reflections on eating out....

ok, so...we ate out every meal from the time we arrived on friday til we left on tuesday.....and though this added up to far more than we are used to spending...being people who would rather cook a good meal at home rather than go out, even on birthdays...we are used to spending nothing on restaurant meals.......and though we spent far less than we could of.......there is still the persistent feeling that we will cringe when the credit card bill comes......so....let us revisit meals that i enjoyed so i can remind myself of how marvelous they were when the time comes.....i had wonderful onion soup and part of a warm goat cheese salad on the first day....with a glass of poiully fume.....later on that evening i ordered small....just an italian interpretation of a chef salad because i was not yet really hungry..with pinot grigio...on saturday we ate at the hotel....not the best value as we spent 18 euros for both of us on cold breads, butter, jam juice and hot coffee......lunch on saturday was vegetarian....i had another warm goat cheese salad and a vegetable potage that could have used a little salt....the wine with lunch must have been from the loire, as it had a bite, and was the worst i had the entire trip...so sorry rachel and joe......we went italian again on saturday evening....with a bottle of the house white...from a region in italy whose name escapes me because i was and remain unfamiliar....the wine was very smooth, and dry, and tasted mostly chardonnay...but could have been a clever blend of several varieties.....i had veal scallopine that was just scrumptious.....and a bit of stephan's arugula salad, which turned out to be huge......i treated myself to an omelet on sunday morning.....and to a better bowl of potage des legumes at lunch with a mystery house wine across from our hotel.....and ordered veal scallopine yet again for supper because one never knows when one will have veal again.....yum.....monday, our last day....we ate outside near our hotel on formula breakfasts designed to attract tourists....and i had eggs and ham with buttered tartine for less than i had paid for a cold breakfast days before....lesson learned......at lunch i fell prey to the sin of envy...as i changed my order at the last minute when i saw the woman just up from me at the outdoor cafe around the corner at our hotel...le terasse.....she had the classic steak frites, the steak thick and wrapped in bacon......with an arugula salad topped with a shaved piece of parmesan cheese..... along with a glass of cote de rhone..... yummmmmm.......our last meal in paris was just the two of us...and we walked back toward the eiffel tower to a place i'd been to before....a small place that is basically a one-man show......the chef explains the menu himself, takes the order....and has his daughter (who looks about 14) bring out the meal.....on this visit he had a waitress bring our food.....which seemed appropriate as his daughter was doing homework at an empty table.....i had roast chicken that melted in the mouth.....and another warm goat cheese salad.....gosh, but i love goat cheese.......and while each of the places we chose offered plats for less than 20 euros....the bill always seemed to add up faster than one expected it to.......and so i will try to focus on a steak that melted in my mouth, or the oozy feel of melted goat cheese upon a crisp bit of rocket salad when i am writing the check come the end of the month......