BOMB.CO.UK: Chai 33

"In Paris they don't drink water. They drink wine."

As per usual with my travel experiences, they tend to revolve around nothing other than food. Okay maybe not NOTHING - but food definitely can make or break a day in the life.

For example, the place we ate for our first night in Paris.

Our cousins who live in France are friends with the owners of this super hip, trendy, and amazing restaurant located in Barcy, which is an area that used to be a centuries-old wine market, but was then renovated into restaurant and retail space. It's called Chai 33.

If you're anything like me, you're wondering why a famous wine restaurant has a name that means "tea"... a chai (pronounced shay as in "shake") is a place where you keep barrels of wine.

Of course, first thing's first - when we arrived my dad and I were immediately given a tour of their ridiculous wine cellar.

The cellar was underground, and was no joke built over two centuries ago. With the original stone walling still completely intact, and the restaurant sitting above the cellars. This restaurant carried over 3,000 different LABELS of wine (labels, not bottles), and when I asked how many bottles they stored, all I got in response was a laugh.

With so many different wines to choose from, they obviously couldn't have a simple wine list at every table. Instead, each restaurant guest gets to go to the cellar tasting rooms to personally look around and select their bottle. To help out those of us who are not totally wine savy, Chai 33 even had their most famous bottles organized into categories such as...

Fruity and intense. Just like me? Meh.

Also - each general category of wine (red, white, rose, champagne) had their own completely separate rooms in the cellar. That way, depending on what kind of wine you're in the mood for, you can easily walk into whichever cellar and get a taste of your options.

I let faj do the picking of the wines, and moved on to other important matters, such as food choice.

Without going into too much detail, the most heavenly thing I put in my mouth all night was our main course chosen by Lana. Beef Confit. AHHH.

Beef confit is beef that has been soaked and cooked in its own fat, helping to make the meat super moist and delicious. Usually you will find duck or goose confit, but trust me - the beef was to die for.