h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Felt moved to add a footnote to my journal entry about my little trip to La Rochelle, about what I ate while there (as I know this is of interest to some of you!).

I had three restaurant dinners, one of which was rather disappointing (moules marinières - a bit small and sandy, salmon in a nondescript sauce). The other two were great, especially the one which I saved as a special treat for the last evening.

Monday night at L'Assiette: a complimentary amuse-bouche (nibbles) of fish pâté, then a starter which unfortunately I can't remember, then roast fillet of cod with sesame seed, on a bed of roasted veg.

Wednesday night at La Boussole: another amuse-bouche, this time tapenade (olive pâté) with bruschetta, then chausson d'aubergine, tomate et mozzarella - a slice of aubergine wrapped round the other components, in a creamy sauce - yum! Since I'd had a lot of fish on the other days, I opted for a meat main course - beef kebab, which was huge lumps of delicious steak, tomato, pepper, onion. A nice touch was that they brought a little metal stand to the table and suspended the kebab skewer on it, so that it made it easier to slide the bits off. For dessert I had the most wonderful thing which has to be added to my list of absolute favourites (along with crème brûlée and crème de marrons) - moelleux au chocolat. This looked like a small chocolate cake, but when you broke the crust, the most gorgeous dark chocolate goo oozed out ... mmm!