06.01.05
Le Relais de l’Entrecôte
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Later that day…
Had lunch at an artesian sandwich shop called Cosi that was recommended by my friend Jeux d’enfants (2003) (aka Love me if you Dare). I thought I would be able to follow the story given that I knew something about the movie and have recently had some good French language practice; boy was I wrong. These kids talk at full speed and even with subtitles I was barely getting a quarter of what they were saying.
A brief nap later we went to meet the Colombian ambassador to UNESCO, a friend of Himelda’s. The talk was mostly over high end discussions on the state of national education, politics and the workings of the Colombian ministries. I had little to do but sit and keep quiet, this has happened to me before where I find myself in company that runs in circles I am barely aware of and have little to contribute to. Dinner however very much caught my attention (hmm, anyone notice a pattern here?). The minister told us we could go to a restaurant where you make no choices other than how well cooked the meat would be and that is exactly what we got. At le Relais de l’Entrecôte the uniformed waitress welcomes you with a lettuce and walnut salad with a mustard sauce and asks how you would you like your steak. A couple of short minutes later we had a bottle of the fine house wine and each had a plate full of some of the best dammed steak I have had anywhere and frits (those are French Fries for the non-French in the crowd). Start to run out of either of the two and more is put on your plate. The wait staff seemed familiar with the old Europe form of signaling with silverware because I got a break when I set my fork and knife in the ‘just resting’ position and as soon as I put them down for ‘all finished’ my plate was gone. After dinner came a menu with about 30 delicious looking desserts, I had a raspberry sorbet with fresh fruit as well as about half of my dad’s meringue tower with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. The place is a bit pricy at €41 per dinner plus another €6.5 for dessert but I think it is worth the visit.