Le Bruit qui Court, Toulouse

Another instalment in my Toulouse reminiscent blog posts - Le Bruit qui Court.

Just a stone's throw from the Place du Capitole, and near the Garonne, le Bruit qui Court is a lovely little restaurant with exposed brickwork (like the Picotin!), pretty paintings and fairy lights. I first went there when it was my friend Fran's 21st, and her parents were kind enough to take a group of us out for a meal.

Looking burnt even though it was only March - those were the days!

I sadly dropped the photo taking baton that night, but here is one Rachel took of our mains (pork ribs and mash)

It is very nicely presented food, and also most of the menu provides a twist on classic French food, as well as having some other options, like tapas for starter!

I also went there with my dad and Aunty Nicky and Uncle Francis when they came to visit me.

A flattering photo of all

Again, I don't have the greatest photos from this visit, but the following will give a general idea!

Tapas starter

Delicious fish stew - look at the tiny lobster!

My dad enjoyed it so much on that visit that we booked it for his final night in Toulouse. We both started off with the tapas starter again (but the tapas were different this time!)

Gazpacho, white fish, prawns and aioli, and melon and serrano ham

I loved the prawns the most but my dad wasn't so keen, and I had to deshell the only one he ate for him! But it was a bonus for me as I got the others he didn't eat.

For main I went for the fish of the day, which was white fish (the waiter didn't say which one but it was quite meaty so perhaps monkfish?!), wrapped in serrano ham, wrapped in pastry, with a mango sauce.

Another little baby lobster!

It was delicious! I had been a bit worried the mango sauce might be too fruity and not go well with the fish, but it actually just had a burst of fruityness every now and again so wasn't too over the top. The little soufflé thing on the top right was also amazing, I wish I'd asked how they made it!

My dad had duck with an orange sauce - duck is a bit of a speciality around Toulouse so it was an appropriate choice!

He loved it, and I was jealous as it came with creamy mash, possibly one of the best comfort foods to ever grace the planet.

Interior of the restaurant

Puddings aren't the best photos as I felt that the other people in the restaurant might be getting annoyed by the incessant flash from my camera, but here we are:

My pannacotta with coulis and a sablé biscuit

My dad's lemon meringue pie

Very nice waiters, atmosphere, and most importantly, food!

Le Picotin, Toulouse

Le Picotin is one of the coolest and most original restaurants I went to while I was in Toulouse; I found it, like most of my other favourites, by careful perusal of what came to be my restaurant bible, a book called "Le Petit Tou" which was given to me for free by the Erasmus society! Never has a free gift enhanced my life so much.

The entrance - tucked away down a little road. You'd never find it if you didn't know it was there!

My first trip was with my friend Olivia, and after that I took just about every visitor I had there, so it was only fitting that James should try it at the end of our interrail trip.

The interior of the place is really nice - it's in the cellar of the building and looks cosy, but also has some really cool exposed brickwork.

The main idiosyncrasy of this restaurant, however, is that no knives and forks are given to you - you have to eat with your hands! As I mentioned in my blog post about The Bird, I am averse to using knives and forks anyway unless absolutely essential, so places which actively discourage (or ban!) their use are ideal for me. They even give you bibs to put around your neck!

You get given a menu, but the only thing you choose is the main; you get a platter of various interesting nibbles for starter, and chocolate fondue and fruit for pudding (they allow you a knife to cut the fruit but that's it!). For main, you choose your meat; duck skewers, pork ribs, quail, or chicken, or you can have a selection of three. After all my visits I had honed my favourites, so went for duck, a rib, and chicken, and James had the same. Oh, and you can also have unlimited wine and soft drinks for an extra 5 euros, which we did! When my dad took advantage of this offer he most definitely came away drunk, although he still denies that fact!

A goat's cheese dip appetiser  - obviously not my favourite thing about the restaurant, but James loved it!

Peachy aperitif

The starter - cold meat, tomato and mozzarella, cheese shaped into a flower (when I first went there I thought it was an actual flower!), melon, vegetable "acras" (a bit like vegetable bhajis?!), and little muffins with roquefort and bacon, along with a spicy dip and aioli. It was great, but I was a bit disappointed as on all my other visits the muffins had snails in for that authentic French feeling, and instead of the melon they served duck hearts in a moules marinières type sauce, and they were flambéed!

What could have/should have been

Upon my "mais c'est différent!" remark, they explained that it was because it was summer which I guess is fair enough, but still a shame! Now onto the mains...

Duck skewers

Chicken

Ribs

Some of the best chips I have ever had!

Curry sauce and pepper sauce

My full meat ensemble

At this point in the meal you become extremely glad of your bib, because tearing apart meat with your hands can lead to messy results, especially duck which is cooked rare (I did have a visit where I had blood dripping down my wrist - lovely!). However, it's all so good that you don't mind the mess and the hard work it is to actually eat your meat. The chicken has crispy skin, the pork rib is soft and fatty (I like fat!) and falls off the bone, and the duck is perfectly cooked and tasty. The chips are salty and soft and both the sauces are amazing with any of the meat or chips, or even the salad which I dipped in them at the end!!

After this I'm always SO full, but you have to make sure you squeeze in pudding  (especially as it's included in the price!)! Plus you're dipping fruit into the chocolate, so that makes it healthy....

Sweet little fondue set

The even-less-of-a-diet option - marshmallows

I might get one of these signs printed for my house...

The other really nice thing about this place is that it's just run by two people (I think they might be brother and sister but that's a complete guess!) and they seem to take turns cooking/waiting. Even nicer was that after a year and 3 months of being back in England, they recognised me when I came in with James! It's probably a sign that I went there too much when I was in Toulouse, but I thought it was really friendly and shows they care about their customers!

A few pictures from other visits:

With Olivia on our first visit!

With a big group of Erasmus friends!

With Tanya on her visit!

And there were at least 4 other times I can remember going....no wonder they recognised me!

Meat Liquor, London

Meat Liquor is probably among the most written about places to eat in London, but seeing as it was my third visit last night, and it's probably my favourite burger restaurant (a bold claim), I thought I would jump on the bandwagon.

Basically Meat Liquor does a wide range of cocktails and amazing burgers and "fries" ("not chips", according to their menu) and I love it. I went last night with Anne-Marie, a friend and fellow food lover who I was lucky enough to meet on my interrailing trip in summer!

We started off with a cocktail each; we both went for "Summer of Love" - "Finlandia mango vodka, fresh lemon juice, muddled ruby red grapes, passion fruit, savvy-b. Served long"

They were cool and refreshing and worryingly easy to drink considering they clearly have a lot of alcohol in them!

We chose exactly the same for our mains as well - dead hippy burgers (2 beef patties, dead hippie sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and minced white onions), a portion of chilli cheese fries each (ignoring the waitress' advice that this would be too much and that we should share!) and deep fried pickles.

It might be considered sacrilege to compare this burger to something from McDonald's, but I think it's like a 100000x better Big Mac (which is saying something as I am very partial to a Big Mac now and again!).

The patties are amazingly juicy, and the whole burger is just so squidgy and cheesy and delicious, with a crunch every now and again from the lettuce or gherkins. The bun is soft but also gives enough support and coverage to the patties so you can easily eat it with your hands. It is just an indescribably brilliant burger.

Cheesy close up

The thought of having the chilli cheese fries again had my mouth watering for days before this visit, and they didn't disappoint. It is the best chilli I have ever had, with a hugely thick and generous serving of cheese, French's mustard (which I could eat by the bucketload) and chopped jalapeños which give the whole thing a spicy kick. The chilli isn't too sloppy or liquidy which means that the "fries" aren't soggy at all even with all the toppings. I managed to finish practically all of them but now wish I hadn't as I could be heating up my doggy bag of leftovers for lunch at this very moment!

The pickles are covered in a crisp batter and you get bursts of vinegary pickle with every bite. Yum.

Our two trays of food

Happy and full

 We weren't too keen on any of the puddings, so went elsewhere for frozen yoghurt - seems to be becoming a habit for me!

Meat Liquor is almost certainly my number one burger place, because nowhere else I have been does both the burgers AND the sides to such a delicious and more-ish standard. Writing this blog post has made me want to plan my next visit already! If you go, try and get there early as when we left there was a pretty long queue - although I have heard they hand out free snacks like the deep fried pickles in the queue, so you might want to be tactical and try them for free!!