therese

soo (or sue as you say, unambiguous to us since we're both anglophone) veed And "boil" would be pretty hard for a lot of people to say, come to think of it.

Turns out that they were indeed serving food at the cajun dance (which was great) tonight, a choice of crawfish étouffée or red beans and rice. But we ended up getting Thai on the way over, at a place about a mile from our house. Better than many in Atlanta, so I can't complain. My husband had tom kha gai followed by a really lovely dish of little lamb chops, nice and rare. Unfortunately the picture of the latter didn't turn out, so we'll have to make do with the soup: I had nuer nam tok. I really like this restaurant's version, and have trouble ordering anything else when I go there. Since I didn't have another savory course I indulged after the meal:

Get the kids to ask for you. Very effective.

Yep, quite the spread. Typical of panchan in Atlanta (I've not eaten enough Korean outside Atlanta to say whether it's particularly generous or not), at least in my experience. One of the tofu houses always give you some little fried fish (not tiny, about four inches long) that I like (and that my kids fight over---they give you one per person, but one of the kids always tries to score an extra one). The pajun was hae-mool (mixed seafood). A little blander than I like, but then also a nice foil for some of the spicier things. I rarely eat the rice that comes with most dishes, so the heat can get a little overwhelming. The fish was mackerel, one of my favorites. The restaurant features a number of large, shallow open fish tanks in the front lobby. Towards the end of our visit we noticed some guys come in with large styrofoam coolers, which they proceeded to empty into a couple of the tanks. On the way out we saw that they were flounder (or something that looked like flounder), trying mightily to turn the same color as the bottom of the tanks. Or maybe it just seemed like they were trying to turn the same color as bottom of the tanks. Maybe they were really just resigned to their fate.

Oh, and I wanted to add that I'm happy to answer questions. In fact, the more questions the easier it is to blog, I think. Gotta go brush my teeth right now, though.

Spent today not taking pictures of my kitchen. In point of fact, I've barely even seen my kitchen today, as by the time I found out that I'd be blogging this week I'd already booked a lot of social time. I actually first heard that I'd be blogging from a friend (who is also active on eGullet---you'll meet her later), who sent me a message off-line saying that she thought it was really cool that I was blogging. To which I responded, "Sweet jesus, I'm what?" Lots of food so far today. I'd arranged to meet a friend for lunch at noon. We'd decided on a Korean place that neither of us had been to before that specializes in fish: Unfortunately they'd changed their hours, so I called my friend (who hadn't yet arrived) and we decided to go next door to: We'd both been before, but it's a nice place. As per the sign you can do Korean BBQ there, but it's not what most people do there, at least not for lunch (there's another place down the road where we like the BBQ). While I waited for my friend I relaxed with a: Tables set with spoons (paper-wrapped bowl of spoon in foreground) and chopsticks only. We had: We ended up with a lot of leftovers. Fortunately my friend was willing to take care of them, because I've already got too many meals already planned. The friend in question is known here on eGullet as FoodTutor. Here she is in person: After lunch we went to a Vietnamese bakery a couple of blocks away called Mozart Bakery: I bought things for breakfast tomorrow AM: The item on the plate was actually for Boy's dinner this evening, as The Man is taking me out dancing for Valentine's (and Girl has an overnight with a friend). It was described as containing sausage, but in fact was more like chicken pot pie/vol au vent sort of filling. Disappointing for him, but he still ate it. Dancing this evening is to The Basin Brothers. The musically inclined among can check out some of their song on the "music" portion of the web site. We don't know yet where we're eating. They usually serve jambalaya at the dance, but I don't know for sure if it's available tonight. So either we eat elsewhere first, or run the risk of a beer-only dinner. Hmmm...

It's an eggy sort of sweet pancake, flavored with vanilla. You start it on the stove top, pouring the batter into the pre-heated, buttered (Boy went a bit overboard on the butter) to make a nice crispy edge and then finish it off in the oven, where it gets puffy. It collapses quickly, and the texture then reminds me a bit of clafoutis, without the cherries.

Thanks, fou. We've been really happy with the kitchen, and I'm looking forward to showing it off. Some uninvited guests for breakfast: They're eating bird seed that they've spilled from a bird feeder that's suction-cupped onto an adjacent window. You can't really tell from the picture, but the window frame the squirrel's sitting on is actually at the second story level (the green stuff in the background is an enormous azalea bush that's down at ground level).

Good morning, y’all, and welcome to the party chez Therese. As per the teaser, this week’s foodblog does indeed come to you from Atlanta, where I live with my two children (hereafter known as Girl and Boy) and husband (hereafter known as The Man). Girl is 11, Boy is 14, and The Man is old enough to know better. Atlanta’s huge: the total metro population is about 4 million, and there are no physical boundaries to growth like rivers or mountain ranges, so people just keep moving (and commuting) farther and farther out of town. Atlantans can be divided into ITP (inside the perimeter) and OTP (outside the perimeter), the perimeter referring to the interstate freeway that encircles the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods, separating it from outlying suburbs. The politically minded may note that these areas could be designated red and blue. I’ll let you figure out which is which. We’re about as ITP as it gets, with home, work, school, and restaurants all in walking distance. The neighborhood’s called Druid Hills, the setting for the play/movie “Driving Miss Daisy”. The houses date from the 1920s, and because Atlanta has so little in the way of “old” buildings the neighborhood’s on the National Register as a Historic District. Charming, sure, buts lots of the houses need some updating, and ours (purchased in 1996) was no exception. So we remodeled last year, including an addition with a new kitchen, and this week’s blog will look at the finished product. So, some encouragement for those of you presently involved in kitchen renovation, some ideas for those who are considering it. But never mind all that for the moment: What’s for breakfast? Dutch babies, that’s what. And even better, these Dutch babies are produced by my children, the aforementioned Girl and Boy. The first picture is right from the oven, the second is after the somewhat messy job of sifting powdered sugar on top. They are delicious (the Dutch babies, I mean, not the children) and a great weekend treat. The Man drinks coffee in the morning whereas I prefer tea. He's not up yet, having played poker last night. I'm hoping he makes it out of bed in time for dinner. I also eat fruit whereas he prefers, well, anything but fruit. This is not such a bad thing, as it means that I don’t have to share the fruit. Pomegranates are a pain to eat, but not so bad if you’re reading the newspaper at the same time. This one’s from California, but you can also grow them here if you’ve got enough sunshine (which I don’t).

I've personal experience at the Hotel Zum Ritter and Weisser Bock, both very centrally located in the old town. I preferred the lodgings at the Weisser Bock, and the restaurant there was quite good. I didn't have a chance to eat at the Zum Ritter, but it looked nice. The Weisser Bock has a partner hotel, the Kulturbrauerei which looks very cool from the pictures. It's in a quieter neighborhood, not so near the town square, and the restaurant (where I have eaten, in the Brauhaus room) was very good. Both of these hotels offer suites as well as rooms, and the price points are on the mark. Have a great time---Heidelberg's a fun town for walking, especially with kids. They'll enjoy watching boats go through the locks on the Neckar.

If he's American he's remarkably good, and has either lived in a francophone environment, or been very specifically trained to make certain sounds (like "b" at the beginning of a word), and remarkably polyglot at that: as per the web site his name is Eddie Maamry. You can view some biographical information on him by visiting the National Center for Hospitality Studies site and clicking on the Hospitality/Restaurant Management drop-down, where you can then click on his name (which is actually Abdeljalil, Eddie apparently being a nickname). My son's French teacher, Madame Okou, speaks French with a strong accent, but she would be chagrined to hear her French described as non-native. Not native to France, but French is her maternal language nonetheless. A nice site, by the way, particularly the syllable by syllable pronunciations.

Oh dear. All this time I've been saying kee-nwa. Jo-mel, the two pronunciations you propose look pretty similar to me.

Exactly. Pronounce (as it's written) bouillabaisse. Now pronounce (as it's written) bouillabaise. The former is, as chefzadi notes, the correct spelling. But it's fairly common for non-French speakers to pronounce the former with a "z" ("zed" in Jensen's world) sound at the end. As for the ambiguity of the term, context is certainly important. In the case of the 19 year old Frenchman who turns to his 17 year old date and asks "Alors, on baise ou quoi?" there's very little ambiguity involved. Or maybe I just misunderstood.

Used as a noun, "un baiser" is indeed a kiss, a term you'd actually use with family or children. As a verb, well, feel free. Certainly a nicer term that "foutre" in any case.

Well then, happy to have clarified that one for you.

fours = foor tuiles = tweel Tuiles is another difficult one to get right, but for the anglophone "tweel" will suffice. What makes it difficult is what differentiates pronunciation of "Louis" from "lui": both sound like "lwee" to the anglophone ear, so that's what we say. But they're actually different sounds to somebody who is francophone.

It does indeed reflect the predominantly southern Italian/Sicilian origins of immigrants to that part of the world. Until fairly recently (and still to some extent) Italians spoke a number of quite different languages, and used more or less standard Italian as a sort of lingua franca. I learned to speak Italian from Italians, in Italy (from Bologna, Milan, and Rome), and found that when I returned to the U.S. and spoke to Italian immigrants here that I could make myself understood easily (in Italian---these people were old, and knew almost exactly no English) but had to work pretty hard to understand them (but they were cool about it, and gave me lots of great food). A couple of years ago I read a novel (in Italian) that takes place around the turn of the century in Sicily, and the author uses non-standard Italian similar to that used in the northeast U.S. to convey the language of the characters in the book. I'll try and find it if anybody's interested in seeing the difference.

Exactly. Whereas bouillabaise suggests something else entirely.

Sure, but how do you pronounce that?!?!?! ← Heh heh. Ceci = se-SEE (which means "this one") You could follow that up with cela (meaning "that one"), pronounced se-LAH. By alternating ceci and cela you'll have them thinking that you're very nearly francophone. But I'd still make a point of smiling warmly. Don't agonize over that first vowel---there's not much of it to begin with, and it's basically that upside down "e" that's used to indicate the second vowel sound in a word like "rumble".

Don't let it. You're the customer. And if you're in French restaurant in the U.S. or U.K., just translate it into English: "I'll have the frog's thighs, please." In France just point to the menu item and say "ceci". Smile warmly, they'll smile back.

hm, i've never heard anyone pronounce it bouillabuck... ← In case anybody here doesn't know this, the verb "baiser" (pronounced beh-zay), means, well, let's just say that it's nothing to do with cooking.

Yep. The "h after c" thing is one of the hardest things about Italian for anglophones, as the "h" is used to indicate that a "c" will be hard before an "e" or "i". If it's missing then the "c" is pronounced "ch" (as in "church"). If the "c" is preceded by an "s" (and followed by either "e" or "i") then the "sc" is pronounced "sh" (as in "shush").

It always sounds to me like it means "fat ass" when they pronounce it that way. Generally it's funny when people think you pronounce French right every time by leaving off the last few letters, like "Vichyswah." My favorite is still "bouillaBAIZE," with the last syllable sounding like the f-word. ← The alternate pronunciation of coup de grace makes me think that we're getting ready to throw bacon around the room (for whatever reason I've lately heard it used in meetings, around a conference table). "BouillaBAIZE" is great one. Yeah, things can get pretty steamy, but I've yet to bring anybody to an actual boil. Tagliatelle = tah-lyah-TELL-ay Gnocchi = NYOKE-kee Not that double consonants in Italian are pronounced. The U.S. ear has a hard time hearing (and generating) the difference, so don't worry about it. Your friend's likely from the northeastern U.S., and she's either of Italian extraction or grew up listening to Italian Americans. She pronounces prosciutto as "pro-ZHOOT", right? It's actually more okay to pronounce the o than to not pronounce it, at least if you're anywhere other than the northeast U.S. where it's basically a dialect (that reflects the immigrants Sicilian and far south Italian origins, where I suppose it would also be appropriate). Anywhere else it sounds distinctly uneducated and lower class (by which I'm not making a value judgment, just pointing out the situation).

I have always pronounced this meel foy (although I have heard meel fway as well) ← For the non-francophone, the easiest (and closest) is: mee fuh-yuh Don't worry about the L's in mille at all, because it's also a "yuh" sound and when the words are said together they'll disappear to most anglophone ears.

Bruschetta = broo-SKET-tah Of course, the restaurant I dined in last night spelled this item "brushetta". I just try not to think about it too hard. I've been hearing a lot of people mispronounce "coup de grace" lately. Not a food term, but pronouncing it "koo duh grah" sure makes it sound like one to me.