Let Them Eat Cake With Angelina

I am a little bit more pedestrian when it comes to food, compared to my more well-travelled brother. 

My knowledge and experience of French food had never extended beyond a Croissant,  Duck Confit and Seafood Bouillabaisse.  Jerome on the other hand was more adventurous and would not hesitate to indulge in food served up at a restaurant that had built its reputation across the world.

 

Last week, he paid a visit to one of these, Angelina.

 

Hailing from Paris, the illustrious tearoom in its flagship location situated at Rue Du Rivoli in the French capital was a regular venue for hobnobbing amongst media celebrities, talented fashion designers and notable poets. This was managed by Groupe Bertrand today, a well-known name in the French restaurant industry.

 

The local outlet here featured a list of Parisian classics and he commenced his meal with the Traditional Crusted Onion Soup. This had a deep flavour profile ranging from beefy to naturally sweet with a pleasant tinge of tartness as a balance. Capped with an airy and flaky pastry that is melt-in-your-mouth perfect, the fragrant soup had a generous amount of velvety onions and an adequate portion of melted cheese which served to provide just the right consistency to the tasty broth.

 

The main course for this evening was a Beef cube-roll. Prepared with a 120-day grain-fed Australian Angus, this was served with sweet potato fries and warm, savoury red wine veal jus. Fork tender with its juices sealed in, the steak had a good meat to fat ratio with the latter sporting a soft and almost buttery texture. A sprinkle of herbs prior to serving further enlivened this menu item.

 

A unique range of pastries were available here and they were perennially in-demand. He had intended to have the Millefeuille, a caramelised puff pastry with light Bourbon cream but this was sold out. He had always believed that when confronted with tough menu choices, the solution would be to choose more than one. So, he selected the rich and chocolaty Forêt-Noire which was prepared with a dark chocolate biscuit, Amarena cherries, cherry confit and light vanilla mousse with the second being the Cheesecake Cassis, a citrusy number with crunchy shortbread almond biscuit, black current cream and cheesecake mousse.

 

I laughingly joked with Jerome that this was a meal fit for Marie Antoinette and he should be declaring, "Qu 'ils mangent de la brioche".


Our Verdict?  -  BELLY INDULGENTLY GOOD

About The Writer:

This blog post was co-written by my brother Jerome and I. Although we are siblings who grew up 11 years apart, shaped by differing experiences to see the world from different perspectives, we do share a common obsession – FOOD.  We celebrate our passion for life with food.  However, our attitudes to food are quite different and the way we celebrate our love for food are also quite different.  Jerome lives to eat and hoovers everything edible that crosses his path.  As he shovels food into his mouth with that fork in his right hand, he takes photographs of what he eats, and posts pictures and notes up on Facebook with his left.  Often, his beautifully written prose about what he had eaten would be 7 paragraphs in length and would not have any punctuations in between because he had been too busy multi-tasking. 

I, on the other hand, eat to live. It is not just about my attempts to eat healthily. As I am a “cam-whore” and “social media hussy”, I spend about half an hour styling my food, taking photographs, writing notes and posting them across my social media platforms before eating them, right after the hubby has paid for the bill and is about to head out of the restaurant.  I enjoy reading all my posts about what I had eaten because I know that I had lived fully in spite of watching what I eat.  Welcome to the foodie world of the quirky Ong siblings.