October 15, 2008

Simple food in Geneva - Day 2

My second day in Geneva, and the culinary experience continues. I am taken to La Coupole for lunch, which is again conveniently near my hotel. Could this be a Genevois branch of the famous Paris brasserie?

Other than the entrecôte - which I already sampled yesterday - the specialty of the restaurant is fillet de perches leman. Perch caught from Lake Geneva is filletted, pan-fried and served with a lemon cream sauce with chives. In the middle of the plate is a mound of delicious frites. The fish was absolutely delicious, and the manner of serving remind me of sole meunière. Once again I enjoyed the frites and eat more than I should, using them to soak up the sauce. What a great lunch!

Once again I finish late for work, and even my original back up plan - trying the McEmmental at McDonald's - failed I got to the door just after they closed at 9pm... So I wander around and find myself in the Cafe du Centre in Place du Molard. I was initially attracted by the prospect of having boudin noir, which happens to be the plat du jour. As I sat down to order, however, I was informed by my waiter that (duh!) plat du jour is only served for lunch. Aaarrrgggh!!!! Oh well.

I start with the salade d'automne avec orange et endives. Unfortunately this didn't work for me, because the combination of the bitter endives and radicchio with crunchy walnuts, raisins and orange slices just produced confusion for my taste buds. I leave most of the salad untouched.

For main course I picked medallions de magret de canard. The duck breast here is pretty yummy, cut into - what else - medallions and pan-seared just right. Interestingly, the skin and the fat have been scored with a knife before frying. The meat was actually a bit more cooked than the rosé I had ordered, but it was delicious anyway.

The ground of Place du Molard is interesting, in that many of the cobblestones have been replaced with lights. Printed on the glass are various expressions in various languages of the world, including French, Spanish, English, Russian and even Chinese. Words like "thank you", "goodbye", "cheers"...etc show up randomly around the square. Pretty creative and interesting.

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