Bon appétit ! Restaurant findings from my trip to Paris

I had the chance to get back to Paris last week and it was generally pretty fantastique. The premise of the trip was officially business (I attended a trade fair) but I then had three full days to profit from the city that I called home for three years.

I spent 75% of my time eating and drinking and the remainder walking along familiar streets and loving the sunny weekend. Seeing as I haven't had the time to bake for myself this week, I thought I'd write a little bit about what I enjoyed eating in la ville lumière. With a few exceptions, these are mainly old favourites from my uni days.

Sushiken
12 rue Ernest Renan, 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

If you happen to find yourself on the outskirts of the 15th arrondissement with a craving for sushi, I'd definitely recommend you come here. Sushiken prides itself on offering an authentic Japanese experience. I somewhat blindly ordered a tasting menu where the chef decided what fish I'd be trying.

As you can see above, the plate was certainly aesthetically pleasing. The sushi tasted great and was one of the best eating experiences I've had for a long time, but there was slightly too much wasabi for my taste.

Price: 14 sushi, salad, miso soup and beer came to 25€.

Double chocolate coffee cookies

This is a recipe I adapted from a basic cookie recipe. I wanted these to be the type of cookies that are super soft and melty. The coffee flavour is subtle and enhances the richness of the chocolate but not overpowering, so I think people who aren't coffee fans would still enjoy these.

Healthy orange drizzle bars

I came across this super simple recipe when browsing blogs to find something relatively healthy to bake. Usually when trying new recipes with ingredients I don't usually use they never come out as good as I was hoping, so I was really surprised at how well this recipe turned out. The ground almonds give the cake a great texture, and the chia seeds provide a bit more added nutrition (though if they're not something you usually have in the house I'm sure you could leave them out).

Mexican Monday: Vegetarian burritos

To mix up our weekly pub trips, Bella and I decided to make some veggie burritos last week. They are really easy to make and tasted great, if not that spicy... Have a go and let us know what you think!

Ingredients for 4 burritos:

Quorn mince (we used most of a small packet, so approx 200g)
400g kidney beans
Mushrooms
Guacamole
Salad
BBQ sauce
Cheese
250g rice
Your choice of spices - paprika, herbes de provence, chilli

The quantities are pretty much up to you, we had a LOT of cheese but maybe you'd prefer less. 

Chocolate chip banana bread

This is another of my go-to recipes. I made this a couple of weeks ago when we had a sprinkling of snow outside, and a couple of overly squishy bananas which needed using up.

Cheese and parsley scones

Having spent years preferring sweet to savoury, recently both Bella and I have developed stronger cravings for the latter. As a result I made these delicious cheese scones. They are probably not the best if you're trying to be healthy because they contain approximately a block of cheese, but they are really good.

Pro tip: use the strongest cheddar cheese you can afford, it makes the taste so much better.

Cheese and parsley scones - adapted from The Guardian