Le Triskell Creperie - A Strong Blend of Nurture and Culture

It was a lazy Saturday and I was looking for a brunch place. Like many people, I turned to Yelp for this kind of guidance. Not that I have so much faith in Yelpers, but at least they can give me ideas of places to go. I found a place called Le Triskell Creperie and decided to give it a try. This little place is located in Buckhead, inside a building called Tuxedo Atrium. And it's tiny. As in it looks like a little cafeteria where you just go in to grab your sandwich for lunch, pay at the register, and take it to go. But something drew me in right from the very moment the French lady smiled at me. Her name is Rose- Marie, by the way. She and her husband, Michel, run this place - just the two of them. I could feel the love already. Plus, hearing them speak French made me feel like I was in the set of Amélie.



Their crepes are called galettes, a type of pancake made of gluten-free buckwheat flour. You know how Michel sold it to me? He said, "The French love it, you should give it a try." There. I'm sold. So I went ahead and got the La Bastille, which had eggs, ham, and Swiss cheese. The eggs were a little bit too runny for my taste, but it might just be me. Truth is, it's not bad at all. The slightly-melting cheese added a nice texture to the merriness of the savory ham and the eggs . The galette itself was crunchy and gave you a familiar taste of wheat flour. It's not as tasty as anything that's made of all-purpose flour - a little bit more on the humble side - and definitely would do a lot more good to your body. My friend got La Pacifique which had smoked salmon, soft white cheese, lemon, and dill in it. The cheese was rich and the dill added some kind of kick to it.



Our visit there was full of surprises. It started when I asked Rose- Marie where in France she's from. She calmly answered, "Paris. And you?" Normally when I'm not so thrilled in carrying further conversation with a person, I'd say Bay Area, California, which holds some truth to it. But I decided to give her an honest answer instead. Hearing that, her eyes lit up right away. She said "Terima Kasih" and yelled "Indonésien" to Michel who was standing in the kitchen at the time. He responded by screaming something in French that I can only tell by its elevated tone that it was indeed full of excitement. Then he came out of the kitchen and started telling us all these stories of how they've been to Indonesia, had stayed in Hong Kong for almost 13 years, and the fact that they're both musicians. How cool is that?

Michel sat with us the whole time and we had a great chat about a lot of eye-widening, heart-warming things. From how the Southern part of France, including the French Riviera, would be one of the best places to go due to its friendly weather and breathtaking scenery, to how the French and the Chinese bear some similarities when it comes to their cooking and how they treat their meat.

Sometimes I think the world is just way too small. Michel was telling me about the hotel that they stayed at in Jakarta. I asked him if he noticed there's an all-girls school right across from it. He went, "I saw them all the time getting out of their cars." Imagine his surprise when I said I was one of those girls wearing the green-checkered uniform skirt and knee-high socks. That I went to the very same school for 6 years. This time it's him screaming some high-pitched, full-of-excitement phrases in French to his wife.

Ahh, it was wonderful meeting them. To top it off, they insisted on treating us to some sweet crepes to-go: the caramel and chocolat maison (homemade chocolate) crepes. Wow. At the time I must have looked like a 5-year-old being treated to her first cotton candy. Or as we Indonesians call it, gulali.

C'est Magnifique Lunch on a Rainy Day

My 3rd anniversary with the boy is coming up next week. Unfortunately, by that time, he'd be halfway across the world already. So we decided to celebrate early. He took me to a little French place on Piedmont in Atlanta called Atmosphere for lunch. The price is pretty fair and the food actually goes beyond my expectation. The place itself is a cute little house with a little bit of a Southern touch and a nice outdoor patio. It was slightly raining when we first got out of the car, so we went for indoor seating.





The server brought us some fresh complimentary bread, piping hot from the oven, which I honestly didn't even touch (I try to do this whenever I'm not that starved). We started off with the cocktail de crabe et avocat, which is crab lump and meat with avocado Napoleon, diced tomatoes, and mango chutney. We were going to order the foie gras poëlé but they didn't have it at the time. But oh boy, our pick was far from disappointing. I had no idea that mango could create such a magical effect when paired with the right ingredients.



My main entree was moules marinières, mussels cooked in white wine, shallots and garlic butter. The mussels were cooked to perfection, very plump, juicy, and flavorful. I really like it when the white wine sauce isn't to buttery sweet and still has the wine flavor that slightly kicks and fully complements the mussels. Perfect balance.



The boy opted for a confit de canard atmosphère, which is duck leg confit with wild mushrooms raviolis, baby carrots, red wine reduction sauce. The duck meat simply falls of the bone. So tender, juicy, and full of flavor. I honestly think that duck meat is one of the sweetest and most savory kind of meat by nature. This dish still maintains a little bit of its sweetness and combine it with flavorful herbs and a subtle kick of the red wine flavor. And oh- FYI, the boy isn't a huge fan of pasta. Want to know what he thinks of the mushroom ravioli? "It tastes like meat," he said. His favorite pasta so far.



The desserts list for lunch isn't all that grandeur, but we went with the server's recommendation of apple tart fine with vanilla ice cream and Calvados caramel. It was pretty good, but not exceptional. And oh- they use real vanilla beans, which is always a plus. The boy actually offered to come back here for dinner but we went to Fogo de Chao instead. Oh well, there's always a next time.

PS: The pictures were taken using iPhone 4G's camera. Apology for them being a little fuzzy.

"I Know a Place Where the Grass is Really Greener.."

Not sure about that, but I can vouch that the food is better.

This post was prompted by the fact that it was 70 degrees in San Diego yesterday and it was an almost heat-wave like weather here in the South. And also, I haven't gotten the chance to show some of the beautiful things that I encountered during my brief stay in the sunshine state. It was a really short trip actually, one of those over-the-weekends. The purpose of it was to attend my cousin's wedding in Del Mar. But we stayed a couple extra nights just so we could make the best out of our $400 plane tickets.

What I miss so much from California is the constant indulgence my taste buds experience when it comes to food. But I won't explain further. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?


Mitsuwa's tonkotsu ramen has always been a winner. It comes with a bowl of rice topped with ikura (salmon roe) and eggs.


I don't know how Mitsuwa (the little stall is called Kayaba) does it, but every broth that they have in each of their soup dish tastes pretty amazing. This one is a very simple niku (beef) soba that most Japanese places would have but theirs is no doubt the best.



What I really like about this katsu don (chicken bowl) is the fact that the chicken is still so crispy on the outside (juicy on the inside) although the whole thing, including the rice, is really moist. A lot of places don't do it this way.



Oh yes, you recognize that logo. The best fast food chain in the U.S, IMHO. During our 4-day visit, we ate there 3x.


I don't think I've had that many shrimp crepes in my life, but this one was pretty good. We had this for brunch at Opera Patisserie which is pretty famous for its desserts. No, seriously, pastries, cakes, tarts, macarons, truffles, in the most delicate form you've ever seen. Don't hate me for not having any pictures of it. I got 2 boxes of macarons in which I ended up giving to others. Ok, back to the shrimp crepes. The baby shrimps were very-well cooked. I know, the crepes don't look very appealing here but the sauce (which I'm not sure what kind) was incredibly subtle but tasty.


A little touch of Spring awakening to go with my shrimp crepes.


Our friend opted for tomato and spinach quiche. It was slightly (note the word slightly) bland, in my opinion, but maybe because it's all veggies. It just needs a little kick, just a little bit. The crust (my favorite part) is very tasty and crunchy. The boy had salmon eggs benedict with perfectly cooked poached eggs and salmon. The hollandaise sauce had the right level of creaminess, I think. I'm not a big fan when it gets too creamy or too thin and lemony.

I only include pictures are that at least decent enough to post here. Most of the places that we went to don't have bright lighting so most of the pictures we took turned quite dark. We went to Ristorante Arrivederci in Hillcrest for dinner once and the boy had black linguini with shrimp, scallops, in a creamy sauce and I had some serious sea scallops with spinach in a white wine sauce. That was delish. We also drove up to LA, had lunch at Orochon Ramen in Little Tokyo, and had Indonesian food at Ramayani for dinner. Hands down to Orochon ramen's chasiu (pork belly) which I think is the best I've had in the U.S. As for Indonesian food, Ramayani is the most expensive one of all the Indonesian restaurants in the U.S I've been to (note that I've never been to the ones in Houston) but so far is the best and most authentic. And yes, I'm credible enough to talk about authenticity when it comes to Indonesian food. I could talk on and on about this but I hate it when I have no photos to show. Anyways, thanks for treating us to dinner there, my amazing fellow alumnus! It was really nice seeing you and your lady.

Check out the boy's blog for more!