Friday, October 16, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
A few more reasons to love Paris
My Saturday schedule:
10 am : Wake up
11 am: Re-wake up
11-3: Cavort around Le Fete des Vendages (Harvest Festival)and visit every last one of the 120 food and wine booths in Monmartre. Gorge myself on escargot, raw oysters, homemade macarons, and danish donuts.
3-5: Frolic in the most beautiful park in the world (Buttes Chaumont) and stumble upon a free piano and opera concert held in a giant cave in the middle of the park. (There was a waterfall right next to the piano. It was epic.)
8 (or 20h00 more correctly): Dinner at a restaurant that specializes in souffles. Gleefully induce food comma via foie gras souffle and vanilla raspberry souffle.
If I keep writing posts like this will someone decide to come visit me for Thanksgiving?
10 am : Wake up
11 am: Re-wake up
11-3: Cavort around Le Fete des Vendages (Harvest Festival)and visit every last one of the 120 food and wine booths in Monmartre. Gorge myself on escargot, raw oysters, homemade macarons, and danish donuts.
3-5: Frolic in the most beautiful park in the world (Buttes Chaumont) and stumble upon a free piano and opera concert held in a giant cave in the middle of the park. (There was a waterfall right next to the piano. It was epic.)
8 (or 20h00 more correctly): Dinner at a restaurant that specializes in souffles. Gleefully induce food comma via foie gras souffle and vanilla raspberry souffle.
If I keep writing posts like this will someone decide to come visit me for Thanksgiving?
Friday, October 9, 2009
Tales of a delinquent blogger
Here's what you missed since my last post:
1. Le vin: Last weekend was our Bing Trip to Le Medoc (by Bordeaux). Saturday we were treated to a four-hour lecture on why californian wines are far inferior to their french counterparts. I believe one of the statements went: "Californian wineries cater to what the standard customer wants, kind of like McDonalds does." Fortunately, Bordeaux is shunning McDomination and was able to provide us silly Americans with some sophisticated wines to develop our palates. I can now scoff at those who swirl their wine before smelling it the first time (you must smell it once before you swirl it) and then I can say things like "hmmm, this 1989 Chateau Margeaux has nice red fruit and an excellent finish. I however prefer the 1990 Chateau Haut-Brion which has a better nose." (And I can say it in French!) Unfortunately given my budget, I am more likely to say "mmm, This 2006 vin du pays rose has a strong flavor of Hi-C with overtones of turpentine." Quel dommage.
2. Le Mer: The Bing Trip also brought us to the beach, where we had the culturally enriching experience of watching french women tan topless.
3. Presently, I just got back from a party at a Lebanese family's home. Random, I know. My language partner (who is Lebanese) invited me to her birthday party and I showed up expecting a group of French 20-somethings, only to find out that the party was full of her family and all their friends. I had no idea that what I was craving was vast amounts of hummus and talking to middle-aged Lebanese people, but apparently I was. It was so much fun. Who'd have guessed?
1. Le vin: Last weekend was our Bing Trip to Le Medoc (by Bordeaux). Saturday we were treated to a four-hour lecture on why californian wines are far inferior to their french counterparts. I believe one of the statements went: "Californian wineries cater to what the standard customer wants, kind of like McDonalds does." Fortunately, Bordeaux is shunning McDomination and was able to provide us silly Americans with some sophisticated wines to develop our palates. I can now scoff at those who swirl their wine before smelling it the first time (you must smell it once before you swirl it) and then I can say things like "hmmm, this 1989 Chateau Margeaux has nice red fruit and an excellent finish. I however prefer the 1990 Chateau Haut-Brion which has a better nose." (And I can say it in French!) Unfortunately given my budget, I am more likely to say "mmm, This 2006 vin du pays rose has a strong flavor of Hi-C with overtones of turpentine." Quel dommage.
2. Le Mer: The Bing Trip also brought us to the beach, where we had the culturally enriching experience of watching french women tan topless.
3. Presently, I just got back from a party at a Lebanese family's home. Random, I know. My language partner (who is Lebanese) invited me to her birthday party and I showed up expecting a group of French 20-somethings, only to find out that the party was full of her family and all their friends. I had no idea that what I was craving was vast amounts of hummus and talking to middle-aged Lebanese people, but apparently I was. It was so much fun. Who'd have guessed?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Omar the Tent Maker's Next Client
I may need to visit Omar the Tent Maker at the end of my time in Paris in order to find an outfit that will accommodate my obesity. Today my host mother went to a class to learn to make verrines (bite sized dishes). One would think that it would be hard to make a filling meal out of tablespoon sized dishes, but they would be wrong. The Verrines included scallops with carrot puree, chicken-tomato melange, cocktail shrimp, crab salad a la amazing, and about 5 others that I cannot even describe. After being stuffed with bite sized pieces of heaven (and 2 glasses of merlot) I was ready to call it a night. But it turns out that 8 verrines = 1 course, not 8, and the French do not believe in single course meals. No, I was then fed a salad course, a meat course, a cheese course (with the best chevre I have ever had), and then a dessert course of 3 sweet verrines, followed by a second desert course of figs and cream (plus more wine). I may explode. Or possibly fall down from all the wine. In either case, I am very content.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Parisian Adventure Begins
Sorry for the belated begining to this blog, but it took me a couple of weeks to tear myself away from the crepe stands long enough to compose a proper post. Here's what you missed while I was busy being a lazy blogger: Paris is Amazing! So far I have 1) Quadrupled my knowledge of art history, 2)Eaten approximately 2.7 million calories worth of French food, 3) Cultivated a love of wine and talking about wine as if I actually knew something about wines, 4) Decided that I would like to travel back in time, marry Louis XIV and live at the Chateau de Versailles.
To give you an idea of my life in Paris, here is a summary of my weekend. Friday night, after dining on steak (avec le moutard of course), salad, 3 types of cheeses, and pistachio macarons I left for a night of bar hopping with my glorious amis, returning home at 4am. Saturday I spent the day eating crepes,strolling through the hall of mirrors in the Chateau de Versailles, and eating fondue at a restaurant that let me climb over tables and drink wine from baby bottles. Sunday was recovery day, so I toured the Musee d'Orsay and walked through Luxembourg Gardens. In other words, I really like Paris. A lot.
To give you an idea of my life in Paris, here is a summary of my weekend. Friday night, after dining on steak (avec le moutard of course), salad, 3 types of cheeses, and pistachio macarons I left for a night of bar hopping with my glorious amis, returning home at 4am. Saturday I spent the day eating crepes,strolling through the hall of mirrors in the Chateau de Versailles, and eating fondue at a restaurant that let me climb over tables and drink wine from baby bottles. Sunday was recovery day, so I toured the Musee d'Orsay and walked through Luxembourg Gardens. In other words, I really like Paris. A lot.
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