Je t'aime, mon Café Rolle

Sometimes you just want to be able to be in a completely different setting or place than the one you are in, for a short period. I know that I wake up many mornings and say, “I want to go to Timbuktu!” (Side note: If this city gained one penny for every time it was mentioned in a random reference, it would’ve been led by a Sheikh), or “I want to be in Madagascar”.

This particular day I woke up feeling a little classy and raised my eyebrow to “I need to go to Paris”. I’ve always had a dramatic vision of the city and loved the idea of it in my head, but unfortunately never had the chance to actually go visit; maybe on my honeymoon – eligible bachelor, wherever you are, are you listening? Hello?

Anyhow, the weather was so lovely that evening, and we decided to head out to Sacramento for a good meal. Through her research, my sister had found a small French café that was mentioned in Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S, located in East Sacramento.

We arrived at Café Rolle without any difficulties and noticed that it was, indeed, quite a small yet, cozy café.  As you walk in, there’s the sweetest chorus of “Bonjour!” and you are led to your table.

The café is decorated with bright walls that are covered with frames, pictures and paintings. I absolutely enjoyed the open kitchen with an open window, where the chef flashes an adorable smile every so often! 

Click here to get a feel of the restaurant.

Chef William Rolle sneaking me a smile! :D

This restaurant is owned by Chef William Rolle who is there to bring his family recipes that date back to his father in Lyon, France, right to our palates. You can feel the homeliness in the friendly, family-oriented atmosphere.

This restaurant actually featured in Diner’s, Dine-ins & Dives with Guy Fieri. Click here to see (05:36 onwards).

Some of Chef William Rolle’s recipes can be found at foodnetwork.com too.

Coming back, this ‘sandwicherie’ has a super to-the-point menu that consists of small plates, salads and sandwiches! A crazy sandwich galore indeed!

Our server came to brief us up with the bestsellers and honestly, between us, I think his voice was one of the hot sellers! He goes by the name of Nico Chandler, very assistive and friendly and oh God when he spoke, my sister had to ask him if he sang!! Turns out he was a singer, an opera singer if I’m not mistaken. Really appreciated his highly ambitious attitude towards life.

Anyway, for starters we ordered their Chilled Salmon served with fresh dill and crème fraiche, Chilled Foie Gras, and Chicken Breast Pate Plate.

As told to us by Nico, their salmon was voted best in Sacramento since 13 years! I’m not a salmon eater, at all, and I’ve declared myself as psychologically allergic to it but this fresh slab of fish did NOT get me gagging! Really flavorful and definitely the best-looking salmon I’ve ever seen. Also, it’s the chef’s special family recipe and we all know that everything world-class is always found in a home kitchen!
I like pates. They’re tricky to get right, and clearly Café Rolle figured the trick out. I loved it here.

Left: Chicken Breast Pate Right: Chilled Salmon with creme faiche

It was my first time having Foie Gras, and am certainly glad I spent the special moment here. If I were to not get into its technicalities, it was really just a God-sent piece from heaven that had the ability to melt in your mouth and tear your eyes up out of sheer gratitude for the man who created it. Basically.

Chilled Foie Gras

These were just starters, by the way, the “small plates”. Our main course consisted of Croque Lamb Monsieur, Hot Prawns Sandwich, and the Croque Chicken Monsieur.

After the arrival of my Hot Prawns Sandwich, Chef William Rolle himself brought the other two sandwiches and with his sweet, contagious smile prompted us to “bon appetit”.

Croque Lamb Monsieur takes meat sandwiches to a whole different level. It’s not your average “roast lamb” sort of sandwich. You can taste the high quality meat with its fresh, moist taste surrounded with a generous touch of fat – remarkable!

The dressing on their Spring Mixed Salad served on the side was fantastic, by the way! They seem to nail everything.

Croque Lamb Monsieur

The Croque Chicken Monsieur was investigated thoroughly by each of us because there was no way a chicken breast fillet could be that moist and tender. But what can we say? It was just that beautifully cooked! There’s a hint of pesto that tickles the taste buds and definitely makes you pray for the sandwich to not end. Ever. (Chicken sandwiches aren’t something I usually crave since they’re always available everywhere in clichéd forms but this – I, damn well, crave right now!)

Croque Chicken Monsieur

Saved this one for the last because HOLY COW IT RAISED MY SANDWICH STANDARD TO A COMPLETELY UNREACHABLE LEVEL!

The Hot Prawns Sandwich is like nothing I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’ve forgotten to mention that their breads are absolutely fantastic and the temperature that they serve their hot sandwiches at is solely perfection.

Every devoured bite experiences layers of flavors.

You chew into a hot quality bread, feel a piece of a perfectly cooked tiger prawn make its way through followed by oozing Gruyere cheese, and this entire episode of a bite is constantly splashed with flavors of pesto that does not overpower any other flavor. If that doesn’t sound good, what in the world does? Totally worth the long, descriptive sentence.

I could go on about this sandwich but I suggest you head to Café Rolle to discover the feeling.

Hot Prawns Sandwich

We concluded the meal with the best Toffee Crème Brulee, rather one of the best Crème Brulee’s I have ever had. This one you can judge for yourself below!

Toffee Creme Brulee

I hope this video loads for you. If not, CLICK HERE to get to my instagram account

(Psst, if you listen close enough you will hear Nico's voice saying "you're welcome" right at the end... sigh)

After a beautiful meal, I had no other option but to go compliment the chef through his adorable window and ask for his name to remember this experience forever.

To my pleasant surprise, this friendly chef not only gave me a virtual autograph on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but also allowed me to come into the kitchen and take a picture with the Café Rolle crew, AND I got to have a selfie with him too!!!!

Team Cafe Rolle 

Selfie with Chef William Rolle <3 <3

The day & age of virtual signatures!

Thank you Mr. William Rolle, for one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and for being one of the most humble chefs ever!

Houston Diairies : Down House - The memorable restaurant!

Between my last blog and this, I’ve had a roller coaster of life-changing events. I’m not whom I started out to write as, which is a good thing because now I can be adventurous and dramatic like the way I had wanted to be.

Let’s just say, “it’s not that my standards are too high, it’s just that my father has set an amazing example for how a man should treat me”.

Fast-forwarding the mind boggling fiasco, my aunt and elder brother called me straight down to Texas for some change of air! The landing announcement to Houston after 14-something hours was as soothing as hugging my mom after four months, but I’m not going to lie – Qatar Airways made my journey absolutely wonderful!

Besides the limitless pampering by the entire family, I was treated to the finest of restaurants and cuisines. Grateful for being a part of a line of food-lovers, and I’m even luckier to have a chef brother!

On my second night in town, we decided to have dinner at Down House, a restaurant that my brother works in as a line cook. I obviously chose the day he was on duty, so I could take the customer advantage of sending sarcastic compliments to my darling chef. Hah!

Situated on Yale Street, Houston, Down House has a very casual and comfortable feel to it. We walked into a softly lit pub decorated with vintage, yet classy furniture and were greeted by an extremely welcoming staff member. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we chose to sit outside.

The menus were already placed on the table, which our friendly server skimmed through with us. While we contemplated over what to order, I requested the server to inform “Chef Fahd” inside, of my arrival. Everything in the restaurant’s concise menu sounded particularly simple and appetizing and it actually became hard to choose!

 For starters, we ordered the Mushroom on Toast and Lettuce Wraps.

I bit into the Mushroom on Toast with a burst of flavors filling my mouth from goat cheese to egg to the salty kick of soy sauce. What a well-blended display of mushrooms, I tell you. I don’t know if we were exceptionally hungry or what it was, because we gobbled down the generous serving within the first two minutes.

Mushroom on Toast

The lettuce wraps were DIY that were served with lettuce, grilled chicken, fried onions, cilantro and a Down House made sweet chili sauce. I smiled when the lettuce wraps came to our table because the first thing that caught my eye were the fried onions. Used in almost all Eastern dishes, freshly fried onions aka “tali hui pyaz” is a daily feature in every Pakistani home kitchen. I successfully assembled a non-breaking wrap for myself and thoroughly enjoyed the different flavors that were enclosed in a crisp leaf of lettuce.

Lettuce Wrap

 Majority of the reviews about Down House raved about the Kimchi Burger, which is exactly what my uncle and I decided to order for ourselves.

I’ve often pondered over what I would do if I ever reached a point where I would have to choose between burgers or a life partner. This Kimchi Burger has given me my answer. A burger topped with an egg is already a treat; now imagine world-class kimchi layered between that and the melted slice of cheese. Boy, that was one heck of a party in my mouth I tell you. Every ingredient found its way to tickle my palette and the perfectly cooked patty made this brilliantly executed dish simply marvelous! Full points!

Kimchi Burger

 My sister-in-law, the chef’s other half, ordered the Bistro Steak which came with a complementing sauce of Cilantro Raita! Hurray, more eastern variety!

Raita, FYI:

 I absolutely loved this fusion surprise. Typically, the idea of steak is very sophisticated and is normally served with peppercorn or mushroom sauce, but this cilantro raita made it minty cool and totally fantastic to the tongue! Also, the medium steak was cooked perfectly.

Bistro Steak

My aunt went for the Chicken Fried Portobello. Sometimes you really don’t need meat, interestingly cooked vegetables can be just as tasteful and filling. Non-greasy, fresh, hot, crisp and delicious batter, with creamy and melt-in-the-mouth mashed potatoes on the side. Great choice.

Chicken Fried Portobello

Everything was served in pretty decent portions and I was so stuffed that I was expecting to see Homer Simpson opposite me if I stood in front of the mirror.

But what a meal it was, enjoyed every bit of it. I even sat there and expressed my dream to live in Houston so I could out here and hang out every single day! I get overexcited about things, okay?

Bummed that my brother was too busy in the kitchen and couldn’t come out to even say hello, I declined the dessert offer. Whad’ya know, the door opened and my sweetheart of a brother walked out with a plate of a beautiful brownie dessert topped with a candle. An early birthday surprise!!!!! Eek, I was shrieking like a little girl when everyone sang to me including Chef Fahd – I felt so special. I could tell he was a fidgeting to get back inside to work but there was no way I would let the chef get away without a selfie!

Chef Fahd - My bro <3

We devoured in the moist and unbelievably tasty, and hot brownie. So glad we got to have a dessert, I would have definitely missed out on it! Perfect way to conclude our meals.

Super sweet servers wished me a very happy birthday and we headed out home. Down House has to be one of my favorite restaurant experiences. Great food, wonderful ambience, efficient service and ofcourse awesome chefs ;)

Here’s a secret note that I asked to be delivered to Chef Fahd:

Thank you, God for all the amazing food and reminding me that love is all around me!

PS: Instagram @hangrywords