7/5/2010 La Dauphine & Le Petit Marius Paris France

we ate lunch in a little place near the national archives.


in comparison to the 3 courses for 14 last night this one had a 2 course menu for 15.80. not quite as good a deal. but we're 1 block south of the seine, 2 blks from the national archives and not far from the st. germain neighborhood.


as it was i thought we were pretty clever. matt got the starter+dish and i got the dish+dessert. we then shared the starter and dessert!

ham serrano platter

roasted free-range chicken with mashed potatoes.

this was actually pretty good. 1 had a back/leg and matt had the wing/breast. we then switched because i like the lighter meat and he prefers the darker meat.

2 scoops of chocolate ice cream.

this was really good, rich dark chocolate. there were chunks in it, too.

dinner was after we went to the eiffel tower at a place not terribly far away.

dinner wasn't quite as good. it was heavy on the seafood, which usually is ok, but i wasn't in a fishy mood.

there was a "deep frying 'merlin' with lemon and tartar sauce" on the menu and i thought about that, but something told me to not get it. while we were waiting for our 1st plates the table next to us received their order and someone had gotten it. i'm glad i didn't get it.

well, the waiter came out and apologized but were out of crab. damn. now what am i going to do? to be honest i didn't want the merlin, forget that it came with 2 eyes and all it's teeth smiling widely back at me. i guess i could put a napkin over it's head while i eat? matt, trying to be helpful, asks the waiter if they could chop off the head before serving me the fish. the waiter doesn't understand so matt resorts to charades and does the drawing the finger across the neck to pantomime beheading routine. the waiter understands and goes off. i was so embarrassed. now i can see the humor in it, but at the time i was tired and *very* cold. it didn't help that we were seated on the outside deck and the wind had started to pick up.

matt ordered the 'steamed minut gublin bay prawns'

not exactly a prawn but more a langoustine. with all their goopy inside goodness. i thought of ordering those but i'm glad i didn't. i've never been able to stomach the idea of 'sucking head' on crawdads and these little bugs were awful similar. i was proud of him, he did a good job but he left a lot of those inner parts, too.

"called carrots"

yup, that's what the menu called them

"deep frying "merlin" with lemon and tartar sauce"

i can't say it was a tartar sauce like i've ever had. it was pretty bad.

the fish was ok. lots of bones. they did remove the head but there was still lots of 'innerds' at the neck and near the tail.

i didn't eat much.

this was a good choice. my dessert.
it was a pretty soft brie. softer than camembert and pretty fantastic. especially with the balsamic and a little bit of the bitter greens.

sdsd