Coffee At Paul's - Small tables, large portions

Paul

Photos by Angela Lansbury.

 We stopped for a quick coffee and a bit, a bite, to eat, a snack lunch, at Paul's near Farringdon station in London.

Nostalgic and Ethnic Decor

Paul's was established way back in 1889. Depuis 1889, the paper napkin told me. Wow, that's a long time ago. The decor is reminiscent of old France, a bit like the old historic Cafe Rouge decor.

The floor tiles are black and white. The wall tiles are white.

Prices and Portions

The prices are slightly larger than at the other big chains of coffee shops in the UK (we often go to US style Starbucks and Italian style Cafe Nero). However, here the portions are large. Also healthy looking options were available, not just biscuits, cakes, and sandwiches with meat or cheese and no vegetables. Here, we had a baguette which contained lots of healthy greenery. The size was big enough for two dieters to have one portion each for lunch and two portions, one for each of us, to take away.

French

I looked at the word depuis. Since. The language also told me it was a French chain. It was and still is. My husband ate in Paul's in France at a station in Paris. Gare du Nord. The Northern station.

Useful Website

https://www.paul-uk.com/patisseries

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French words on menus

French - English
baguette - bread shaped like a large sausage, up to the size of a forearm, with crisp hard outside, white centre full of holes, goes dry quickly
bain marie - double boiler, water underneath not touching food or liquid above, used for melting chocolate, from the name Mary
casserole - stew or stew pot
consommé - thin soup or broth
crudité - crude or raw vegetables, often cut up
rsvp - responded s'il vous plait literally reply if you please
velouté - white sauce, stock from chicken fish or veal, thickened, sometimes with cream or butter, frothy soup, known as one of the 'mother' sauces

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and author

Fellini Restaurant - always open for coffee, cake, sandwiches and snacks between meal

Fellini is easy to find and always open, all day, every day of the week, and almost every day of the year. (Open Xmas Day if you want to pre-book Xmas dinner - and two sittings on New Year's Eve last year).

So, popping out for a late lunch or tea, two of us stopped for a sandwich and cake and coffee.

The cakes and drinks are on one menu, the savoury snacks and sandwiches on another. We opted for the goat's cheese and dried tomato. About £4.50.

Baguette - not toasted.

What's inside?

Carrot cake.

The sandwich was not in the sort of bread I was expecting. We were offered a choice of baguette or something else and chose the baguette.

My friend decided to have her bread toasted. My bread was untoasted, although the filling was warm.

For cakes, we went up to look at the deli counter. I dithered over the cheesecake with fruit topping. Was it the baked sort? I asked for all the cakes to be turned around so I could see the cut part and insect the insides. Anything with nuts? Yes. The one which used to be my favourite, Tarta della nonna (granny's tart, exclaims my friend, who speaks Spanish). But it looked too much like a custard tart. My friend opted for carrot cake, so I tried the  same.

We both ordered cappuccino, which came up fast, first.

The tables are small enough for you to sit eyeball close, which I like. Cosy.

I seem to have gone off bought cakes, which seem either too sugary or too dry. I should have had the pear tart which looked nice and moist. Next time.

Except that:
a) I am on a diet.
b) It always seems to me that it's better value to have a whole meal for not much more money than a snack, and you get the glamour, too. But if you are in a hurry, a snack is the thing. We had a white cloth table, just for coffee and snacks, which was rather nice.

The cappuccino just disappeared fast. That's the way I like it. Usually when I notice coffee it's because the taste is bitter.

Service was friendly and fast. I particularly liked the welcome. "This is your table!" As if we'd reserved it, or it had been saved for us.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, 

French words of the day: baguette, baguettes, exposé, macabre, milieu

What's the difference between a baguette and baguettes? In an English bakery or supermarket, a baguette is a long French roll, with a hard, crisp outside and soft middle full of holes.

However, if you ask for baguettes in a Chinese restaurant in France you will get chopsticks. Presumably the bread roll is named after chopsticks because of its shape, or vice versa.

In an old newspaper I was about to throw away I spotted a French word, milieu. The writer describes himself as being in or near somebody else's milieu. Their, hm, that's why we use the French word, because it's hard to find an English equivalent. Milieu= (middle) surroundings, the place a person inhabits or places he moves around in, not a specific place but surroundings, their circle of friends and acquaintances, such as political, religious, income group, intellectual, and so on. For example, in my twenties I was in the student milieu, then in the business milieu, in the education milieu, and so on.

I had to look back at the word as I typed it. How do you remember the spelling? Think of it as the French for middle and place. Mi lieu.

You pronounce lieu as lee - er

French au plein milieu - right in the middle
banlieu - surburb
lieu - place
milieu(x) - real or metaphorical surroundings (pronounce me lea er) . For plural add x.
You get several example of use in a big dictionary
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/french-english/milieu

Later, looking at wines, we found the grape m a ca b e o and thought of the French word macabre. To do with death.

danse - dance - an easy word, same except for the spelling
La danse macabre - the dance of death
macabre - gruesome

Then I saw exposé.

exposé - un exposé noun an article or news report which exposes or reveals something which is bad or scandalous
http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/exposé

Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor, speaker, writer, author.

French words: bouquet, courier, premier, sihouette

Any word ending in euro is likely to be French in origin. Also look out for word endings such as et ... ballet, bouquet, croquet, duvet, all pronounced 'ay', or ette - baguette, banquette, serviette, silhouette, all rhyming with bet, get, met, set. I'm thinking about banquet, which seems to break the rule.

A courier - a carrier, a person who carries goods or documents from place to place
premiere - (I saw this in yesterday's paper as premier in English) important first, first night or showing of a play or performance, first in the list of a group of people, or their president or representative  eg he is the premiere of ... (think premium brand).