bleudauvergne

My husband told me that recently the physics department at Ecole Normale Superieur Sciences welcomed a 12 year old student into the lab to assist in experiments to gain some insight into the life of a scientist, a project where children named what they wanted to be when they grew up, and then got to get some exposure on what their lives would be like in that profession. At the end of his work in the lab for a day, he wrote up his report: "All of the scientists were really nice and welcomed me by including me in their daily activities. 7 scientists asked me if I wanted to have cup of coffee."

My favorite food cooking smell is one that hits me at the door when I am tired at the end of the day. Although I love to cook, I also love to be cooked for! A co-worker and I shared an apartment for a few weeks when I first arrived in Beijing to work. The first couple of weeks had been extremely stressful and tiring for me, and I was dead tired one evening, beginning to worry about what I was going to eat, knowing I was too tired to go out, and had nothing in the fridge. The perfume of a delicious beef stew hit me when I opened the door. My co-worker handed me a beer, sent me straight to the livingroom, took my shoes from my tired aching feet, and then we enjoyed a wonderful meal she had prepared. She has since become one of my best friends and remains so even though she is now in L.A. and I'm in France.

Well, as luck has it, Loic convinced me that we must go where no man has gone before and try out Le Chalut in St. Malo. Believing that the restaurant would have no tables one day out, I promised if he could get us a reservation I'd agree to go. He called and the waters parted - they have a table for 2 for tomorrow. It was so easy to get a table he says he hopes it wasn't a mistake... I will be reporting on this meal after the weekend. (lolo cancelled la Duchesse Anne...) Auberge St. Pierre sounds like it was just wonderful, and now I am fascinated with the idea of going back for a meal at la Duchesse Anne and also Delaunay. Loic's grandmother has a cottage in Lancieux and we've been there only once. She's invited us for next summer. Le Coquillage sounds like an option for lunch... We'll be leaving at 05h00 sharp in order to get there in time.

Alrighty then! Thanks for the tip, Moby! We'll have to go there too. I've just received a note from Loic. Hmmm. The gist of this message, for non-French speakers, is that there are two other restaurants that might be options, Le Chalut, and Delunay. Just for full coverage of this area, does anyone have first hand experience at these restaurants??

Thanks Gary. I sent a message to my husband to let him know that I want to make sure we're packed and ready tonight. I want to push off as early as possible in the morning in order for us to get there in plenty of time for lunch as well. The oysters idea is just right. I was a bit worried about the time it was going to take to get us there. The last time (3 years ago) we took 4 days to get there, but now I realize we didn't take any main roads and we were in a 1980 Peugeot 104... This time we'll take be taking the autoroute and be there in a half day.

We'll be going to St. Michel for the weekend and have tomorrow evening free. I tried to get into the restaurant gastronomique at Maison Bricourt but of course he's fully booked. I know, I must think ahead about these things. I have made a reservation at la Duchesse Anne in St. Malo.

The timer is my friend. I set it for everything, even when making soup.

Your ideas for the filo are nice. With thanksgiving, it's the good things that get repeated year after year, for us. If it worked last year, do it again is what I say! We've taken to serving a stuffed salmon as a first course, cut into slices and served with a lemon vinaigrette. A nice elegant way to begin the meal. This year, I am going to do Thanksgiving differently and break it all down into courses. It gives people a better chance to really understand and discuss what's being served. Thanksgiving for me is usually for a full table of mostly French people, and normally I serve a starting course, something I never did before we came to France, and then the rest all at once. The starting course gets the meal off to a good start, it's something they're comfortable with. However, I have noticed that people get overwhelmed with all that's on the table and don't try everything. The first time this happened (people not taking stuffing, etc.) I was suprised but I realize that they really don't have a history with these things and even if you say "You must have some stuffing" they nod and smile and sometimes still don't take it. So this year I am going to think of how I can compose the meal in such a way that it's a nice step by step intoduction to our traditional Thanksgiving foods without force feeding the guests and not straying too far from the all out feast aspect - I usually have at least 3 or 4 Americans at the table, I can't let them down! A discussion of hors d'oeuvres is welcome here - I'd love to see what other members are serving!

Reminds me of that funny film l'Aile ou la Cuisse, when Monsieur Directeur of the Guide Duchelin goes into that roadside joint and hides in little glass beakers samples of the food and wine he is served -

Interesting topic. I stand by andiesenji's point about the breed. The breed definitely does affect taste. If it's your priority to do some research into that you'll be in a better position to choose a chicken that's more likely to taste better. For my normal everyday chicken, I buy from my butcher who has sourced a very good product. Although they are are raised in open air, most importantly, they are a breed that are on the whole slow growers, instead of the requisite 6 weeks for your average industrial chicken to reach 1,2 kilos, they are rasied to a 1,2 kilo weight in 12 weeks. They taste much better. Another lab experiment is this: Break 2 eggs, one free range and one from the industrially raised chicken, and take a look at them. I've noticed that the yolks are larger and darker from the free range chickens. Does this make the better egg? I think so.

I made jiaozi on Sunday. If I can't get to chinatown for the ground pork that has lots of fat, I add fat. I have used duck and goose fat with great success. I also use ginger. This time I included re-hydrated black free fungus. I am also from the school that makes their own skins. Wow Jason it looks like you had lots of fun! I love your pictures.

Wow - after seeing your pictures I want to go back to Beijing, if just for the beef noodle soup that I miss dearly. Oh please hzrt8w, please do post the recipe. Looks like you had a wonderful trip, kangarool.

Milt, don't worry. You don't have to speak French to understand the customs here. Understanding what the customary exchange here between waiters and clients in a cafe is really enough to keep you from feeling singled out. The waiters treat everyone with the same indifference...

I too felt like we'd just barely gotten started when we had to bid our charming guests farewell. Like I said we should have started Monday and continued our conversation on Tuesday. In all fairness although we did drink 4 different wines, there was at least 1/2 a bottle of the muscat leftover (the last of which I added to a chicken liver pate in the middle of last week - it was really much too high quality for that but I'm glad I did it because it imparted a wonderful flavor) and nearly half of the cremant from the kirs which had to be consumed quickly before it lost its bubbles, there was a good bit left and it was delicious the next day with leftover soup... So it was 3 bottles, really.

On the one hand, I don't know of any restauranteur who does not take press reviews seriously. I think Bux is right in his statement that one glowing review can assure steady clientele for a long time. However this point about the difference between French and American press is interesting to note. My next question is what, then, for the French, makes a restaurant the fashionable new find? If not the press, what is it? I've edited this after reading the thread more carefully.

Last night this subject troubled me. I was flipping through this month's French Saveurs and ran across a blurb on exactly what Margaret describes, a young chef that has worked in great kitchens and has decided to open a small place in the 14th where the locals adore him. I think he has something like 16 couverts. A very saveuresque photo shows him in the door of the place with a nice view of the rustic simplicty of his decor. It was a glowing report about how it was the highest quality fare at a reasonable price and in a cozy atmosphere, even the wine list is great value. This is just the gem we are always searching for. Hmm, we should go there next time we're in Paris was my first thought. But the thoughts that came at me from there were - I bet they're innundated right now, it's probably impossible to get a table. I wonder how long that's going to last now that they've blabbed it in Saveur. I then thought of the type of people like me, who can't really afford to dine out often, so when we do, its a very careful choice with much anticipation, and what the experience would be like if I went to this restaurant and found it lacking after such a glowing review. Imagine the pressure that a press review for a small operation puts on them, Bux mentions this in his post. Of course some restauranteurs have the mettle to ride it out, and become the old standbys. But when something like that comes out, they better not be taken by suprise or else it will be the ruin of the place. I have to agree with Busboy about sharing info among friends on good places. Usually that's how we find the best places (by that I mean good at a price we can afford) here in Lyon. We don't much take written reviews into account, unless they are reinforced by the opinion of someone we know who's eaten there. Now that I've added not one iota of clarity to this subject, I will go back to work!

It's true that it can, but not all the time. In most circumstances people get their bread and get back home without exchanging more than a bonjour...

Then this phenomenon of chefs claiming rights over dishes if is a myth? I have seen this mentioned Here. In fact there are several lines of discussion in this thread that indicate the general belief that being the first to serve a dish or publish a recipe means that it is stamped with your "signature". I refer also to Nutcake's recollection of a conversation with chef George Morrone: It seems as if there is some crossover of ideas. In this thread, bourdain's mention of "signature" dishes is clearly understood as an indication of quality, and further discussed in that context. I saw that the word "signature" was questioned as if a criteria for that term could be determined by someone other than the chef. Things are getting hazier. Hazy about whether "signature" means it is uniquely yours (as in intellectual property), an indication or label of high quality, or means that clientele are familiar with a dish particular to one restaurant and it is a fixture on the menu.

I think Hermann Van Beeck got a little carried away there, with his description, replacing the urge to touch with the action in his mind. To touch? It's certainly not looked upon in a friendly way in the boulangeries here. I'd say yes, the smell upon entering a boulangerie, choosing your loaf if it's in the way of doing things at that bakery, yes, that's common, asking questions if they feature a bread that I'm not familliar with. But not touching. No. In fact if I went into a boulangerie where people off the street were allowed to touch the bread I was going to buy, I'd think twice about purchasing my bread there. You do see people squeezing baguettes in grocery stores where they're out for self service, mainly due to their general mistrust that the bread's fresh. As for the drive throughs, we will only see these when a boulangerie is located in a place generally inaccessible by foot from a large enough population to support their business. The drive through concept is bascially to keep turnover at a rate that supports the viability of the business. For the French, fresh bread at mealtime is a very important part of the meal. The actual process of purchasing the bread can take on a ritual aspect in certain circumstances, weekends for example, when neighbors meet and share pleasantries if there is any significant line, but not at all times. It's a very quick interaction in most circumstances. Go, state your loaf, receive it, give exact change if possible and run back home to the table! As long as the drive through does not replace my neighborhood boulangerie, I say more power to 'em. Bring on the bread! I have also seen drive through operations just outside of Lyon. I think that the bakery claiming they are the first in France to do this may mean that they are the first in the Paris area to open up an operation of this kind.

Hi Pamela - We recently here in France have seen a surge of great new small press olive oils, some of the most wonderful coming from Italy. They are lovingly presented by French shop owners much in the manner of wines. We compare and contrast samples from any number of presses, and all are available for sale by the bottle. I know that Olive oil, being an important national product consumed all over Italy, is of course readily available to everyone where you are, but can you tell me about how this product is seen and consumed on a day to day basis where you live? Do Italians go out olive oil tasting like the French do? Thank you for sharing your time with us this week.

In following the Dishes that Passed the Test of Time thread, I was curious about mentions of sorrel and fish. The first time I had oseille (sorrel) was here in France, when I ran across it in recipes, mainly soups, and saw it at the market. My instinct at first taste told me to stuff a wild sea bass with it, and I assumed that it must be a classic combination, it was a natural match. It's also fabulous rolled in a sole fillet with a little farm butter and fleur de sel... I then discover that the seabass sorrel is "signature dish" of someone. And someone else has the "signature dish" of sorrel and salmon. I have questions about the "signature dish" in general. 1) How is a "signature dish" defined? Is it the exact way a dish is presented by the chef, the exact result on the plate that makes it the signature dish? (I notice that people have lamented changes in color of certain signature dishes from one visit to another); i.e. not just a part of a chef's repetoire but somehow consistently presented with a certain unique something that makes it the consistent "signature" of a chef? 2) What rights (legal or ethical) does a chef hold (by his own claim or the general opinion of the public) over a "signature dish"? For example I have seen threads on these boards where a chef was criticized for serving something similar to a signature dish of another restaurant without giving credit. Thank you for your insights on any of the above questions.

Jack, do you remember the names of those two blue cheeses?

You know, hathor, I was just looking at loose black peppercorns at the store tonight! Thinking that I want to do that very soon. I really want to try it with black or white peppercorns because I think it would be really good. I haven't tried the flavor trio in the octopus for the reason that I only had coriander and szchuan pepper loose. I usually buy black pepper in those disposable grinders because I usually manage to destroy expensive pepper grinders in one way or another. I did prepare the octopus when Bux came over for dinner last week. Here's a link to the thread about having Bux to dinner For that meal, Everything I prepared barring the aperetif toasts, bread and dessert was ok to eat on Montignac. I could have done just fine not eating those things. I just don't know about the celeryroot, my mind's eye keeps including it when I think about accompaniments to various things. And it's so easy to prepare. It would be lovely with fish, with liver, pork... When I served it with the chicken livers, it wasn't crunchy. But with the octopus for Bux, I put it on a celery root remoulade, cold, like ludja describes. I also like to cube it and give it a head start in the microwave, 1 or 2 minutes on high with a little bit of water, until it's partly cooked, then to sautee it in duck or goose fat. Salted, it's better than potatoes.

Mottmott: Does the board change color and stay that way? Or does it go back to its dry color? I will make no excuses for Ikea, I have one and I also have the family heirloom board, plus the necessary plastic ones that I use all the time... I don't treat my 50 year old board with half as much care as my ikea board... I rub the cheapo liberally with edible mineral oil about as often as I oil the furniture... It does the trick. It's still in good condition after many months... Many years from now, I just don't know... but the board hasn't suffered much so far with a moderate treatment with the oil. It could take more, it has to be put on rather heavily due to it absorbing fast, like you said. It's true, it never takes on a "sheen" of any kind.

Jack, how far in advance can you make the pizza dough? It looks very good. I have been checking in and the photo on the webcam is changing with time... I love it!