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I am fixing a Sunday Brunch for a dear friend's birthday on Sunday (duh). She is an absolute freak about Coquille St. Jaques. My sister and I have looked at a few recipes and none of them seem just right. We could take what we think is good from each and come up with our own (a successful venture with other dishes) but I thought I would ask this august body of experts for their thoughts. Other items on the menu are likely to be a fruit cup, roasted asparagus (she loves that, too), french bread, champagne... what else? We probably won't do dessert because none of us are dessert eaters. We will probably go out shopping in Kemah and get a snowcone for a sweet later. Your eGullet brilliance, please!

Good evening. I moved to Paris 6 months ago. Survived the heat-wave and apartment hunt; finally am ready to start enjoying the city. I know nothing -- NOTHING -- about wine and am interested in learning the basics. Bought some books but would rather take a class. Could any of you recommend a good, very basic, introductory wine course that I could take to master the elementary lessons? Many thanks. Freckles in the 17th.

From The Guardian in London, in today's edition: Cuisine goes back to college Jon Henley in Paris Wednesday October 15, 2003 The Guardian Alarmed by a waning of France's global prestige in all things culinary, the government is to establish a university of gastronomy. "Haute cuisine these days is international: you can find great chefs and wine experts everywhere," Renaud Dutreuil, minister for consumer affairs and traditional businesses, told Le Parisien yesterday - acknowledging that, as gourmet tastes become ever more adventurous, many critics now say classic French cooking is crushed by tradition, and that better food can be eaten in Brussels, New York or even London. "France has to impose itself more visibly as the country of reference for taste," the minister said. "This university, the first of its kind in the world, will aim to do precisely that. It will become a sort of Harvard of taste." It opens next September at Reims in the Champagne country, and will accept 100 students - "French restaurateurs who hope to improve themselves, Americans in the food-processing business, great chefs from, say, Denmark or Japan" - for training in "arts of the table and French culinary history". Tutors would be historians, sociologists, chefs, biologists, and "great professionals in the trades of taste," the minister said. There would be offshoots for regional gastronomy and viticulture. "France is renowned for its cuisine, but it lacks a training tool to spread this knowledge across the world," Mr Dutreuil told the paper. "We need ambassadors who will represent our culinary heritage."

My friend just came back from France and brought me a huge back of herbes de Provence (150 grams), I have seen it called for in recipes before but have never actually used it......... What are some of your favorite uses?

As tourists in France, we always have fun at the supermarkets. Their hypermarches are unbelievable. We thought we saw the best last year when we stumbled upon an Hyper U in Pertuis. This year, we found a Carrefour on the outskirts on Nice that takes the cake. It had about 75 aisles, selling everything and anything. The workers are, unsurprisingly, on rollerblades. A beautiful place. If this is not enough, there are about 80 more stores in the complex as concessions, selling more things, food courts, etc. The French CD selection is good, french music is difficult to get in the US; it is also fascinating to look at the way their products are packaged, merchandised, and the different styles of items-- we got some wine bottle closers that pump the air out, we got some plastic "boules" that you put in the freezer, use them like ice in drinks except they do not dilute the drink!! Also some ice cube plastic bags that you fill up and use instead of ice trays.... Cheeses are fun, not as high quality as a cheese shop, and the saucisson selection is terrific. (Bring Tums) The only weird thing about these mega-stores are the parking lots-- they do not build adequate parking lots for the size of the store and the traffic they bring. People are parked caddy-corner, every which way, it's a maze to find your way, and the cars there are a lot smaller than American cars!! Very odd!! Does anyone else feel the way we do about shopping in supermarkets while on vacation? Any good Supermarket stories?

I did a search to see if this topic had been covered before and the closest I got was a discussion on Earthenware that drifted towards recommendations of Emile Henry products. I am looking for an authentic stoneware cassole into which I can make my authentic cassoulet. Not being able to read French, I am having a hard time even searching French sites for some place where I can mail order one and I have no friends travelling to that area any time soon. Any brilliant eGulleters out there with a source -- or someone in France want to help me buy one? Merci!

A note on the window of one of the better local butchers: Dear Clients, we cannot pluck, skin, or gut your wild game - please go to a qualified veterinarian. And in France, if you need wild mushrooms identified - take them to the pharmacist. God, I love this country sometimes.

Has anyone seen a site or store for the chefs jacket designer called Alaine Robineau ?? Or seen any other good chefs jacket retailers and designers?

A few days ago I read an article on a new trendy "foodie" bookstore in Paris, in the 10th or 11th, called "Food", but I'm unable to find their address or contact number. Anyone been there or know anything about it?

I decided to make couscous this weekend for a few friends. Normally this would involve five minutes work and a package of ‘instant’ couscous, as one of my friends would put it “This is the entire point of couscous, it’s better then pasta or rice because it involves no effort”. My friend is not a fan of ‘fancy’ cooking. I however, was curious to know how difficult it was to make couscous from scratch. So armed with instructions from Paula Wolfert’s “Mediterranean Grains and Greens” I set about obtaining the ingredients. No problem here, there are only two ingredients (or three if you count water) fine and coarse semolina. In the local Halal grocer I asked for the semolina, explaining that I was going to make couscous. Well this caused some confusion for the grocer, then great mirth. “Oh, you don’t make it, you use this instant couscous” and after explaining that I actually wanted to make it from scratch, “But, the instant is very good?”. Finally, after explaining that it wasn’t a matter the instant not being good, it to satisfying my curiosity. This the grocer could understand - I was clearly insane. Back in my kitchen, with the sound of a hysterically laughing Halal grocer echoing in my mind I questioned the wisdom of ‘Couscous venture 2003’, after all the only person I know to have made it from scratch, also mentioned a passing penchant for wearing pantaloons and listed horse-hair sieves as a vital part of kitchen equipment, I could see that this could be troublesome. Never the less, safe in the knowledge that my wife was at the gym for the next few hours and that any semolina disaster could be tidied/concealed before she can home I proceeded. Well, I followed the instructions. And do you know what? It was easy. Dead easy. Couscous makes it self. It transforms from flour to couscous before your eyes in such a way as to seem magical. I know the theory of how it works: the fine semolina flours binds to the individual grains of coarse flour, building up a tiny semolina pellet, as layers of semolina flour are added to the original semolina speck, in they same manner in which hailstones form. I know all this, but I still experienced a superstitious thrill from watching it occur. The first person to watch bread dough rise due to the action of yeast or taste fruit juice that had been tuned into wine by the same yeast must have experienced something similar. Roughly translated, this would be “Cool!”, possibly the response would have been even more enthusiastic in the latter case. Make couscous, it is easy and it is fun. It also tastes very good. Maybe, this is because of the pleasure derived from making it, but irrespective of this it tastes very good indeed.

I'm looking for recommendations for the best (and also the healthiest) cookbooks which are based on the cuisine of Alsace. Any advice please?

Discussion in some recent threads lead me to think about the position and status of pastry in France, as well as the reasons why many French chefs are drawn to America and elsewhere. A random collection of thoughts and questions... Obviously, the long tradition for fine pastry in France is deep rooted, as it has a place in daily life there that one could arguably assert is absent elsewhere. Is this assumption still valid? Has the globalization and homogenizing (some may say Americanization) of culture at large also affected the every day appreciation and consumption of pastry? As we read more and more often, from the New York Times to Gault Millau, French haute cuisine is perceived to be in crisis. Is it possible that French pastry, no doubt still the gold standard worldwide, may eventually suffer a similar fate, and perhaps find itself also in need of a public relations facelift? For aspiring students of the pastry profession, the system of education, apprenticeship, and working one's way up the ladder (and not to exclude the common inheriting of the profession from previous generations), appear to be based on log held standards, not just in France, but in Europe in general. Is this tradition still holding up? Are young teenagers still looking to commit to a metier at such an early age? Are there any flaws to this system of training? Or is it still considered the ideal? What do the short, accelerated programs, more common here in the US, say about us and the future of our industry here, and what does it say, if anything, about the people running these programs, a few of whom are indeed French? With a few exceptions (Frederic Robert, for instance, though he is, in a sense, ‘corporate’ pastry chef for the Ducasse empire), we likely couldn’t name many French pastry chefs whose domain is limited to the restaurant kitchen. Why is this? Why do patisserie-affiliated chefs seem to enjoy more recognition? In the culture of French dining, are the expectations of restaurant/plated desserts different from the expectations of take away pastry from a boutique? And just how much respect and status do pastry chefs, in general, find in France? Apart from the ‘branded’ names, like Lenotre or Thuries, is it the name with which the public identifies, or just the product? Outside the profession, how much weight does the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France hold? And so I come to the question of the appeal North America (not to exclude the UK, Japan, etc) has. What pulls some of France’s best pastry chefs away from their homeland? Presumably at the top of their game, why does a Payard leave Lucas Carton to end up at Le Bernardin, or a Torres, from a Maximin to Le Cirque? How did Sebastien Cannone, barely in-country, take the helm of the Chicago Ritz Carlton (in his mid-twenties), to later co-found perhaps the most influential pastry school in the US? What does it mean when an all French pastry team, representing the US, goes head to head in competition with a French pastry team, representing France? And what do the likes of Bajard, Caffet, or Brunstein, who visit the US periodically to teach and consult, what do they see in their audiences and classrooms? Are there freedoms here, an excitement here, that no longer exists at home? Are economic issues a consideration (weakened economies, stringent labor laws)? And what about competition or over-saturation? Are there simply too many pastry chefs in France? Apart from importing their styles and techniques, have they managed to inject some of their culture, that attitude and passion for pastry, into ours? Has the awareness here changed, to the point where an Herme could set up shop in a major city and succeed, where Lenotre tried and failed years ago? No doubt the French dominance and influence on American-born pastry chefs has existed for decades. But are the apprentices and students of these French masters beginning to form their own identity? Where will this generation of American pastry chefs go from that initial inspiration, and will they in turn inspire the work of pastry chefs in France and the rest of Europe? Have they already done so? Perhaps not overturning the tradition of decades of technique, but maybe influencing the spirit of their work? Is this good, bad, or just plain inevitable?

Nigel Wilmott's report on his walking tour of France didn't appear in our edition of the Guardian, but fortunately it's on their website. It makes the changes in the French countryside (and local eating) much more obvious than what is seen by those of us (including me) who traverse the country on four wheels. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,474...-110633,00.html

What are the foodie votes on Le Grande compared to the big box Hediard and Fauchon? With just a few days I want to hit the best not the touristy so all comments are welcomed. Cheers.

I've got a recipe from an American cookbook that calls for pancetta and I'm in France. Does anyone know what the charcuterie equivalent of this Italian meat would be here?

Paris Journal: THE ANTI-ANTI-AMERICANS, A summer of obsessions in France. Issue of 2003-09-01. Posted 2003-08-25. The article, in spite of my carefully chosen citation, is not at all about food, but worth reading to fans and critics of France and the French.

This great little bookstore in the 5ieme was one of a kind, and I'm wondering why it closed down a year or two ago...anyone have any inside info?

What follows is a loosly (google) translated article which appeared today on gastronomie.com. Looks interesting, though the book exists only in French for the moment, and I haven't yet seen any real reviews. Anyone read it? 11/09: Frederic Beigbeder counters Luc Lang PARIS, August 26 (AFP) - Frederic Beigbeder and Luc Lang tell on September 11 2001 in an opposite way: the energetic and narcissistic novel of the first, the feverish and committed account of the second who refuses, for such an event answers, to resort to the fiction. Former advertising executive, ex-organizer tele (Canal+), author of the best-seller "99 francs", always critical, Mr. Beigbeder is currently an editor at Flammarion. Its novel left at the end of August is entitled "Windows one the World", of the name of the restaurant which was located at the 107e stage of World Trade Center. "the only means of knowing what occurred in the restaurant (...), between 08H30 and 10H29, it is to invent it", known as the novelist by describing the last moments of a father and its two sons, small-lunching this morning "in the center of the universe". When the hell breaks out, the father made believe in Jerry and David who it is about a play: "say p' Pa, do not have you need to hide your superpowers longer", known as David. That is worth poignant pages on their ridiculous efforts to leave itself there. But what interests the author, it is the impact of the attacks on itself. To measure it, it from goes away, sometimes with his daughter, with the "Sky of Paris", the restaurant of the 56e stage of the Montparnasse tower. Of up there, it reflects on this tragedy, on New York, its childhood, its generation, expresses its admiration for the United States. "narcissism" the writing of the novel, which, admits the author, "uses the tragedy like a literary crutch", is fluid, inventive and Beigbeder is full with spirit. But the book, well party for success, will aggravate by the interest that the writer goes. Which, malignant or perverse, does not hesitate to be whipped, or to make seeming: "I show myself kindness in narcissism (...), I show myself to have gone on Canal+ to avenge me not to be a star (...), I show myself self-satisfaction disguised in denigration", writes it by thus enumerating 40 charges. "Windows one the World" hardly has relationship with "September 11 my love" of Luc Lang, published in August, which qualified the first work, in an interview with the New Observer, of "trick with large spectacle, advertising company". "And isn't your title, it advertizing? Why not will +Sabra and Chatila my chou+ or +Srebrenica my darling+?", Beigbeder answered. The work of Luc Lang - author of "Thousand six hundred bellies" (Goncourt of the high-school pupils) and who teaches esthetics in the Art schools - does not contribute in the same category: it is a road movie, a great report in extreme cases of the test and, with final, pitiless instantaneous of the United States. September 11, 2001, Mr. Lang travels in the sublimes landscapes of Montana, on the traces of the Blackfeet Indians. He discovers the images of the towers struck by the planes in a reserve of Browning. Missing its go with "the survivors of a génocide", it then sees America meurtrie, but also America "furbishing its weapons and building its revenge". "A speed light, the electric image precipitated us in same time, in loop, we were there and, let us be still buckled to us there, each one knowing precisely, in this Tuesday September 11, of what its life was made. We were sudden, alone and recluse in our banality, together and contemporaries ", writes it at the end of this "book of combat" where, often, it removed the word "I" of its sentences. ("Windows one the World ", éd Grasset, 374 pages, 18 euros; "September 11 my love", éd Stock, 248 pages, 18,05 euros)

For the Initiated Only!!

A friend of mine is doing a language immersion program in the town of Sancerre in the Loire Valley. She asked me if I could find out about any wineries that she should be sure to visit. I figured this was the best place to find that out. Thanks for any tips.

Last weekend I ate at a friend's favourite restaurant because it was his birthday. The steak had a sauce I've never heard of and can no longer remember. It started with T. Asked the Carrie Ann Moss lookalike waitress and she said it was a very traditional French sauce (this is a bistro type place) with tarragon and I don't remember what else but mostly herbs and vinegar. Definitely no cream. But apparently not actually like a vinagrette because when I pointed out the possible similarity to my friend, since he was starting with their butter lettuce salad with herb vinagrette and wouldn't want to be redundant, she looked quite pained. What was it?

A question has arisen in the Montreal/Quebec forum about the provenance of game in France. Carswell has alerted us to the fact that in France, as opposed to North America, restaurants and shops are allowed to sell wild hunted game as well as farm-raised. I understand that much of the game available in France now comes form Eastern Europe, particularly Poland. Is that true and is this Polish game wild or farmed? All that said, I would still assume that restaurants specializing in game such as au Petit Marguery would still offer the highest quality, namely hunted meat. Any information to be added to the discussion? For the original dissussion see, http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...=0entry332462

Just returned from a week in Paris and Aix-en-Provence. Unfortunately not much of an eating report to provide. Two small kids meant that dinner more often than not was in the hotel room. But this meant that we had to venture out to the "hypermarche" quite a bit, and one thing that caught my eye was the ubiquity of the Reflets de France brand. Apparently this is Carrefour's house brand of regional gastronomic products - all have allegedly been vetted personally by Joel Robuchon, who I guess has become quite a man of the people, what with his cooking show and Atelier. Each product is produced by subcontractors in the region of origin who are supposed to use traditional recipes and incorporate AOC ingredients where applicable. The brand is sold by Carrefour but also by other retailers as well. One thing I noticed was that these are REALLY cheap. Brioche tressée vendéenne for a couple bucks, pâté de campagne breton for about 2.50, if I recall correctly. While they tasted good to my uneducated taste buds, I was wondering if august members of this group had a different opinion. And, perhaps more importantly, how do people perceive Reflets de France as a symptom of social change? Does it reflect a growing awareness among consumers of the need to preserve regional cuisines and support local producers? Or does it simply reflect the disappearance of specialized retailers to sell these regional products and the need for a mass marketer to take their place?

I am feeling a little out of place in this forum, as I usually stick to the Beverages forum, but here goes. . . I am hosting a Cognac and Armagnac tasting at a local club and would like some imput as to the cuisine that should be offered. I am considering two options: a one course meal or heavy hors d'oeuvres. I would like suggestions for region-specific cuisine, within reason. Cost is a factor, so nothing too extravagant. Thanks for your assistance.

Saturday night is the Fete de la Musique in Paris, the annual celebration of the start of summer. Last year I was lucky enough to be in Paris at this time. A wonderful feast. On just about every corner in the city were some musicians playing, surrounded by hordes of people. They also have big venue events, like at the Hotel de Ville and at the Tour Eiffel. Boulevard St Germain had a procession of artists from 10PM until well into the night. The only folks who are unhappy are those in cars, who just cannot get through the streets because of the throngs of humanity!! Can anyone lucky enough to be there this year kindly give us a report of the festivities... I will have to live vicariously through that this year!! Bonne fete!!