Wok Bar, Bread & Roses and a Stroll Through the Garden

Continuing with the Asian theme, Raj and I ate at Wok Bar, a cheap and quick spot down the street from us. While I hoped for brown rice and tofu, I was OK with white rice, chicken, veggies and teriyaki sauce. I realize, today, how much I miss ginger and cilantro!
Although our bellies were content after the meal, a short walk through the the garden encouraged us to pop into Bread & Roses for dessert. We shared a chocolate tart that was AMAZING. Although, I felt like I was going to bust out of my skirt after we ate it, I was so full:)
I am churning a personal goal for June, but am not sure what: related to food, fitness, friends, etc???? Any ideas?
    

Adequate.

I noticed many people reading this book and excitedly downloaded it. I was disappointed—I did stick with it and found it really interesting to read at some points, I didn’t love it on the whole. In fact, some of the parts were a bit cheesy and ready like an 1800s Nora Roberts book. I wanted more suspense, but oh well. If anything, it is a great cover!

Credit Crackdown: Week 15

Wow, it has been a really long time since I reported in on my debt reduction. I have been plugging away—less so these last couple of of weeks since we have been abroad (ok, not less so, none since we left Ann Arbor!)

Feb 15 total (day 1 crackdown): 12, 836.11

May 28 (end of week 15): 8,617.19

For a grand total reduction of: $4,218.92

Not bad, I am averaging a little over $1,000 a month and plan on picking up speed when we get back to Ann Arbor.

Mian Fan

Raj’s conference starts tomorrow and both of us are pretty wiped out from checking out Paris (trust me, that is not a complaint, just an acknowledgment!), so low key is the theme of the day. After breakfast, we lounged around and ventured down the street for lunch. On our way home last night, we passed Mian Fan, a super cute Asian fusion restaurant. The food was very tasty and I was so pleased to be eating some fiber and veggies—I have been neglecting both areas!

I love the decor! The hot pink walls and the chandeliers throughout the restaurant give it a great, festive vibe. The friendly staff and quick preparation made my mood and mouth happy:)
  I want to get some cool chopstick holders:)

We started with the Yam neua nam tok: Thai salad with beef and lemongrass. I was not a fan of the beef, but Raj really liked it. To be fair to the beef, I am not a huge meat eater and for some reason, this tasted a bit “sea-foody” to me. The actual salad was light and very refreshing—it contained mint and that was surprisingly delicious.
Raj ordered a beef soup that also contained mint—very yummy and topped with cilantro.

I dined on the vegetable wok: soybeans, sprouts, shitake mushrooms, baby corn, carrots, cabbage, black mushroom and cilantro. After taking a few bites I remarked on how little noodles they gave compared to American standards. Lol, then I looked closer (or Raj pointed out) that ALL the “noodles” were indeed bean sprouts and that the dish contained no noodles. I read the menu wrong and definitely ordered a very, um, simple dish. Thankfully, Raj parted with some of his dish and threw some of his noodles on my plate:)

Le McDonalds

Dinner last night was great— good company and tasty food:) with wine. For some reason, the coffee and creamer that we bought has not been hitting the spot. The creamer is runny and the coffee tastes weak. So, we walked around the corner to McDonalds and opted for their coffee, rather than ours. I didn’t want my coffee to feel lonely, so I let it hang out with a friend (le McMuffin) before consuming it.

Ce Soir

This afternoon, Raj and I popped into Christian Constant to pick up some treats. Raj and I are going to his  friend and colleague, Florent and his girlfriend Chloe’s for dinner this evening, so we want to bring them some treats. They had us for dinner when we were here two weeks ago and it is crazy to think that time has flown by so quickly!

Chilling in the apartment before we head out:)   
Like the repeat offender in the right corner? It is just too good.

Lunging into Lunch

Raj and I did a trial Anusara yoga class at the Centre de Yoga du Marais. The studio is on a side street, is cozy and carries a warmth. The instructor, Anne, was very welcoming and taught the class in English to accommodate us and our ignorance of the French language. The class was the hardest class I have ever taken. EVER. In Boston, India or Ann Arbor—I have never wobbled or wanted to cry as much as I did during this. Of course, that means that I LOVED it. We did so many lunges and I have to thank Yoga Time for their sessions last week—they warmed me up for today:)

I love the beams on the ceiling! This is a close up of what is on the second shelf in the previous photo.

Lunch was NOT as satisfying as the yoga class. We walked through Marais and stopped at a falafel place. It was very greasy and made me feel tired, rather than energized. After eating the falafel balls and picking through the topping and a bit of the pita, I ended up trashing it. The eggplant was dripping in oil – not my style! Raj said that his was OK, nothing great. Since he didn’t finish it, I am guessing we had a similar experience!

Don’t be fooled by its looks!

Technorati Tags: Anne Vandewalle,Centre de Yoga du Marais,Falafel,Anasura,Paris

A Day of Treats and Happy Bday to Avery!

Today is Avery’s 3rd bday—I am sure she is whooping it up with her familia:) Today, was a great day—one of those days that just unraveled itself as time went by…After resting, here is what we did:

Snacked on some oranges before setting out for a long walk. Saw this random statue on our way to the Jardin du Luxembourg. Such a small head! Left the  garden and stumbled upon Christian Constant. Bought some treats and headed back to the garden:)

This was my favorite:) Not sure of the exact flavors, but who cares? Hee hee…..

We found ourselves at a math conference for kids at St.Sulpice—it was so sweet to see the kids exploring ideas.

  Since Raj is here for a math conference, I decided to create my own. One block. two block…..three block….

After the hard work counting, we walked across the river and shared a small vanilla ice-cream.

And then rested! We were about four miles or so in on our walk and my ole feet were starting to get tired.

 

Raj read about this restaurant in the New York Times and we ate dinner there. The atmosphere was super cute, laid-back and the pizza was very good.

While we dined in, the restaurant has a really cool option for people who want to eat outside: after ordering your food, they give you a pink balloon. You walk to the park by the canal and hang out with your friends and your balloon. When dinner is ready, the delivery person finds you (via the balloon) and brings your food to you! If it weren’t rainy, it would have been cool to do:)

Basil, tomato and cheese—very good! The dough was light and crispy, Jamie would approve!

The Obama: bacon, cheese and a pineapple chutney. While I acknowledge that it was good, the pizza was too meaty tasting for me and I was not a fan of the chutney.

Lazy Day

Well, Raj is napping while I am typing away, updating the last couple of days.  After a slow start to the day, Raj hauled our dirty clothes to a nearby laundry mat and I cleaned up the studio. While the place we are staying in is cute and in a great location, it is definitely not the cleanest! It is a bit dusty in here and while I choose to view the atmosphere as artistic, it was starting to get a bit nasty. A vacuumed floor, clean dishes and one scrubbed floor later, the apt was ready for pics:) It is about 320 square feet! And we thought that our Boston place was small. My favorite part is the bathroom, to the left of the tall bookshelf. You can’t actually shut the door, because your legs jut out of it! Note the bathroom door that is ajar.

At night, I think someone is watching me. Oh wait, that guy is.

These stairs are not for the weak of knees or anyone with bad balance!

The blackberry = the new teddy bear?

In the kitchen shower

Shower is on the left!

Friend by the fridge.