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Posts from the ‘Food’ Category

Nov 3

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No. 36: Salon du Chocolat Encore

“Chocolate doesn’t make the world go ’round, but it sure does make the trip worthwhile!”

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The theme of this year’s Salon du Chocolat was enchantment, the question asked, “Why is chocolate so magical?” The event itself was certainly enchanting, delicious, and completely over the top. If you are passionate about chocolate, and I am, this is the not-to-be-missed event of the season.

The annual salon brings together an amazing collection of chocolatiers, pastry chefs, cocoa experts and confectioners. This year, over 180 French and international chocolate makers filled the grand exhibition space (20,000 sqm) at Port de Versailles representing (and providing tastings of!) some of the biggest names and the highest quality chocolate products from around the world. Another 350+ participants provided samplings of bonbons, cakes, ice cream, crepes and sugarcoated delights.

I met my girlfriend Em first thing in the morning and spent nearly 8 hours nageant dans le chocolat. It was fabulous. Imagine a whole day bathed in a space completely dedicated to chocolate and sweet treats. The first floor, the Tendance Confiserie was dedicated entirely to fantastical sugary confections, new trends in confection and included a space devoted to les enfants offering little ones the chance to make and decorate les bonbons. For me the space was more eye-candy than mouth-candy. It was a photographer’s dream a fairy-tale land of colorful sweeties and fun.

The second floor on the other hand was for the serious chocolate connoisseur. This is where the big guns come to play and show off their newest creations. Just like the fashion industry the superstars have the chance to roll out their new fall line and share their established winners. And there were a lot of winners…and things got a little carried away! Never has the saying “so much chocolate, so little time” been more accurate.

Moderation, schmoderation…by the end of the day, we were completely chocolated-out, but completely and contentedly under the spell of the magic of chocolate.

“Oh, divine chocolate!

They grind thee kneeling,

Beat thee with hands praying,

And drink thee with eyes to heaven.”

― Marco Antonio Orellana

Vocabulaire:

les enfants: the children

nageant dans le chocolat: swimming in the chocolate

Nov 3

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No. 35: French Idioms: Fruits et Legumes

Steve Martin, Good Cop, Bad Cop, The Pink Panther, 2006

Steve Martin, Good Cop, Bad Cop, The Pink Panther, 2006

“Bizu: And now he’s pushing up the daisies.

Inspector Jacques Clouseau: He is not ‘pushing up the daisies,’ he is DEAD!

Bizu: (glares) It’s an idiom!

Inspector Jacques Clouseau: You, sir, are the idiom.”

Steve Martin and William Abadie, The Pink Panther, 2006

I’ve just started an intensive French course, so don’t be surprised if November’s post are a bit heavy on new vocabulary and sayings. Today our class spent the afternoon learning about French idioms, particularly those with references to food. Et bien sûr, le French adore eating and cooking so it only makes sense that their language is flavored with the stuff meals are made of…

…here are some of my favorites:

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J’ai la pêche! I feel great! (I have the peach; I’m peachy)

Couper la poire en deux: to meet someone halfway; (to cut the pear in two)

Sucrer les fraises: to be a bit nutty; (to sugar the strawberries)

Se prendre une prune: to take a punch/hit, or get a speeding ticket; (to take a plum—perhaps the purple skin resembles a bruise?)

Tomber dans les pommes: to faint/pass out; (to fall in the apples)

Avoir la banana: to have a big smile; (to have the banana)

Etre la bonne poire: to be easily tricked/duped, to be too trusting (to be a good pear- ripe for the picking)

Avoir un coeur d’artichaud: to be tender-hearted, to fall easily in love; (to have the heart of an artichoke)

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Appuyer sur le champignon: to drive very fast, speed, accelerate; (to press on the mushroom)

Raconter des salades: to tell lies or exaggerated stories; (to tell salads)

Ne plus avoir un radis: to have no money, to be broke; (to no longer have any radishes)

Les carottes sont cuites: it’s all over, nothing more can be done; (the carrots are cooked)

Mon petit chou: a term of endearment; (my little cabbage)

 

Nov 1

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No. 34: Salon du Chocolat

As we are running off for homemade Thai food tonight, I am leaving you with a few scrumptious pictures of how I spent the day….completely overwhelmed by chocolate! Stay tuned for the story tomorrow. Bonne dégustation!

Vocabulaire:

Bonne dégustation! Happy (good) tasting!

Nov 1

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No. 33: Last Minute Finds

IMG_4058It’s not always easy to find the missing ingredients from your homeland in France. Sometimes it can take weeks or months to track something down when you’re desperate for a piece of home.  But tonight was an exception to the rule. Cet automne, j’ai du pain sur la planche with so many different and exciting things, that I didn’t even remember until last night that today America is celebrating Halloween.

Halloween on the metro….
…zombies et un diable…BOO!

Most Frenchies don’t observe Halloween. It’s not part of their history. Toussaint, tomorrow, is their holiday, and a pretty serious one at that. So when ma fille cadette came home from rehearsal for her Sondheim showcase tonight, and announced, “No one even acknowledged that today was Halloween,” I felt a little pang of regret. Even though Button is halfway to 18, I know she misses the fun and high spirits of dressing up, trick-or-treating, and being a teen in America.

So because I’m a good maman, while she was showering and changing, I ran out with Taz, and thought I’d take a chance on finding some Halloween candy for her to share with the cast ce soir. Et, voilà au marché d’à côté, on the highest shelf, sat one lone box of miniature-sized American candy! Quelle chance! That never happens in Paris.IMG_8452

A burly Russian tourist stood on his tiptoes and knocked it from the shelf and into my grateful hands.

Alors, happy Halloween à tous!

Vocabulaire

 à tous: to all

au marché d’à côté: at the market next door

ce soir: this evening

Cet automne j’ai du pain sur la planche: This autumn, my plate is full, literally “the bread is on the board”

ma fille cadette: my younger daughter

marché d’à côté: market next door

Quelle chance! What luck!

Toussaint: All Saints’ Day

Oct 27

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No. 29: Autumn Colors in Provence

Oct 27

No. 28: Les petites villes provençales: Cassis

This sweet, low-key town in coastal Provence with soft-hued houses built at funky angles along the seashore is the perfect place to spend an uncrowded and uncharacteristically warm October day.  After a trip to the lively Friday market (filled with the French sweets made best in southern France: calissons, navettes, nougats, candied fruit and sugared almonds), we picnicked on a small-coved beach surrounded by dramatic walls of white limestone. The warm sun, gentle breeze and cooling sea mist were the perfect remedy for our grey-weathered Parisians souls.

Vocabulaire

les petites villes provençales: small Provençale towns

une navette: shuttle service, commute; also a Provençale cookie shaped like a rowboat and flavored with orange blossom, lemon, anise, almonds, chocolate chips and even lavender. For the recipe for these “sugar shuttles”, please click here.

Oct 25

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No. 26: Small(er) People

Initially I thought I’d call this post: Small People.

However, upon reflection, I have concluded that the French actually aren’t as small as they are rumored to be. Only a few short years ago the French were considered small compared to Americans, but now it appears that smaller is the more accurate adjective. The “e-r”, sadly, is a necessary addition.

That said, the Frenchies are still thinner than their American counterparts. Americans claims a 35 percent obesity rate, and this difference in girth is very obvious when you cross the ocean after being away for a long time.

I certainly don’t want to rail against overweight people, but I must admit, I am discouraged by the aspects of our culture that make it so easy to become overweight and complacent. It’s difficult to see so many big folks living large in America.

I recognize that I live in a bit of a bubble in Paris, but the number of extremely hefty people I have seen this past week in America has alarmed me. It’s a HUGE problem (in all senses of the word) for the USA, and it pains me to see that our bad habits and patterns are beginning to make their way to the other side of the Atlantic.

While the French can still claim the title of the slimmest people in Europe, a previously unfathomable 15 percent of France’s population are now obese and over 30 percent are considered overweight. And according to an article recently published in the Daily Telegraph “the most significant weight gains (are) among 18 to 24-year-olds, whose obesity levels have shot up by 35 percent in the past three years.”

French actor Gerard Depardieu Photo: REX FEATURES

French actor Gerard Depardieu Photo: REX FEATURES

I find those statistics staggering and disturbingly familiar. For a country that prides itself on eating small portions, fresh food, and family meals, the French-don’t-get-fat-myth doesn’t quite ring true anymore.

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