Lunchtime in Paris

My first ever tag - thanks Betty

Wow, I've never been tagged before and so forgive me if I don't really do this correctly. Betty over at Cuisine Quotidienne tagged me for a French meme that she got here (nice music included...).

So, Betty posted the questions in French and answered in English but I will post them with my English translation/interpretation/complete alteration with photo illustration and of course my answer in English and here goes -

1.  Le dernier livre que j’ai savouré – the last book that I savored (that I really took a lot of pleasure in reading):

I will pick two here. One is my favorite cookbook by Paula Wolfert  Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco (link to my rendition of the fabulous Chicken and Olives recipe) and one is a novel that I really loved – End of the Story by Lydia Davis – I really enjoyed this book and plan to read it again and again....

 

Couscous, Tunisan Style

2 ) Le film qui m’a le plus transportée – The movie that most moved me:

And here again I have several and will unfortunately have to limit myself and so I choose three – Dolce Vita by Fellini, Ai No Corida by Oshima and of course My Dinner with André by Louis Malle (no comment other than that I watch and re-watch them all three of them with pleasure).

Unfortunately I didn't have any good pasta or sushi photos available but I really would eat this again with pleasure...

3 ) Le plat que je mets au dessus de tout: the dish amongst all dishes or my favorite dish: 

Hmmm, I am so adventurous it is hard for me to choose just one dish to be faithful to...but since  I have to choose, I suppose I can never go long without an oyster…

These Brittany oysters were particularly delicious.

4 ) Mon plus beau souvenir des 10 dernières années – My most wonderful memory of the last 10 years:

the most delicious soup ever, in Sam Neua, Laos...wow, the best soup I ever had.

5 )  L’instant beauté que je préfère – my favorite moment for me or perhaps my favorite beauty treatment/moment:

This is a hard question to translate so I'll just go with the beauty theme and say that when I see beautiful things I get some inner peace, my stress levels go down, my frown and wrinkles fade, I get a sparkle in my eye and I just feel so wonderfully lovely...like here along the Mekong...    

6 ) L’endroit où  je me sens le plus moi-même – Where do I find my own real self, where do I feel most at home: 

Travelling, although I don't always eat well there...it's just that as soon as I take my seat in the plane, train, or bus I let out a sigh of relief and let myself go.....

7 ) Mes petits moments de bonheur – My small indulgences

chocolate cake?

Anyway, this was really fun and I still do have some Paris Chinatown photos to post so hopefully I will get around to that soon.

And, and all you food lovers the Salon de l'Agriculture is upon us!!! Woohoo, my favorite eating event of the year in Paris!!! and yes, I will use 487 exclamation points to describe it because there is nothing I love more.

It starts on the 23rd of February and runs through the 2nd of March. Here is a Link in English. It is just simply the most fun event of the whole year in Paris and well worth the 12 euros admission price.

Hope to see you there, Happylunching! 

Lunch from the market - Wednesday is Market Day

On a positive note, one of the benefits of my new workplace is that I can leave for lunch early on Wednesdays and go to the outdoor market which is right across the street from the new offices.

This is our street food here in Paris. And here is a LINK in English for the addresses and days of all the markets in Paris. My market is the President Wilson one.

A nice bag full of clementines...the weather was weird today, I managed to take this picture in the sun but it just kept coming in and out so some of the market pictures are rather dark as I suppose befits Paris in January...

Here is where I buy my fruit every week, delicious mangos, papayas, and clementines.

And I can't resist another photos of the clementines, they are so good!

You can buy plants and flowers in the market.

As well as fish and seafood,

and even sanwiches, there is a little sandwich stand in our market and that is where I bought my lunch today.

Anyway, I'll try to get back to the market. It's interesting because it changes with the seasons. Today I was a little shy about taking photos. It's weird because when I'm visiting foreign countries or off into the countryside for a weekend I'm a tourist and I don't care but somehow just leaving the office to take photos of the market across the street intimidates me...I will work on this.

And,  I also want to work on getting my links up to date. Several people have linked to me and I've not linked back. Not because I don't want to it's just that I'm trying to get a useful link organization system set up and it's really difficult.

What I would like to do is set it up by country in one long list, for example:

Australia (this would be the title in bold or whatever but would not be a lien)

and here would logically follow a clickable list to the various sites I like in that country.. such a

1.  this one  (particularly nice), or

2. this one  (which I also really like)....

Hopefully, I will figure this out or you will be able to help me get this going.

Happy Lunching!

A very green lunch

mmm...a lovely chocolate cake from Geulin in Etretat (photo from November 2005)...you must visit this place. It's cool because they also have family in California and they make the same excellent cakes...

And now that I've got your attention and your chocolate fix is fixed I need some help.

Over at Becks & Posh (very well known food blog for food bloggers in the know), they announced a food/wine photography club challenge (intended I suppose for all of us food porn wannabees).Anyway, I signed up and you can see my efforts here. This link will take you to flickr and after that you're on your own (I always have such difficulty signing in). In any case my flickr name is "happylunching".

If you are interested you can post your green food photos too...it's a cool idea and you've got until 10 May to get your photos in. You'll get some good honest critiques on what people think of your work and some advice on how to make your photos better...

My actual lunch today was just a repeat of previously shown stuff, and I had such a stressful day I wound up feeling ill all afternoon...do bosses just plan for this sort of stress on purpose before a three day weekend? You tell me.

And so here is where I need some help. I'm posting two photos of some strange berries I bought in Belleville at the Asian grocers. Do you know what this Asian food item is?



Mysterious green berries and here's another shot:



thanks for any info on this and also, in other news I've found out that Paula Wolfert's fab recipe is on epicurious and to me that means public and so I'm on for it.

Starting tomorrow...Chicken with lemon and olives...

til then may all your lunches be filled with mystery!

A special Easter bunny lunch

Ok, so it's the holidays, Easter, and I'm feeling nostaligic and missing the States, perhaps  "confiture de fraises des bois avec beurre de cacahuette sur fines tranches de pain de mie" will comfort me...

and, on a rather more personal note this post is presented by my very special sweet sweety, Violette (pictured above in a taste test), she is a Tibetan Spaniel (Epagneul Tibetain) and I don't know what I would do without her, so let's see, here are the ingredients:

And so, it's confiture de fraise (strawberry jam), beurre de cacahuettes (peanut butter) and fines tranches de pain de mie (thinly sliced white bread) and this is for all of you who say, Yes, it does indeed taste better with a French name and I must say I agree for this was a sandwich from the Easter Bunny.

Peanut butter and jelly, mmmm

And what is this? well ok, it looks like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but then, on the left "Fluff" and yes I found Fluff in my local Monoprix so of course I had to continue my sandwich:

So, spread the fluff

and direct from the Easter Bunny, a perfect American peanut butter, jelly and fluff sandwich...who would've thought it possible?

Happy Easter to all my fellow lunchers!

however Violette was not so sure

and so, our final suggestion to all of you is that you carefully sniff out your lunches, who knows what may lurk in the heart of a sandwich. Gros bisous to my sweetie Violette, je t'aime, and may the Easter Bunny be kind to you...til tomorrow,

happy lunching

Poisson d'avril - breakfast for lunch

Happy April fool's day! In France we say poisson d'avril (fish of April). Since it's Saturday and on Saturdays I like to sleep late (til noon!) today's lunch is what most people would consider breakfast but it was eaten at 12:30 and so is therefore what I had for lunch today.

Mmmm, clockwise from top left, a pain au chocolat (chocolate bread), a croissant (crescent) and one half of a pain aux raisins (raisin bread). This is very traditional French breakfast or mid afternoon snack stuff. My daughter Maya was kind enough to go the boulangerie (bakery) and bring us home this flaky, delicious lunch today.

Now, I am thinking of adding a feature to this blog. I would like to have a "guest luncher of the month". It doesn't matter where you are from or what you eat for lunch. I will just need some photos and a description and of course I will write you a glowing introduction! Please just drop me a line if you would like to be featured.

Happy lunching!