A year in a French market: Summer
A year in a French market: Bouquet vivant
Friday, September 18th, 2009Picture this: Three young American women, out for dinner in Paris. We’re all French speakers — indeed, my two friends are French education professionals, who have been speaking, reading, writing, living French for over fifteen years — so when the waiter props the blackboard menu on our table, we’re confident we won’t have any problems.
We […]
A year in a French market: Wild (insert ingredient here) chase
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009Do you ever get into one those moods where you must cook a certain, specific food? Maybe you have a craving, or maybe you’ve planned your dinner party menu, carefully considering each course. But then you can’t find a crucial element at the grocery store. And so the hunt begins…
Such was the situation that I […]
A year in a French market (special Provence edition): Why I love France (reason #1,012)
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Shopping for food is one of my favorite French activities. First of all, as David Sedaris once so gleefully pointed out, when you ask for things in multiple, you don’t have to know their gender. Tongue-tied between “une pomme” or “un pomme“? Une tomate? Un tomate? Un jambon? Une jambon? Here’s a trick: ask for […]
A year in a French market: Bachelorette cooking (or not)
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009My husband, CK, left for a year-long stint in Baghdad three months ago (actually, 83 days — but who’s counting?). I have to admit that after all the dread, being solo isn’t as bad as I’d feared. Of course, I miss him like a major organ — there’s no one to hold my hand at […]
A year in a French market: Dog days?
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009It snuck in so quietly that I didn’t realize it had arrived until it was already here. Summer, I mean. And while Paris’s recent cool temperatures don’t necessarily scream seasonal, the produce doesn’t lie: the market is full of early summer fruit, and by that I mean cherries. The best ones are dark and firm, […]