#MelaninTakesParis: Cheap Eats (AKA mission impossible)

Let me just say right now: "Paris coûte cher!"
Rough translation: This place is so freaking expensive, I'm not interested in flexing for the gram!

The cheapest way to eat in Paris is...........

wait for it............

In. Yo. House.

But this post isn't about the food in your house (I'll write about that later), it's about eating well and cheap in Paris. So here are three ways I have been able to cut down my food spending in Paris

1. A baguette:

A baguette is a long, slim loaf of french bread and it can be bought in any "boulangerie" i.e. bakery in France. Let me tell you, the French know how to make their bread. I've never had a wack baguette in Paris. In fact, it almost reminds me to Agege bread: jokes 😂💁🏾.

And guess what: the standard cost of a baguette is one euro. It's really cheap and will last you two breakfasts.

2.  Eat far away from the tourist sites 

One time when I went to the Eiffel tower, I bought a samosa and a spring roll at a nearby cafe for 2 euros. One samosa, one spring roll. Do you know how small a samosa is? Don't be like me: find places to eat far away from the tourist attractions as the eateries there are likely to inflate the prices.

3. Supermarkets anyone?

France has supermarket chains that you can find pretty much anywhere in Paris (Monoprix, Carrefour, Franprix etc). The supermarkets are well stocked and you can get a lunch/dinner there such as pre-packed salads or sandwiches for well under 6 euros. I like to buy ingredients to make my sandwiches/salads for the week and I spend about 15 euros (that's 3 euros per weekday on lunch). 

It's amazing how resourceful one can be with limited resources. All in all, Paris is a beautiful city and I am deeply appreciative of this experience.

Thank you for reading.

Love,

Tope.

Friday at HSE Gourmet Cuisine

If you are active on Instagram and/or you read eat.drink.lagos, you've probably heard of HSE gourmet cuisine (P.S. is it HSE gourmet cuisine or HSE cafe 🤷🏾‍♀️?). I had seen several pictures of the restaurant when it launched last year, particularly its avocado, bacon and smoked cheese salad which seems to be a customer favourite (if the pictures I see online are anything to go by) and I thought it seemed like to good place to check out whenever I wanted to eat out. Fast forward to last week, I had an appointment in Lekki which took most of the day.
When I was done, I decided to check out HSE since I was in the neighborhood.

Its a quaint space, quite cute. 

They had an ipod stand and I was told you can play any song you want. I think that would be suitable for groups i.e. office groups, bridal showers etc.

I ordered:

• The insta - famous salad
• Chicken croquettes
• Peach & Passion Fruit Sangria Iced Tea

I had no prior plans to order the salad but when I saw the menu, I decided to go with the safest bet. I ordered chicken croquettes because I enjoyed eating them at Bistro 7 in Victoria Island a while back. Unfortunately, HSE's croquettes had more flour than chicken 🤦🏾‍♀️. Oh well.......at least the salad and the Iced tea were lovely.

They're located at Plot 2 Emma Abimbola Cole Street, Lekki 1, Lagos. 

You can also find their menu online here (which is great if you're on a budget and want to plan your restaurant spend).

BTW, I've been thinking of incorporating some healthier Nigerian meals (preferably vegetarian) into my diet, what do you guys think? Your suggestions will be much appreciated either on my instagram or in the comment section below.

Thank you for reading.

Love,

Tope.

Paris Photo Story

I visited Paris in summer 2014 with my mom after my MA programme in Bournemouth, Dorset. I had always  wanted to travel to Paris and used the summer holiday as well as my mum's visit as an opportunity to go on the trip with her. 

Working on your dissertation while on holiday isn't the most ideal situation. We had a whole itinerary of events planned (I had a bucket load of planned museum visits; mom had a shopping list for both of us) however school work made us modify our plans. We still visited prominent sites and went shopping, we also discovered new adventures that we probably would have missed had we stuck to our initial plan: Food and community. 

We stayed in Arty Paris, a budget hotel/hostel in a beautiful neighbourhood. Opposite the hostel was a Mexican restaurant which we frequented in the evenings after our daily outings. I had been introduced to Mexican food in school through a restaurant called Mambo, safe to say most of my Friday night food deliveries were either papa johns or Mambo. So when I found out that there was a Mexican restaurant just opposite us, I was happy. My mum also enjoyed the food so we made the place our evening spot.

A few minutes walk away, was a park called George Brassens (we discovered this place a day before we left). It was quite close to a restaurant called Cent Kilos where we ate regularly and great for relaxing/people watching. There was also a bakery/gelato place down the road that had an assortment of baked goods so we stocked up before heading out. The baker didn't speak english though so most of our orders involved me pointing at things and saying "Je voudrais acheter" a lot.

Getting around Paris wasn't too difficult after the first day. We were given a map at the hostel reception with directions to the train station. By the time we got lost a few times on the first day (with mom speaking Yoruba about why I brought her to a non-English speaking country to get lost!), we found our way and became quite knowledgeable with the routes, and buying tickets at the station (which was another drama because the everything was in French: not the French we learnt in secondary school/Allianz Francais oh). We eventually alternated between taxis and trains.

Everyone we met was quite kind and helpful, from the hostel staff to restaurant owners. I also tried practicing my french whenever we went out and even though I probably sounded horrible, they'd simply smile and patiently correct me. I now understand why people travel to learn languages in the actual places where they are being spoken; my beginner's French was better within a week.

Our Paris Pass was also very useful in getting us access to a lot of places. We were unable to use it extensively but its a great purchase for anyone going to Paris. 

My mom and I enjoyed the city immensely and were glad we had the opportunity to visit. 

I learnt a few things about travel (and ultimately life) on this trip:

• God has a way of making things work even when things seem to go wrong.
• Its easy to see things in a negative light, if you do not have a habit of being thankful.
• Appreciate your moments, embrace them and don't compare them to the moments of others. Your life is not an Instagram feed. 
• Be patient and accommodating when travelling with others especially older people. If you're open to their interests, you might discover and enjoy something new (even if you don't enjoy the activity, at least you know someone else is? LOL).

You know how sometimes people tell you about places and when you go there, it doesn't meet your expectations? Not Paris. Paris was better than we imagined and well worth the visit. I hope to go there again, relive some experiences and have some new adventures.

Thank God for life.

Cafe Neo: Feeding and Fueling the Lagos creative scene

 Cafe Neo is a coffee shop that sells that traditional coffee fare along with pastries, sandwiches (try the spicy chicken whopper, its delicious; i don't find it particularly spicy though), juices and lemonades. They also have bubble teas which aren't quite popular in Lagos yet. And they have free WiFi (Yay!).

Spicy Chicken Whopper and Lemonade

Strawberry Bubble Tea

A lot of articles describe Cafe Neo as the Starbucks of Lagos. For one, they're both coffee shop brands; they both have a menu that consists of predominately coffee and coffee based beverages such as lattes, cappuccinos and the like. However, apart from coffee based beverages, Cafe Neo's menu has a LOT of cold drinks such as bubble teas, freshly squeezed juices(FRESH!), lemonades and smoothies. They definitely tailored their drinks menu with Nigeria's hot climate in mind. Its also important to note that they are a Nigerian owned business that sources their coffee from Rwanda; talk about Africa supporting its own. Besides, I'm sure most of us have heard horror stories about restaurants in Lagos using expired products to prepare their meals. I'm just saying; let's support local businesses that use fresh products.

When I was much younger (3 years ago), I read about Paris's cafe culture and how coffee shops went from being sites for physical sustenance to meeting points of the brightest creative minds in Paris. It was in cafes such as Les Deux Margots, Cafe de Flore, Le Procope that cultural figures such as Voltaire, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso,  had, over centuries, come to relax, reflect, and very often, engage in meaningful intellectual discourse with like minded individuals.
Cafe Neo is slowly becoming such a place. It also frequently hosts music and art events. Last month, the cafe organised a jazz session with jazz guitarist Femi Leye. This month, it will be hosting a photo exhibition in collaboration with Bialere, a digital project founded by Yagazie Emezi. BTW, I'll be going to check out the exhibition on Tuesday, you should follow me on instagram to check pics from my visit (lazy me; its always easier to post photos on IG than to blog!).

Image source: bialere.com

Late afternoon at La mango

A while ago, I bought a coupon from dealdey for La mango restaurant for my mum and I. I figured that since it's been such a long time we spent time together, this would be a nice family outing. I decided to search online to find reviews for the restaurant but I didn't find much. It had two and half stars on Lostinlagos and three stars on foursquare (out of five stars each), so I figured that it would be an average place. I decided to try it anyway. La mango isn't hard to find,  it's on adekunle fajuyi street off mobolaji Anthony road. When we got there, we were greeted by a lady who gave us the option of either dining indoors, outdoors or at the rooftop. I simply told her to take us wherever seemed family friendly. A waiter then took us to the rooftop. At the rooftop we met another family that was having a birthday party. We sat down and made our orders. The appetizers we got were spring rolls, samosa, and fried chicken with dipping.

sidenote: I wish they had put the dipping in a dipping bowl, like seriously its only proper!The samosa tasted like it was soaked in oil for 30 mins before it was actually fried, when it got round to being fried, it almost got burnt.

The spring rolls were a bit better according to my cousin any way because I didn't eat spring rolls. The chicken was nice, bony but nice.

 It took them almost 10 minutes to bring the starter and more than 20 mins to bring the main menu, don't get me started on how long it took them to bring dessert and the bill! Honestly they need to work on their customer service. The waiter that attended to us was very kind and attended to us well, so I'm going to blame the delay in service on kitchen staff.

Although we waited forever and a day more for the main course to arrive, when it did we were all pleased: it tasted really good! The spaghetti was sweet and savory, a bit too oily for my mum's taste but still good. The meat balls were simply great, very spicy just how I like it! The special rice however wasn't as awesome as I thought it would be I guess I had over hyped it in my mind. Also I thought that some of the pineapple flavor would be absorbed by the rice but I didn't taste any pineapple flavor. It was still okay though especially the chicken pieces that tasted like they were marinaded in a sweet sauce. By the time dessert came, we were already full and couldn't even finish our spaghetti and fried rice.

 Two words: Fan Ice. This icecream did not taste like home-made or restaurant-made ice cream. All in all, it was nice to take the family out on a budget, taking in the nice evening air. Would I go there if I had to pay full price? No. I still think it was overpriced for the quality of the food and the late(very late!) service. However, the ambience wasn't bad and it seems like a nice place to hang out with friends. Also, I didn't get to taste any of their seafood dishes and from what I read on foursquare, their catfish is pretty decent. My cousin noticed that they had a fish pond at the back so I guess trying their seafood may not be a bad idea.
Price: 4600 (2300 each for a three course meal via dealdey)
where: La Mango restaurant, 2 Adekunle Fajuyi street, off Mobolaji Bank Anthony road, Ikeja, Lagos.
Scent: Hugo Boss Man
Taste:Starter: Two fried chicken pieces, spring roll and samosa
Main course: Spaghetti and spicy sauteed meat balls or pineapple fried rice with chicken
Dessert: Vanilla icecream