Hippopotamus, so called France restaurant!

Hippopotamus,

Paris 14E Montparnasse,

68, Bd. Du Montparnasse.

            Created in Paris in 1968, the Hippopotamus restaurant Grill has gained a strong reputation, especially in the Paris region, with the widest selections of cut from well-known Sirloin, Tenderloin and Rib Steak, to the rare Hanger and Skirt Steaks., at affordable prices. Hippopotamus welcomes diners in a contemporary setting and friendly ambience, conducive to a relaxing meal, making it a favourite meeting place for lunch and dinner, and meals with family, colleagues or friends. Hippopotamus is owned by Group Flo SA, a France-based holding company that owns 300 restaurants, of which 135 are hippopotamus.

            The moment I stepped in to this restaurant, I knew something wasn’t right as we are on the hostess stand waiting for someone to bring us to our table for 6 pax. To our acknowledgment no one came and me myself have to go straight front, confronting the manager to get us the seat. Furthermore, the place wasn’t pack with customer, which wasn’t excusable. The seat given look as if they made from aluminum but it is conceal as it is aluminum but it’s actually made from plastic for someone my size, that weights approximately 80kg to sit on a plastic chair and to know that this restaurant is well-known internationally providing plastic chair, stroke my disappointment to another degree. However, the menu was well presented but there was no description for the food. Despite that, we have some common knowledge before we came to France, knowing how to pronounce the name of the food and knowing what the food consist is one the task we needed to do, for an example; crème brulee is a popular dessert also known as cream catalane and is made of custard. Moreover, the waiter is what made the whole experience a disaster.  Nonetheless, the side station we saw few rats crawling underneath the cupboards which definitely disgust our appetite. On the other hand, The food took a very long period of time to prepare and she didn’t inform us as a customer who waited 1 hour for the main dish to come.  Also, the waiter wasn’t attentive at all as we called for service by raising our hand and no one came to our aid even though we raised our hand for around 5 minutes. When the food came, the waiter looked depressed, as if she wants show how moody was she and then slightly tossed the plates to our table as if the plates were metal plates.  After finish eating our appetizer, main dish and dessert, we wanted to go off as soon as possible because of the dissatisfaction on the service, ambience and food. As we requested our bills, it took another 15 minutes for them to just bring the bill.

            Overall, this restaurant is one the worst restaurant I’ve ever been to. Nevertheless, I’ll not recommend this particular restaurant to my friends and family due to these circumstances. Lack of attention, bullies minority (Asian customer), and destructive environment that is now is one of my blacklisted restaurants to go to.

Source : http://www.hippopotamus.fr/ 

Beats the hell out of Michelin Guide restaurants

           

            The Michelin Guide is a series of annual guidebooks published by the French company Michelin for more than a dozen countries. The term normally refers to the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest and best-known European hotel and restaurant reference guide, which awards Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a star can have dramatic effects on the success of a restaurant. Michelin also publishes a series of general guides to countries.

            Started on the 9^th of June, we took a simple school trip to France for educational purpose.  It was nonetheless the best adventure for me as I heard so many stories about France and their food making. I was much more delighted to listen to the history of every single manufactured buildings in France especially Eiffel tower and Louvre pyramid. They were the most heard and talk-about buildings around the globe but nevertheless me as a mastery profession in culinary arts definitely need a feel of the renowned food in France. That is when I stumble upon a restaurant with my full of acknowledgment of testing out their food.  How the name of the restaurant can even amaze me, La Taverne Bavaroise was the name. It got me thinking what’s the meaning of the name and I googled it up. La Taverne Bavaroise, supposed to be the house for the Bavarian to leave in. That got my curiosity intensity even higher, could it be the restaurant serving Bavarian food.  At last, I went in and tried out their most ordered sausages and the waiter told me the name of the dish was Toulouse’s sausage, which is the name of the town. It was at least 15-inch long sausage and it came with handful of fries, it was common at first sight but once it reaches to your tongue. The meat was unbearable juicy and this Toulouse’s sausage made Frankfurt sausages felt like peasant sausages. Lastly, I ordered a dessert to mouthwash my salty Toulouse sausage that was still rumbling in my throat. The dessert came; it was the well-known crème brulee that even the god can’t resist the temptation of crème brulee. This crème brulee was not your ordinary crème brulee you can get at the supermarket. It was the best I’ve ever tasted and my mind kept asking how the hell did the chef do that awesome fluffy and creamy crème brulee. The time had came to get the bill, this got me thinking as the price might finally be the death sentence upon me and it got me off guard. The price was merely just 15 Euro dollars.

            This restaurant was definitely worth mentioning, I was darn surprised when I knew the restaurant wasn’t even in the Michelin Guide restaurant list. The food and service was well served to me, as I was very satisfied. Rating this restaurant from my point of view as 4.5 out of 5. I wouldn’t mind going through 13 hours of flight just to dine in the restaurant again.

Shiny Egg Tart like the Sun

Custard tarts were introduced in Hong Kong in the 1940s by cha chaan tengs. Which was derived from the original "pastel de nata" (Portuguese egg tarts) Egg tarts evolved from the very similar Portuguese egg tart pastries, known as pastel de nata, traveling to Hong Kong via the Portuguese colony of Macau. Hong Kong egg tarts are an adaptation of English custard tarts. Canton (modern Guangdong) had more frequent contact with the West, in particular Britain, than the rest of China. Also, as a former British colony, Hong Kong adopted some British cuisine.

            The moment we talk about egg tarts, we know that it all started from renowned country that is in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, egg tarts are the favorite of many and mine as well. Today, egg tarts come in many variations within Hong Kong cuisine, including egg white, milk, honey-egg, ginger-flavoured egg, which are variations of a traditional milk custard and egg custard, and also chocolate tarts, green-tea-flavoured tarts, and even bird's nest tarts. Overall, egg tarts have two main types of crusts: shortcrust pastry or puff pastry, traditionally made with lard rather than butter or shortening. They are both filled with rich custard that is much eggier and less creamy than English custard tarts. Unlike English custard tarts, milk is normally not added to the egg custard, and the tart is not sprinkled with ground nutmeg or cinnamon before serving. It is also served piping hot rather than at room temperature like English custard tarts.

            In today generation of baking an egg tart, many chefs from Chinese cuisine tried to improvise egg tart from pandan, chocolate, and many more flavors. Some even tried to enhance the pastry to even a thinner version crust to give mouth bite of flavorful custard.  This can be all done by folding the pastry crust to few layer with butter and then bake the pastry with the custard in a shorter period of time. This method of baking can be seen in croissant, as croissant texture is flaky in the inside and crispy on the outside.

            There are many methods of eating egg tarts; some ate it for dessert, some for appetizer, and some for main course. As for the Asian part of the continent, they love to eat it as their main course, for an example; dim sum. The western part of the globe, mostly eaten as snacks or tea breaks and accompany with a soothing fragrant tea that melts the egg tart smoothly.