Street food market in Lyon

If you're ever in Lyon, you need to visit their street food market on Sundays. I am not sure where but you can just ask.. It really has the best lyonnais produce. You can find all kind of excellent quality cheeses, fish, vegetables, breads and sweets at the best and cheapest prices. You have to taste the pralines lyonnaises that is just so delicious, sugary and crunchy and you can find it in almost every pastry shop in Lyon since it is their speciality.

biba makes: Sphere au chocolat

This week we started working with chocolate in Le Cordon Bleu. I have been dreading this because i know that tempering the chocolate is not easy. You have to be very precise and delicate. To temper your chocolate you need to melt the chocolate to 45 degrees C if it was dark chocolate, then you need to lower the temperature to 28/27 degrees C and reheat it up to max 32 degrees C. There are various ways of tempering your chocolate, you can either heat it up by bain marie and some chefs actually do it by microwave although i really don't recommend this, lower your temperature by stirring it over some ice, doing the tablage .. If your chocolate is well tempered then it must be glossy, smooth, silky, doesn't melt in your hands and it actually snaps when you break it. We did a chocolate sphere, filled with mi-cuit chocolat, crispy pralines, creamy mango and passion fruit, creamy chocolate and some crumble on top.
And if you wanna be a bit creative you can actually use some transfer sheets with colored cocoa butter. All you have to do is spread some tempered chocolate over the sheet, and while its still like a paste and make circles, triangles whatever shape you prefer and put it in the fridge for a couple of minutes to let it cool down.

and these are some of the chef Nicola Jordan work:

Biba eats : Le potager des halles ( rue de la martiniere, 69001, Lyon )

This weekend,  i decided to visit my friend in Lyon, who is also a foodie and is doing her master in Institut Paul Bocus. So i trust her judgement in restaurants blindly and she took us to a really cute, charming brasserie. The staff was very friendly and welcoming, although the restaurant was full, they still managed to seat us after 5 min of waiting. And don't let me start with the food.. everything was simply delicious. There is nothing fancy shmancy about this place, just really good food, a very nice and warm atmosphere. We shared the nachos, terrine de foie gras, cheesy sandwich with truffles, burger, some green beans, rillette de thon, some kind of curry carrot soup and finished it off with delicious gewy fondant au chocolat and vacherin (meringue, creme chantilly and strawberries) . With all this delicious feast, 2 bottles of wine and one bottle of champagne, the price average per person varies btw 35 and 40 euros ( we were only 3!! ).

Biba eats: Ferdi (32 rue du mont thabor 75001, Paris)

Red velvet chairs, old family photos, children's toys and paper masks: a setting dedicated to happy memories for a warm and cheerful atmosphere. The menu includes tapas revisited for all desires, and strong Spanish dominant Latino. However, other foods from around the world are available .For me the winner of this place is the gewy mc and cheese! Ferdi is also famous for its burgers,  their delicious ! And the best way to end this meal is by having their crunchy, soft in the middle churros dipped in nutella :) This is exactly the place for foodies who like to take the time to live. Whenever you feel like having real delicious comfort food, Ferdi is the place to go but you need to reserve otherwise you won't find places. It is a tiny place always packed! The price average per person varies between 35 and 40 euros.

Biba eats: Liza (14, rue de la banque, 75002 Paris)

i have been living in Paris for a while now, and as much i love all kinds of food, lebanese food will always be my number 1 ! Unfortunately  most (and by most i mean 98%)  of the lebanese restaurants here are very disappointing. Finally i have found the best one in paris and really close to the ones we have in Lebanon, Liza. Everything from the hommos, tabboule, baba ghannouj, machewe, kebbe .. was just delicious and satisfying! but the winner of this dinner must be the grilled halloumi with the tomato jam, it was foodgasmic ! So i have to dedicate this post to my friend mika for introducing us to Liza :)
They also have different menus for groups, and apparently a delicious brunch on sundays with manakish and many other lebanese goodies that i can't wait to try .

Biba eats: Les vapeurs (Deauville, France)

We decided to visit Deauville located in Northwestern France. It's a beautiful region and the closest seaside resort when coming from Paris. I tried to research the best restaurants in deauville and came up with this list from many sources :" Le ciro's" which is apparently the best of the best in deauville and the most expensive but worth it restaurant, " Les affiches ",  "L'etrier"," L'essentiel" .. Unfortunately we got there late, at 3ish so the only restaurants that still serves lunch at this time were the ones located on the quai. We decided to try Les vapeurs, it is an authentic restaurant and  have been open since 1927. i enjoyed the food just for the fact that i was enjoying my time there but it was nothing special honestly. We had the moule mariniere, the Saint-Pierre fish and a sea food plate for 1, we were three people and believe me you don't need more than this. It is huge, filled with crab, langoustine, shrimps, mussels, oysters, whelks ( which are a kind of the snails of the sea, my first and not bad). The price average varies between 45 and 60 euros per person.

BIba makes : Homemade pasta, bruschetta and tiramisu :)

I booked online a cooking class given by the Food and Wine Academy. It's a 6 hours program that starts with product tastings at the Central Market, buying the ingredients and then going to a full equipped kitchen and learn how to cook some real tuscan dishes by a famous local chef. It's 79 euros per person and worth every cent ! First of all, at the central market, you get to taste all kinds of extra virgin olive oil. Also, real balsamic vinegar, aged in barrels for about 10 or 15 and even 30 years and what's shocking is that the usual balsamic vinegar that we have in our houses, everyday with our salads is nothing like the real tuscan one ! We also got to taste different kinds of cheeses, dipped with different jams, some truffle honey (delicious) and some truffle oil. We got the ingredients that we needed and then headed to the kitchen to start the cooking! We started by making the tiramisu because it takes time to set in the fridge, then we made our own pasta, with no machines, just ur hands and the roller pin, it was too kind of pastas, tagliatelle with bolognese sauce and ravioli filled with ricotta, parmesan cheese with butter and green sage sauce. It was surprisingly easy to make and delicious to eat ! Of course everything was first demonstrated by the chef, and he assists you all the way. At the end we get to sit all of us on a big table, enjoy our food with a glass of wine and we even get a certificate :)