Thoughts For Food Archive

August 17, 2005

Childhood Food Memories

Yup, yet another food-related meme, for which I was tagged by both Pascale and Jacqueline. This one has you indulge in the reminiscence of five childhood food memories. Here are mine! Les Nounours à la Guimauve When we had a little pocket money my sister and I would drop by the boulangerie around the corner from school to buy candy. The display ...

"Childhood Food Memories" continues »

August 1, 2005

Fleur de Courgette and Other Food Gifts

Oh gifts, gifts, gifts! Is there anything sweeter in life than having your friends go out and find something just for you, something that they think you will like and enjoy, something that will surprise and delight you? And when you do and it does, when the idea is fabulous and the gift exactly to your taste, when it is something that you really ...

"Fleur de Courgette and Other Food Gifts" continues »

July 21, 2005

Fraises des bois du jardin

["Wild strawberries" from the garden] One of my wildest dreams in life is to one day have a garden, a vegetable patch and an orchard. Oh, and a pool too, but that's off-topic. In the meantime, I have to settle for windowsills and small balconies on which Maxence, who is The Official Gardener around here, plants and pampers a lush jungle, making ...

"Fraises des bois du jardin" continues »

June 14, 2005

Le Ticket Resto

And today, I thought I would share with you a small and mundane element from the everyday French office life. A food-related element, that goes without saying. In France, the set of laws that governs the work environment, le code du travail, forbids you to eat in the rooms where you work (ahem -- no, I don't know how those crumbs got into my key...

"Le Ticket Resto" continues »

May 3, 2005

La Baguette et les Tartines

Consider the baguette. Or rather, consider the tartine de baguette, a popular breakfast item in which a piece of baguette -- preferably fresh and bought moments before, still warm, from the corner boulangerie, but if nobody really feels up to going out before breakfast day-old baguette will do fine, "freshened up" on top of the toaster -- is sl...

"La Baguette et les Tartines" continues »

December 18, 2004

Good Pain d'Epice, Bad Choucroute

How do you tell a true friend? She lets you buy her a hunk of pain d'épice in her hour of need and smiles to show it does help, if only a bit. And then when you meet again, she surprises you with a return hunk (in a signed ziplock bag), bought at her favorite market. This in turn allows you to take a little slice with you on that 6:52am train t...

"Good Pain d'Epice, Bad Choucroute" continues »

November 19, 2004

The Joy of Room Service

On Sunday night, wanting to put the finishing touches on my talk, I decide to stay in and have dinner in my room, a small room with a view out onto the harbour, in the four-star Cannes hotel where the Gourmet Voice festival is taking place. I order a club sandwich of course, not hesitating for one second : the first room service of my life, it h...

"The Joy of Room Service" continues »

September 27, 2004

Les Petites Horreurs de Cécile

Cécile's Little Horrors. What a fantastic movie or book title this would make. So far though, it is merely a sign in the window of a cheese store in Bergerac (Périgord), where we bought our tray of Cabécous. Handwritten on a thin circle of wood taken from the bottom of a cheese box, it is here to introduce a selection of extra extra dry -- and I...

"Les Petites Horreurs de Cécile" continues »

September 21, 2004

Chocolate & Zucchini Meets Chez Pim (and Vice-Versa)

Pim and I had been talking about meeting for a while : it was just a matter of patiently waiting for the opportunity to arise, since her job has her fly into Paris regularly. It finally did, and we had dinner yesterday at Flora, a restaurant operated by the young lady chef Flora Mikula, and about which I had read good things. We had a fabulous t...

"Chocolate & Zucchini Meets Chez Pim (and Vice-Versa)" continues »

September 20, 2004

Our Smelly Travelling Companions

Try spending eight hours in a car on a sunny day, with a tray of twenty cabécous in the backseat. It's an interesting exercise in willpower and determination to bring home the magic. Not the most orthodox way to age fresh cheese for consumption at their optimal stage of ripeness, but it certainly works! Ah, what one woudn't do, for the love of c...

"Our Smelly Travelling Companions" continues »

September 16, 2004

Oh Look! Here's Lunch!

The Périgord is the best place on Earth to actively enjoy all things duck. Foie gras, magret, confit, gésiers, grattons, frittons... you name it, we eat it! It seemed only fair that I should give this group of little fellows (whom we met just outside the teeny village of Carlucet) their fifteen minutes of fame!...

"Oh Look! Here's Lunch!" continues »

August 12, 2004

So um, you like soba noodles too?

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind cooking for a crowd, but I'd sure have appreciated if a certain family of winged little guys had asked my permission before they went and gnawed at my half-open package of soba noodles. Common courtesy, really. Bugs in my noodles? Just when I'm craving sesame soba noodles with spring onions? Not the prettiest sig...

"So um, you like soba noodles too?" continues »

August 6, 2004

Sundried-Tomato-Sitting

Patricia and Stéphan, the neighbor-friends with whom we share a window sill, a herb garden and many an impromptu dinner, have just left for a couple of weeks' vacation. They left us a veggie-drawer-full of fresh produce, a couple of yogurts and some bread. They also trusted us with the task of watering their plants, and instructed us to help th...

"Sundried-Tomato-Sitting" continues »

May 1, 2004

Mon Cahier de Recette

[My Recipe Book] Six or seven years ago, I started a little recipe book. At that time, I still lived at my parents' and hardly ever cooked, except when they were away, and then there would be the obligatory calls to my mother for the recipe to gratin de courgette or quiche lorraine, and how do you cook potatoes again? I bought a spiral notebook...

"Mon Cahier de Recette" continues »

April 21, 2004

Coffee and a Boggle

Last Saturday, it was my great pleasure to have two American friends over for a late morning cup of coffee. Ruth, a coworker from my California days, was visiting Paris with her partner Pia, and she had contacted me to know if I'd like to meet up. We had the loveliest time chatting together and catching up. It should be said that Ruth and I have...

"Coffee and a Boggle" continues »

March 23, 2004

Belleville Bagel

Some people have all the luck. Maxence's company recently relocated to Belleville, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Not only are the new offices in a rehabilitated workshop with frosted glass windows and exposed beams, nested at the very back of a series of small rickety courtyards, it is also right at the crossroads between North Africa an...

"Belleville Bagel" continues »

March 21, 2004

Le Chou Labyrinthe

[Cabbage Maze] Part of the intense pleasure I find in cooking comes from the simple joy of working with ingredients, handling them and admiring them, trying to make sense of their qualities and potential, and gently convincing them to give the best of what they have to offer. I have a particular fondness for vegetables, and I often find myself,...

"Le Chou Labyrinthe" continues »

March 11, 2004

Thoughts from the Grocery Store

With the amount of food shopping I habitually engage into, you'd think I would know better than to go to the grocery store with my stomach rumbling so loud it could be heard over the loudspeakers' cheesy music. Having come in with the intention to buy just plain yogurts to start a batch of homemade ones, I managed to walk away with two other typ...

"Thoughts from the Grocery Store" continues »

March 2, 2004

I Don't Believe We've Been Properly Introduced

How about playing a little guessing game? The first reader to correctly uncover the identity of this UFO (Unidentified Food Object), as well as the reader who comes up with the most unlikely or the funniest suggestion, will each get the wallpaper of their choice, signed to their name with a little note. Not to mention the fame, and my respect a...

"I Don't Believe We've Been Properly Introduced" continues »

February 9, 2004

The Poached Egg : Anatomy of a Disaster

I always tell you about the creations I'm happy with, so I thought I would share a bit of incompetence for a change. I cannot, for the life of me, poach an egg. I have read that you should use super fresh eggs, and I have read that week-old eggs worked better. I have read that you should add vinegar to the water, and I have read that no vinegar ...

"The Poached Egg : Anatomy of a Disaster" continues »

February 1, 2004

Cooking Ten Year Old Girls -- and Other search phrases

Some of you may remember how much I like looking at the search engine queries that have led visitors to Chocolate & Zucchini. January has come and gone, leaving another batch of intriguing/funny/puzzling/cute phrases in its wake. This month’s top five : cooking ten-year-old girls (or did you mean "for"?) what the fuck macaroon free pics of girls...

"Cooking Ten Year Old Girls -- and Other search phrases" continues »

January 20, 2004

The Last Bite Axiom (and Corollaries)

As you well know, I give a fair amount of thought to food (understatement of the year). Lately, I've been thinking more and more about the special ways in which we eat our food. In paying attention to this, I have noticed the host of small unconscious ceremonials that I conduct while eating, and I wanted to share them with you. Hopefully you'll...

"The Last Bite Axiom (and Corollaries)" continues »

January 9, 2004

How the Fuck Do I Prepare Eggplant? and Other Search Phrases

Thanks to Maxence's excellent home-hosting skills, Chocolate & Zucchini lives on a server in our apartment, cuddling up against muCommander. I like knowing it's safe and warm, purring when I walk by it in the corridor. The added bonus of home-hosting, beyond the thrill of DIY and autarky, is that we have full access to the logs, which makes for...

"How the Fuck Do I Prepare Eggplant? and Other Search Phrases" continues »

October 30, 2003

Happiness (A Recipe)

On a Sunday afternoon, after a copious lunch, wait for your next-door neighbor Patricia to knock on your window with a wooden spoon. Agree to come over to their place for coffee. From the special chocolate cabinet in your kitchen (surely you must have one) grab what's left of the excellent dark chocolate with fragments of roasted cocoa beans that...

"Happiness (A Recipe)" continues »