One evening at 'Le Pain Quotidien'

“Give us today, our daily bread”

While you pray, besides your God, somebody else is also listening…” the best bread maker at ‘Le Pain Quotidien’  at one of coziest Belgian chain, who is baking the most flavorful rustic bread that are crunchy from outside and soft and fresh from inside, which are not only scrumptious on their own but make great base to the delightful Tartines that I would taste later during the meals.

This was one of those places where I could freely click pictures of the food that I ate and nobody seemed to mind, and all this because I was in the company of food bloggers, who care too much about food (as much as I do) and will not let go of their memories, to be invited for such food-bloggers-meet is an opportunity I wouldn’t want to miss.

For that I am grateful to Rushina for extending her invitation and including me in the company of twenty more food blogger to enjoy the meal at 'Le Pain Quotidien'.

Le Pain Quotidien might seem like bakery with a display of big-sized bread on the wall shelf and a tart-studded dessert counter, but enter inside and it’s a new world.

I walked up the spiral wooden steps to join the company of food bloggers with an empty stomach all ready to enjoy the refill.

I was greeted with a glass of mint lemonade, cool and refreshing, a perfect drink to start the evening.

The meeting was all about introduction, getting to know each other, talking about food, clicking pictures and then the best part of the game…eating.

The fun part started with making of our tarts, sweet and savories, using our imaginations. The table was laid with bowls containing assorted boiled vegetables, shredded chicken, burnt garlic,and also assorted fruit marmalade,  chocolates and jars of custard.

I made only one with savories like chicken, mixed vegetables, burnt garlic, soya sauce, olive oil and black pepper. I did not make the sweet one, for which I was to repent later when I feasted on other sweeter tarts.

While bloggers worked on imagination, I started the feast on starters that included Vegetarian Bruschetta and Mediterrian platter.

The enjoyable part of the evening was relishing the Tartines, One by one, they arrived, bite-sized, easy to pop into the mouth, not caring about the calories nor their quantity and loved them all- the big range that included the grilled Asparagus with ricotta cheese, shaved parmesan cheese and diced tomatoes, Buffalo mozzarella with olive spread and marinated tomatoes, roasted chicken&smoked mozzarella with granny Smithe apple, tomatoes and basil pesto, toasted Belgian ham and cheddar with olive and basil, and the most tastiest of all,-the roast Tenderloin tartine with grain mustard, confit onions and cornichons.

We ate and clicked pictures of everything we ate, we listened, we chatted and ate again and clicked more pictures of the food, of the ambiance, of rustic décor, of the shelf containing a big range of exotic food bottles on sale,etc

You would think we should feel full to the brim at this point after having eaten so much but nah!, there was more- main course to select from the options of various dishes on the menu card.

I chose chicken stuffed with spinach and chevre served with herb potatoes and mushroom sauce and we sat down on a long table to share a meal together. I added a bit of soya sauce and lotsa red chillie flakes and enjoyed my portion -The most yummicious chicken that I have tasted.

Everybody had ordered dish to their own taste and preference, those who had Quiche Vegetarienne with roasted leeks, onions and asparagus, were praising that dish a lot. The Vegetable Lasagne with ricotta cheese and mushrooms was a huge portion and many of them couldn’t finish it, later they told me that fish plate, pan seared basa fish with burghul risotto, mushroom, chilli and balsamic sauce was divine but I was too full to try other dishes. There was also Green Asparagus Risotto with Parmesan cheese and quiche Lorraine with ham, gruyere and roasted leeks which was enjoyed by some of them.

Then came the tarts (that we had made earlier) which were placed in front of Rushina to judge and pass her expert comments. Like Matt/George of 'Masterchef Austrailia', she dutifully tasted each dish and expressed her delight. Since I had made tarts of savories, it sat there on the table-neglected (sniff! sniff!) but who would eat savories after meals? so the best ones were the one that contained custards with chocolates, or blueberry sauce and/or combinations of different sweet sauces and winner, Prathibha (The Chef and her Kitchen) got praise, recognition and lotsa claps.

The tarts were yummy and we have our food blogger Nikhil Merchant who shares his recipe for tarts on his blog..

The meals ended with the cup of chocolate milk and it was time to collect a take-away gift of cookies and breads. Lovely evening, will remember till the memory fades with yet another food-bloggers meet.

Do drop by even if you are not a blogger. The staff is friendly and food is absolutely delicious. The average prices: Rs. 250-450 a plate

The place was full, even though it was late evening.

Hop on to tutorials to know more about Le Pain Quotidien
Do visit, at Dhanraj Mahal
C.S.M. Road, Apollo Bunder
Near the Gateway of India
Colaba, Mumbai 400001

Phone: 022 6615 0202

OPENING HOURS
8am – 11:30pm