Marché

What does the typical French person do on Saturday morning? Go the the marché, of course! I went to my first outdoor French market and am still in awe of all of the products offered. Any vegetable, spice, cheese, or meat needed for a recipe can be found at the market. The way the produce was presented shocked me a little bit at first. The carrots still had dirt on them, like they were pulled from the ground that very morning, and the apples were not coated in wax and shined to a high gloss like American apples. Also many products I saw at the market would have been considered "rare" or hard to find in America but in France they are just everyday foods. When I saw a table filled with whole vanilla beans, I had to do a double-take because it is impossible to find vanilla beans at Harris Teeter. All in all, I loved walking through the market and plan to make that apart of my routine while I am in France.

France's favorite ingredient, cheese

Rabbit, don't tell Daisy

Cute little radishes

Lyon's famous/infamous sausages

It's citrus season

Hold the croutons, I want anchovies on my salad!

France has not really embraced the whole "salad as a meal" idea like the United States has. It is almost impossible to find a salad as the main course. (French lesson: Entree means the appetizer, Plat means the main course) So I was very surprised when I found a restaurant that only served salads, over twenty different kinds of salads to be exact. But these were no ordinary iceberg lettuce, carrot, tomato, and cucumber salad, these were "French" salads. I ordered the Salad Nicoise. This type of salad originated from Nice which is on the Mediterranean coast of France. The salad consists of tuna, green beans, bell peppers, potatoes, olives, soft boiled egg, and ANCHOVIES. I was a little hesitant about the anchovies. I like anchovies when they are "dissolved" in Caesar dressing or cooked down in tomato sauce but I had never eaten a whole anchovy fillet complete with hairy looking bones sticking out in all directions. After eating one fillet, I decided I do not like anchovies. Its not that it was especially fishy or salty, just tasted weird. So I set aside the anchovies and ate the rest of the salad, which was very good.

I continue to be amazed at the quality of food available in France. No matter where I have eaten, cheap cafe or corner patisserie, the food has been excellent. During one of my many walks from the Metro to my apartment, I noticed a small patisserie (pastry shop) and more importantly it was open which is a small miracle considering it was a Saturday. The French like to have their weekends off and shut down almost every store. I was curious to see what kind of pastries the shop offered and decided to go and take a look. Wow, I was so shocked to see the assortment and high quality of the pastries. And the prices are sooo cheap.
After much debate, I settled on a...well I am not sure what it was called, the shop did not have any signs, but it was delicious!

Duck for Lunch

The more time I spend in France the more I realize the French take their lunch very seriously. Almost every store, office, and bank closes from 12pm till 2pm so the employees can have a two hour lunch break. You may wonder how lunch can take two hours but when lunch includes three courses and multiple glasses of wine, time flies. The American concept of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or salad for lunch would not work in France. I finally experienced the two hour lunch at a cute little cafe. Most restaurants do not offer a menu with a list of dishes but rather a plat du jour (plate of the day) and that is your only choice. The plat du jour was listed in French so I had no idea what I would be eating but hoped it would be good. To my surprise, I was given a duck leg on top of a bowl of pasta with some type of cream sauce. I have not figured out what was in the cream sauce. It was similar to an Alfredo sauce but thinner and less flavorful, no garlic or Parmesan. It may have been just reduced cream. All in all, it was a very good lunch and it did take me two hours to eat!

What time is dinner?

So I finally decided I should have a proper French dinner. I have been eating cereal for dinner for the past two weeks!!! Taylor, my travel buddy, and I went to look for a restaurant at 6:30pm, a time which most Americans would assume restaurants would be open for dinner. After walking around for a good half an hour, we realized French restaurants do not open for dinner until 8pm. At that point, we were hungry and tired of walking and decided to abandon our quest for French and settled on Italian. We found an Italian restaurant that served over fifteen different types of pizzas cooked in a wood fired oven. After much debate I ordered a goat cheese, ham, sweet pepper, and onion pizza. And a glass of French wine, so dinner was a little bit French. The pizza was delicious (the picture does not do it justice).

Chocolate!

I finally visited one of Lyon's many chocolate shops. The shop was called Voisin and offered over 60 different chocolates. I chose two to try, the first was a ganche, butter, and salt chocolate and the second was a orange praline. They were both delicious but I liked the orange praline the best.
The dark chocolate was the butter and salt and the milk chocolate was the praline.

In keeping with the chocolate theme, I bought my first jar of Nutella in France. Nutella is the best processed food one can buy in a grocery store. It has the amazing ability to make anything, even burnt toast, taste amazing!

La Fete Des Rois (Three Kings Day)

In France, the Catholic holiday of the Epiphany is celebrated with a special pastry called galette des rois. The pastry is made out of puff pastry filled with almond paste (frangipan) and a small toy is baked inside. Bakeries all over France sell the galette des rois with a paper crown on top.  Whoever finds the toy in their piece of the pastry becomes the king for the day and wears the paper crown.

I miss my kitchen!!

So I have spent about a week in my tiny apartment and the thing I miss the most is my family's kitchen. I am having serious cooking withdraws. The hotplate in the apartment simply can't deliver the same results as the five burner, gas, stainless steel stove I left behind. So to ease my cooking pains I decided to order one of the few French dishes I made in America, a croque monsieur (which translates to a "crispy mister", pretty funny).

A croque monsieur is a sandwich found all over France. It is basically a ham sandwich with a bechamel sauce and gruyere cheese on top and then put under a broiler. I have to say my croque monsieur is better. The cafe where I ordered this sandwich did not put any dijon mustard on the sandwich, which is a crucial ingredient.   

Where is all the food in France?

I arrived in France during what seemed to be a food shortage. No restaurants, markets, or bakeries were open due to the New Year's holiday and the weekend. After searching the streets of Lyon, I found a tiny street market open and the food I found there I am almost embarrassed to post. But this is a blog about everything I eat, the good and the bad.

A cheap bottle of wine, crackers, and frosted flakes. I found the frosted flakes or frosties to be even more sugary than in America. Hopefully I will be able to provide more glamorous food pictures. 

Last American Meal

Hello all,
Sorry it has taken me so long for my first post. I figure I should acknowledge my last American meal, pigs in a blanket with Heinz ketchup.

It was not a very glamorous last meal but I enjoyed it!!