La Pêche du Jour…
If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles. Doug Larson One of the advantages of living in a Provençal town a few dusty turns from the sea – our own personal fishmonger. A neighbor just down the block who has a fishing boat in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer sends … Continue reading La Pêche du Jour…
Measuring My Life…
For I have known them all already, known them all:Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;I know the voices dying with a dying fallBeneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume? T.S. Eliot ~ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock We’ve been in … Continue reading Measuring My Life…
Faux Gras ~ a sheep in wolf’s clothing…
Fat gives things flavor. Julia Child There are certain ingredients that seem to be heralded by cold weather. They’re not the exclusive province of cooler days, but they do fit well with blustery mornings and burnished afternoons – just as there are meals that get pushed to the forefront by longer days and heat haze … Continue reading Faux Gras ~ a sheep in wolf’s clothing…
An Alchemy of Place…
Walking home with Jess and Max after dropping Alexander at school, out the old cloister gates and through the winding cobbled streets redolent of woodsmoke and the scent of baking bread. The rhythmic clang of metal on metal, not mechanical, hand labor, off some distance, but so distinctive you can almost taste it on the … Continue reading An Alchemy of Place…
Ouefs de Caille
“An egg is always an adventure; the next one may be different.” Oscar Wilde Maximilien’s latest favorite gouter (snack)? The hard-boiled ovum of Coturnix Coturnix. And whereas he has many of the same food limitations of other four-year-olds, he continues to walk his own path in many respects: He pleads for a couple cloves of … Continue reading Ouefs de Caille
Rising Up…
“I asked the maid in dulcet toneTo order me a buttered scone;The silly girl has been and goneAnd ordered me a buttered scone.” ~ Punch Magazine, 1912 There are few things lovelier on a rainy morning, than a still-warm scone to crumble with your coffee. It’s basic, nothing complicated, and absolutely satisfying. If you have … Continue reading Rising Up…
Lost in French-lation, Misadventures in French Advertising…
…there’s this cookie in France. More of a cake-like thing, really. About the size of a Madeleine scallop, and made from a similar but less glorious yellow sponge cake, shaped like a bear. Where the paws are, there are dollops of chocolate. It’s called “Lulu l’ourson” – Lulu the bear. It’s nothing extraordinary – it’s … Continue reading Lost in French-lation, Misadventures in French Advertising…
Historically Drinking (part deux)
“The Café des Amateurs was the cesspool of the Mouffetard, that wonderful narrow crowded market street which led to the Place Contrescarpe.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Movable Feast Place Contrescarpe Hard to say exactly which of the cafés flanking the PlaceContrescarpe is the one Hemingway referred to as the “Café des Amateurs” or “Café aux … Continue reading Historically Drinking (part deux)
Of the dark…
Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom… Thomas Carlyle Of all the smells of fecundity, of earth, of whispered dawn, of darkness at a somewhere depth pushing through to light, one of the most binge-worthy of harbingers (in my opinion) is that of mushrooms sautéing in butter, grind of pepper, sprig of … Continue reading Of the dark…
