La Faim des Haricots (v cool website!) is a vegetarian restaurant which is actually very rare in France I think - it's hard enough to find veggie food on a menu, let alone a whole restaurant dedicated to it. When I was in France I started cooking a lot of veggie food as meat was quite expensive, so when I read about this restaurant I thought I should give it a try.
The basic premise of the restaurant is that they offer 4 all you can eat choices - quiches, a dish of the day, a salad bar, and desserts. In winter they also have soup, making a fifth option. It is 10 euros for a single choice, and for any extra you add one euro, so for my usual choice of quiche, salad and desserts it's a mere 12 euros. My personal best here is 8 pieces of quiche and 12 brownies...who knows how I did it but it will forever remain a personal triumph.
The salad bar is absolutely brilliant with a great variety of salads:
Neither of these are the greatest of pictures but you get the general idea. My personal favourite is sweetcorn and grated carrot with their amazing vinaigrette - I could eat a whole plate of just that, but I choose to leave my true dedication to the quiche. They also have HUGE croutons which I have discovered taste fab mixed with the gazpacho, and my second favourites are the green beans with sesame seeds. They also have curry courgettes which are very tasty, waldorf salad, couscous, hummus and lots more!
Each day they change the quiche flavours they have on offer - every time I went I lived in fear that goat's cheese might somehow have wormed its way into every one...goat's cheese is the one food that I really cannot eat - it makes me feel so sick!! But anyway, this time I was lucky and liked all three varieties - there was no goat's cheese in sight!
The three quiches were "provençale", which is tomatoes and herbes de Provence, spiced courgette, and cauliflower and basil. I, of course, tried all three. Here is a picture of my first plate:
And my second...
As you can see, the "5 plate minimum" was not quite attained, but I did manage 7 pieces of quiche, so close to my PB! My favourite quiche was the cauliflower one, it was cheesy without being too strong, and the cauliflower added an interesting texture, but I really loved them all (evidently).
Now time for pudding...
I am a creature of habit, and despite once dipping my toes into unknown waters and trying the cornflake cakes (sadly absent on this occasion), I tend to stick to what I know best: the brownies! With the custard and raspberry coulis, they are absolutely addictive (hence my 12 brownie past).
Sadly I only managed three today, but they were just as good as I remembered. They're not the gooiest brownies I have ever had, but they're still soft and moist and paired with the custard and coulis make for a delicious pudding. So if you're ever in Toulouse and fancy a change from constant meat eating, and want to come somewhere you can eat til you're about to burst, try La Faim des Haricots. You won't regret it!
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