It didn't occur to me that France was known for oysters until a reader of t:e, who travels to France an awful lot, suggested that I visit Huîtrerie Régis, a tiny restaurant in the left bank, right off of Boulevard Saint-Germain.

We showed up for lunch, 15 minutes before they were open of course, as Americans do, and waited in the rain for the doors to open. Another couple was waiting as well. Between the 4 of us we took up a quarter of the restaurant. Yup, it's tiny. Did I mention it was raining in Paris? Every day?

I was looking forward to trying Belons, and some of the other premium oysters that you'll see on the short and sweet menu at Huitrerie Regis. From what I read in preparation for this meal, the price of oysters goes up (and the flavor profile changes) based on how crowded the oysters are and how long they spend in the cleansing pond. However, only a few were available that day, none of which were the most expensive, so I was SOL. This doesn't mean that this wasn't an exceptional meal. No it doesn't mean that at all. This turned out to be one of the if not the top oyster experiences of my life. And that's a life that has had many oyster experiences. It was also one of our favorite meals (probably top 1 or 2...Deux Fois Plus de Piment is a formidable competitor) during our trip.

There's only so much foie gras and duck confit and red wine that I can take, he said, not believing that he said it.

Really, though, after a few days of eating the largely rich flavors and round textures of food in France, our palate begged for a kick in the teeth. Something with edge. With bite.

While we did have a very good Chinese meal a few days prior to this lunch (at Impérial Choisy), we were hoping for some of the assertive flavors of Sichuan cooking. En route on foot to Chinatown (in the 13th), a quick on-the-fly google for "Sichuan in Paris" led me to the very helpful blog by David Lebovitz (I relied on this blog quite a bit, partly because its Google ranking is very high and thus it's always in the search results, and more importantly because it's an enjoyable and informational blog). Deux Fois Plus de Piment is not in Chinatown, so an about face was in order. I could barely contain my excitement at the prospect of something spicy.

A few weeks ago, I posted a throw-away Facebook post about some steaks at Fairway which, to my novice eye, looked pretty good at $18/lb. As often happens when I open my mouth, a long, convoluted debate emerged, primarily with my nemesis from the north, who I will call "Ant-nee." As if Ant-nee and his strong opinions weren't enough, the discussion took some additional turns with input from some other nice folks, visiting topics like editing Facebook posts, the source of Peter Luger's beef, and if these steaks were actually expensive. Adding to the mix was the recent Facebook change which causes comments to appear out of order for some reason.  Nobody knew what the hell anyone was saying.  Which was probably just as well.

Ant-nee, who no doubt has a lot of experience with eating and drinking and drinking and even husbandry, proclaimed that he would "pass" on these "ghetto ass steaks." There was only one thing to do, after arguing.  I mean two things to do:

1) not invite Ant-nee to dinner

2) cook these steaks to prove him wrong

tommy:eats reader and friend 'Curlz' has been telling me about the burger at Next Door for a few years. I finally got around to getting over to Next Door, which is Zod Arifai's more casual restaurant next to his appropriately- and much-ballyhooed Blu.