bleudauvergne

Has anyone tried printing out regulations from the website and presenting it if an agent gets picky? At one point I was scared I wouldn't get my cheeses in and had the fromagere print me up a certificate confirming the cheese had been aged 60 days. I never had to present it, though, because it turns out they didn't want to inspect anything when I was going through.

Sigh.

My instinct from reading your post is that the kids have gathered that this meal is going to be a very special one, and this is why they want to go. It's not the actual restaurant that has them clamoring, but the idea of missing out on this meal their parents are so excited about. Why not plan a special meal at a restaurant that might be more interesting to a 5 and 9 year old as a seperate outing, or a visit to a special chocolatier or ice cream parlor, carefully and clearly making it the point that this is very very special? Heck, you could hire a limo to take them there and be none the worse considering the cost of their meals at Taillevant. Being on vacation in a foreign country, and with all the stress and fatigue that you don't really notice goes along with the wonderful discoveries, the risk that their fatigue could get the best of them a few courses into the meal is rather high, even if they are accustomed to dining out with you under normal circumstances. Who knows how they may react if in fact they discover that the experience at the restaurant is different from what they are imagining. If they end up dissapointed, bored, cranky, or sad halfway through the meal and you have to leave, that would be a shame. I hope you have a great meal there, kids or not!

These are good ideas to research, busboy, thank you. Nice photos of the meat, too, it gives a better idea of what I'm looking at. I've just come back from a conversation with one butcher who says that in his opinion the only real bavette is the b. d'aloyeau. This is just one guys opinion, he's been in the business for 40 years and has seen a lot. He says most restaurants don't serve it because the real bavette is not very plentiful - for one animal, you get about 14 individual portions. He also says that butchers give lots of names to different cuts, and much of what is sold as bavette is really faux. I had to kind of grill it out of him with some rapidfire questioning.

We don't have a pierrade stone at home. But there are restaurants where you can order this. I asked the name of it the first time I saw it, and the guy said it was a Lyonnais specialty that goes back hundreds of years, the pierrade. So imagine my suprise when I stumbled across This website just now. How can someone place a trademark on an age old way of cooking meat? Apparently someone got away with it 20 years ago and are now trying to muscle restaurants into paying royalties for the right to put "Pierrade" on their menus. Wouldn't this be something like trying to put a registered trademark on "Fondue"? In any case, I plan to serve it at home, and I don't want to buy the Tefal thing. I want to find an old pierrade set. Anyone know where might be the best place to go poking around for one when in Paris? Also, I have been wondering about some old plates I found - are these pierrade plates?

Cute!

Do you think that could have something to do with the way it was cut? ← By us or by the butcher? It didn't -- to my recollection -- appear to be cut significantly different from a U.S. flank steak. And we cooked it as we usually do, and sliced it thin and against the grain when we served it. I think it just wasn't that swell of a piece of meat to begin with. ← So in the States, it does not come already sliced into individual steaks? So far I have not seen it offered whole. He lays it flat on the board and aligns it, and then makes a nice show of cutting it diagonally into as many individual steaks as you're asking for and then puts it away. What attracted me to the bavette at first was watching him cut the steaks for another lady. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. My husband was actually quite suprised that they were so melt in the mouth delicious, because his experience with them had always been just as you describe, dry and stringy ones served in cafes. This prompted me to start asking about that particular delicious tender and juicy kind of bavette (d'Aloyau) and what made it so wonderful - completely different from the ones that are dry and stringy. They have this thing they call Pierrade in Lyon, a hot stone at the table, you get the meats on the side and cook them up yourself. It reminds me of this Korean thing where they bring out hot cast iron pans and you do the same thing. I think it's their way to handle the stringy type of bavette, now if I can figure out which of them is the stringy kind so I can make sure only to get that for fajitas, pierade, maybe Mongolian hotpot... The bavette de flanchet?

I think it was the year 1999, Jamie, in Los Angeles, and at the Trader Joe's there, and we were both in line. Myself and a rather attractive older man. It was that time of the year that they had the little mini rose plants by the door. I remember this clearly because they didn't have my wine that day and I was in a hurry to get somewhere, but the rose plants attracted me. You (I mean this man) came up to me and asked me (I'm not sure why you chose me except at that time I kept my hair in a close low chignon and sported double breasted herringbone to work. ) and you asked me - what is Arugula? I was a bit taken aback because I don't talk to strangers like you talked to me. So I told you. You stayed in line with your purchase, so I assume you were happy with the answer. The truth is, I only knew because my sister has been dropping "arugula" into every food related conversation she can since - yes, the year 1995, I think. She is no granola type. She shops strictly at the hypermarkets. So even when Arugula was available in the mid-90s, there were some people near the turn of the century who still weren't sure what it was. My question was and is, I mean, relational radar screen through retrospective lens and all that, can we really count on Lam's 50/50 analysis of the salmon thing?

Do you think that could have something to do with the way it was cut?

Thanks Ed! I'll certainly look into it and report back to this thread.

Thanks, mharpo for the article, and degusto & ScorchedPalate for the valuable info rescources! As you can see, this butcher paper gives no particular additional insight but I thought it might be nice to put it up to give this thread some ambiance... (this paper comes from the butcher in the neighborhood who stays open on Sundays and from whom I buy meat from time to time.)

I often observe that people wait at the table for example at my in-laws, until my mother in law says "bon appetit", and then everyone begins eating. Perhaps its just the rhythm that the household has taken... Or is there a custom or rule behind it? At other homes where I have been a guest, everyone eats right away. What's the best way to tell people to eat right away? Sometimes, especially when I am hosting for 10 or 12 people, and am serving plates, I want to express this and am not sure what is the best way.

I have found that not only does the food being served enter the conversation, but it is, at least in my experience, always part of the conversation at the table here in this country. In fact, one of the things that really caught me off guard when we first began to entertain here, is that after the first few bites, the questions would begin to fly about my recipes, like a kind of guessing game about every ingredient, from people I barely knew! What did you do to season that sauce? Why do you call this sauce a sabayon? How did you accomplish that? Where did you get this idea? What's your source for this and that? Do I taste juniper berries? What type of fish did you use for the stock? The cheese in your bechamel? Your bouquet formula? What kind of butter did you use for the pate brisee? People would then begin to debate definitions and sometimes the best way to cook something. This got on my nerves the first few times, I'm not sure why but the French way was quite strikingly different from what I was used to. It might be the custom only among my French family and acquaintences, however. I got used to it.

Yes, I agree that I should specify that I intend it to be for cooking and see what the butcher's commentary is on the matter. It is pretty important that the packaging be able to withstand the cooking process, and most of all be a safe material for cooking.

Do you really bring your seasonings to add to the packet? I have considered it.

Please tell me more about this one.

Wow. It's all I can say! Wow!

I wonder if that's the reason why these days we see "Entree Libre" signs in the windows. To assure people that they won't be automatically expected to buy something if they go in the shop?

Thank you, ptipois and felice for the clarifications. Greetings mark the start and end of our direct exchange with a shopkeeper or in the case of a restaurant, with the waiter, and need not begin the moment we enter the door. Under normal circumstances, no one expects a person to announce their entrance and greet a group where there are more than two or three people involved. I think Ptipois' example of a kid glove shop is a good one. If you don't know the people in the line or a shop containing more than a few people, no need to say bonjour until you are served. If some of your neighbors are in the shop, and it's a place you go often, by all means, say hello to everyone!

Nicolai, thank you! That covers two of them. From what I now understand there are three more, for a total of five types. (this information comes from my husband who heard it from the butcher and was looking over my shoulder as I responded to this post.) I guess there's some footwork for me to do. If anyone else knows of the other types I'd love to hear them.

Just to update those who don't have access to French TV or radio, the press has recently been abuzz with the subject of prejudice and discrimination of various kinds, which started with an analysis of why the kids of the suburbs were not alright when the riots broke out. Over time, it has expanded into more discussion of other issues, from unspoken policies not to hire overweight people, a recent sting to catch a real estate agency that marked their files with special codes to indicate the race and nationality of apartment seekers, to stories of Eastern Europen immigrants changing their names in order to give their children a chance to integrate here. My exposure to the news is radio and the newspaper only, since we don't watch anything but films from time to time on television. Whether descrimination of people by their nationality has anything to do with service in a restaurant, there may be some stereotypes about Americans that linger among waitstaff in some of the more touristy areas and depending on a waiters personality some people might sense this. I would say it's an exception rather than the rule, however. I do think that the basic French/American difference about who says "bonjour" first, as felice thoughtfully noted above can add fuel to any fire that may exist.

Excellent summary of the water issue, Meg. I will add that sometimes when visiting someone's home you may be offered ice. If you say yes, expect one single ice cube.

I ordered a bavette at the butcher and he was quite happy to announce that he had a really nice one at the time, which he said was a "bavette d'aloyau". I always thought that there was only one kind of bavette, one of your common cuts. You get this when you're trying to save money. My husband was not too excited about it when I announced what we were going to have for dinner, because he said that the ones he gets in the average cafe or bistrot with frites are often tough and stringy. I didn't do anything special to them, I just pan seared them and seasoned them with some salt and mignonette. They were amazingly flavorful and delicious, and melt in your mouth tender. I was pretty happy about that and imagined rolling it up with and herbed farce on the inside and roasting it, it was so tender and delicious. The next time I went to the butcher I asked him if I could have some more bavette d'aloyau. He said he didn't have any that day but offered me another type of bavette. How many types of bavette are there? How do you best ask in a restaruant ask what kind you're getting since they are often just offered as "bavette"?

Not long ago, a woman in front of me at the butcher shop asked for her purchase to be sealed up for sous vide. Apparently he is equipped for this and will seal it up if you ask. I hadn't known that my butcher offered this service. Can anyone tell me how common this is? I know that at the fois gras shops in Les Halles, they do this for you if you ask, but I'd never seen it at the butcher.

If, for example, a person enters a store, and they say "bonjour", should they expect that others stop what they are doing and respond to this greeting? If there is a line to get into the shop that is going out the door, (for example a butcher or a baker) at what point should someone say "bonjour", when they enter the line, or when they pass the threshold of the shop? I live in a fast moving metropolitain area, and the neighborhood where I live is a young one, and many of the kids (in their early 20s) coming into shops don't greet the room. No one seems to think this strange. Why? I do invariably greet the people with whom I deal with regularly coming into the shop, and again when we start our transaction. Most the time, they're busy with another customer and don't acknowledge the initial greeting. 90% of the time I enter a store and say "bonjour", the other clients behave as if I've said nothing. In fact I'm suprised if someone responds. Why is this?