Biba makes : Banana bread

I have never baked or tasted banana bread, but oh my it is delicious !
So i found this recipe on food network but i decided to add a bit of my twist in it.
Here are the ingredients: 4 ripe bananas, 1/3 cup melted butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp baking soda,  1 pinch salt, 1 1/2 cup flour and i decided to add 1 tbsp of honey, 1 tbsp of rossi or rhum and a handful of raisins. So preheat the oven to 175*C, and you don't need a food mixer, just mash the bananas, add the melted butter, mix it with a wooden spoon. Mix in sugar,honey, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt and mix in . Add the flour ,mix and add the rossi (or rhum). At last, you can add the raisins that have been soaked in flour and rhum.Pour the mixture into a buttered loaf pan and bake for 25 to 30 min. Voila, you can serve it with some jam , whipped cream and ice cream.

Biba makes : butter croissant and almond croissant

To make delicious croissants, you need to prepare the dough one day before, let it rest in the fridge for a whole day. Roll out the dough to place the butter ( it is definitely better to use dry butter but if you don't find any then it's fine you can just use the normal one ). After making 3 turns, roll it out and cut it into triangles to form a moon shape croissants. As for the fillings, you can just leave it plain buttery or add some almond cream ( 60 g butter, 60 g sugar, 60 g almond cream, 1 egg and a tbsp rhum) and roll it out. You can actually put anything you like, nutella,  cheese, thym,  jam. It is better to put the egg wash ( 1 egg, 1 egg yolk ) and let the croissants rest for at least 40 min at room temperature so it can really take a nice shape and rise, put another layer of egg wash and put it in the oven. BON APPETIT !

Event of the month : Salon du chocolat

The Salon du Chocolat is the not-to-be-missed event for those who share a passion for this exceptional product. It is a link between those who grow cocoa and those who consume chocolate. you would meet cocoa growers, discover the best chocolatiers, admire unique exhibitions and attend recipes demonstrations. Every year, the Salon is also dotted with special events, celebrations and performances. Some of them have become iconic such as the famous Chocolate Dresses Fashion Show. You can also find a display of chocolate and sugar sculptures that are so extraordinary to look at. I was very pleased to find that one of the chocolatier participating in the event was a lebanese. Unfortunately i forgot the name but what i know is that they have recently opened in lebanon ( a year or so ) and they were asked to join le salon du chocolat in paris for their special chocolates. I tasted the "misqe" chocolate and "arak" chocolate it was delicious and smooth it just melts in your mouth with this exceptional lebanese taste. So proud !

Biba makes : Pithiviers, scarictains

For my final exam in the basic level at le Cordon bleu i had to make the pithivier ( three kings' cake ) and the sacristains ( twists ). So these two are made with puff pastry. We have to make the dough by scratch without any machine; just our hands and the roll. So basically the three kings cake is two layers of puff pastry filled with almond cream and decorated on top with the knife. As for the twists, i actually used the rest of the three kings cake puff pastry, rolled them out and added on one side some sugar casson, cinnamon and on the other some chopped almonds and just twist them while laying it on the parshment paper, and voila :)

Biba eats : Le voltaire

Le voltaire (27 quai voltaire 75007) is a traditional french restaurant. It's nice and cozy especially when it gets really cold. The waiters are super friendly. I had for starters the pumpkin soup, which was delicious, warmy and  for main course i had the poussin ( chick ) marinated with tarragon, french fries on the side and bearnaise sauce ( which seems i am addicted to ). So the chick was so juicy and tender, and the fries were nice and crispy. it was a delicious meal. One of my friends had the foie gras maison, i am usually not a fan of foie gras but surprisingly this one was really good. Apparently le voltaire is famous for its foie gras because it is marinated with merlot so it has this interesting and good after taste that you get after each bite. The price range varies between 75 and 80 euros, i personally had a nice experience and would definitely go back another time.

Biba eats : Marius et janette

 This restaurant was one of my parents favorite. Two days ago we went to have dinner there and I have to say i was more disappointed than my parents were. I don't understand the fuss about it. I don't know if the Chef was having a bad day but the food was very average. We had for starters the tourteau frais decortique( which is basically a fancy way to say crab tartare ) and the crab was not even fresh it was frozen! and Tartare Saint Pierre. Both tartares lacked seasoning, we had to add salt, pepper and olive oil just to add a bit of flavor. My dad had the nems langoustines with thai sauce which was pretty good. We also shared mussles, they were fresh but the sauce was too salty we had to add a lot of lemon just to be able to swallow the bite.  As for main course we all had the the Bouillabaisse de poissons en filets, nothing to say, just good.

 The only thing that made us walk of this restaurant happy were the desserts. We had the apple souffle with caramel ice cream and the chestnut biscuit with clementine coulis and chestnut ice cream, it was foodgasmic ! All in all i can say that the restaurant is overrated, especially when you pay 100 euros per person.

Biba eats : Chez Andre

I have already shared my reviews about Chez Andre and i have nothing to say other than great food, great service, you get much more than what you are paying for. It is one of my favorite restaurants in paris. I had for starters the pequillos au crabe which was red peppers with fresh crab, accompanied with a small salad and a tomato sauce that was tangy, spicy and just adds this freshness into every bite, we were sharing in the middle a salmon tartare, again it was delicious and the salmon was so tender and fresh, it litteraly melts in your mouth. As for main course i had the burger that was foodgasmic, the meat was so juicy that the bread was soaked and the fried were crispy and yummy.I recommend this restaurant to everyone. The price range varies between 30 and 40 euros.