Eat Like Ushi

The last meal in Brittany was during a short drive through Dinard. The airport was a quieter place than St. Malo and cheaper too. It made an easy decision to visit the little town and its beaches for lunch before leaving.

After finding some free street parking, a quick walk around showed mainly (no surprise) creperies. I struggled to pick between this and another which had fish soup, but the ratings for the other place were quite average. I was keen after many a galette to find a menu that hard a few different options and Cote Mer managed to do that. It had a nice outdoor but covered area along the walkway and some specialty galettes that stood out from the rest. Not only this, but there scallop options were €5 cheaper than the other places I'd seen. 

The buckwheat was once again full and flavoursome with a crisp coating.

- La Tourangelle (smoked bacon, goat cheese, potatoes, green salad) €8.8 - goats cheese balanced the light bacon and earthy galette well;
- La Perigourdine (smoked duck breast, apple, potatoes, cream, green salad) €10 - a fancy gourmet galette with strong savoury duck pieces.
- A simple crepe finished off the meal.

Both galettes were excellent and I preferred the wonderful contrast of the goat cheese the most. I'd happily eat here again.

After eating a lot of delicious oysters, it was time for something sweet. In the hot sun my craving was for artisanal gelato and quite a few places advertised this. There were no pure gelaterias in the area so it came down to a restaurant or creperie. A creperie around the corner won in the end and instead of sticking to my gelato plans, I ended up sharing a plain crepe and a sweet crepe with chocolate sauce, pear and dark chocolate icecream.

It was nice but next time I should stick to my gelato guns. That's what I wanted after all!

Cancale's greatest reputation comes from the oyster market. Here several oyster vendors setup and sell a variety of types at incredible prices. A dozen local oysters for €4-5 is remarkable. And they are good ones too with a strong flavour and touch of metallic. The lemon and bread from the nearby supermarket mopped the flavours well.

I preferred the standard shaped creuses than the unusual oblong longues. Perhaps the creuses were just a little bit sweeter. I also sampled the famous belon at €3 each (and the stallholder said the €4 pied de cheval weren't much different) which were a little meatier. But at 6x the price, I'd be happy going for the sets of dozens.

After eating the oysters, the shells get discarded to the oyster graveyard littering the floor and serving as a scrap heap for the seagulls to pick from. It's not a bad life.

Having only one meal set for the walled city of St. Malo proved difficult. There's many restaurants within town and likely mostly catered toward the tourists that land during the warmer months. Most places have a mixture of reviews which makes things difficult. But a few places had interesting sounding menus with local ingredients and seafood. L'Entre deux Verres was one of only very few places in Brittany that had cotriade on the menu and I really wanted to try this local seafood stew. Also L'Absinthe Cafe had a seafood locavore menu. But unfortunately they were both closed in this Wednesday in June. As was the butter store and restaurant Bistro Autour du Beurre Bordier and even the places I found on Tripadvisor while walking around looking for something good such as Le Tourne Pierre. Au Coin Malouin looked very popular and busy but only seems to specialist in burgers.

Lion D'Or had very mixed reviews being very popular and the first place you come across as you walk through the walls. It had a reasonable menu and a large outdoor seated area being enjoyed by many. There was a well priced 2-course menu price of €25 (I think). Although given the size of the meals I think just one course would be enough next time (although adding an entree for a few € is hard to resist).

A complimentary starter of fish paste with some stale/hard-ish bread came first.

Entrees
- Organic stirred egg with Gorgonzola from Bordeaux and black truffle - a warm poached egg in cheese and butter with minimal truffle taste. It was good but the roasted cherry tomatoes were better;
- 6 oysters from Cancale #4 - nice oysters as expected although given the next day's plan was to go to the oyster traders in Cancale perhaps should have opted for a different course.

Cuisine traditionnelle Francaise
- Traditional salt cod gratin - a very salty fish protected by a large amount of sliced potatoes. The highlight was once again the delicious vine of cherry tomatoes;
- Half-roasted chicken with gravy - nicely flavoured skin with the meat itself being a little tough (but not dry). The fries were a bit average with a chewy texture. I'll be repeating myself in saying the cherry tomatoes were excellent.

The beef bourguignon looked excellent on the table next to me but the lady complained that the inside of the beef was cold/frozen which put me off a bit. However she did admit the taste was good.

The food was more general French than Breton but satisfying enough. Next time I'd see if any of the above places were open for a more local dining experience.

For the final meal in Perros-Guirec, the most well reputed restaurant in the best situated hotel had to be it. Luckily I was staying at the hotel also and could enjoy the beachfront location, the sunset and the moderately warm outdoor spa.

The a la carte was reasonably priced at €62 for 3 courses.

Pitted olives and vegetable crisps were presented first. The amuse bouche was a tuna maki piece showcasing an excellent piece of fish.

Entrees
- Saint Pierre/John Dory (with yuzu, small pickled vegetables, avocado cream, gomasio powder) - often I'm concerned about how well a place can cook fish. As expected from an upmarket restaurant along the beach, the fish was soft and good quality;
- Lobster (with Colonnata bacon, green asparagus, peas, lobster sauce) extra €5 to set menu - 3 lobster pieces adorned a mild sauce with the other highlight being nice crunchy fresh peas. I don't think the amount of lobster justified the extra €5 price but sometimes you just have a craving for lobster.

Main
- Signature Sea Bass (in a salt crust, mashed potato with truffle, vegetables, vierge sauce) - a bit of fish theatre with the cracking of the salt crust, deboning the fish and serving it with the olive/onion/herb/oil sauce, very very strong truffled potato and some buttered vegetables. The fish was cooked perfectly.

Dessert
- The Szechuan (crispy pecan, chocolate cookie, creamy Manjai & Jivara chocolate, Azelia raised ganache with Szechuan berries, chocolate icecream) - lots of chocolate forms on a plate;
- Souffle (with pan-fried apricots with honey & rosemary, almond icecream from Provence) - stunningly soft and warm souffle with the warmest sweetest apricots and a hint of rosemary.

Petit fours finished the enormous amount of food with chocolate ganache and lemon curd on biscuits.

Overall the ingredients were excellent quality and the cooking techniques were skilled. There isn't much competition in the area but it's clear to see why this is the highest rated restaurant in Perros-Guirec.

After the minor disappointment of the food options along the beach side of Perros-Guirec, the next day made up for it by going to the nicer port side. There seem to be a few well rated creperies mixed amongst the standard mussel places and it was perfect for a brunch/lunch meal. Of the two highest rated, Ty Breizh won out over Creperie des Flots for galette menu options (including seafood) and just looking that bit cooler and more nautical.

Les Galettes de Sarrasin
- Ile Bono (jambon, emmental, champignons cuisines ail et persil, tomates cuisinees) €8.8 - more of that deep buckwheat savoury flavour housing cheese and ham, topped with buttered garlic and parsley mushrooms;
- Ile Plate (Noix de St. Jacques, tranches de lard fume grille, champignons sauce cremee) €15.5 - soft half-sliced scallops with slices of quite mildly smoked bacon with a creamy mushroom sauce.

As full as we were, I couldn't resist the sound of the house namesake crepe. I'm not generally a crepe or sweets person, but how could you resist the sound of the special?

La Crepe
- Ty Breizh (pommes caramelisees, glace artisanale palet breton, Kouign amann, caramel au beure sale maison, creme chantilly, servie avec un verre de chouchenn) €9.8 - a Breton flag sat on top of icecream and stewed apples, flanked by cream and mini-Kouign amann pastries (less crispy and chewy than the full sized ones) and drizzled with thick caramel. A crisp sweet honey wine was served to wash it down.

This was probably my favourite creperie of the several visited in Brittany. Not to mention the lovely male wait staff who were pleasant and friendly.

My Airbnb in Dinan was cancelled a few days beforehand. Apparently there was a fire across the road and so they weren't allowed to stay due to dangers. I therefore re-researched and decided to make a stopover in Dinan but still in St. Malo instead. It was only a short afternoon therefore in the fiery 30-35C heat of Dinan in June and walking down to the port then up the steep but beautifully historic and decorated street Rue du Jerzual and Rue du Petit Fort was hectic enough to only want to do it once per trip.

In terms of food, I couldn't believe how many places were closed. Even all the highly recommended creperies were closed (some for the day, some because lunch had just finished). La Fleur de Sel was the only one I had marked for a nice meal but it was late and a long lunch wasn't one I was looking forward to.

Le The Gourmand was a funky looking place, relaxed and colourful and the menu was limited but healthy. The serve lots of tea, including bubble tea. I didn't try it but the sweet, dry, cooling fruit de la passion ice tea would had made an excellent base for it.

- Le Croque campagne (emmental, jambon blanc, creme fraiche fermiere, pain de campagne) €8.9 - for some reason I translated this as likely to be one of the savoury tart slices that was sitting on the bench. I was wrong and this was a sandwich with melted cheese on top. Fine but expensive for what it was;
- Salade La Bretonne (salade verte, pommes de terres tiedes, coquille Saint-Jacques, fondue d'oignon, andouille de Guemene, creme ciboulette) €13.9 - a lovely salad made filling with potatoes, soft delicious small scallops, salad and the strange swirls of andouille. I was interested (to unexpectedly) try this smoked meat but I had to admit I didn't enjoy the flavour too much. It had a strange taste similar to mild fuel, although obviously not that unpalatable. I ate it more out of interest but I wouldn't order it again.

Overall good healthier food, a change from the usual crepes and things, and some nice tea.

It was difficult choosing dinner this evening. We didn't want to bother driving anywhere, we'd eaten a lot of crepes and many of the other open places were on the expensive side. Le Mao was also closed (I wonder if the restaurants cycle between who closes when just to balance things out).

After an unexpectedly excellent experience at Le Mao (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/le-mao-ploumanach-06-2017) I wondered if Au Rest'a Terre might do the same. The ratings online are quite average but the bar area looked nice. Instead we were seated in the more dining side (which is fine) where the sunset glared directly into my eyes. All that can be forgiven, but the service errors can't.

We ordered Moules Marinieres and the Pasta with prawns and salmon. I was excited when the food came out and it went to the table next to us. We were amused they ordered the exact same dish. After a few minutes the diner next to us got up and a waiter came and took it back to the kitchen. Then it came back out and was given to me. If it hadn't been touched/eaten I wouldn't mind - but it clearly had displayed prawns and a squeezed lemon discarded on the plate. I complained at being served used food and it was taken away by an unfriendly waiter (the bill he brought at the end said "director" so maybe he's the boss) without any explanation or apology. As soon as I complained he took it away - he knew exactly what was going on and upset he got caught.

We considered walking out but there wasn't much else open that day. And the mussels had arrived and looked fine.

Whilst waiting, two other waiters came and asked where the food was. Clearly they had no idea what happened. One even made a joke we didn't know where the plate was. They were overall nice unlike the other guy, so I didn't mind.

A new dish came out and the unfriendly director put it on the edge of the table next to me, not in front of my partner who ordered it. He stared at me with no words. Then after a stare-off he left without saying anything.

The pasta was housemade (good thing) but the pasta itself with the sauce had no flavour. I had to add mussel sauce to flavour it. The salmon was ok and the prawns tiny.

The mussels I got were obviously from the other table's order as it had cream in it. But not worth complaining about. The mussels were bigger than I ate in Perros Guirec and tasted ok to be fair. I had to ask multiple times to get bread, where the table next to me got several serves. Funnily enough it wasn't until that table had their meals cleared (including their bread basket) did we receive bread...

Go somewhere else with better food (eg. Le Mao is equally priced and much better). The "director" is an idiot and needs to learn customer service and food hygiene standards. He was also the one who served our dishes to the other table so noone else to blame.

After the long walk along the beautiful Sentier des Douaniers from Ploumanac'h to Perros-Guirec along the pink granite coast, hunger had crept in. It was planned to end the walk along the beach side of Perros-Guirec although in hindsight going further (given the time and energy) to the port side would have been better for food options.

Alot of the restaurants along the beach look very similar with probably none particularly outstanding in menus or review.

Le Ker Bleu had a lot of people sitting outside and enjoying the sun, so why not?

- Soupe de poisson, croutons et rouille (€8 I think) - a slightly expensive but lovely fish soup with cheese to mix and melt through. Reinforced my view of the similarities between these soups and bouillabaisse in the south by serving it with a creamy mildly garlicky rouille to smear on the bread. The soup wasn't as good as Le Mao but still very solid;
- Moules de Bouchot a la Bretonne (andouille de Bretagne et creme) €11.5 - I was lured in by the Bretonne promise and instead should have opted for mussels the simpler way I like it, just with garlic and white wine. This was a heavy creamy version topped with pork meat that had an unusual taste to it. Later I discovered that is the taste of the andouille sausage - hard to describe but with an almost kind of mild fuel flavour. I could still eat it but didn't like it that much. Additionally the mussels themselves were very small. I think they should have been left to grow longer;
- Petit frites €3.5.

I'd try a different place next time. Nothing wrong with Le Ker Bleu but I'd been interested in trying the fish soup and other dishes elsewhere. Alternatively it does state pizzeria and some of those options sounded good too (such as the frutti di mare with St-Jacques, langoustines, moules, crevettes, cocktails de fruits de mer, olives, origan, mozzarella, crème).

All good seaside towns need to have a gelato place. In Ploumanac'h this is the one. It is advertised as artisanal which is reassuring considering its the only one in town. Other restaurants do serve gelato also but a dedicated place is always better.

The pistachio here was extremely mild and tasted more like vanilla with a little sweetness than pistachio. It was quite disappointing for a strong flavour person like me. The kouing-amann was also selected considering it would be the regional specialty flavour. It was very sweet like caramel, with pieces of the pastry chewy through it.

It wasn't the best flavourwise but the texture was fine with no ice crystals either. I'd happily go again, albeit partially also because there aren't any others in the area.