Typical French Fare

Croque monsieur.  Omelet.  Escargot.  Pomes Frites.  Duck Confit.  L’Ognion Soup.  Salad Nicoise.  Entrecote.  Pain au Chocolat.  Café Crème.  Crepe.  

These are some of the typical foods one sees on the menus in Paris.  Perhaps other places in France have this same food, but for me, in Paris, this is what I ate.  Paris is a foodie’s delight.  A large city with bistros on every corner, cafes lining the boulevards, and fantastic patisseries nestled down the side streets, smelling of hot croissants and other pastries.

My first visit to Paris consisted of several multiple course meals at expensive French restaurants costing several hundred Euros.  This visit was no less about the food, but certainly a more budget conscious adventure.  I have no complaints about any of the meals I experienced in this large, well populated, and busy metropolis.

Breakfast today was a simple café crème (café au lait to some) with one of the most melt in your mouth pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants).  I could have eaten three of those croissants, but decided to save myself for later (a simple sandwich with ham and cheese on the train).

To the delight of my fellow travelers and I, all the restaurants we’ve dined in have provided the traditional French fare with an amazing flair.  Dinner at Charles V Café on the Champs de Elsyees our first night found us eating beautiful big bowls of onion soup with bread and melted gruyere followed by Salad Nicoise, frog legs, foie gras, and a green salad with goat cheese. 

Lunch one day found us eating bistro salads (Parisien style is tomatoes, ham and cheese on mixed greens) and ham and cheese crepes.  A meal so simple, yet so satisfying.

Dinner at the Flash Café was so delightful, we actually returned for a second night.  The fresh pate (for a very affordable price), omelets, escargot with butter, garlic and parsely; duck confit, entrocote (rib eye steak) with hericot verts (fancy name for green beans), sole con frittes, and local sausages.

I have heard people talk about French omelets before; and I have to admit I never gave much credence to the thought of an omelet tasting “great” or being so heavenly that it was worth repeating or sharing.  At the Flash Café I had one of the most incredible omelets in my life.  I picked the onion, lardon, mushroom, and emmental omelet, thinking it would fill the void since I wasn’t sure what else on the menu would work.  Fortunately for me, this omelet was something I can barely describe.  The eggs were light and fluffy.  Each set of ingredients had its own unique and beautiful flavors and textures.  I’m not even sure what seasoning was used, but I could tell the ingredients were fresh. I enjoyed this omelet so much I had to share with my traveling companions, who in turn agreed it was pretty darn amazing.

One of the most enjoyable parts about traveling in Europe is not only the quality of the food but the accessibility of a good cup of coffee.  Case in point: Peter and I decided to go to Starbuck’s by our hotel.  Mostly because we wanted to get a Paris mug for our collection, but a coffee was in out future.  The over 4 Euro Tall coffee was enough to make us buy our mug and bail out.  Next door we found a beautiful little café where we paid 2 Euros for café crème and another 1,70 Euros for the pain au chocolat.  Overall a pretty affordable meal, plus an amazing cup of coffee.  And instead of overpaying for the world’s largest coffee, we paid just the right amount for just the right amount of coffee to pick us up and get us moving for the day.

So while the typical French fair may seem boring at first, it is quite honestly some of the best food you can find.  They say when in Rome do as the Roman’s do.  The same applies to Paris, Frankfurt, or Prague.  Immerse yourself in the local cuisine; enjoy all that the locals do, because most times you will not be disappointed.  I know I wasn’t in Paris.

The Importance of Brunch

I love a good brunch.  Invite a large group over, be it friends, family, or co-workers, and cook a group sized meal that consists of breakfast and or lunch items.

According to my friends at Wikipedia, Brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch.  The term is a portmanteau (a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings) of breakfast and lunch. Often, it is a heavy meal meant to take the place of both breakfast and lunch.

Today I hosted my family for brunch.  We had baked grits, a frittata with asparagus and mushrooms, potatoe casserole, and fresh fruit.  Overall it was a simple meal to make.  I've made more complicated meals in the past.  I've also made some simple ones.  Some of my favories include:

• Twice baked potatoes with eggs
• Buttermilk waffles with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream
• Quiche (various flavors)
• Scones (various flavors)
• Baked cheesy grits with green chilies
• Baked Eggs with bacon, scallions, and cheese
• Blueberry pancakes with bacon and maple syrup
• Mushroom and spinach omelet with English muffins
• Flax seed, oat bran, and fruit and nut muffins
• Frittata (various ingredients)
• Potatoe pancake with shallots
• French toast with vanilla and cinnamon
• Breakfast casseroles (various ingredients)
• Breakfast Pizza
• Monkey Bread
• Juevos Rancheros
• Toasted sourdough bread with lox, cream cheese, capers, and eggs

I"m sure Food Network, All Recipes, Food and Wine, and cooks.com have a ton of other ideas and recipes for good brunch fair.

But Brunch isn't only about the food.  Brunch is also about sitting around the table with friends and family, being grateful for what we are sharing, and what we have.  Its about laughing, and joking, and catching up with everyone.  A perfect example of this is when I was at a villa in Spain with friends.  Every morning we broke bread together, drinking coffee or bloody mary's, taking turns cooking for each other, discussing the previous day's events, or that day's planned events. 

Brunch, like other meals shared with loved ones, is about connecting.  Connecting with the food, connecting to wine, connecting with each other, and maybe even connecting with yourself.  As a fellow blogger said, "Good food even simply prepared takes on an aura of delight that can do more than just fill our stomachs. It can sustain our spirit."  I think that is what connecting over food can do, sustain our spirits. 

So next time you invite friends over for brunch, take a moment to look around at your guests, how they are interacting with each other, and with your food, and be grateful for the bounty, the spirit, and the love in your home.

Addicted to Italian Cusine

I think there is one cuisine in the world that has a huge influence on my cooking.  That would be Italian.  Think about it.  How many things do you eat Italian in a week?  Pizza, pasta, risotto, calamari, breads, wine, cheese, anchovies, espresso, olives, bruschetta, and caprese salad.  The list goes on and on.

I"m not saying I am not influenced by other cuisines.  Surely I am with French, German, Russian, Mediteranean, Mexican, Spanish, Japanese, and Vietnamese.  You name it, I"m sure I am influenced by it in my cooking.

But I have to admit, I love all things Italian.  Even my husband.  I love the freshness of the ingredients.  I love the versatility of the dishes.  I love the variety one finds in pasta (somewhere over 600 types).  How can you not love Italian food?

Are you one of those people that remembers what you eat when you travel?  Are you like me, interested enough in the gastronomy of the country or region of the world you are in to not only remember what you ate, but then go home and repeat it?

I remember odd things like the 3 course meal I had in Florence for my friend Jule's birthday in 2004.  We started with a mushroom struedel, enjoyed spaghetti with a lamb ragu, moved onto bistecca fiorentina, and finished with a chocolate banana tarte with a Muscato for dessert.  I don't know why I remember that meal besides it being very good.  I remember the first time I had spaghetti carbonara in Roma.  Or eating croquettes in Amsterdam and crepes in Paris.  I remember this amazing Grune Salsa in Oberursel, Germany, served with hard boiled eggs and fried potatoes.  I remember rabbit ragu in Tuscany for my 1 year anniversary dinner with Peter.

Food is as much a part of my travel as the sights, the people, and the method of traveling.  In Italy, food is so much a part of the experience because its abundant, its beautiful, and its accessible.  I remember on my last trip eating 17 different types of gelato, 12 different types of pastas, and 16 differnt pizza flavors.  And I was only there for 19 days.  Imagine what it must be like to have those choices each and every day!

In many ways you see a region, a city, a culture through its food.  You understand the intricacies of the people in what they eat, how they eat it, and in what they drink.  Be it anything limone in Amalfi and Capri, pesto in Liguria, hearty bean and vegetable soup in Tuscany, or polenta in Vincenza. These foods that we eat in our own country, when traced back to their origins are all the more interesting, flavorful, and intoxicating when experienced in their city or country of origin.

I think we are all influenced by Italian Cuisine; its hard not to be when calzones, pizza. calamari, and caprese salads are found often on menus.  Next time you travel, think about the influences you see in the cooking; be it a simple seafood soup in San Francisco, Tallarin Verde (green spaghetti) in Peru, or paella in Spain.

What is Gastronomy?

I was reading my friend's blog, The Winter Pilgrim, and she mentioned the word gastronomy.  At first it seemed natural to see that word used, but then I pondered it for a second, wondering if everyone really knows what it means.  Because while it made sense, I don't think I really know the meaning of the word gatronomy.

So of course I Googled it.  Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between culture and food.  Not to be confused with the art of cooking; kind of like a cook is not necessary a gourmet; or a foodie is not necessarily a chef.  Are you following me? 

Gastronomy takes all facets of food (such as taste, research, writing, understanding) and combines it with the scientific knowledge of cooking (such as physics, math, chemistry, biology, history, agronomy, and sociology).  I think it might be simpler than it sounds.  I found another definition that basically says gatronomy is a particular style of cookery (as in a region).  For example French Gastronomy.  Or New England Gastronomy.  Or Southern Gastronomy.

Now that seems to make more sense to me.  So basically, when you travel about, you are studying, enjoying, eating, reviewing, and judging the gastronomy of that city, region, or country.

Makes using the word gastronomy seem a little less sophisticated on the word palette and a little more palettable.  Right?  Right.