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And yes, i forgot to mention that part, I must have heard this a hundred times!!!!

There is also café serré which is a concentrated version of half the size of an traditional expresso. I did two or three summer stints while in high school in a popular italian trattoria in Paris. For some reason, Italian tourists always ordered café serré or caffè ristretto as they called it. It seemed to me that serving a French regular expresso to the average Italian was like serving a café allongé to the average French. Is this true?

Besides the regular homous bil tahine, many variations are also possible. Some people like to add spiced ground meat on top of homous and eat it with arabic bread. I normaly judge the quality of a middle eastern restaurant by the quality of their homous bil tahine, it doesn't involve complicated ingredients but is all about balance between chickpeas, tahini and lemon (which if you are really fussy about is not always easy to achieve ). In many homes, people will like to add their little touch to this classic dish to make it a little different, I have seen people add orange juice to it, I like to add a little yogurt to make it creamy. I also love dried chickpeas as snacks which is very common in some parts of the middle east. They can be prepared in many different ways and this website (click on the chickpeas section) gives a good idea of what is available.

Even if it's not, please, please find that recipe you published in Saveur anyway...

What is a charmoula?

Although it is not sold on the street technically, your remark makes me think of the Pissaladiere which is very common in Provence, it is in my opinion another example of the simplicity and beauty of French cuisine. Pissaladiere is nothing but a French Provencal interpretation of pizza with olives, onions, garlic and anchovies amongst other things.

For books on good old French homecooking in French, I would recommend the books of the late Ginette Mathiot or the books of Francoise Bernard. There is also the more rustic (and comic sometimes) Maïté who published numerous books.

You're right, what really shocked me when i first came to live here was the amount of people on the streets you'll see munching and walking at the same time, amazing!! Good thing you mentionned crepes that I forgot about and beignets (I guess the french counterpart of a doughnut) which I believe you can still find sold on the streets of Paris, they are good examples of classic "French fast food". How about "gauffres" (waffles?) which for many years were found in "kiosks" throughout the various Parisian parks. And in the winter another favorite Parisian quick snack is roasted chataignes (chesnuts) which you will see many vendors roast on top of custom made steel drums and sell on the streets. So the French do snack after all!!

This is true however, even if snack culture in France is certainly not comparable to other countries in terms of variety, it does not mean it doesn't exist. The snack "par excellence" in France is still the one you could find in your corner Boulangerie for instance. There is a common misconception here in the US that your traditional viennoiserie is just breakfast food. In France it actually is more than that. Croissants, pains au chocolat, pains aux raisins, pains aux lait, chaussons aux pommes which you can find at every French street corner practically, also constitute a typical light snack that the French will eat throughout the day. In addition, there is a tradition almost evolving around the French "quatre heure" (four o'clock snack) which for many kids in France who are coming out of school (and grown ups coming out of work) will often consist of a viennoiserie of some sort. For a more substantial lunch type of snack, there is the classic and ubiquitous baguette sandwich of jambon/saucisson beurre, jambon fromage, thon crudites... I do not recall ever seeing one boulangerie that does not sell it. When I was living in Paris I have seen quite a few frenchmen/women sitting on a park bench for lunch savoring a jambon beurre, without a knife or fork . This is a "french fast food" concept that still hasn't taken hold here in the US.

Correct, and the most famous case in point:

I think this explains very well why we should also post cooking related matters on the France forum. There is more to a dish than just a recipe. By discussing French cooking in the France forum, members who do not know much about it are given an opportunity to learn in a context that goes beyond what we may read or know through cookbooks. I also agree with Chefzadi's point that there is much more to French cooking than we may think. Food culture and cooking styles in France are divided into a myriad of sub regions that often differ drastically from one another. I think the France forum is a better venue to have those discussions than the cooking forum.

I haven't eaten his food at firebird, and given the path he is currently taking, I also think that he hasn't quite found his niche yet. Like you, I hope he opens his own restaurant soon. I actually got to chat with Nieminen a few months ago after a cooking demo he was having at williams sonoma in the Time warner bldg. Just by talking to him, you could tell that the man has talent, he is also extremely amiable. My wife really liked him!!!

I believe the pairing with the 9 course tasting menu is usually set at $150, when I was there the staff at Per Se didn't make it seem like we had an option for less (that is if we wanted all our courses to be paired with a different wine). One other option you may want to consider is to order half bottles instead of going with the pairing. Per Se has a great half bottle list in the $60 to $100 range. We were also four on the day I went and we ended up spending about $400 on wine for a selection of 5 half bottles.

I generally do this if I find myself in a similar situation. I figured that if I am already spending $200 or $300 on dinner, it won't kill me to fork in an extra $10 or $15 just to make everyone happy.

I like the LEBANESE made Cortas or Al Rabih brands over here, because the Lebanese do make the best version . Seriously though, whenever I can I try to get the stuff straight from my grandma's stash. she has wonderful rose bushes and uses the fragrant roses to distill her own "ma ward". The smell of the stuff cooking is unforgetable. Unfortunatly, and obviously, only a small quantity is produced from several kilos of roses so supply is limited. Elie ← I also use the same brands (for the same reason Elie stated above ). I would love to know what is the basic method behind preparing rose water. It is just one of those things that I always took for granted. Provided that it requires as you said a serious amount of roses, I don't know why I never thought it could be made at home from scratch, what is generally used to make ma' ward the petals only? the buds?

How is it called in arabic?

On my list too, thanks for the info

Interesting, i am actually not familiar with this. If this appears in Southestern Turkish cuisine then logically it should have crossed the border futher south (and opportunites for this to happen were plentiful in the past 500 years!! ) I'm curious to know if this is also used in some parts of Syria, Lebanon, or other countries in the region...

Well, if i may add a few suggestions for a frenchified version of mana'ich, (a thing or two i grew up with as a french lebanese ): For all of these, zaatar is intially mixed with olive oil, i like mine to "run" somewhat so i add more oil than usual: zaatar on an open baguette toasted, zaatar on pain de mie toasted zaatar stuffed in croissant warmed in the oven zaatar on puffed pastry baked (my favorite) And for the stuff i learned here in the US: zaatar on pillsbury crescent dough. *Now i was highly dubious about this one until my step mother from lebanon came to visist us here and made this for breakfast. Trust me, it is phenomenal..*

Not sure but that may be the one Yes, a good example of Parisian "joie de vivre", a loooong brunch "en terrasse" under the first rays of warm sunshine in May. How I miss it so much..

it is also known as "sfiha".

can be used. My maman sometimes did this as well. My maman would probably add all the indgredients for lentil soup pretty much at once. Whereas I saute the aromatics first, than add the rest of the ingredients in steps according to how long they take to cook. ← I'm sure this: is already lots of flavor!! What kind of consistency and texture do you look for in this soup? How much liquid is needed generally?

Indeed it does sound good, thanks Chefzadi, I'll definitely try this recipe, hopefuly this week end.

I'm glad you liked it!! Again, this is a slight variation from a classic lebanese recipe which i learned from my dad. The "extra layer" of scented olive oil is really what makes this dish great, and this is certainly not my idea, it is an essential step in making a classic "adass bi hamod". As we say in Lebanon, Sahtayn!!!!

That's right, a sort of hotel style "ptit dej" at noon instead of 8am. Do you know if brunch is common outside of Paris or is it a Parisian thing?