Devour Indy - Capitol Grill

Friday night I went to Capitol Grill for my last of our menu for the season. The service there was excreable,  especially in light of the fact that there’s a $20 valet parking fee.  We did manage to find a place to park across the street in Circle Center  mall. That said,  we had to walk through a cloud of skunk to get there. The menus were huge and the Devour  menus were nice.  The waiter took our order and when I ask about wine, I was referred to the two most expensive glasses of wine on the menu. While they might be the best 2 glasses on the “by the glass menu”, it always irritates me that they are so unknowledgeable about their wine list in a restaurant of that caliber that I naturally assume that they are just trying to make money.  The thing is I appreciate ingenuity, honesty and intrepidness. It is rather dissembling to only offer the most expensive. THEN He didn’t even  take our menus,  they brought bread, they didn’t take our menus, finally because we couldn’t eat our bread around these huge menus, I in a very plebeian manner propped mine on the floor.  At last, the server  took our order,  the bread was amazing when we finally got to it.

I had a wedge salad which was only O.K.,  the bacon was really big chunks &; really really tough, and while it had its merit but not one of my favorites, I ordered a fillet with béarnaise and it was accompanied by green beans and mashed potatoes I’m fairly sure the mashed potatoes were instant, my fillet was great the béarnaise sauce that accompanied it was great and the green beans were OK.

Dessert the option was crème brûlée or a chocolate tort which was a cute little 2 inch chocolate mousse thing which was very good and we had coffee my bill for that Devour meal was $118 with tip it was $140 definitely not worth it wouldn’t do it again

P.S.  I brought half my filet, thé béarnaise, the 1/3 of the left over instant potatoes (= about 1/8 cup - the server was disgusted that I wanted the breads and potatoes) and green beans and dinned on it  last night.  Thé béarnaise in 10 seconds in the microwave, turned to rubber, and I had to whip up some to compliment my steak.  It was the meal that just kept on giving. .....

Devour Indy - Izzos

Hedonism number three was Iozzos Garden of Italy with my friend Dawn.  It was s drizzly evening and we had agreed to meet at the restaurant, no valet here, but it is really not needed, there is plenty of parking on the street and to the side.  We have dined here before.  I sort of forget how much I like it but Dawn always want to come back, and we do and I am reminded.   Dawn has a thing for their lobster ravioli and was about to be surprised.   She has asked for a back corner table and I was grateful as the only negative thing I can say about this charming family owned business is that in the winter when the door is open, it can get quite Breezy,.  They have put up a glass entry area, but it only really works if folks winter one at a time. The walls are exposed brick, the light fixtures beautiful variations of colored melted glass and the music classic crooner 50’s.   The table she had requested was cozy.  Dawn ordered a Scallop, red pepper, artichoke heart and goat cheese appetizer, and it was delicious.  The scallops are sautéed and seasoned so that they are fabulous as a mouthful of themselves or with all the rest spread and heaped on the accompanying toast.  They had $25.00 bottles of wine  which seemed the best option since we both wanted some and it was a nice Italian red, the waiter said we cant get anywhere else.  Part of me hope he lied, the other part of course dosent like to be “BSed”, but he was was a pleasant chap and  I would be happy to have him serve me again.  We both had the Caesar which is  good.  Our guy brought bread which is accompanied with what I THINK he called a tomato soppy,.   No matter what he called it, the dense warm bread dredged through this tomatoes and oil concoction is amazing, comforting, tasty and sinful.  I have little or no willpower over it.  Dawn’s ravioli  though has changed, they have a new ravioli  and a new sauce, gone is the creamy tomato sauce and now it wears a creamy lemon sauce.   Dawn liked it, while she did not really rhapsodize over it, she did eat it all and sop up the extra sauce with the aforementioned bread.  I had their steak with mashed potatoes and the vegetable of the day was roasted cauliflower.  My steak was  topped with a gorgonzola sauce ( thick but not stringy) and mushrooms in a Demi glaze sauce.  The mashed are masked, but with the Demi glaze, very nice and the cauliflower with a dusting of Parmesan was also good. 

 Coffee was delivered in a cute cone shaped glass cup, and was good.  Dessert was Spumoni,  tiramisu, or cannoli:  It was the cannoli for me and spumoni for Dawn, but they accidentally brought all three.   That said, neither of us indulged in the tiramisu as we were pleasantly stuffed.  A am ashamed to say this is the only pic I took, I was so busy delighting in each course that I totally forgot!

Devouring Indy - Vida

It’s Devour time and I am in the middle of living my relatively busy life and trying to Devour Indy.  Last night was Vida, a restaurant that has lovely mojo for me.  In its prior life it was an Italian restaurant  where I celebrated some of life’s milestones or just ate for pleasure with friends. The food was so good I even managed a work party there once.  But also it went the way of many of my beloved dining/eating establishments, poof .....gone...... Now the Cunningham group has created a whole new space with this old building, adding on , but leaving enough of the old for it to feel like home to me, but a redecorated one at that.  I was not really feeling it last night. I have had a crazy long week and did’t feel like I needed to be out and about, but I really enjoy spending time with my friend Laura so I decided to leave it up to my creator.  If I could get reservations at a reasonable time on a Thursday evening during Devour, then,  I’s suck it up and we could go.  Boy am I glad I did.  Of course I enjoyed the conversations with my dear friend,  that is  usually so, she is smart, has a wicked sense of humor ( in a nice way)  and we have a lot of things in common and we are able to have civil exploratory conversations on the topics that we do not have in common.   

The menu changes regularly and it was not available online as most are.  BUT it is usually so interesting and good that we took a chance.  First came an amuse  bouche it had a tiny bit of tuna in it, but it was so little and it did not offend (I am not a sushi girl at all)). It was mixed with some other goodies  and it did blossom in my mouth.  There were   four entree options: carrots, a green salad, tartare and Tuna.   We both chose the Carrots and it was a pretty good choice.   We have dined here several times now, and the only thing I have found here that I am not fond of is their tartare, it is too coarsly ground and too raw and bloody for me, in other words they don’t work hard enough at it, tartare should be raw of course, BUT, how it is prepared is what changes it into bliss, and unfortunately the tartare at Vida does not take me to Paris.  But last night was not about the Tartare, it was about the Carrots and they were amazing, roasted and the thing about Vida is that while there is full disclosure they have so much stuff on the plate that  it can be hard to figure it out in the moment, but you don’t care because they create this bunch of stuff that  pushed together on your fork becomes a mouthful of heaven.   Somehow there is just enough crunch, flavor, texture.......  

Hence our comfort at going without knowing what was on the menu.   Mains were: Sea Bass, Ribeye, Agnolotti, Scallops and Chicken.  Laura  had the Sea Bass and I chose the chicken and it too was amazing.  The chicken came with goat cheese gnocchi, chick peas and more carrots  with a beurre blanc sauce, and it too was  delish,.  The chick peas had a bit of a bite to them, but they were not the main part of the dish for me and  I would definitely  consider myself privileged to have it again.  The waiter conferred with the sommelier and brought a Tempranillo to go with my main and I thought it odd until I tasted it,  It was a perfect paring and a nice wine as well!  Dessert and coffee (extra) were even more amazing.  The only dessert option is their ricotta donut has with maple cream and bacon.  I swear this is the food of angels,  the doughnut are perfectly fried to lend a tiny crunch but are airy  inside, the maple cream is almost ethereal and with the bacon  it is the ying and yang of perfection.   

Coffee here too is  lovely, the coffee is exceptional and it is  served with a bit of fuss, it comes in its own  little pot, (almost like in Paris at Le Fleur en Isle!)  accompanied with coarse cubed sugar (also like Paris!) plenty of cream, and for those who have to have fake stuff all sorts of sweetener.  It was raining when we left, but who cared it we were so sated that we hardly noticed!

Tasting it all

Jodi opted to sleep in again and off I went to the market near the house.  It’s a good one, about 2 city blocks long, a cacophony of stimulus for the senses.  I breathed it all in as best I could, how do you revive a quickie later?  There were the usual suspects, though the change in produce was interesting: new pointy broccoli-cauliflower thingies,

figs and plums, lovely multicolored tomatoes,

lots of root vegetables, the  fish guys, the butchers,

cheese mongers, bakers, clothing and

miscellany guys.  All carry their own color,

smell, feel ( well I am not so sure about the produce - you DON”T touch the produce here- or the meat and fish!), and even sounds.  I bought a couple of croissants from the baker in the market, but note to self, the ones from the boulangerie are better.  I really didn’t buy much, just gazed and breathed it all in.

Jodi was up and moving, so I threw breakfast together, yogurt ( I had pear YUM!) ham and cheese for me, the above mentioned croissants, OJ and coffee.  

Also I had cut open a pomegranate.   Jodi decided to learn how to do this properly via U-tube so now I am a pomegranate( AKA grenade) butcher extraordinaire.  IT is really easy with the right education.   

Off we went to the EIffel Tower, found a bench in the sun with a good view, 

 sat down  and I knitted and Jodi read.  It is amazing I watched a Japonaise family getting their pictures taken in full regalia, a Muslim family across from us dumped on a park bench, children playing, dogs running around sniffing and doing doggies things.  The downs of many languages floats on the air and warms my heart, oh that we could all get along that well universally.

Then we stopped for a coffee where there was a FULL American Brunch on the menu.  I had to laugh, bacon, eggs, toast and coffee.  Then to Monoprix I wanted some more reusable bags., Jodi more soap.

Next on the quickie around Paris was Luxembourg gardens and our beloved Medici Fountain.  Where we sat and people watched (I knitted of course).  

Jodi chatted up a guy from Serbia (Georgio) that had run out of energy and she is very in touch with that issue, so she shared, Some Indian fellow approached me and started talking, a young guy, in PAris for am on the.  I turned him on to Rue du Princess as there had been a gazillion young people on the street talking and drinking when we left Bistrot du Henri.  And then there were these 3 young women that just made me laugh,

they were taking pictures, posing, kissing the air, swinging their hair, and looking sexy.

  I tried it for Jodi, but just looked ridiculous, not sure if I am JUST not sexy or if I am just old.  It made me laugh though.  Then was the walk to pay our respects to Notre Dame.  

It is all cordoned off and the park behind is totally taken up with temporary trailer-office edifices.  We wanted to see my GF from Pont Neuf so we went there and I got a bit irritated, there are “artiste” hawking their wares there in the bench areas,  One guy asked if I wanted to look or buy, and I said no I WANTED to SIT.

I am all for those folks along the river, streets, etc, but really taking up space from people who want too gaze longingly at my GF and wonder ad the glory of Gods sunset?  Yep, I was irritated.  We found a place, hunkered down and Jodi played with her camera as the day drew to a close.  The sunset was a beauty, and my GF she winked at us!  I tried somme more sexy moves to no avail.

All that irritation made me hungry so off we traipsed to Le Flore en Isle.  We got the same irascible waiter service ( I think they put on a “Waiter” show for tourists), and sat by young American who will be studying law at Notre Dame so she knew where Indiana was!   I had Tartare de boeuf, it was delish ( but I paid a serious price - though not so serious as last year) Jodi had the French onion soup, which was delish.  I just know.   We moseyed back to the Hotel Du Ville and caught the metro home.  

Dégas, Sleeping Beauty and Angels

We both slept late, trying to recover I think from the drive and harrowing return of the voiture (car) to the airport.  There is a temporary exhibit called Degas a la Opera at the D’Orsay,

I don’t usually get to lucky and I wanted to see it! So off we went to stand lin line because of our hedonistic morning.  I just love people watching and this charming guy was drawing his children and they were all drawing each other,  they were just a delightful family to watch.  He was not so bad either.

The exhibit was fun though I had to laugh as I had seen a lot of it before because several pieces were on loan from the U.S..  But it as interesting to see the progression of his work.  I laugh as when you go to art museums, every little prep sketch is often in the museum too and I wonder if the artist knew that someday that little piece of nothing to him/her would be in a museum.  

I have always liked Degas and I wonder how much of it still has to do with my desire as a child to take ballet classes, or if it is the tulle dresses.

We needed some lunch and I lead Jodi down the path of ham in her quiche, not a good thing but my Thai chicken soup was amazing!   We were right next to the impressionist  ( Monet, Degas, Renoire, MAnet......) section of the museum and wandered through there as well just to réimpression those images on my brain.  There are some that just make my heart swell as I look ( I love the French word for this, regarde)  at them.  

We then walked ( well actually Metro’ed) to Reed to take Catherine another painting I had done of her restaurant, and stumbled on this store with the tiniest little macaroons I have ever seen in the window, so I had to buy one or two, I ate one, the mango passion fruit, and YUM.

We took the painting to Catherine, and chatted a bit, and waked toward the Eiffel Tower, Jodi wanted a coffee I have to admit that the aging process does not do much for me, but it does offer the opportunity for a lot more coffee breaks which I think are fun an all get out, so, a deliver lining!  

By then though it was time to head toward supper.  I simply love looking at the posters in the Metro,  there I was enchanted by this play on the Sleeping  Beauty story

and got a kick out of taking Jodi’s photo by this one.

Dinner was at L’Ange 20 near Place du Voges and we stopped at a Monoprix on the way so I could look for mascara.  They kindly had a végétarien plate for Jodi,

and my meal of fois gras with onion compote and a main of a sort of beef stew in potatoes, and then granitized was amazing!  We sat by a couple of Dutch women and the lilt of their language was a warm comfortable memory of my Grandparents.  We skipped dessert again as we had wine to drink back the house.  

Art, Art and More Art

I woke this morning all cozy and warm but I am in PARIS and knowing that my crazy affection for this city warts and all was bubbling up I offered Jodi to sleep in while I hit up the art store and have coffee 
It is delish though I had trouble finding a place that had plain croissants,  the first and second brasserie I entered offered tartine (which is toast with butter and jam), which may sound sassy but really, what’s up with that?

I am sitting here and glanced up at the TV and there is an ad for weight loss,  Sandrine - 15kg!  Lord our crappy ways of eating have totally invaded and NOT the good ones nor for the better!
The art store gave me the same “kid in a candy store” feeling  that I get when I walk in here, I wanted sore more Fabriano paper but they did not have what I wanted so I bought a couple of other things to try. A paint brush, paper and a few colored pencils ( to do the sand paper trick) and that I was it.  I then read to the Poste and got the “BOX” to mail stuff home. It is simply cheaper than paying overage at the airport or for a second bag.  And it has the added benefit of not having to carry it other than to the poste.  Back at home, Jodi was up and ready to go.  So we went to the grocery store and purchased all kids of goodies for breakfast, some wine, Toilet paper (no fun colors this time, blue and pink BUT some with flamingoes!), and some general stuff for around the house.  Then,  I wanted to hit up the Senellier store, there were a few colors I wanted to try, A turquoise, orange, and a couple of new greens.  Jodi was great at keeping me on track to get what I wanted to get done today, done! SO off we set to go to the Senellier store, this is a very old, 1887, store.  I love going in here as I read about the impressionists getting their pigments here and true or not it I give me chills to think I am standing in the same store that Monet or Renoir stood to buy paint.  
To get there we needed to walk by the Louvre as that is the closest stop,

and I got to catch my first glimpse of my Girlfriend!  

Nothing like strolling by the Lovre to do some paint shopping.

 AS we crossed the Siene there was an artist displaying his wares and we chatted a bit and finally I shared the painting I was taking to dinner to give to the restaurant owner.  He made fun of it, said the perspective was off (I had done it from a tracing of a photo, so the perspective of the photo might be off, but not my painting!)   Well darn, that is hard on a persons self esteem.  I had already purchased a couple of pieces from him.  I don’t think he understood that I had painted it and was dissing fellow hawkers work, but if I had not already done so I don’t think I would have purchased from him, no quarter here!  It is very interesting to me to have a look at other peoples work.  At the Senellier store Jodi waited

outside as it is a very tiny store (3 stories though) and it was BUSY.  

 I had to touch a few things, found  another paper to try and then bought my paint and I was done, Jodi was worried that I had not spent enough time ( she was waiting outside) but I had done most of my drooling that morning so I was good. Then we stopped at Paul for a coffee and I reintroduced Jodi to millefeuille,

a lovely custard dessert that is MUCH easier to buy than make!  Paul is one of the chain boulangerie, patisserie, tea room places that is getting bitter and bigger.  But is is a lovely location on rue du Four and I enjoy the people watching.  We both were trickled at all of the people in their winter coats,

Jodi wanted to know what folks wore in the winter, but they were already wearing it!   Next was purse shopping, but I got into trouble on the way  we stumbled across anther art store right there in the 6h, Esquisse.  I went in touches a bunch of stuff, but kept going back to an adorable little goodie in the case that is a small metal travel pallet with the water storage built right in.  I looked at the price and thought I saw 17 Euro, and through Well Heck I am going to buy a couple 2 or 3 for gifts.  Well, I miss read a a but and ended up only purchasing one million Euro pallet, not sure I can justify it in any way, but it is a honey!  There had been a store in the 5/6thish that always had great purses, but it was no longer there.  Jodi pointed out another one and low and behold there was a purse that tickled my fancy there.  I bought a cute little mustard colored job at good will before we left and it was already loosing its “covering”, but I really like the color so this was a find!  I was really happy to see that my shoe/purse store CLIF in 5/6 was still there, last time is was all covered up and I thought it had bit the dust.  NO mustard colored shoes though.  From there we went to Dinner at Bistrot Du Henri.  I gave the owner my painting and he liked it, regardless of what the other nay sayers had offered me.  If he didn’t think much of it, he put a good face on it and even gave us a glass of wine!
 Dinner was delish, green bean salad for Jodi and I ,

when I got done she finished mine as I had to save room for my Margaret du canard in honey sauce.  

It was as delicious  as ever and we went home to a bath and a glass of wine!

A Hampster on the Wheel of CDG

Today I had breakfast again, with the same lovely family that is staying in the B and B, Grandmprents and a 5 year old named Margot.  They were lovely people traveling there for a week, I felt bad for them though as this was one of our 2 ugly days on this trip ( weather wise) and it was windy, wet and cold, and they were going to go horseback riding.
Jodi had slept in a bit ( it was her birthday after all), so we were off a built later than I had hoped.  Driving was not so fun, the speed limit in good weather is 80 MPH ( 130 km.hr)  and 68 MPH in rain ( 110 km.hr) all in all that is not a big deal, but the trucks and there are more and more BIG trucks there now, and they have to drive 60 and 80 respectively.  So you are constantly coming up fast on a slow truck, still not a huge deal, but then there are the folks for whom the speed limit is a suggestion and they are not going to let you merge out into traffic to go around that slow trick.  You get the idea.  It was a Doosey, but we made it.  We did though have to move to Plan B as we had to be in Paris between 5 and 6 PM to get into the house and there was no way it was going to happen. Plan B was to drive into Paris , get checked in and then return the car to the airport.  Simple, except I REALLY did not want to drive in Paris.  But we had GPS and I have a awesome cheerleader so that became the plan.  We go to the apartment and as I could not find Giulianes phone number had a moment of panic as she was not there. But after much praying and searching I found it buried in my e-mail.  Note to self,  PAPER!  She came and checked us in with much clucking as we ere so close to 6 and she had somewhere to go, but I let it roll off with the rain, and then we were off to return the car.   WELL, the nav did not really work all that well for returning the car, though I am sure it was just a matter of not knowing how to really work it properly, but we had done this multiple times before and we set off not thinking it was going to be a problem.  Long story short it took over an hour to actually get in the right place to return the car, and that was after many loops around the premises, fiddling with the nav, looking at signs, cursing almost crying, doing a 8 point turn in the bidule of moving traffic..... You get the picture.  I felt like a gerbil on a wheel and ground hogs day all rolled into one.  Finally though we got it done and got on the RER to Paris.  We had dinner plans with friends and that totally fell through so we went back to the house and had dinner at a mediocre Italian place on the corner, Pizza. I was so drained that is even ate cheese pizza with Jodi.  A glass or 2 of wine was necessary to restore equilibrium. Bed was a welcome relief, and at least I knew the apartment so no hurdles there.