Taste of France at Franco's

Back from the Bahamas!  But first... recap of what happened before we left for the tropical islands!

After coming home from class one day, I received a text from Debra asking if I wanted to join her at Maggie Moo’s!  Maggie Moo’s is an ice cream shop, much like Coldstone or Ben and Jerry’s.  Up for a sweet treat, I hopped into Josh’s car and off we went!

Do you spot kid ice cream? :3

I chose cookies ‘n cream flavored ice cream, and it was soooo delish ^_^b  The line was never-ending, with parents taking their children into the shop.  The service people were extremely nice and happy :D  We ate our ice cream on a bench outside in the cold with the balloons tied to the sign attempting to bump into our faces until Debra asked if we wanted to finish up our treats inside.

So kyuuuuute!  ^__^

Maggie Moo’s ice cream was thick and delicious!  Josh and I both tried the pretzel-flavored ice cream, and it was definitely not our favorite.. eep~  But Debra was really happy with it!~

And now a journey to France~  ^^

I haven’t had French food very often, but we ate at Franco’s in Soulard!  Apparently, Soulard is a street in St. Louis known for its good eats and nice restaurants.  Book and Elaine chose Franco’s, a French restaurant, as our outing site for the gang.

Tonight, I dined with Elaine, Debra, Josh, Daniel, and Book.  After getting slightly lost and being late (blahhh!) for our reservation, we entered the restaurant and were shown a private room set for six.  Ahhh, so cool!

*feels super special*

The room was really simple, elegant, and sophisticated.  They included wine glasses for each of us, although only Elaine and Josh were old enough to drink ;)  We wowed at the menu for a while, attempting to pronounce French dish names.  After our super nice waitress took our orders, everyone whipped out their smart phones and began playing on this picture game app.

Free bread!  :3

I forgot what the game was called, but you draw a picture for a word you are given, and the other player must guess what you have drawn using letters that are given to them.  It’s similar to Yahoo Graffiti that I played with friends in middle school, but since it’s an app, it’s automatically 1000x cooler :P  Everyone was glued to their screens, while I thought of my Nokia un-smart phone in my purse.  Haha~  I actually really don’t want to upgrade to a smart phone when my family’s contract expires!  .. I’ll turn into another phone zombie!

So while they were busy doing that, I planned out our trip to the Bahamas!  It took several hours to look what activities were available, when they started, if there was transportation, expenses, and such, but tonight was a dinner meeting to finalize!  Elaine and Debra moved some things around, and it was set!  Time to enjoy the French menu!~ :)

French onion soup, nom nom nom!~

Elaine and Josh both ordered French onion soup.  I’ve seen Rachel Ray cook it on television maybe three times, but it looked so illegally delicious in real life.  YUMMEHHH!!  Perhaps I’ll order it in the future in some other restaurant!  Nothing like a bowl of steaming soup, hyu hyu hyu~  ;)  For those who know, I eat a *lot* of soup.

For an appetizer, Book got the foie gras, which is goose liver.  It was pretty exciting, because I have never seen the dish in real life, although I’ve read about it (and the concern it causes for animal lovers).  He gave me a nibble, and it tasted like pure fat to me.  Haha!  But he said it was so good and polished off the tiny piece.  It was maybe slightly larger than an Oreo cookie, but it was almost $20 for that little piece!

Book ordered a lamb dish as an entree, which tempted me to buy it because the menu stated that there were a lot of vegetables with that dish.  I peeked into the huge bowl, and there was indeed lots of veggies, but I was still happy with the dish I ordered:  steak!  Josh, Daniel, and I all got the steak.  It came with roasted brussel sprouts (first time having it at a restaurant!), fries, and sliced steak with some buttery garlic pesto sauce.  Nom nom nom!  My steak was medium rare, and it was delightfully tender!  <3

Josh's smiley face is hungry too ^^

Meanwhile, Debra had gnocchi!  I’ve had gnocchi at school, but hers looked more sophisticated.  I bet it was homemade.  On the side were broccoli rabe and this savory beet thing made with puff pastry.  Not exactly sure what it was, but Debra said it wasn’t that great.  Beets aren’t my favorite either :/

Blurry picture of Book's lamb

Debra's gnocchi~~

We all finished our dinners with zest, mostly playing with the picture game on the smartphones.  Afterwards, we sped back to campus, and they dropped me off for dance practice with a full belly.  Ahhh, so full!  But I was really happy that I got to eat with everyone at a new restaurant, so dancing until midnight that day was really fun ^^

Stay tuned for Bahamas updates ! ^^