Dinner at Entre les Vignes

Our first night in Paris involved settling in to the hotel and drafting the blog post on yesterday's travel and then at about 8.30 thinking of where to eat. Yes I hear you say "You had two lunches" do you really need dinner - Guess what? The answer is YES. Give us a break, we are on holiday :-)

Drew made use of the Trip Advisor App on his iPad (the hotel has excellent free wi-fi) and spotted a restaurant called Entre les Vignes I guess Drew was excited by the last review in English on the site which mentions a mouse. Perhaps he thought we were in the film Ratatouille!

As it turned out one of the menu items seems to translate as rats cares - but more of that later. 

The restaurant turned out to be a very long thin building filled with local people, my French is not brilliant, but we managed to ask for a table for two and were seated. As those who know me will know my restaurant French is better than my actual French, so I was able to translate the menu for Drew before selecting.

Drew opted for Salade de figues, jambon de pays et parmesan, which was as fresh and tasty as it sounded. It was Drew's first time eating fresh figs and he liked them very well, their sweetness off-setting the saltiness of the cheese and ham well. I opted for the Foie gras de canard mi-cuit maison, chutney de dates - I'm not sure why British Foie gras never takes like that in France, but this had a creamy texture with a lovely long flavour of duck liver. I can't remember having one so melt in the mouth. The date chutney provided a sharp alternative to the pate.

For mains I went for Braisé de joues porc aux pomme de terre rattes au fout, three lovely pieces of cheek that had clearly been cooked for a few hours to get it so tender and flavoursome. The sauce had the meat juice, basil and rosemary; the potatoes were lightly roasted in garlic. All Google translate can make of rattes au fout is 'rats in fout'!! But the potatoes had picked up the garlic flavour and the garlic clove was also there to eat.

Drew had Risotto aux legumes verte et champignons des bois, the risotto was covered with shaved parmesan Drew loved this which had a salty, creamy flavour - the veg (peas, green beans and sprouts) adding a crunch to the soft texture of the risotto and mushrooms.

I'd forgotten that the idea of Cheese for dessert is acceptable in France - unlike Spain where someone eating cheese as the last course would be laughed at, the French have the same tradition as we do at home. So I had the pleasure of selecting Fromage de brebis des pyrénées and what a load of cheese they gave me. It was served with Cherry Marmalade, which was to sweet for me, but which Drew used to help finish off the cheese after he had completed his own Gateau de chocolate, which, no surprise here, he absolutely loved.

All in all a lovely meal, we finished at about 10.30 and walked around the block to get our bearings before returning to the hotel and bed.