"Goutee?" It was 9:00 in the morning and the man at the meat counter was giving out samples. I had just run into a friend of ours and she seemed eager to try so I followed suit, not that I wouldn't have anyway. Even before I tasted it the multicolored chunks held together with a gelatinous mortar, I had my suspicions as to what it was. So I asked my friend. Sure enough: Head Cheese or as she unneccesarily described it "all the piecese of a pigs head cooked together". Actually it was pretty good. When I started laughing, she asked me "They make this in the U.S. don't they?" To which I replied "Yes, they just wouldn't dare try to hand out samples".
I love to improve on my French. I love practicing it. Unfortunately, yes that's right, unfortunately, many French people love to practice their English with me. I say that because what you get is two people trying to convey information in broken fragments containing the vocabulary command of a brilliant chimpanzee. Now, if this conversation occurs at the market or the hardware store, it's just not a big deal. The worst that happens is that you end off with an extra helping of cous cous and some North African stew (a happpy mistake that occured on Sunday). The problem is that most people that speak a little English and want to practice it are educated folks. How educated? Oh, just Doctors and Pharmacists. Everytime I call the Dr. to make an appointment he wants to speak english and use our am/pm clock system versus the normal European 24 hour clock. I never understand him because of his accent. Now if he'd speak French, I'd get it with no problem whatsoever. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes I'd rather them speak slow French. I'm sure they probably think the same of my French.
We accepted long ago that there are certain things and that there are certain foods that we would not be able to find, at least not easily. It's not that bad. You can deal with a lot if you set your mind to it. "I do not miss Dr. Pepper. I do not miss Dr. Pepper" I say that often enough that I actually believe it. Anxiety and stress are honeslty not caused by such items. It is the ones that you think you can find. Coca-cola and M&Ms are different. Coke uses the more common sucrose rather than HFCS like in the U.S. M&Ms taste more like their dark chocolate than our version. It's weird but even those are tolerable. One that was not recently was a big jug of chocolate milk. I got really excited and couldn't wait to pour a big glass. I had the combined disappointment of the M&Ms and the Coke. Dark chocolate flavor and no HFCS. It was a low moment. The worst so far, though, is breakfast sausage. Plain old Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. I don't know what I'd pay for it right now, but I don't want to guess for fear of offending you. They eat all manner of ground pork here but so far I haven't tried any that is flavored like our run of the mill breakfast sausage. The conundrum I face is that I can't accept that it doesn't exist here so I keep buying different types and every time I do I whip up a batch of pancakes or "French" toast. And (so far) everytime the one is good but the sausage tastes enough different that every bite reminds you that you are not home. What I'm trying to say with all of this is that "comfort food" isn't comforting. All the food is good, great in fact, but sometimes you don't want good, you want familiar.
When did eating domesticated duck become unpopular in the U.S.? I know you can get it, but it isn't common. I bought one off of the rotisserie yesterday at the market. I also bought the potatoes that had been cooking in the marvelous dripping duck fat underneath it. It was unbelievable. We all loved it. Why did we abandon it? Same with some of the cheeses. Why do we not make these? Is it because they take too much time and money to make? Yes, the duck costs a little more than the chicken and yes, some cheeses are expensive, but it's easily worth it. Pretty sure I'll miss some of those things when we move back.
I once read that French language has substantially less words than English. I, mistakenly, took this as good news. Less words to learn has to be good, right? Wrong. They just reuse the same words for several different things. For example: "Bouchon" 1) A wine cork 2) a traffic jam 3) a specific type of resaurant in Lyon or possibly Paris. It makes sense that the first two could be similar, but it doesn't help when you are trying to translate. Just because you hear a word you know, doesn't mean you know how it's being used. That and you could potentially tell
a story about how you didn't get to pop bouchon out of a bottle of wine at the bouchon in Lyon because you got stuck in a bouchon on the way. There is also their nasty habit of running words together that creates conjunctions which sounds like other, completely unrelated, words. I'm becoming more and more convinced that the French language is mostly context and non verbal communicaton. Proof positive for this is that, since Day 1, I've been able to grunt and point to get what I want at the bakery. It wasn't until I thought I could speak a little that I started messing up my order.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Audrey's Bday weekend
Our daughter turned 7 today. 7! That just seems like a lot to us. How can such a young man like myself have a 7 year old. I guess the true answer lies in Lane's latest catch phrase "Hey, old man". I'm not sure where he gets this stuff, but I have an idea. I'm beginning to wonder if we should have just stayed with the French TV. At least then anything he learns from questionable programming won't be much use when we move back home.
Back to my point, Audrey turned 7 today. Now, we were a little worried that it would trigger some homesick feelings so we concentrated on making it her weekend. This included a big birthday party on Saturday, which also happened to be our first sponsoring of a get together here in France. Originally, I claimed that we'd just order to pizza from a truck for the food; however, the closer it got, the more we decided that this just wouldn't do (I just couldn't miss such a great opportunity to do some large scale cooking). So, we settled on firing up the grill for some BBQ chicken and dogs of several different varieties. Easy enough at home, but over here? Not so fast.
For starters they don't eat dogs on buns. Plenty of different varieties of great sausages, but no buns. The worst part is that I didn't know this and sent poor Dana to the store for them. Absolutely no offense to her, but, as many of my blogs explain, shopping here isn't easy. Experience is crucial, and she just hasn't had time to gain it. Conversely, I 've spent a lot of time walking the isles with my pocket translator. I used to care, but not now. When I see something interesting, I get out my iPhone for translation and/or a picture (see: shark). I really don't care if I'm in someone's way, of course, this is mostly because they don't care if you are in their way. Basketball a la France may be less physical, but they make up for it in the supermarket. The French aren't about to let your cart, kids or sense of personal space get in between them and a can of foie gras. If you aren't moving you are in danger of being casually pushed aside. So you see, it really wasn't nice of me to throw Dana to the wolves like that.
The next day, after a phone call to a friend, I discovered something like a sweet hot dog bun that is stocked with the sweets instead of the breads. This meant that I was able to make a 5 minute run to the local store and pick them up, which made Dana's stressful search even funnier.
Brown sugar. That's another item that I can't find here, at least not like we know it. I can find something close, which works well enough for a good BBQ rub, but it's just an example of one of those "everyday" items that isn't so "everyday" here. In fact, for a Bday gift, my sister, Aly, is sending us all the non-perishable items needed to make monster cookies. I can't wait. I haven't had a decent cookie in almost 3 months. Tarts and little cakes galore, but their cookies are like sugared cardboard. It makes no sense. How could a culture so engrossed in food not have at least a moderately healthy attitude towards the cookie?
Back to the party. It went great. The kids had fun, the adults had fun, no one was hurt and nothing was broken. Dana did point something out though. A house full of kids sounds much louder with out carpet. Carpet is rare here. Everything is hardwood and tile. Sure it looks neat, but you don't realize the little things until about a month in. Fast moving kids in sock feet are contantly crashing into walls or falling. Also, noises (especially those by the aforementioned shoeless hellions) have nothing to absorb them. They just ricochet around and become louder and louder and louder until they permeate your brain like flies into an open kitchen window taking you from a once sane, calm, and intelligent adu.........what happened? I blacked out for a second. Oh yeah, the noise level, it can get to be a bit much.
France, and its more relaxed nature, must be wearing off on us, because for the first time that I can remember Dana and I went to bed rather without cleaning up. We would have been up til 1:00 if we hadn't, but still it felt good.
Today, her actual B-day, we headed to downtown Grenoble. Without meaning to, we have selected our "usual" place. It's one of the dozens of pizza places down on pizza row. The staff (if 2 women and a man is a staff) is friendly and always remember us. We are such regulars that 3 out of the 4 of us almost always get the same thing. I get the filet au roquefort (steak w/ bleu cheese, pasta and a salad), Dana gets the lasagna, and Lane gets Ravioli au roquefort (yes, the same bleu cheese). Audrey is the only one who varies every time, but even she is partial to their mushroom pizza.
A little over a week ago I had asked them if they were open on Sunday and that we would like to come for our daughters birthday; however, it still surprised me when the lady looked at Audrey and said "Happy Birthday". The meal, as expected, was excellent; however, the 7 ice cream filled pastries topped with candles and whipped cream was quite unexpected. I wish they had mentioned it before I ordered dessert for everyone, but I'm not one to complain about having two desserts.
To help walk it off we headed back up the Bastille over looking the city. Perhaps this would have been more effective if we had actually walked. Instead we took another ride in the "bubbles". It's the 3rd time I've been up there and I don't care how many more I times I go, I'll never get tired of the view. It's simply breathtaking. This is especially true now that snow has fallen on the Belldonnes, which are the tallest of the three ranges.
At the end of the weekend, a great birthday. Audrey got lots of clothes and art supplies so she'll be happy for a while. No breakdowns of any kind, at least until we started homework this evening. Why a 2nd grader would need to know the definition of "solemnly" is beyond me, but we'll discuss that later.
Back to my point, Audrey turned 7 today. Now, we were a little worried that it would trigger some homesick feelings so we concentrated on making it her weekend. This included a big birthday party on Saturday, which also happened to be our first sponsoring of a get together here in France. Originally, I claimed that we'd just order to pizza from a truck for the food; however, the closer it got, the more we decided that this just wouldn't do (I just couldn't miss such a great opportunity to do some large scale cooking). So, we settled on firing up the grill for some BBQ chicken and dogs of several different varieties. Easy enough at home, but over here? Not so fast.
For starters they don't eat dogs on buns. Plenty of different varieties of great sausages, but no buns. The worst part is that I didn't know this and sent poor Dana to the store for them. Absolutely no offense to her, but, as many of my blogs explain, shopping here isn't easy. Experience is crucial, and she just hasn't had time to gain it. Conversely, I 've spent a lot of time walking the isles with my pocket translator. I used to care, but not now. When I see something interesting, I get out my iPhone for translation and/or a picture (see: shark). I really don't care if I'm in someone's way, of course, this is mostly because they don't care if you are in their way. Basketball a la France may be less physical, but they make up for it in the supermarket. The French aren't about to let your cart, kids or sense of personal space get in between them and a can of foie gras. If you aren't moving you are in danger of being casually pushed aside. So you see, it really wasn't nice of me to throw Dana to the wolves like that.
The next day, after a phone call to a friend, I discovered something like a sweet hot dog bun that is stocked with the sweets instead of the breads. This meant that I was able to make a 5 minute run to the local store and pick them up, which made Dana's stressful search even funnier.
Brown sugar. That's another item that I can't find here, at least not like we know it. I can find something close, which works well enough for a good BBQ rub, but it's just an example of one of those "everyday" items that isn't so "everyday" here. In fact, for a Bday gift, my sister, Aly, is sending us all the non-perishable items needed to make monster cookies. I can't wait. I haven't had a decent cookie in almost 3 months. Tarts and little cakes galore, but their cookies are like sugared cardboard. It makes no sense. How could a culture so engrossed in food not have at least a moderately healthy attitude towards the cookie?
Back to the party. It went great. The kids had fun, the adults had fun, no one was hurt and nothing was broken. Dana did point something out though. A house full of kids sounds much louder with out carpet. Carpet is rare here. Everything is hardwood and tile. Sure it looks neat, but you don't realize the little things until about a month in. Fast moving kids in sock feet are contantly crashing into walls or falling. Also, noises (especially those by the aforementioned shoeless hellions) have nothing to absorb them. They just ricochet around and become louder and louder and louder until they permeate your brain like flies into an open kitchen window taking you from a once sane, calm, and intelligent adu.........what happened? I blacked out for a second. Oh yeah, the noise level, it can get to be a bit much.
France, and its more relaxed nature, must be wearing off on us, because for the first time that I can remember Dana and I went to bed rather without cleaning up. We would have been up til 1:00 if we hadn't, but still it felt good.
Today, her actual B-day, we headed to downtown Grenoble. Without meaning to, we have selected our "usual" place. It's one of the dozens of pizza places down on pizza row. The staff (if 2 women and a man is a staff) is friendly and always remember us. We are such regulars that 3 out of the 4 of us almost always get the same thing. I get the filet au roquefort (steak w/ bleu cheese, pasta and a salad), Dana gets the lasagna, and Lane gets Ravioli au roquefort (yes, the same bleu cheese). Audrey is the only one who varies every time, but even she is partial to their mushroom pizza.
A little over a week ago I had asked them if they were open on Sunday and that we would like to come for our daughters birthday; however, it still surprised me when the lady looked at Audrey and said "Happy Birthday". The meal, as expected, was excellent; however, the 7 ice cream filled pastries topped with candles and whipped cream was quite unexpected. I wish they had mentioned it before I ordered dessert for everyone, but I'm not one to complain about having two desserts.
To help walk it off we headed back up the Bastille over looking the city. Perhaps this would have been more effective if we had actually walked. Instead we took another ride in the "bubbles". It's the 3rd time I've been up there and I don't care how many more I times I go, I'll never get tired of the view. It's simply breathtaking. This is especially true now that snow has fallen on the Belldonnes, which are the tallest of the three ranges.
At the end of the weekend, a great birthday. Audrey got lots of clothes and art supplies so she'll be happy for a while. No breakdowns of any kind, at least until we started homework this evening. Why a 2nd grader would need to know the definition of "solemnly" is beyond me, but we'll discuss that later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
