Meet in Paris Again

Since we celebrated my husband Otto's birthday in July at this bistro in Culver City which I have previously blogged, I have been to "Meet In Paris" two more times; it has only been 3 weeks since then.

Last night, we took our niece to celebrate her husband, Elliot's birthday. He had no idea we would be there. He just thought his wife was taking him for a quiet romantic dinner. Romantic it wasn't with us as chaperones! Three of us decided to go for "all you can eat mussels". Otto decided to stick to his steak frites.

For Elliot's first bowl of mussels, he decided on my favorite, the Dijonnaise. Aimee, his wife started with the Alaska which had smoked scallops, shrimps, smoked salmon,
lime juice, chili puree, red onion, cilantro and chablis. I  wanted to try something different for my first bowl. I settled on the Madrid which had chorizo, leek, mushrooms, chablis, shallots and cream. I really liked it. Elliot did enjoy his Dijonnaise. We all tried everyone's mussels so we got a good idea of the different ways they prepared them. Elliot decided on the "Meet in Paris" for his second bowl. That included crab, shallots, saffron, tomato confit, bacon, basil and chablis. That was also good.  Aimee ordered the Thai, which was Indian curry, garlic, cumin, lemongrass, coconut milk and cream. I tried this and it was good but not my favorite. Aimee thought the Alaska was better than this as the flavors were strong and creamy which complemented the mussels. My second bowl was "home sweet home", the Dijonnaise. It was still as good as when I first had it.

I have to bring your attention to the frites which came with the mussels. They are the best; best in every way and it was good dipping them in the sauce but it was a lot of work and energy so I decided to just pour some of the frites INTO the bowl and scoop them up with my spoon. Ummmm, this is making me hungry all over again!

We had the pleasure of having Caroline as our server again. She was as attentive as ever and made our experience more enjoyable.

No birthday is complete without a chorus singing "Happy Birthday"....so Elliot got his 3 balls of profiteroles. We didn't want him to feel bad so we helped with the consumption.

Note: There is a bit of a wait between the 1st and 2nd bowl which is fine but Elliot thought that the wait gave the wrong signals to his brain/stomach making him feel he was already full.  So, it might be a good idea to go ahead and order your 2nd bowl at the same time you order your 1st so by the time you finish your 1st, the 2nd will be on its way.

Till next Wednesday, when 2 of my friends who don't eat mussels are willing to be adventurous to try what they have been missing ........