Nice - Where we had the best pasta

helloooo there! (: i'm so excited to talk about the food in Nice because we had one of the most gluttonous escapades there :D haha. (not to mention that we spent a bomb, but it was SO worth it). as you can see in the title, we had the best pastas ever while we were here, so i shall start with that! 

this one picture is probably not the best representation of the gourmet pampering we gave our tastebuds, but La Storia simply has the BEST pastas E.V.E.R. and mussels. and dessert. haha i can go on and on. it's been a long while since we were here. but i cannot forget the satisfaction we had that evening. with the storm brewing outside, we were happily seated in a sheltered area, with a lovely heater right next to us, and huge plates of piping hot food in front of us. *rubs belly* it was amazing. i was so torn between going for the pasta (everything looked good) and getting the mussels. in the end, the fact that everyone else was ordering pasta helped me make my choice and i went for the mussels! ^^ that way, we could share :D and South of France is famous for its seafood :) obviously, since it's right next to the sea ;) (oh oh but i have to say that the ones in scotland are even more amazing). yummmms. i ordered the Les Moules Marinieres (€13) which was mussels in white wine with onions. ooh gosh. just hearing that combination makes you wanna drool already right? ;) hehe. the best part was that it was such a huge pot! i swear, it felt like a bottomless pit. i kept eating and eating, until i was almost scared of mussels already, haha, and i still couldn't finish it! glad that we shared our food, so that it was a good balance :) all the cholesterol!!!! but you know, YOLO ;)

Sam naturally attacked the Les Spaghetti Aux Palourdes (€16), which was the vongole (clams) pasta. and it was so so good!!! okay the thing is, the plates of pasta here are HUMONGOUS. i'm not kidding, just looking at it would make you salivate. haha sorry, am i sounding very gross? but it really looked very appetizing!!! and it tasted so good! i'm so glad that i learned to appreciate seafood, because i absolutely fell in love with the vongole pasta. perhaps even more than my mussels (no prizes for guessing who was trying to swap the mussels for clams hehe. good thing sam likes both :P)

we also had the Les Spaghetti Du Chef (€13), which sounds like the most amazing combination of spaghetti with minced beef, cream, tomato sauce, onions and cognac. oooh la la. such a delectable concoction and it tasted every bit as good as it sounded! 

and finally, Les Tagliatelle Au Foie Gras Et Aux Cèpes (€15) was our only encounter with foie gras throughout our whole South of France trip (unbelievable, i know), and it was soooo yummilicious as well! sinful, but so worth it!! we were in such a happy mood that night that we ordered a bottle of wine to share as well (Y) french rosé!! :) you have to drink Rosé wine in South of France too. it's a specialty! haha you must be wondering why there are so many specialties here. i have no idea as well! :p it's what i heard! haha and i'm just passing on the advice ^^

and of course, we couldn't forget dessert! :D heehee. and who had to worry whether i could sleep at night after tiramisu (€7)? that's the best part of being on exchange/holiday :D (omg bring me back to europe nowwwwww!!) oh gosh, they had such a long list of desserts. i couldn't resist! none of us could :p haha why did we order so much italian food while in Nice?! i have no idea. i suppose it's because Nice has pretty international cuisines, which is good for us! and the service staff here are really so much nicer. and they have english translations on their menu!!! italy really made me appreciate little things like these so much better. haha. anyway, the tiramisu was SUPERB - evident from how it disappeared within five minutes :p 

and the Le Moelleux au Chocolat et sa Boule de Glace (€7) was a molten chocolate cake with a generous dollop of whipped cream and a scoop of ice cream, which all went perfectly together! a heavenly combination if you ask me ^^ this was our last meal in Nice, and the BEST way to end our trip of this pretty place :D

Restaurant La Storia

3 Cours Saleya 06300 Nice

(it's located at the flower market!!)

Tel.: +33 04 93 80 95 07

okay i need to stop hyperventilating over the previous restaurant haha. so that was the last meal, and now these are pics of our first meal! where we began our indulgence in MUSSELS. *slurps* a really generous portion of mussels, and so affordable! they were having some dinner specials i think, and the mussels were going at €13.90 for a pot! with fries on the side. we first started off with one pot - the Moules a l'arrabiata, which was tomato sauce-based. and it was so delicious that we couldn't help but order another one!

now this, the Moules Curry, was ABSOLUTELY ADDICTIVE. i kid you not. it tasted nothing like curry (ha ha), but it was super delicious anyway! my hand was on autopilot with a mind of its own, either prying open mussels or dipping fries in the sauce. i ate so many fries that day that i don't even dare to think about the calories. haha. it was just so amazingly flavourful!!!!! full unglam-ness unleashed, i was just using the mussel shells to spoon sauce into my house. what utensils? haha there was no need for them :p

and hey guess what! even their pizzas seem more interesting than italy's. haha okay i'm biased. but the reason why i liked it was because the flavours were much more creative than those in italy! which is what we're used to. not that italian pizzas are bad. the quality of ingredients they use there is unbeatable. the crust is unbeatable. but the flavours were just way to limited and therefore, boring. in Nice, i had the Au Salmon pizza (€14) which was finally a pizza with REAL meat on it (instead of cold cuts). it was pretty good! not fantastic, but definitely decent.

this restaurant was located along this whole stretch of food places, so just stroll down the street and take your pick! 

Restaurant Le Milo's

15 Rue Massena 06000 Nice

Tel.: +33 04 93 88 76 03

Nice has so many specialties as i've been mentioning so far. and one of the must-eats there is socca. it's a hot, crisp chickpea pancake, that is one of their famous streetfoods here! you can find it in the Cours Saleya markets, or in food stalls along the streets of Vieux Nice. i liked it for its simplicity in taste - even though it wasn't heavily seasoned, it had this subtle nutty flavour that appealed to me. i tried socca at Chez Rene Socca, along with a bunch of other street foods ^^ the queue was really long, so im assuming that's a sign that it's good haha. i think the item right in the foreground is Pissaladière (can't rmb :p) which is a tart topped with onions, anchovies and olives. didn't fancy this one too much, but it's also a popular street food there! one more thing you must try in Nice, is the Niçoise salad! (of course, since it's named after this place). i don't have a pic of the one i ate (just bought it from a random shop), but it was nice! :)

Chez Rene Socca
2 Rue Miralheti, 06300 Nice

for dessert, you HAVE to go to Fenocchio!!!!! this photo is a gross under-representation of what it is. imagine like about a hundred (perhaps?) ice cream flavours - all the possible fruit flavours you could think of, both in ice cream and sorbet textures, an unimaginable number of chocolate variations, plus the very Nice-like flower flavours (when in Nice, try everything lavender haha) and a bunch of others. #tooawesome :D

Fenocchio
2 Place Rossetti, 06300 Nice

ahhh and my French love :') croissants :))))) haha those who went on the trip with me will know how i went absolutely ga-ga over the croissants in South of France. (and i did the same in Paris too). after taking ONE BITE of the croissants in France, i never touched an italian croissant EVER AGAIN (omg how can the italian croissants even be called croissants?! it's a disgrace!). i love how the french croissants are so crisp and crackly on the outside, while absolutely fluffy inside ^^

i finally had the chance to try Pierre Hermé!!!! *in heavennn* ~ it was sooooo good. expensive, but worth it. we didn't even buy it in the box because it didn't seem very worth it to do so. but of course, the focus is on the macaron itself, and we loved each and every piece that we bought :)) you can find the Pierre Hermé outlet in Nice in Galeries Lafayette ^^