Sparkled Beauty

It's time for another Big Day Downtown series to showcase what Halifax waterfont and people have to offer. Recap of my posts last year to show you how much fun I had - the IncrEDIBLE Picnic, E-Pin AYCE Korean BBQ, and some Jan Iredale makeup. I guarantee they are fun to read :)

This year it's even more fun to start, since bloggers are paired up to do some exploring together. My partner, Lynn over at East Coast Travels, and I (and Squirt) headed out for a night out in the weekend.

This is the wall decoration at Bistro Le Coq, a cozy Parisian-style restaurant on Argyle Street, steps away from the waterfront. Can't say that I know much about French food other their bread, so I was excited to check out their menu, where dishes were listed in French with English explanation underneath. Gotta say it took me a little longer than usual to read through it lol.

Started out with an appetizer (Hors-D'oeuvre, words that I can never spell haha), we went with moules à la Normande et frites - steamed PEI mussels with white wine, leek cream and apple wood-smoked bacon, and duck fat fries on the side.

The portion was generous, the cream sauce was totally delicious (we polished it all off afterward), and the fries were plenty - a little fattier than regular fries for sure and heavier on the salt dusting too. The little cup held truffle-infused mayo, was a nice touch.

Warm freshly baked bread and (clarified) butter accompanied the appetizer nicely. We definitely indulged ourselves.

For entrees: Squirt picked the quiche lorraine - ham & cheese quiche, which I did not get a taste of cause she chowed down on it so quickly. Except for the arugula as she found it too bitter to taste. The picked carrot and turnip (I assumed) didn't appeal to her either.

I don't what quiche is normally served with, felt a little guilty that she leaf the greens on the plate untouched.

This is the steak sandwich (no fancy French name lol) that Lynn and I shared, with a bowl of soupe a l'oignon - French onion soup (not pictured).

The sandwich was packed with sliced beef and a fried egg on marble rye bread, with regular fries, truffled mayo and picked carrots. The onion soup was not bad, a little salty to my liking. Three of us couldn't finish the bowl. Again, my question was whether people have the onion soup with some bread or by itself.

Overall, Bistro Le Coq was a cool place to enjoy a French meal. The menus (food and drinks) were impressive, price point was quite right, and our server was lovely. I would prefer a little lighter touch on the salt, but that's just my taste.

We decided to walk around after the big meal, but defeated the purpose by indulging in some gelato for dessert :)

It was really chilly that night (around 3 degrees, 37F) but Nocturne (Art after Dark) made up for it. Lots of awesome art works were featured that night, with awesome lighting effects. There are even two special bus routes to take people along on the art routes.

We spotted this a humongous spider web at Victoria Park. According to the Guide, the piece is called Capture, by Gerald Beaulieu. It was made out of plastic strings, quite sturdy and sticky to touch :) For the size of it, we were just as small as spiders next to that web. I can't imagine the amount of time the artist spent on it. The three big spotlights behind the web did a great job in grabbing the audience's attention.

So we had a great time in town, even in the cold. Stay tuned for more fun things I do with Big Day Downtown!