Pompidou”, it’s 2 minutes away from the museum. But beware if you can’t eat spicy food!

181 rue Saint-Martin

75003 Paris

Google Maps

First of all, let’s start with a couple of lamb skewers (羊肉串,1.50 euros each, cheaper if you take more than ten), they’re fairly small but super tasty (cooked with cumin):

Another dish that I find really good in here is the 鱼香肉丝 (yuxiang rousi, pork, 7.90 euros):

I’m a tofu fan, their 辣豆腐 (la doufu, 6.90 euros) has a really good sauce (caution, spicy!):

Their 炝土豆丝 (qiang tudousi, potatoes, cold dish, 5.90 euros) is okay, though I usually prefer 酸辣土豆丝 (hot dish):

And to add something healthy, 香辣白菜 (xiang la baicai, cabbage, 6.90 euros):

家常菜 — Paris, Arts et métiers

Monday, September 17th, 2007

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Paris (and I’ve tried quite a few), located near the “Arts et métiers” metro station. It’s often crowded, so it’s best to go there a bit later (in the evening, 21:00 should work better than 20:00 for example).

5 rue Volta

75003 Paris

Google maps

Let’s start by a classic “mapo doufu“:

The tofu is quite soft & liquid, no way to eat that with chopsticks, but it’s one of the best I know (as for all the other dishes here). The eggplant hot pot (“qiezi bao“) is extremely tasty and has a really delicious smell:

I’m not usually that fond of the following dish (I’m too much of a meat lover :-p), but I guess a meal in this restaurant should have at least on dish of vegetables, here “qingcai muer“:

I also like to see what the “suan la tang” tastes like when I go to a Chinese restaurant, this one is pretty good without being as exceptional as the other dishes:

So that’s it for that day (two people), along with two bowls of rice (in euros):

Mapo doufu: 5.5

Suan la Tang: 3.5

Qiezi bao: 7.7

Qingcai muer: 6.9

2 bowls of white rice: 2

Total (for 2): 25.60

Here are pictures of the menu if you want to have a quick glimpse of what’s available:

Update: two of the dishes I usually always take (and that I’d recommend above anything else from here) are the beef hot pot(“shui zhu niurou“, the small one is more than enough, 12.50 euros):

and the “yuxiang rousi” (pork), 7.50 euros:

I also tried a hot pot with tofu last time, tomatoes and sea food (9 euros), but it was a bit disappointing compared to the other dishes: