La Petite Alsace

I arrived in the city of Strasbourg earlier than expected, and I managed to find Petite France – Strasbourg’s most famous attraction, by accident. I took some time to take photos here because the medieval buildings were so attractive. There is a whole quarter of these buildings here in Petite France which makes it a pleasure to walk around in. By this time, it was almost lunch time and I thought that I should have lunch first before going off to the apartment where I will be staying at. Fortunately, Petite France doesn’t have a shortage of places to eat at.

There are a number of signs here indicating that they are restaurants and I ended up choosing La Petite Alsace. I have to be honest that I had second thoughts when I entered the place because the staff was all Indian staff. I was thinking that the quality of the food might not be that good since the cook won’t be French. It was too late to back out just as I entered the place. The staff speaks a little English, they actually speak more French to my surprise again. That shows how I should not make any assumptions about people. I got a set meal which is basically a sample of what this region, Alsace, has to offer.

My first dish is something called Flammekueche or Tarte Flambee. It looks very similar to pizza, except that it is different. The flammekueche is a very thin piece of dough with toppings on it. It reminds me a lot of thin crust pizza, except it is even thinner. I like these kinds of pizza or flammekueche because you get to eat the toppings instead of just eating bread. Basic flammekueche is cream cheese with onions and maybe bacon. As usual, there are a million variations on this but I think this is the most basic one, and the one I had. I loved it and I wish that I could have more but there is still the next dish.

My next dish is choucroute. Just reading out the word already gives you and idea of what it is – sauerkraut. There are several meats put in together with the sauerkraut. The result is a surprisingly heavy meal made of sausages and other meats, usually pork. The sauerkraut is perfect to keep you from getting sick of all that meat. I ended up feeling full from eating just the choucroute. It is certainly very heavy. I then realized that there is still one more dish but this one is dessert.

I do not know the name of the dessert I had. I do not know if it is a local dessert but I thought it was good. I think it was great to get away from that meatfest I just had. Looking around, I didn’t notice it first, but now the restaurant is already full. It seems that I got here just in time. I can’t tell if the people here are all tourists but it seems that they have quite a lot of customers. I overheard someone saying “it was good that they kept him”. I assumed that they meant the last chef. The current owners who just happened to be Indian descent, probably acquired the restaurant from someone else and just retained the chef. It was a good move. I totally forgot about my reservations about this place since I was quite happy with my meal. Now, it was my first Alsatian meal so I do not know if it is actually good by Alsatian standards but I was happy enough. The price was also quite good as it let me get a sample of what Alsatian food tastes like.

La Petite Alsace
23 Rue du Bain aux Plantes
67000 Strasbourg
+33 38822 0405

http://restaurant-alsacien-strasbourg.fr

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