Dec 25
This critter was seen in a store in one of the passages in Paris last week. For some reason, Paris has several shops that specialize in taxidermy. One of these shops is on the chichi Boulevard de Saint-Germain.
A wolf-raptor cross???
I may not have made it to veterinary school, but I think this animal is along the lines of the jackalope.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/25/bad-taxidermy/
Dec 23
I was looking at the cookbook shelves this morning and thought about what I’d deem as the seminal cookbooks of each decade. Each choice had to sum up the food zeitgeist. Some decades were easier than others. Discussion is welcome.
1950’s: The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. My mother’s copy of this cookbook is in tatters, she used it so much. I think my sister has it now. I bought a facsimile copy about 20 years ago. The recipes bridge the frugality of the Depression and World War II with the prosperity of the postwar era.
1960’s: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle. This was an easy choice, even though I didn’t get a copy of it until many years later. (I was a child then, what do you expect?) This book shook America from its convenience food torpor and toward a higher plane of cooking.
1970’s: This decade wound up in a tie between Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappé, and The Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas. Lappé laid down the philosophical basis for eating less meat, while Thomas made going vegetarian palatable. Many of my college friends have both of these books to this day. Honorable mention goes to The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen, because of my time in Ithaca; however, I preferred the long-defunct Cabbagetown Café and its cookbooks by Julie Jordan.
1980’s: The Silver Palate Cookbook, by Sheila Lukens and Julee Rosso. Break out the power suits with shoulder pads and whip up some chicken Marbella. (Confession: I never made chicken Marbella until about 10 years ago.) Raspberry vinegar, a 1980’s ingredient if there ever was one, also figures prominently in the recipes.
1990’s: Taste, by David Rosengarten. This probably seems like an obscure choice to some, but hear me out. Rosengarten was one of the first Food Network celebrities who published a companion book to his show. He predated Emeril, Alton, Paula, Mario, etc. His recipe for Cuban black beans is one of our favorites.
2000’s: This was the most difficult decade for me to pin down. I went with three books. My personal favorite is Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table, by Mai Pham. I bought this book solely for the bun bo Hue recipe, but the other recipes we’ve tried make it a go-to volume. The other two are The Gourmet Cookbook and The Gourmet Today Cookbook, both edited by Ruth Reichl. As some of you will recall, Reichl turned Gourmet magazine from fusty and formal to a more accessible periodical for the times. The Gourmet Today Cookbook had the misfortune of being published just as Condé Nast decided to kill off the magazine.
2010’s: I realize we still have two years left in this decade, but I nominate Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi. This is the only book on the list I don’t have (yet), but I do have Jerusalem, by Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. Ottolenghi’s books make the Mediterranean diet more exciting than just olive oil, hummus, and pita bread.
As I said, this is just one woman’s opinion. Feel free to chime in with your choices.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/23/quintessential-cookbooks/
Dec 23
As always, travel gives us a chance to try new things and see new places. As with last year’s vacation, we also learn new lessons.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/23/lessons-learned-on-this-vacation/
Dec 19
This is a guest post from Julian.
Here in Paris, women generally choose modest but stylish outfits for their appearances in public. Black is the preferred color, although pastels and earth-tones are acceptable. Bright splashes are reserved for accessories. But when it’s time to party down, they may choose bizarre and outrageous creations with sequins, beads, leathers, feathers, and colored furs that did not originate from any naturally occurring species.
Emulate the locals, if you want to blend in. You will be immediately pegged as an American tourist if you are sporting tee-shirts and shorts (even in summer). The pickpockets and scammers will be looking for you.
Here is Cindy’s ensemble for a trip to the neighborhood pâtisserie. A silk scarf sets off her pink cashmere sweater (just purchased from Galeries Lafayette). She chose black slacks, and a utilitarian mercury-hued coat. A pair of cute shoes from Joseph Seibel completes the look. The residents of this fashion-conscious city will certainly respect Cindy’s style sense, even as they probably recognize her as an American trying to look like a Parisienne.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/19/dressing-for-paris/
Dec 19
The bistro (sometimes spelled bistrot) is a standard French restaurant term. According to Wikipedia (article in French), the bistro occupies a space in the restaurant hierarchy between brasserie and fine-dining restaurant in terms of food and price point. As you’ll see below, those definitions are quite fluid. The origin of the word may be Russian, as bistro is Russian for fast. [Julian’s wiseacre question: “Does that mean that Burger King is a bistro?”]
From what we’ve seen over the years, the bistro category is all-encompassing. It can be a basic beer and coffee bar with whatever can be cobbled together for food; alternately, a bistro can be very close to haute cuisine. Some bistros are neighborhood joints, others cater to a wider clientele. As with bistros, the customers vary from average folk to tourists to business tycoons.
Last night we had dinner at Le Grand Bistro, about a 20-minute walk from our apartment. (Many restaurants are closed on Mondays, as they are in the US.) Le Grand Bistro occupies the close to haute end of the bistro spectrum in ambiance and food. We each ordered the 44 Euro menu, which came with complimentary cocktails (Kir or Bellini) and a bottle of house wine to share. For entrée (appetizer), Julian had oysters and I had a mushroom soup with a scallop garnish. Main dishes for us were duck and lamb. Julian got a cheesecake for dessert, while I got “Chocolat, Mon Amour” – a molten chocolate cake with a small scoop of ice cream. We both left very full and more than a little inebriated.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/19/bistro-mode/
Dec 18
Julian observed that our travels follow a predictable pattern. We (actually he) are obsessive-compulsive about plane and accommodation reservations. Witness that, for this trip, he had all of these in place by early March. But once we get to our destinations, we tend to wander about, often without premeditated objectives. In old European cities and villages, serendipity often reveals wonderful discoveries.
Paris is a good city in which to wander. Yesterday we did have a bit of a plan: we went exploring passages. These are arcades within ancient buildings, populated with shops to keep customers and the products out of the rain. Some of them have elegant architectural details. Passages can be seen as the precursors to modern shopping malls. Many of the stores were closed on Sunday, but others were open due to the upcoming Christmas holiday. Two days in a row we managed to wind up in the neighborhood where we stayed two years ago. When we last visited, Forum Les Halles wasn’t much more than a hole in the ground. Now it contains lots of stores, and has a small ice rink for the season. The obelisk in honor of Napoleon on Place Vendôme was undercover last time, but has since been restored. I didn’t notice any reference to the disastrous invasion of Russia or to his defeat at Waterloo on the monument – I wonder why.
Julian and I have distinct differences in how we wander. He relies on cell phone map apps, which may or may not point you in the right direction. If it’s somewhere we’ve been before, I’m more focused on streets and landmarks – restaurants, churches, and stores. I also do a bit of dead reckoning. Somehow, between the two of us, we manage to find our way back to the rental apartment.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/18/wandering-in-paris/
Dec 17
The average American will notice significant differences in restaurants in France (and Europe in general) compared to home. Here are a few:
Here are a couple recommendations to keep you in good stead with French restaurant staff:
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/17/restaurants-in-the-us-versus-france/
Dec 17
The last time we were in Paris was May 2015, before the mass shootings at the Balacan nightclub and at cafés in the city. It was also before the Bastille Day truck assault in Nice and the attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016. As a result, security is heightened throughout France. We’ve seen multiple layers of security in all of the cities on our trip this year, from private security officers to local police to soldiers armed with assault weapons. While this development may offer a visual veneer of safety to residents and visitors, I wonder if it’s a “fighting the last war” phenomenon. These strategies may force committed terrorists into using other tactics. For example, the barricading of sidewalks and bike trails against vehicles after Nice and New York didn’t prevent the attempted subway suicide bomber near Times Square earlier this month.
Yesterday we walked over to the Eiffel Tower. The grounds were a soggy mess. It looked as if a Christmas market was being constructed. I assumed one would be up and running by now. The Tower itself was ringed by security fences to the point that pedestrians had limited access to the streets and bridge to the north. (Julian took a shot of the top of the tower from a nearby neighborhood, but the whole Tower was not photogenic because of the fencing.) The ubiquitous selfie stick and souvenir sales people were confined to narrow strips of sidewalk, so you risked stepping on their goods as you walked past. If this is what the new reality is at low season, the summer crowds must exacerbate the mess several fold.
The Eiffel Tower in 2015.
While I am grateful for some of the enhanced security measures, there is a delicate balance between abundance of caution and abridgment of access. The Eiffel Tower is an engineering marvel. On previous trips I loved to walk under the Tower and gaze up through the metal latticework. Unfortunately, the current climate has eliminated that view for me and many others.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/17/a-sad-reality/
Dec 16
This was in a window of the French department store Le Printemps.
The Cult of Cute Shoes were tucked snug in their beds,
While visions of stilettos danced in their heads.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/16/moment-of-zen-for-the-cult-of-cute-shoes/
Dec 15
So you think that, after long days of work at le bureau, Maman (or Papa) cooks up three-course meals for the family every night? Au contraire, mes amis! Maman heads to le traiteur or le supermarché to get fixings for dinner, just like Americans do.
Traiteurs are fixtures in Paris neighborhoods. You can purchase a main dish and sides for less than a restaurant meal. The food is high quality and very tasty. Although fast food is making inroads, the traiteurs seem to be more popular with the French. Some French supermarkets are trying to muscle in on the takeout meals, as in the US. Depending on the supermarket, the offerings can be as good as the traiteurs.
When we’ve rented apartments in Paris, we’ve made use of traiteurs. It keeps us from buying too many ingredients that we’d have to throw out at the end of our stay. We had excellent Greek and Middle Eastern traiteurs near our apartments on earlier trips. Tonight we got a rabbit stew with carrots and prunes and roasted potatoes. I picked up a fennel bulb and pan-roasted it before I microwaved the rabbit and potatoes. We were impressed.
Traiteurs in France offer locals and tourists alike good food at a reasonable price. They’re worth checking out if you ever visit a French city.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2017/12/15/the-little-secret-of-french-cuisine/
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