Abra

Well, for example, here I took a photo of people in the restaurant, but in order to convey the effect, I tried to make them more or less unrecognizable, which is all I'd dare do without permission..

Daniel, while I'd never claim that these photos "stand up to" professional photos, they were taken without flash and without fuss, in an admittedly well-lit restaurant. I think they do a good job of helping people decide whether this is the sort of restaurant they'd enjoy, which is an important function in itself. Sure, a pro can take a more beautiful shot, but as we know, some truly appalling foods can be made to look appetizing by a professional photographer.

Holy cow, Markk. That's all I can say, holy cow. That's some crunch, and some chutzpah. Bravo.

I'm so looking forward to watching how this develops. When we moved to France a month ago I left a jar of my soaking fruits with Chefpeon, a true pastry chef, so she could make Black Cake while I'm away. The rest I left to soak for another year, which is also cool, so long as it doesn't explode all over the garage!

I might ask him what was the one thing he never did and most wished to still do, then base the theme on that wish. A "make a wish" cake, in other words.

Lately I've been told "bonne continuation" after a second or third course is presented, which I find to be kind of an industrialized form of politesse. Like being on a train after a stop. Non?

I put some nice restaurant food photos, my first in France, right here. No one gave me a moment's notice. No flash, of course. I'm glad to hear that brik is easier to work with than phyllo. We have feuilles de brik in the stores and a deep fryer, so I have no excuse not to master this ingredient.

Quick, put this place on your list of places to go in Avignon A 2 Pas du Potager! This is a wonderful little place with impeccably prepared, inventive, and delicious food for a very reasonable price. I've put a more complete review here on French Letters but here are some photos of Chef Didier Mariani's lovely food to encourage you to go. We had the pleasure of meeting etalanian and her husband in Avignon last night and I know she wants to post more pictures from this dinner, so these are just teasers. You'll need a car to dine there, as it's outside the city center, but only by a few minutes of slightly confusing driving. He makes excellent use of a Paco Jet, by the way. A tiny amuse gazpacho of the summer's last garden tomatoes, a mussel, and some fennel sprouts. A 2 Pas grows nearly all of its own fruits and vegetables. Awesome house-made rolls leavened only with a natural fruit starter made mostly from apples. My starter of scallop carpaccio with a tiny dice of beets and green beans, a drizzle of apple honey vinegar, and little piles of caviar. And when you're there, if you get a chance to order this wine, do. It's brilliant.

I love them in stock, and our dear departed dog used to love them too, but that parm oil idea is new to me and really neat. I've got to make some of that!

I'm with you all on the need to feed, but I think there's something else going on too. For me it's a lot about seeing some beautiful thing in the market that won't or might not be there next week and needing to take it home. Right now, here in the south west of France, it's quinces, jujubes, the last gorgeous tomatoes and basil. I have a primal need to put that stuff in my basket and give it a good home. So I've been making quince chutney and roasted tomatoes with basil and cranberry beans with sage, the stuff I'm afraid I won't see again until next year.

We're thinking of a lunch in Millau next week on the way back to Uzès through the Cévennes park after visiting Dave Hatfield (hurray!) On viamichelin.com I see a blurb about La Braconne that makes it sound good. Has anyone eaten there, or anywhere else really nice in the area?

Thanks, Dave and Pti! It looks like one can buy from the Carrefour selection online, but I don't have a fidelity card so I can't see what they're offering. If anyone has the card, can view the list of wines, and sees some really good buys, please tell us about them.

No, I didn't, because I assumed that the selection changes each year, non?

I see lots of low prices at the Carrefour foire, but I have no idea what to buy. Can you guys post any great buys you've found at this year's foire aux vins? For example, here's a website that makes certain selections, but I don't know whether it's a reliable source.

I made a nice, spicy quince chutney today and wrote about it here French Letters but I still have a lot of quinces left, so more ideas will be welcomed!

My neighbor just brought me a huge bag of quinces from his tree. I'll make membrillo for sure, as I do every year from jackal10's lovely recipe, but I'd like to do some sort of chutney as well, or mostarda, or both. For a chutney I'm thinking that I have fresh ginger and some grey Provencal shallots, but what else might I add? And did anyone ever get a great mostarda recipe together?

Thanks, Pti. We were all prepared to try these, but for the reasons explained here we didn't get a chance.

This is a really fun melange of cultures! About that Thai chicken rice, before we were living in France our neighbors were Thai, and when they served us the chicken rice they explained that the secret is that all of the skin is left on the chicken while the rice is cooking, so the rice absorbs all the fat and flavor from the skin. It was indeed delicious.

I'm sorry that my trip to Paris made me miss the last day of your blog, but I want to join in the chorus of thank yous. Estonia is a country that doesn't get enough publicity, so most of us knew very little before this week. You've opened our eyes in a wonderful way, and I thank you for all of your lovely efforts.

We'll be in Paris tomorrow with, if we're lucky, 3-4 hours to try to stock up on Asian groceries. It looks like Tang Freres is closed on Mondays - can anyone point me to a good source of Asian groceries that's sure to be open?

Thanks, Lorinda, I'm with you! I use a scale and an instant read thermometer to the extent that I stuffed them into my luggage with my knives when we recently came to live in France. I vote for giving both volume and weight, temperature and eyeball view. As with professionals, there's a whole range of home cooks and bakers, and some are quite sophisticated. Maybe send Saveur a link to this thread?

Salade de museau as I have seen it, which was really in Geneva and not in France so far, was actually a salad of diced cow muzzle bits. I wouldn't think of it as user friendly, unless the user were...peculiar. But I've had a head cheese here, cervelat, which was made from pig's head and quite delicious, but nothing like the cow nose salad. I've also had tête de veau, sort of on a dare, and all I can say about that is thank the kitchen goddess for sauce verte!

Well, to be fair, their Vietnamese food might be better, since they advertise Thai but are really Viet. My home Thai cooking is ten times better than theirs. I wouldn't say it's truly vile, but it's ridiculously expensive in any case for what you get, so you decide if it deserves the red triangle of shame.

Do we have an Avoidance Map? If you read online, as I did, that Le Vietnam in Nimes is a good source for authentic Thai food, just walk on by. I wish we had!

Pille, if you make it down here you've got to make that savory French toast for me, it looks so good! I like eel a lot, what would you typically do with them? I've been in a Stockmanns in Helsinki, and what I remember is all the beautiful-looking prepared foods they had for a solo traveler to take back to her hotel room, and how helpful they were about trying to speak English. I guess Finns expect that no one speaks their language, and I'm guessing it's much the same with Estonians.