The sitter, Alexandre, arrived and the kids could barely even say goodbye they were so ready for him to hang out. Okay. Bye. Sheesh. Okayyyyyyyy! Bye Whoopie! I drove to downtown Bordeaux. I had a couple of ideas of where to head. I meandered down a few streets. Poked my head in some shops. Found the side streets that I always seem to gravitate towards.
Before heading out. Oops, showing a bit too much leg.
Me likey
It was still kinda early out, probably 6:30, and I knew that restaurants around these parts don't open up until 7:30 at the earliest. So, what's a girl to do in a foreign city, all on her lonesome. Okay, not THAT. Please. I'm married. And tired. No, sit down at a local jaunt and have a drinkpoo, silly. And that's what I did. I found a front row people watching spot and got a nice cold beer brought to me and I watched the folks walk and talk and eat and be fabulous.
Me beer
Cuz you didn't get to see enough of my legs in the first picture
After enjoying my delicious beverage, I wandered a bit more, looking for just the right, non-kid friendly establishment to enjoy my quiet, non-bossy, non-sit down in your chair ON YOUR BOTTOM, kinda dinner. I swear I wandered for 45 minutes. I stopped and looked at the menus, making sure I knew (or thought I knew) what kind of a culinary experience I was getting myself into. Not speaking French, and knowing the folks here like to dabble in the, er, various meats and seafoods that I am not accustomed to, I wanted to make sure I tried some new things, but still left eating something that didn't scare me.
I settled on a restaurant serving Basque(ish) kind of food. I recognized the work Pintxos (think peenchos) from Barcelona, as appetizer types of foods, served on toothpicks. This was in the style of it, but served as entrees or bites. I order the 10 pintxos plate. I wanted to try a few different things, and this was a good way of doing it. The bites were served on bread, like brushcetta.
The first round was delicious. The second round. Well, the first round was delicious. No, second round had my first taste of foie gras. I will say, the flavor of it was good. I just couldn't get past the texture. I tried. It might have been the layer of yellow duck fat (okay, that prob isn't what it was at all, but that's the best I could figure) that was throwing me. That and all the other reasons. I will say I was a sport. Tried everything. Didn't break out in a cold sweat. That's something, right?
Clockwise, starting at the purple one: Red cabbagey something, egglpant puree, duck with sauteed onions and finally salmon (Oh my gosh, I can just see Mark's eyes widening in "No thanksness.")
Second round from the one with two round cheese circles: Round cheesey things with a mint something underneath, anchovey (I did a little tasteypoo, nope, I'm good), manchego cheese with a cherry dabbiddydoo, blue cheese and blah blah and then...foie gras.
During the evening there were small bands that would walk around and play a song or two and put out the hat for a tip. It made for a really lively atmosphere. A delightful evening! I concluded my night with a gelato. I stood in line in front of a nice family from Arkansas that had been living in Bordeaux for 4 moths, out of a 6 month assignment for work. It was nice to have an adult conversation in English for a few minutes.
I arrived home to find out that Maya, who never cries for ME, threw a whopper of a tantrum for the sitter, crying for me and only ME. Good thing I was relaxed and ready for the kids again. Okay, not really , but I don't want to scare my parents.
Pistachio and coffee gelato. Oh yeah!
My ride for the evening. Yes, and my big arse fits in this FIAT. Shut it.
No comments:
Post a Comment