"le cantine du troquet" restaurant

i had been wanting to try the restaurant called “le cantine du troquet”, since august, when my friend monique came through town and told me about it. weeks went by. finally, we planned to go tonight as a family. the restaurant is in the 14th arrondissement, opens at 7 and doesn’t take reservations. it’s a hot new place, but since the french don’t eat dinner before 8, the plan was to get there at 7:30.
jj came home and said she wanted to go meet her friends for dinner before they all went off on october holiday. ok, that would allow p and i to have a date. so jj went across town on the metro with a friend. (note another step of independance). meanwhile, p was incommunicado – i just could not get through to him. so instead of sitting at home waiting, at 7:15 i headed to the restaurant hoping that he would call me. it was a strange feeling heading to a place not knowing if i would hear from him. felt like long ago days of being on my own. happily everything worked out and p called as i was getting off the bus. he took a tram and then a velib bike to meet me there.
it was a charming, hip, “down home” style restaurant where many tables are big communal ones. it is the 2nd restaurant of the chef Christian Etchebest who owns “le troquet”, a fancier restaurant in the 15th arr.
the menu was written on a big blackboard and was very reasonable. it is billed as a “basque” restaurant, but i’m not sure what that means exactly. it felt very traditional – with kidneys and head of veal, on the menu. i decided to be adventurous and try something old to the world, but new to me. i had the pigs ears for appetizer. they were sliced into shreds, deep fried and served on lettuce. it was sort of like very chewy, slivered bacon. tasty, but the sort of deep fried thing i have been trying to avoid eating in my new low fat stage. that said, for main course, i had lamb. it was tender and tasty, with a nice sauce on it, but just that – a slab of meat on a plate. though a bowl of homemade fries did appear too. p had morille mushrooms with eggs and then a fish called “lieu” (pollack). we walked back along the next road over, which had food shops and restaurants all along. it felt very old fashioned unlike our road with all the new chain clothing stores. we really liked the feeling. meanwhile, jj made her way home with her friend, again on the metro. she got off one stop after her friend and walked home and let herself in. we arrived home just a few minutes after she did.

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