Bar du Boucher, Bordeaux

By: Mrs Robot

Ever have one of those days when the weather seems to be against you? We had one in Bordeaux; it was chucking down. But in the end we had the last laugh, as it drove us into a little bar we'd probably otherwise not have gone into. We love a bit of rock music, but on holiday tend to look for somewhere a little more traditional feeling, and in Bordeaux we'd been looking for the perfect steak Bordelaise. As it was, it was raining, we needed to hide from the deluge, and a beer plus Guns 'n' Roses seemed like a brilliant idea. I liked this place as soon as we walked through the door; I like a pub that feels well-worn, like it has regular patrons and doesn't give a stuff about being fancy enough to attract finicky types.

We hadn't noticed the name of the bar. Bar du Boucher: Bar of the Butcher. Had we not wandered deeper in we might never have realised what a treasure trove it was. The ceiling's vaulted, and the room itself long and slightly gloomy. The front is tables and bar, like in the photo at the top of this page, then the bar continues, with stools alongside it. We headed for those rather than a table to get a look at the beer pumps and there, by the opposite wall, is the meat counter. Beyond that there's a restaurant area with an amazing light made of pans – a pandelier, if you will – above the tables.

So, picture this: a slightly soggy pair of robots enjoying plenty of rock music and a pleasant beer or two, and right beside us, constantly drawing our eye, was the magnificent meat counter. We couldn't eat anywhere else that day!

You don't just order steak in the Bar du Boucher, or even the cut of the steak. You get a choice of the breed of cow your steak is from. We both had Blond d'Aquitaine, the local breed, and of course we had it bleu. In case you're wondering, it's the middle joint in the front row of meat in the picture above. Both it and the cut to the left of it are entrecotes, but the incredible dark colour of the Blond d'Aquitaine made it an automatic choice. The minimum size for a piece of meat is 200g, and after that the size is up to you. There's also duck breast (stuffed or plain) and andouillette on the counter, but really the cow is the star here.

I had my steak with potatoes dauphinoise, Mr Robot had chips, and the dauphinoise is definitely the way to go. We washed it down with a local wine. If the meat is impressive, the wine list matches it. Several of the bottles on there, vintage wines from some of the best-known chateaux in Bordeaux, were priced in four figures. Ours was nothing like those, so if you're hankering for an old Margaux, it's still there waiting for you.

Oh, and that steak Bordelaise? We never found one, but a charming local couple we met at lunch on another day explained that steak Bordelaise wasn't something the Bordelaise themselves really go for anyhow – a dish of lampreys stewed with leeks is the thing they really consider typical. I don't know if that's my thing. I do know if we're in Bordeaux again, we'll be heading back to Bar du Boucher, rain or shine.

Voila, le French Taco

By: Mrs Robot

Ah, la belle France! Home of the finest cuisine. So as our wedding anniversary holiday this year was to Bordeaux, it was only natural that we should seek out the French Taco.

Wait, wut?

I completely blame this article in The Guardian. Usually we avoid junk food places on holiday as possibly not very local, and the Bordeaux branch of O'Tacos is a reasonable distance from the tourist area. But the promise of authentically French junk food, a wrap stuffed with chips and meat and cheese sauce, lured us in. It's nothing like a Mexican taco. If anything, it's half-kebab, half-wrap, with cheese goop thrown in.

When we arrived at O'Tacos the queue was out the door – well, it was lunchtime, and the place was just round the corner from the university. We ended up going away for a coffee and coming back a little later when class had restarted. Even so, the chaps behind the counter were busy with a constant stream of Ubereats drivers picking up delivery orders.

It is really good. How something so wrong can taste so right is beyond me. As far as I could make out, the wrap, chips and cheese sauce are standard. Then you get to pick one to four meats (depending on the size of taco you've chosen), an additional sauce, and any extras (including the option to have it toasted with additional cheese on the outside). It's delightfully non-messy, very tasty, and very filling.

France: not just the best at fine cooking, but here to claim the junk food crown too.

Still greedy...

By: Mrs Robot

Even when our appetites for blogging wane, our appetites for food do not! We've new cookbooks to talk about, and lovely food to share. I shall whet your appetite – and hopefully summon the spirit of my blogging passion – with this little shot of today's lunch. Ma po tofu with rice for me (though I couldn't identify any meat in it, and usually I'd expect pork) and braised beef in udon noodle soup for Mr R, at Chili Family Noodle in Bath.

Chili Family Noodle is always really busy, especially during term times when all the students are back in town. It's an unpretentious little noodle bar at the bus station, and the food is really good. My tofu was packed with the tastes of black bean, chili bean sauce and Szechuan pepper, and I loved every mouthful. That said, I did envy those noods. Maybe we'll have to go back...

Lunch at Chez Dominique, Bath

By: Mrs Robot

Yesterday was my birthday (45 – might not be a 'big one' but it certainly feels big enough) so Mr Robot took me to Chez Dominique in Bath for lunch. Usually we go out in the evening for birthdays, but my workplace gives us our birthdays off so I'd booked a salon appointment in town that morning and we decided to make it a lunch date instead. Chez Dominique's a la carte menu is available all day, and we'd fancied going there for ages. It's just over Pultney Bridge, near our dentist, so we've both looked longingly at the menu on the way back from being savaged by the hygienist.

Mr Robot had booked the afternoon at work and said it felt very much like being on holiday, as we were eating nice food on a lovely day. It also felt a little like bunking off as he'd been in work that morning and then left it all behind.

But you're not here for tales of bunking off, you're here for food! I had smoked eel salad for a starter, and Mr Robot had a ham hock salad. Mine included chicory and apple, and both had a very nice dill dressing on that made us think yes, we really do need to grow some dill in the garden this year. The sweet crunch of the apple and bitter crunch of the chicory contrasted nicely with the soft, smoky eel and crispy smoky bacon.

For our main course we decided to share the chateaubriand from the Specials board. During our meal we heard the manager telling other customers the meat comes from Walter Rose – well, that explains why it was so good. We had it rare, because neither of us sees any point in having steak any other way. It came with fried mushrooms, salad leaves and frites. I'm fussy about mushrooms, only liking them when they're very fresh and very well fried, and these were perfect. (Honestly, stewed mushrooms are the worst.)

Mr Robot had the pear and almond tart for pudding, while I went for the cheese. This was good cheese. For one thing, there was an acceptable cheese-to-biscuit ratio. Too many places load up on (cheaper) fancy biscuits and stinge on the cheese, in my opinion. Chez Dominique makes sure that when you order the cheese, cheese is the star. And every cheese has a decent amount of punch.

I can't tell you how much it all cost as I didn't pay, but Mr Robot seemed to think the price was jolly reasonable, and we both agreed it's somewhere we'd go back to.

Telling porky pies

By: Mrs Robot

I had my first-ever go at making hot water pastry over the weekend. Mr Robot got me a 'Simple Simon' pie mould* for Christmas and I finally got round to testing it out. The mould is cunning because you can rearrange the dividers to make one big pie, six little ones, or all sorts of configurations in between.

I followed the recipe in the Ginger Pig Farmhouse Cookbook. I was a little apprehensive because of the time it said it took, but actually a good chunk of that was boiling two trotters to make the jelly. We had so much jelly left over I've frozen the leftovers – that should speed up any future pie making. The pastry was something else that seemed daunting but was surprisingly easy; I boiled the fats and water together and stirred it into the flour with the handle of a wooden spoon, by which time it was cool enough for my asbestos fingers to work with.

The recipe quantities were enough for three equal-sized pies in the Simple Simon, plus three more slightly smaller ones that I made in fancy metal cake/jelly moulds as that was all I had that looked the right size! The results weren't the prettiest, but I'm pleased with them nonetheless. When I make another batch I'll probably increase the amount of salt in both the pork and the jelly, and perhaps add more herbs or spices to the jelly too. These were nice, but with a little tweaking we could have pie magic.


*This blog is not monetised; the link is purely for information and we do not benefit from it in any way.