Discovering L'Affaire est Ketchup

Nous sommes allés à L'Affaire est Ketchup pour célébrer une occasion spéciale avec un ami, et le repas était incroyable! En plus du ce repas délicieux, il y avait une grande sélection de vins. La serveuse était impressionnante: le volume de sa voix, qu'elle a mémorisé tout le menu, et son énergie! Tout le monde était très sympathique, et l'on nous a donné des shooters gratuits. On était très heureux d'y aller et c'était tellement agréable!

(Continue for English/閱讀中文請看續文)

This is my first post about a restaurant, and I have to give it to L'Affire est Ketchup. Yes, we finally went there! We had tried to walk in so many times but were not able to without a reservation. Their reputation is quite well known in Quebec City. It's a cozy little place that can only fit a few tables. The kitchen is no bigger than the average home kitchen. Despite it's size, they manage to make these incredible meals (I don't know how!) on just 2 vintage electric ranges?!

We went there 2 weeks ago to celebrate a few special occasions at once with a friend and the food was amazingly good! Besides the delicious meal, they had some great wines, even though the selection was modest compared to some larger restaurants we've been to. We were all very impressed by the waitress - the volume of her voice, her memorizing the entire menu, and her energy!!! (Really! If you listen to her speaking, it would make you feel like you're watching some food show or something.)

I could not believe how reasonable the prices were for this kind of quality meal and the portion (just look at the menu below). Appetizers starts from $8.50 - $11.50; main courses are from $17-$22; desserts are all $5.50! In NY, you could pay up to twice or three times more than that. Believe me, I've done it!

Everyone there was super friendly, and they even gave us free shots. We first turned them down (because of how drunk we all were with that bottle of wine). Then, right before we left, the staff brought out a round of shots that we all shared on the house. This time, we accepted! (Well, how can anyone turn down such a generous offer!) I couldn't have asked for more for my first experience there. It was such a pleasure for all of us and it made our evening really memorable and enjoyable. We will be back and I will write many more posts about it!!!

中秋節那天，總算有機會去捧場這家久仰大名的L'Affaire est Ketchup! 在這個不到八桌的空間，廚房也跟一般家庭用的大小差不多，煮菜的爐子還是老舊家庭式那種...的神奇小店，能孕育出如此美味至極的菜餚，真的讓我很難以置信!

店面雖小卻五臟俱全，其中，酒的種類雖不如大型餐廳那樣繁多，但卻也都是嚴選過的上等葡萄酒。更令我吒舌的是我們這桌女威特，不僅將琳琳種種五花八門的菜單(這裡的菜單是根據季節及當地農場的供應而定的，每星期都略有不同)倒背如流，還能專業並流暢的解釋每道料理，好給力的丹田讓她有副宏亮大嗓門，解說菜單時妙語如珠的速度，法文超爛的我聽不懂還有免死金牌可以pass，但就連在地友人也聽得頭昏腦脹，只能說........  C'est La Vie ~ 乾脆當成一個表演，BRAVO到她介紹完菜單後我都還沒回神! @@"

話說，天外有天人外有人，道高一尺魔高一丈，一山還有一山高，一嚇克(SHOCK)就還有更多的嚇克!! (是這樣嗎?) 這間店的價位竟然好有親和力到一個誇丟跪(見到鬼)的地步!!前菜的價位平均大約是加幣$8.50-$11.50；主菜是$17-$22；法式起士盤是$10，最最最最令人癡狂的是甜點全部一律$5.50(尖叫!!!!!!!!)。換做在紐約，要吃到這麼特別的菜色，得花上兩三倍以上的co co才有呢！

這裡的每一位工作人員都非常的友善，就在我們酒足飯飽準備離開之際，說時遲那時快，他們端出了shots，一人一杯完全免費。我們開心的舉杯乾掉shots的同時，也將這個愉快又難忘的美好夜晚畫下一個好滿足的句點。

(特別感謝老妹幫我作了編輯，才能有這麼"生動"的中文版!!!)

On the left: Our "superwoman" waitress and the partial view of the dining room.
左圖：我們的女威特

 

On the right: This is the menu for that evening. It varies depending on what they get from the local farms and the seasonal food. Do not expect to get the same dishes when you go there.
右圖：那天晚上的菜單

*Sorry for the quality of the photo here due to the lack of lighting. Below is a version I typed myself:

Menu

Entrée (Appetizer)

Ris de veau à tartuffatta $11 (Sweetbread in tartuffatta sauce - truffle, mushroom, and olive sauce)

Boudin noir du pied bleu $8.50 (Blood sausage with blue foot mushrooms)

Huitres cavendish $9 (Oysters cavendish)

Tartare de cerf $10 (Reindeer tartare)

Coeur d'oie poêlés $11 (Seared goose heart)

Moelle de bison et joue de cerf $10.25 (?) (Bison marrow and deer cheek)

Bisque de crustacés $11.50 (Shellfish bisque)

Plat (Main Course)

Surlonge de bison $21 (Bison sirloin)

St-Pierre et joue porc croustillante $21 (John Dory fish with crispy pork cheek)

Jarret de porcelet $17 (Piglet shank)

Pétoncles sauce aux huitres $21 (Scallops in oyster sauce)

Magret de canard $18 (Duck breast)

Longe de porcelet et crevettes $20 (Piglet loin with shrimp)

Gigue de cerf $22 (Haunch of venison)

Assiette de Fromages $10 (Cheese Plate)

Dessert $5.50

All the liquor in front of us - you can see how tempting it was for me!! I especially love Kenny's head (from South Park) as a bottle stopper!

因為那天坐在吧檯的關係，面對的全是瓶瓶罐罐的烈酒，你可以想像它們對我的誘惑有多大！

On the left: One of the chefs; as you can see, the only two stoves they're using are not even gas, but electric!!!

左圖：其中的一位廚子; 你可以看到他們用的就這麼兩台舊式的爐子，而且還是電爐不是瓦斯爐!!!
 

On the right: Our red wine.
右圖：我們的紅酒

Boudin noir du pied bleu (法式血布丁與藍腳蘑菇) - there's nothing better than a true homemade blood sausage and with the blue foot mushrooms.......yum!

Ris de veau à tartuffatta (小牛胸腺與松露醬) - It was our favorite dish of the night. The texture of the sweetbread is almost chicken liver-like, but if no one told me what it was, I would have thought that it was a piece of really tender meat. The sauce plays a really important role in this dish; the truffle flavor was very subtle. I do not usually like sweetbread because it used to remind me too much of an organ, but this dish has changed how I look at it and It is indeed the best tasting sweetbread dish I've ever had!!!

Bisque de crustacés (海鮮濃湯) - Love the rich and creamy broth; a true classic!

Magret de canard (鴨胸肉) - We would've liked a little more sauce but it was perfectly cooked.

Jarret de porcelet (燉小乳豬脛骨) - the pork is served with pumpkin purée, which goes very well with it, and the portion was huge! It reminded me so much of the Taiwanese braised pork feet I grew up with. It was so falling-off-the-bone kind of tender and full of flavor, and the gelatin from the skin was exactly the way we usually like to enjoy it in Taiwan.

St-Pierre et joue porc croustillante (煎魚與香脆豬臉頰) - This was the first time I had John Dory fish. It is just slightly firmer than flounder or sole, but still tender and sweet. There was no hint of a fishy taste. The skin was seared crisp, and the crunchy bacon pieces, fish roe, and sweet parsnip purée made a perfect accompaniment to the dish.

Apple tarte tatin (蘋果塔) - The tarte tatin was happily not too sweet and the apple-fig purée added a unique flavor to it. It was actually my favorite part of this dessert. I could have just eaten that by itself!!

Brownies - It is nice to end the meal with a really good dessert. I'm not so much of a brownie person (and I won't name the two who couldn't stop eating it!) but even I have to admit that it was pretty damn good! It was rich and a bit runny, like a molten chocolate cake. This was the second best part of the meal, not to mention that the portion was incredibly generous for under six bucks!!!!