"Happy" in Tana

THIS:

Emma Planque Review--great for a date night

27 SEP 2015 Update:  Since our review below (from January 2014), Emma Planque has moved to a street just past the American school.  

Emma Planque Review

Despite a rather 'watery cold start', Emma Planque delivers--we will be returning

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Came here for a date night with my stunning bride and we weren't disappointed.  

We made reservations here for a Thursday with slight trepidation since no one from the embassy here had been to Emma Planque--word on the street was that EP had recently opened.

Turns out that EP opened in November 2012 but the owner (a Malagasy woman I believe) said they only recently started advertising (see excerpt from a back issue of NOCOMMENT.MG at the bottom of this blog post)  Although our waiter said they had only been open a month and a half (but maybe he meant HE had only been working there that long).  

We pulled up to the restaurant which is located in a residential neighborhood adjacent to SIDI apartments.  It appears the property is likely dual-use and has a small parking lot with an attendant on the premises.  We were the only people there that evening and I wondered if it would have been open and staffed had we not called earlier in the day.  

DECOR:  The restaurant was cute but missing some finishing/finer touches.  There was a distracting strip of track lighting that one could replace with a chandelier.  The lights themselves could have used dimmer bulbs--if one happened to be pointed out at you--it could be borderline blinding.  But overall a very cute set up--the outdoor patio had some seating that looked very cozy.  

SERVICE:  Outstanding!  Our orders were taken in a timely manner.  Wine was served correctly and refilled attentively throughout the evening.  The waiters were friendly and the owner stopped by and checked on us.  

FOOD:  Only two sour notes.  The gazpacho--do not order it.  It was very watery and thin--unappetizing.  I would recommend they try the recipe here for future batches.   If you are a gazpacho lover try Plantation Cafe--my darling bride swoons for their spot-on gazpacho.  The white tuna sashami.  I was salivating when I saw this on the menu.  What I received was a healthy portion of partially still frozen sashimi.  The ice crystals actually crunched as I ate it--there was no buttery savoryness to it to say the least.  The soy sauce-ISH mixture lacked something too-maybe soy sauce.  The wasabi was good though.  

Don't let this two low points dissuade you though--the rest of our meal was excellent.  The amuse-bouche that the chef sent out was excellent.  I had a perfectly cooked t-bone--ish steak and my bride had the sesame shrimp--both were worth returning for.  

We shared I drank a Cote du Rhone (2010, they were out of the 2008 listed on the menu) which the perfect accompaniment to a steak a point.  Like most restaurants here the wine by the glass menu n'existe pas.  

Lastly, it's not food obviously but they did have a cigar menu which was a nice touch--I could see my self enjoying one on the outdoor patio while draped across one of their couches.  

BATHROOM: Small but clean.  Instead of paper towels they have cloth wash cloths which were clean but a few were probably ready for retirement.  

Amuse bouche

Don't order the gazpacho

jk

Address (whatever that means here):
lot 2 K 60ter A | Ivandry, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Phone: 20 22 427 76
Takes Credit Cards: ???  We paid cash.
Delivery: No.
Take Out:  ???
Parking Lot:  Yes.
Parking Attendant: Yes.
Outdoor Seating: Outdoor Covered Patio
High Chairs:  ???
Clean Bathrooms: Yes. But unisex and small. 
Languages: French  with some English Translation on the Menu.
Email:  emmaplanque261@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emma-Planque/138963952936381
Website: ???
Hours: ???

What It's Like to Buy Beef in Madagascar

What It's Like to Buy Meat in Madagascar

 The following two pictures capture perfectly the quandary presented to the average American Vazaha* at a grocery story in here (or 'en France' for that matter).

French Beef Cuts

An American Cow

Dream Sheet

To be clear, this post is about what it's like for an American to buy meat in a Malagasy grocery store (meat is also sold in open air shacks and stalls throughout the city).*

Malagasy Meat Stall

Malagasy Street Butcher

There are three main grocery stores in the capital city Tana and they each carry certain products/brands exclusively.  To complete the weekly grocery trip means a trip to all three stores (luckily they are all on the same oft-congested Rue Hydro Carbon).  

Jumbo Score (Madagascar's WalMart--operated under the French-owned Casino Group)

Shop Rite (South African owned): this is the only supermarket that is open on Sunday afternoons until 3PM.  It's at 'the mall'--a three story building with a little food court--to include one ice cream shop that sells $12 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in 2-3 flavors.  

Leader Price (operated under the French-owned Casino Group)

We actually didn't eat any beef for the first few weeks after we moved here because it was such a bewildering experience to walk into a grocery store and see nothing that you can recognize.  As you can see from the photos below very little behind the counter resembles anything you'd see in the U.S. 

Luckily, there's a wealth of Americans living in Paris that have blogged about their own (mis) adventures in meat. 

From a post at the excellent blog Posted in Paris:
"Here are a couple of short cut definitions.  If you are looking for a New York strip, choose a faux filet or Coeur d’Aloyau   For rib-eye, try an entrecote.   For sirloin, a rumsteak will generally do the trick.  If you are making beef stew, look for paleron, macreuse, gite, or jumeau.

Of course, the beef you see in these pictures comes from grass-fed Zebu (pronounced zay-boo) vice the corn-fed cows we are used to in the States.  This translates to a LOT less marbling and a slightly gamier taste.  That said, we have found some delicious cuts--and because it's all cut on site you can have the butcher/clerk behind the counter cut your t-bone (ish equivalent: cote a griller) as thick as you would like.  We recently grilled up some nice 2-3 inch cuts that were delicious (and they cost about 75% less than in the states).

The Cote Barbeque is their equivalent of prime rib (in the second picture above) and is tender and very tasty when roasted--plus you can buy the whole 'rack' in that picture for about $12.  

The filet de boeuf is excellent cut up into small chunks or strips, marinated for a few hours in brown sugar, vermouth, garlic, and soy sauce and then wokked quickly over high heat.

We will try to post some pictures of the 'finished products' in the future!

Bon Appetit!

 

*For my friends in the states, Vazaha (pronounced like Fahza) is what the locals call white foreigners here--not derogatory unless they call you 'Vazaha bey' which means 'way too vazaha'

LINKS:

http://brunetteabicyclette.com/2011/12/04/buying-meat-in-france-le-lapin/

http://brunetteabicyclette.com/2012/03/14/buying-meat-in-france-le-porc/

http://brunetteabicyclette.com/2011/11/17/buying-meat-in-france-le-poulet/
http://clippings.ilri.org/2013/03/23/on-the-artisanal-nature-of-butchery-or-more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-natural-history-of-cuts-of-beef/
http://dabrownstein.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/how-do-you-map-your-meat/
http://www.ediblegeography.com/secret-meat/
http://postedinparis.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/making-sense-of-the-supermarket-part-v-cuts-of-meat/

Chez Lorenzo Review--More than Pizza

Chez Lorenzo Review

Update 1MAR15: Pretty sure the owners have switched again--no update yet on who they are.

My darling wife and I took our deux petite anges to Chez Lorenzo to celebrate the new year.  It has spacious outdoor seating in the grassy courtyard that makes it a perfect spot to take your little tater tots.

Perhaps we are getting more lacksadaisical as we grow accustomed to 'island life' but our favorite places in Tana tend to be those with space for our two girls to run around (in the States, we had embraced a more draconian dining approach--remanding our babes to their booster seats with the vehemance of a third world dictator).

Their current favorite activity involves taking everything out of their mother's purse or diaper bag and strewing across the ground and then walking away disinterested--UNLESS they find a tide or clorox bleach pen--in which they case they MUST be allowed to chew and suck on the cap of said pen at risk of a colossal meltdown (see evidence below).

How could you deprive me of my inalienable right to chew on a Clorox Bleach pen?!

The menu here is much more than pizza (although this seems to be what they are known for--their website has an entire page devoted to the process of building an outdoor pizza oven--evidently they have someone you can hire to have one built at your home).  It runs the gambit from escargot to calamari to chicken, zebu (biensur) and pasta dishes--all with an italian-ish flair.

The food was great but there was some confusion with our order--we thought we were ordering a margherita pizza but it emerged with olives--I suspect, however, this may have been due to my own deficiencies in french rather than those of our server.  I also had a rotisserie chicken with roasted potatoes and sautéed green beans--a marvelous combination prepared perfectly.

Other than that the service was good--we were never quite sure who our server was though--one of the owners walked around and checked on us frequently but there were two other people whom we were unsure of their role.  We asked one of them for another bottle of water at one point and he never brought it. These are minor things--you can come here and expect quick and efficient service--better than you will get in Paris.

The original owners recently passed on the management of the restaurant (to another French couple je crois). These original owners evidently also started (and maybe still run) the pizza au stade place (link forthcoming)--this is a little strange because I found the pizza to be much better at chez Lorenzo.

BONUS: 

*They do takeout for everything on the menu (except for the escargot--dommage?).  For our friends in the States, alot of places here do NOT do takeout.  And some will do takeout if you bring your own tupperware for them to put the food in.

*Here's a link to their menu.

RFP (room for improvement): like most restaurants here in Madagascar their lists of wine by the glass is lackluster and barely there. 

Close Up Map

 


Address (whatever that means here):
 Lot II M35 N Androhibe
101 Antananarivo
Phone: 20 22 427 76
Takes Credit Cards: Not sure
Delivery: No.
Take Out:  YES
Parking Lot:  Yes.
Parking Attendant: No.
Outdoor Seating: Yes, ample shade.
High Chairs:  No.
Clean Bathrooms: Yes. But unisex and small. 
Languages: French and Malagasy with some English Translation on the Menu.
Email:  lorenzo@moov.mg/lorenzoguesthouse@yahoo.fr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chez-Lorenzo-Antananarivo/124082740958204
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lorenzoguesthouse/