eatstrong

we traveled for about 5 weeks total, staying no more than a few days in any given place. not really the right way to do it, i suppose, but there is just so much to see. our entire itinerary was rome, naples/pompeii, florence, san gimignano, venice, milano, nice, aix, avignon, nimes, barcelona, bilbao, san sebastian, paris, london. i regret that my next report from france will be a few days in coming, at least, since i am writing my reports chronologically, and we went to spain before we hit the next (really) big french restaurants in paris, so youll have to check out the spain forum for those (mugaritz, berastegui, arzak). after spain, ill get to paris, and then ill get to the slightly less crazy restaurants from france that we went to in avignon and nimes. sorry about the wait. that picture is described in the report i write on clos de la violette, by the way. its a raspberry tart with whipped cream and licorice ice cream. thanks for checking it out.

this august and september, my brother and i traveled around western europe. specifically, we were in italy, france, spain and london. whenever possible, we stayed in the cheapest lodging available and sought out the finest, most authentic food we could find. needless to say, this became rather expensive rather quickly in france especially, but thats ok. we wont be going back anytime soon. its going to take several years to save up again. in this thread i will be adding links to the reports i am writing of the extra-special restaurants we went to in france. first is le clos de la violette, in aix-en-provence, but coming are gagnaire, les ambassadeurs, arpege, and more. stay tuned. heres a picture from clos de la violette to whet your appetite. thanks for checking out my report.

Full report, with lots more pictures here. I had the good fortune of securing a reservation at TFL for 8/2. What an experience. The impossibility of getting a reservation, the hype and the cookbook generated so much excitement and anticipation, at least for me, that nothing could live up to them. But it came very close to fulfilling, and in some ways, exceeded, my expectations. The best meal I had ever had up to that point. Stay tuned for reports from my trip to Italy, France and Spain. What could be better than TFL...? Thanks for checking out my report.

any ideas where to get good meat and poultry in the westwood, west l.a. area? is there a good butcher around here, or a better supermarket?

any bilbao recs? havent been able to find much in the old posts. any price range, just looking for good food. at the least, good tapas in bilbao? thanks!

thanks menton, went to bechard and had a whole assortment of petit fours, they were all delicious. thanks for the rec.

thanks for the recs. we broke the bank at clos de la violette last night (excellent, full report to follow) so no 3* tonight, unfotunately. maybe bistro latin though. thanks alot.

any favorite restaurants in aix or avignon? my brother and i are here in aix tonight and tomorrow night, and avignon the next night. no car, unfortunately. also, the best calissons in aix? thanks alot.