Cooking Fun in France

On Thursday I got to enjoy a fun day of good food here in France. I met Janine Springall of l'Assiette de Paris (www.cookinparis.eu) during ASP's Living Skills Workshop - something the school puts on 2x a year to help people new to France and ASP. Janine does a great talk at the workshop about grocery shopping, food, etc. that really helps people get oriented to their new lives here in Paris. Things sure are different! She also teaches cooking classes at her home, and they can be really fun, informative and delicious.

I went with my friend Julie to Janine's house for a class based on fall flavors. There were 2 other women there - an Australian (who has lived in the US amongst many overseas assignments) and a South African. I always love meeting other people at Janine's classes from all over the world - we share good food, wine, and stories of times in France. The four of us sat at the horseshoe counter while Janine worked behind it - her classes aren't hands-on, but I really enjoy them partly for that reason. I'm a pretty decent cook on my own, and doing all the chopping and prep work are my least favorite part of cooking. I really enjoy sitting back, soaking up her expertise and getting answers to any questions we may ask. Janine's kitchen is quite amazing for France (where the kitchens are usually small), and we learned that she bought her kitchen first and then built her house around it. A woman after my own heart! I really loved each and every dish we made this day - it was one of my favorites so far.

Janine lives further out West in the country and the view is always beautiful on the long-ish drive to Janine's house.

Janine has all sorts of beautiful dishes and serving sets as she is also a caterer

Our first dish was a Root Vegetable Salad with Crème Fraiche Vinaigrette. I don't normally eat beets, but I actually enjoyed them in this dish!

Next was Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Dried Cranberries, Toasted Hazelnuts and Brown Butter Sage Sauce. I think this was definitely a favorite of everyone's, it was so flavorful. This would be a great Thanksgiving dish as it contains many of our traditional Thanksgiving foods in one dish.

This Chestnut-Apple Soup was very rich, smooth and again, full of flavor. I had leftovers for lunch today and it was just as good the second time around - though I missed the pumpkin seed garnish.

The main dish was Seared Duck Breast, Pumpkin Purée, and Fennel Crisps with Madeira Jus. I haven't eaten duck very often - I think only once in the US, but I've been trying to eat more since I moved here. France knows how to do duck well! Fennel is another thing I'm not super fond of, but these fried crisps were yummy.

To finish it all off we enjoyed a Pumpkin Bread Pudding. I was so full I thought I would just have a bite and take the rest home, but once I started I just couldn't stop until it was all gone.

Of course you aren't meant to serve all of these things at the same time if you were cooking dinner, but it gave a great view of all the different ways you can use winter/root veggies. These were all so good, I wouldn't hesitate to cook them again. And lots of the prep work can be done ahead of time, so it isn't too overwhelming in terms of effort.

The Louvre and BBQ

Last Saturday (May 5^th, 2012) we enjoyed a very fun and special day in Paris. My friend L had contacted a woman who arranges scavenger hunts at the Louvre (thatLOU.com) and asked if she could do one for a group of families. We all met at the museum, divided into teams of adults and kids (separating some family members to mix things up), were given maps of the museum, rules, and our package of items to find. Each item was worth a certain number of points, information/history about each piece of art was also given to educate, and sometimes teams could get extra points by doing something special (ie getting all 4 corners of a very large painting in the photo). We agreed on a finish time and place, and we were off. This was our first visit to the Louvre since moving to France (though we have been other times we’ve visited), and it was an interesting way to see it. Trying to find where the items were was challenging, as was keeping the kids interested. It was fun, though tiring racing around, looking for items and viewing amazing art on the way. I forgot how hot the Louvre always is! I probably saw different art than I would have on my own as I got to parts of the museum I may have never visited. It was a great experience and a lot of fun.

 Since we were in Paris, why not go to dinner? It was Cinco de Mayo and I had planned on dinner at Fajitas – a good Mexican restaurant in the 6e. But when we checked on adding more people, we soon realized there was not going to be room for all who wanted to join. So we went to a Texas BBQ joint instead where we proceeded to take over the entire restaurant. Luckily we were on the earlier side, so we weren’t inconveniencing any French people (they would arrive for dinner at the normal late hour after we had already left).

We all took the metro together from the museum to the restaurant. On the way we were treated to a metro station performance by an entire orchestra - they music was wonderful and the kids loved it!

 The restaurant is called Blues Bar-B-Q (www.bluesbarbq.fr) and is located in the 11e. We were happily surprised with the taste and quality of the food, and loved that there were pitchers of beer and even margaritas available. We squeezed in around all the tables and managed to squeeze (& I mean squeeze!) most of the adults (13 total) around a bunch of tables that we lined up, and left the kids (21 total) to the booths & other tables. The 5^th grade girls quickly decided they were too cool and went to sit outside at the sidewalk tables on their own. 5^th grade boys soon followed (separate table of course!). They didn’t seem to mind that it was raining out. The gal running the restaurant wisely brought the kids their food first, though we worried what would happen when they were done & we were still eating!

As the noise level grew louder in the restaurant (as more beer was consumed by the adults), more & more kids starting heading out to the sidewalk when they were done eating. At this point the rain was coming down harder and all the kids were having a blast playing in it. The adults were having a blast staying warm, drinking beer and enjoying ribs, sausage, brisket, cornbread, Mac & cheese, Texas beans, etc. The food tasted delicious and the company was great. Add in the fact that there were no French people around to be appalled at the way our crazy American children (& dads) were acting, and we were in foreigner heaven…

On our way to catch the metro home, we all had a blast running in the rain, searching for shelter. I have to say that was one of the best times in the rain I’ve had as an adult. It was just so much fun to see everyone laughing & enjoying themselves. A truly successful day/night. Thank you for organizing L!

Trip to Burgundy (Bourgogne) Day 1 Feb 25, 2012 (looooong)

We had a great day today. Had to get up at waaaaay too early to get the girls to school to catch their bus to the train station - we got them to ASP at 5:15am! They had a high-speed train from Paris to Anzére Switzerland to catch - so happy that we just had to get them to ASP (5 minute drive) versus trying to get them to the train station in Paris at that hour! They seemed fine & happy to board the bus. Very weird that they are so far away from us with no real contact. We haven't gotten them phones over here yet, so we don't have a way to get a hold of them directly. Just have to count on it all going well. One of the teachers on the trip is posting photos and I have emailed him so I know they are alive and well. In fact, he told me that they got moved up today to the top skiing group - guess all those years in Tahoe paid off! I still can't believe they are off in Switzerland on their own. Way too cool...

This is the chalet where the girls are staying

S & I headed back home after dropping the girls off at ASP - I was planning on going back to sleep, and he was going to get some work done until the park opened at 7:30 so the dogs could get a walk/run before we headed out. But I got a text from a friend of mine at 6am saying the highway was already full of traffic heading down in the direction we would be driving, so we decided to try to get out earlier. We had been so busy packing for the girls that we didn't get a chance to pack ourselves yet, so it took awhile to get ourselves and the dogs organized. I think we finally left our house around 8:00am.

I printed out a route from viamichelin.com, we pulled the route up on the maps on our phones, AND we plugged it into our GPS - then we were off. I'm happy to report that we only got lost once on the way down, and thanks to my friend's text, we weren't stuck in traffic for as long as we could have been. She told me about another route to take to get us off the congested highway. Thank goodness! We were stuck on the crowded highway for probably 1/2 hour and even that little amount was almost enough to make us cranky. Almost, because we agreed before we left to try and just take the trip as it would come - getting lost, traffic, etc. Just go with it and try not to get frustrated.

After 2+ hours of driving, we got off the highway out of the traffic jam (most people were probably heading to Switzerland to go skiing) to head towards Auxerre. We decided to stop there to take a break, let the dogs out to stretch their legs and go to the bathroom, and see the gothic church there. The Cathédrale Saint-Étienne d’Auxerre is known for its massive stained glass windows and most of it was built between 1215 – 1233. The church was really cool (literally almost freezing inside!) and Auxerre is a really cute French town. 

We walked around the town with the dogs for quite awhile exploring, and then decided it was time for some lunch. We put the dogs back in the car to hang out while we went & ate. We found a promising looking place that had a wood-burning pizza oven, and since we are always on the lookout for good pizza for our friend Brad and all the folks at PizzaQuest.com we decided to give it a try. We knew we would be eating plenty of typical French food over the next few days so we were excited for some tasty pizza. It's always a risk in France to get pizza - while you can find it everywhere, it is often very disappointing. Too doughy, too saucy, undercooked, weird toppings you don't recognize that shouldn't be on pizza, etc.

Chez Carlotta was cute on the inside and smelled delicious, but only 1 other table had customers. We never know if that is truly a bad sign as we always seem to get the timing of our meals off - we eat too early! We got seated at a tiny table way at the back of the restaurant where it felt nice and cozy. The menu featured lots of salads and pizzas, and an offer of Lasagna Bolognese. They also had daily specials on the board as almost all restaurants do. S was very intrigued by the Lasagna Bolognese, and I chose the pizza of the day that featured egg (cooked like an omelet), potatoes, tomato sauce and ham (jambon blanc). Why this was called the Pizza Tortilla I'm not entirely sure other than it could have been a variation of a Spanish Omelet with the egg being the tortilla? I got it without the ham as I'm still just not a huge ham fan. We had salads to start and they were very good. So often the lettuce here is just so amazingly fresh and delicious that we love to get salads. Plus the true "French dressing" apparently is NOT the stuff bottled in American, but a mustard-type vinaigrette. It is almost the same dressing everywhere - luckily we like it. We ordered 1/2 bottle of chianti to go with our meal (since we still had to drive). I just love how easy it is to get 1/2 bottles of decent wine in France - I wish America had them on menus more often.

S's lasagna arrived hot & bubbling - he even took a video of it sizzling away. The pizza looked very promising when it landed on our table - thin crust, and slightly burned from the wood oven. When I bit into it I was very happy - it was just as I hoped. Good crust tasting of quality flour, not soggy under the toppings, not too much pizza sauce - just freshly smashed tomatoes - not overwhelmingly cheesy, and the egg and potato were tasty additions. Overall we were very pleased and happy with our find. The only flaw was the dessert. We ordered the chocolate cake with crème anglaise, and unfortunately it was rather dry and uninspired - kind of tasted like a strange brownie. The crème anglaise was tasty so we tried to roll each bite of cake in the sauce to make it a bit more moist and tasty. Another pleasant discovery - things are much cheaper here “in the country” than where we live next to Paris! The lasagna was 8 euros, the pizza was 10 euros, the cake was 3.50 - such a small price compared to Paris. All in all, a good restaurant we would return to and bring friends with us.

After lunch, we got back in the car and headed off again. I had additional sites planned for us to see before hitting our final destination. Next up on the list was the village of Vézelay to see the Basilique Ste-Madeleine - the largest Romanesque church in France. It also claimed in the past to guard the relics of St. Mary Magdalene, and if you go down into the crypt there is a display that supposedly contains a relic of Mary Magdalene. The church was very beautiful and full of light – again freezing cold inside. The medieval town of Vézelay looked very charming as we drove up the narrow streets to visit the Basilique – full of character and interesting buildings. Like many of the other towns we would visit on this trip, it seemed surprisingly empty. I guess February is not a busy time in Burgundy! We drove through many villages on our trip and would rarely see even one person. Very quiet and peaceful, but a little strange also. Behind the church was a beautiful area where you could enjoy views out over the valleys and hills of Vézelay.

Even Zoe likes the view

Next we drove to Époisses – home of the famous stinky but delicious cheese, as well as a châteaux. I had planned to stop and visit the châteaux and a fromagére, but the châteaux was closed and we didn’t see the fromagére as we were driving. It was getting late and we wanted to get to our rental house before it go to dark, so we just drove through and headed to Semur-en-Auxois where we were staying.

Semur-en-Auxois is another amazing medieval city set up on a hill surrounded by stone ramparts. We rented a house outside of the ramparts down on the River Armançon where we had space for the dogs. Thanks to all our maps we found the house with no problems, and got there before dark It was a very charming and interesting house called Le Moulin Vert (though we saw no windmill) set behind another larger house and right on the river. The dogs were very tempted to go into the river and get the ducks, but since neither of them are big swimmers, they only went in a tiny bit, thank goodness as I was worried they would be swept away.

 The house was very interesting, a bit funky, and freezing cold when we got there. We quickly turned up the heat, searched and found some space heaters and tried to warm things up. We decided to walk up into town to explore, grab a drink and find somewhere for dinner – somewhere warmer than the house! I had done some research on restaurants, but we weren’t sure where they were located or what was open. We found a path down the street from our house that consisted of a bunch of steps going up the hill, through the ramparts and into the city. We walked along the ramparts and looked out over the area of Semur that was outside the city “walls” and then headed inside the city towards the church – Eglise Notre-Dame. Often the heart of the city, we figured the church would hopefully be where we would find more people, stores and places to eat - the area where we entered Semur was very quiet with nobody around. We could hear the church bells and followed the sound until we found civilization. 

Semur-en-Auxois

 We walked from one end of the town to the other, and found the main entrance to the village proper – I guess we came in the back way. It was much more lively in this location with plenty to look at. You walk along a lovely cobbled street, pass through a medieval gateway (Porte Guillier) and are on a pedestrian street with shops and cafes. We stopped into a bar after awhile to enjoy a beer and warm up by the fire. How is it that Burgundy, which lies South of Paris, is colder than Paris? It got quite chilly after the sun went down. When we finished our beers we decided it was time to find somewhere to have dinner. We paid up (only 5 Euros for 2 beers!) and headed back to the church where one of the recommended restaurants was located. We stopped in to have dinner, but they informed us that they were fully booked – even though almost all of the tables were empty. But again, we were a tad bit on the early side – before 8:00pm – as most people seem to have dinner much later in France. We continued on down the street towards another restaurant we had seen and luckily they had a table for us. Again we were worried as it seemed like we were the only people there, but very quickly after 8:00 the restaurant started to fill up.

Enter the village through this "gate"

S enjoying the cheapest beer we've had in France!

Le Saint Vernier was a Burgundian restaurant that served local fare – though they had a couscous special that night that everyone else seemed to enjoy. It was full of random meat that we just weren’t ready for that night, and I wanted to try some of the regional specialties. I ordered Oeufs Pôche Chablaisienne to start, S ordered a salad, then I ordered the chicken sautéed in époisses cheese and S got Boeuf Bourguignon. Everything was tasty, but nothing outstanding. I enjoyed the egg dish a lot – especially soaking up the sauce with extra bread – but everything else was good, not great. The beef was a little fatty, the sauce could have been more rich, and my chicken could have been more tender. Both dishes were served with the same 2 sides – potatoes and a pickled eggplant/carrot/cauliflower salad - that again were fine, but nothing I needed to finish eating. We shared a dessert of 3 crème brûlées that were a little too watery to be true crème brûlées in my book. I can’t remember what the flavors were – must not have been too memorable. I think one may have been strawberry, one regular and I’m not sure about the last one. They tasted ok, but the texture was so runny it was hard to get past. Not at all what I expected.

OK, I thought those other things in the bowl were mushrooms. But looking at this pic it looks suspiciously like a snail!

This sauce was made with the famous stinky cheese

The trio of crème brûlées - see all the liquid?

After dinner we wandered back home and to bed – the day had started much too early and we were exhausted. I’m surprised I made it through the whole day without a nap, but I guess with so many beautiful things to look at and enjoy, you get energized. We had a great first day and still had 3 more to look forward to.

zzzzz D

To Eat or Not to Eat – that is definitely NOT the question!

Just where or what!

We often use eating to start the planning of our trips and excursions. "Where is there a good place to eat? OK, what can we see that is around that?" I know it’s not the normal way to be a tourist, but it serves us well. We often get to other parts of cities that we wouldn’t have seen if we had just stuck to the typical tourist destinations. When we are planning our jaunts into Paris, I always consult my Excel file of places to eat to find us a place to have lunch or dinner. There are times where we do wander around and stumble upon a restaurant, and there are times we are desperately hungry and all plans fly out the window. Flexibility is good, but I also find that having some key destination helps guide us. We love the search for a new, good restaurant.

Now I’m going to say something that I know is going to upset a lot of people. Some of you may have guessed by now, but I’m not a big French food eater. I know, I know. When I cook for myself (& kids by default) I tend to focus on quick, lowfat meals, and many French recipes do not lend themselves to those 2 descriptors. When eating out, we want to enjoy something tasty, enjoyable, and something we can recognize. I’m a slightly picky eater, and S is much worse than me, so our palates are a little limited. Add in my shellfish allergy, and it can cause trouble when trying to find some French food to eat. We don’t do much pork or veal, we like our beef cooked (French like it bloody & no matter how many times you send it back, you are bound to still have red/pink meat), we don’t do organs…the list goes on and on. So you see the limitations in going to eat at French restaurants. I love the yummy sauces, it's the protein items they put in them...

No, that's not chicken, that's sweetbreads

On top of our pickiness, there is another problem with heading out to eat French food. I hate to say this also, but many places to eat are not up to par with their food. Even the French will admit that the quality of many restaurants/cafes/brasseries have gone downhill. Yes, sometimes you will still get lucky just trying a random place, but often you do need to rely on the recommendations of others. And many of the good places can be hard to get into – you need to plan ahead and make reservations. We haven’t been good at that thus far, but will be making an effort to improve soon. One person made a comment that we liked – something to the effect of “French food is very deep but not very wide”. We have found this to be pretty true. While the quality of the dishes can vary greatly place by place, the actual selection of dishes offered can be very narrow. It’s amazing how so many French eating establishments offer the exact same dishes. How can every café in St. Germain have the house specialty of slow-cooked lamb shank in prunes? Now I know part of this depends on what type of restaurant you are in: Cafes offer certain foods, brasseries offer certain foods, etc., but I still would expect SOME variety on the menus. At least it gives you a sense of comfort knowing what to expect - if you find a dish you love, you can try it at many different places. And all those places just look so darn cute and French - how can you resist?

 OK, one thing we would like to know: what’s with the pig? The French loooooove the pig! They put jambon (ham) or lardon (bacon – but basically barely cooked so pieces of fat) on or in everything. We don’t eat ham, and like our bacon crispy, so that’s a challenge. There have been times when one of us has accidentally ordered the wrong item, and sure enough, the lardon is pretty tasty, but it’s a little too smoky and rich so a little goes a long way. And where the heck is the turkey? I know it’s not a native bird here, but surely they could introduce it! We miss turkey – especially R. Ham is just not the same. They do have Subway sandwich shops here & I’ve seen R’s eyes light up when we see one, but we have yet to stop in. I wonder if they will have a turkey sandwich for her? I know they offer Indian chicken sandwiches…

We have had some great meals and some ok meals. I don't think we've had a bad one since we moved here. I'm very thankful for all the blogs I read written by expats in France as that is where we get so many of our recommendations. If any of you have any as well, please send them our way. We have promised our friend to try and write some restaurant reviews, and we will definitely try. I just don’t want anyone to be disappointed by the number of non-French restaurants that we visit! And don’t worry, we will be adding traditional French ones to our repertoire – as long as they offer chicken and fish in addition to their sweetbreads and snails!