blackduff

BUX My friend is also American but lives on the outskirts of Toulouse. His fall was not related to a car/bike situation. He's just got into a bad road situation and knocked himself out, along with eight teeth. He woke up in the hospital and didn't remember anything. I live not too far from Bezier-right near Collioure. In fact I'll be riding to Collioure on the weekend with my bike. BlackDuff

BUX "My 60 yeaqr old American friend is one of the juniors in the group with which he rides. In variably he has to work hard and often pedal fast just to reach some of his elders in the next village before they're off again sharing the roads with cars in the Languedoc." Does your friend live in the Toulouse area by any chance. I know someone around the same age who just had an accident riding those same roads. I ride in this area twice per week and haven't had any problems, so far. In general, I find the drivers pretty respectful of the riders. Older drivers are the worst-they just don't see you and/or cannot judge distance well enough to be safe. Like your friend, I'm over sixty and have to pedal really hard to keep up with the others in the group. BlackDuff

Road Rage is alive and well in the UK. BlackDuff

I can't imagine anyone serious about wine, listening to anything Jilly Goolden has to say. What a load of rubbish! BlackDuff

Suvir I can't find cranberries here. What else can be used to replace the cranberries. I know that you mentioned sour cherries, which may be available here some time during the year. In December I won't find them either, I don't think. Any suggestions would be appreciated. BlackDuff

Here are a few other sites which list properties for rent in the Midi of France. http://www.cheznous.co.uk/ http://www.countrycousins.co.uk/framefront.htm http://www.franceonecall.com/ http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/index.cfm...s/reg_refno/266 This should give you some ideas of what is available and how much it will cost. Although the Pyrenee Oriental region has great weather most of the time, three star restaurants are not exactly plentiful here. It is close to Spain and Roses so you could jump across the border to El Bulli. No connections with any of the sites noted, etc., etc. BlackDuff

The bread tastes wonderful. There's a big difference between bread which was baked in the gas ovens as compared to the electric ovens. I guess that this is also part of artisanal. Electric is more efficient but produces a harder and thicker crust. Gas, on the other hand, produces the traditional crust I associate with baguette. BlackDuff

But does "Artisanal" really mean something better than the bunch. I'll give you an example of my artisanal bakery. The guy has his oven in the same room as where they sell the bread. In the summer (and many times in the winter) the door is open to the street and people are walking in and out while he's preparing the breads for the oven. When he's making the baguettes, he arranges them on his long board for sliding into the gas fired oven. When he has the board full, he removes a razorblade from his mouth and puts small slices on the top of each baguette. That's artisanal. You decide if that's better than a clean factory environment. Since I'm not a clean freak, it doesn't bother me but artisanal isn't always what you expect. BlackDuff

Although I haven't read all four pages of this thread, it's clear that it's not clear yet. Please let me add to the muddle. To me, an artisan is someone who practices a trade. The guy who put in my kitchen cupboards is considered an artisan in France-especially if he's self employed. If he works for another company, he doesn't consider himself as an artisan. My neighbor is such a person. The guy who did the tile work in my house was an artisan. Likewise the electrician, plumber, etc.. The word Artisanal can have a negative connotation. In French they say "Cette exploitation est restée artisanale" which means "this exploitation has stayed too artisanale" meaning it's not organized enough or not industrialized. Bakers in France now have a standard when they hang out a sign saying that their bread is artisanal. This was introduced about two years ago. I can't remember the exact details but supermarkets can no longer claim to have artisanal bread. It's meant to protect the smaller bakeries and give them a reason to charge a bit more for their products. My dictionary also lists another related word. It's "Artisanalement" and would mean "In a manner artisanale, without machines or organization complex". How these words are evolving in the US can be completely different than here in France and this doesn't mean that the new meaning is wrong. It's just different. Obviously this will not be the last word on this subject. BlackDuff

There is a lot of grilled meat dishes too. These are real nice. Be prepared to (1) sit on the floor, (2) tackle whole roasted garlic cloves. Keep an open mind when it comes to dishes. I never found any bad Korean food while I was there. Inchon is just outside of Seoul so make sure you visit the various markets. Do a google search on Seoul and there's bound to be plenty of hits for the Seoul markets. Koreans use chopsticks but they're metal and very slippery for a westerner. If you have a chance, get some and practice before you leave. It's like eating with long needles. I loved it there and found everyone very easy to deal with on a personal and business level. Enjoy yourself. BlackDuff

I'm not sure of the name of the sausage but if you exit the duty free area and go downstairs to the train level there are supermarkets which offer a bigger choice than is found upstairs. Back inside the departure area, you can always look around at Dr.Müller's Sex Shop. I realize that there's a joke there but I don't want to go there right now. Enjoy your stop in Frankfurt. BlackDuff

Suvir I've eaten Indian food over many years. I guess that I've always liked hot and spicy foods and this was sort of included. I've worked all over the world and that means I've eaten in lots of different types of restaurants. Indian food usually will be on a menu at some of these places. Taiwan had a lot of Indian food. I found a lot in Korea too. Certainly all over Europe, and England especially, has a lot of Indian food. A friend here got me started doing the food myself at home. I bought a lot of the spices while I was travelling and loaded up my cupboards. I grind my own spices and have a friend here who imports and sells spices. He can get me most anything. Lately I've diverted my interest to Thai cooking. I make Thai types of curries about twice per week. I'm on a diet and the Thai cooking is helping to keep me slimmer. The Indian dishes had too much oil or ghee to consider dietetic. I bought a book on Indian cooking: "The Curry Secret" by Kris Dhillon. This has helped me to do a lot of basic stuff. I get a lot of ideas from the internet too. My wife is not a very willing partner for hot, spicy food. She likes the taste but does not want to make anything too hot. I'm starting to tone down the heat so she'll be able to eat with me. Food is an adventure for me now. I just have to watch my weight to make sure I don't get too chunky sampling all of these dishes. BlackDuff

I live in Southern France right near the border with Spain. I'm a bike ride away from the Mediterranean. My village is in the Pyrenees and I can see Spain from my living room. Here's a link to a web site I'm working on now. http://michael.macdonald.free.fr/ It shows some of this area. My village is listed-Sorede. The site is not commercially operational right now so there's no conflict in posting the URL. We have some ethnic restaurants but mostly this is French Catalan country. It's a nice area though. The snow stays in the mountains and the skiing is good in the winter. The wine is good, plentiful, and very cheap. That's a good combination. BlackDuff

It's too late now but on the next trip try Kalleran Aurora in Gamla Stan. Nice food and great atmosphere. Pricey but average for a Swedish restaurant in Stockholm. BlackDuff

There's been a lot on television the last few days here about Diwali. I wan't sure what it was. This was the first time I heard of it. I get television from England where there is obviously a lot of Indian people living there. Also, a lot of Brits are complaining about the fireworks-scaring the dog, etc.. Then, the description of the various foods made my mouth water. My wife and I are starting to do some Indian type of cooking and I'm interested in everything concerning the food. We can get some spices here and have been able to make some basic curries and a few other dishes. I have done a few web pages and your web site interests me too. I want to go back and have a better look. There's probably a lot to learn there, if not about the site itself, then about the content. I have just learned about egullet but I intend on being here often. BlackDuff

Suvir I enjoyed very much the story about the Diwali in NYC. I visited your site quickly and plan on returning to look around more later. I've learned some things tonight. Thank you. BlackDuff

I'm not sure if this thread is still alive or not but I wanted to add my two cents worth. There are some really nice and also very expensive restaurants in and near Sevilla. Oriza is an example. I've eaten there often but mostly when it was being covered by an expense report. The quality is good and so is the quantity but the menu is not typical of the area. This is a problem with many of the upper echelon of restaurants. They want to change the food to something artsy-fartsy to justify their prices. As an example, the simple dish of Almejas is lovely but places like Oriza want to use bigger clams or change it somehow so it doesn't resemble what's available in the rest of Sevilla. The manner of eating in Sevilla is also somewhat different than many people are accustomed to do. The dishes are placed on the table and everyone eats some of everything. You don't order your own specific plate but order a group of plates from which everyone partakes. If I had only one chance to eat in Sevilla again, it would be at the restaurant called "Los Cuevas" on Virgin de la Huerte in Los Remedios. This is near Triana but not quite there. The chef-well, I think she's the owners wife. The owner Antonio and his sons run this place. You have to get there early because it's always crowded. The type of food is typical Spanish dishes from Andalucia. If you arrive very late, they'll usually make sure you leave there fed. The choice of wines is large. They have a good selection of top Spanish wines. There are of course moderately priced wines too. They take reservations and will fill at lunch time too. Most of the clients are Spanish-very few tourists. The biggest attraction to this place is the ambiance. This is all important in Spain and something that wasn't mentioned in any of the earlier posts. If the restaurant is empty, it doesn't matter how good the food is there-you have to have ambiance. Tapas are good but if you want to eat well in Sevilla, make sure you give this place a visit. BlackDuff