A year in a French market: Spring


Alphonso mangoes

Monday, May 30th, 2011

I have a guilty pleasure, mes amis. I try to buy seasonally and locally, but there is one fruit that tempts me every spring with its sweet, siren call: the alphonso mango. Why the Alphonso? It has everything you’d ever want in a mango: juiciness, sweetness, intense flavor, butter-soft flesh, and a color reminiscent of the [...]

Recent obsessions

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

I’m not sure why the heavy, spiky globe artichoke spoke to me in the market a few weeks ago, but it did and I brought it home. I meant to cook and eat it during the Royal Wedding, but who was I kidding? I could scarcely tear myself away from the TV to go to the [...]

Asparagi

Friday, May 6th, 2011

We’ve been eating a lot of the fast-growing stalk recently. My preferred method is 1) peel, 2) poach, 3) toss with lemon juice, 4) drizzle with olive oil, 5) sprinkle with parmesan, 6) eat. Mark Bittman had this asparagus flow chart in the NY Times last week with lots of other bright ideas. What’s your favorite way [...]

A delicious week

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

What a week, mes amis! In between our trip to Nice and sundry writing projects, I hunted for my byline in the newspaper and managed to sneak in a few delicious bites. Here they are in no particular order: 1. Asparagus — I’m not sure it’s really spring until I eat my first stalks. Luckily, the spears are currently shooting up like [...]

Easter sweets

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

I said recently that I don’t have a sweet tooth. And that’s (more or less) true. In my house, a box of chocolates can go untouched for months, but leave me alone with a block of cheddar and we’ve got Trouble with a capital T, that rhymes with C, and that stands for cheese. There is, [...]

Spring fever

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom Holiday tables under the trees  April in Paris, this is a feeling No one can ever reprise… Spring has sprung, mes amis, and I don’t think I’m the only one who was burning up with a fever this past weekend. A spring fever, that is. I took a long [...]

A year in a French market: Grey Paree

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

May seems to beckon people to Paris, if my recent steady stream of house-guests is any evidence. Too bad the skies have been grey and greyer. As a steady rain drips down right now, I am rethinking the old adage: May showers bring June flowers.The humidity is not good for my plumbing problems (which, after [...]

A year in a French market: What’s in season?

Monday, April 6th, 2009

At a recent dinner party, somewhere between the cheese course and dessert, that age old question arose again.  Are there no seasons for fruits and vegetables anymore? “When I was young, we didn’t have any green salad during the winter,” said the woman across from me, poking her fork disapprovingly at a leaf of mâche. “Only [...]

A year in a French market: Stinky cheeses

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Believe it or not, I spent my first few months in Paris buying only three types of cheese: chèvre (goat cheese), Brie de Meaux (which I now know is a town near Paris) and comté (similar to Gruyère). Why? Well, I like these cheeses a lot, but I wasn’t trying to satisfy a craving. No, mes amis, [...]

A year in a French market: Paris plumbing and pesto

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

It started with the lights in the kitchen. One minute they were bright as a film set, the next the room had been plunged into darkness.  When the electrician finally came, he seemed doleful. The problem was très, très grave, madame. He would have to break a hole in the ceiling to fix it, he [...]