la gastronomie.

today as i ate the best bread i've ever had, i started thinking about the gastronomical odyssey that is france. i bought this baguette from a boulangerie that appears just like the others. the baguette was still hot, fresh from the oven just in time for the lunch time crowd. it was the perfect balance of crunchy outside and chewy softness inside. i ate almost a third of it on my short walk home. and this is normal in france. last night for dinner, my host mom made some sort of fish that was lightly breaded with fresh herbs. i thought it was delicious, however my host sisters who are 12 and 9 (only 2 of the 6 kids) weren't big fans. so after arguing for several minutes about eating their fish, the parents just gave up and ordered the girls to eat dessert instead. this is so contrary to my american way of thinking, i was mildly shocked. so the girls dutifully ate cups of premade, but wonderfully rich mousse that is as common here as snackpacks are in the US. it's also incredible to think that the baby's first solid food was a buttery baguette like i described above and cheese that is far better than any cheese available in the states. then there's cyriaque, who at the ripe old age of 3 can't go to bed until he finishes his meal with a few large pieces of fresh cheese. i shudder to think a 3 year old knows more about cheese than i do. and how i can forget to mention vivianne who is 7. he loves food probably more than anyone i know. he eats his mother's creamed spinach by the gallon. his dessert of preference is 3 petite suisse (a really thick and creamy but unsweetened yogurt) which he painstakingly plops out of the little containers into a bowl then adds plenty of super fine sugar and precisely mixes it to achieve the perfect sweetness and consistency. i once asked him what his favorite food was. he remarked that that was a beautiful question but before he could respond he was whisked off to bed. breakfast is another culinary adventure consisting of fresh croissants (my favorite are the croissants almondaises which have almond paste in the middle and then an almond glaze and sliced almonds on top) madelines, and cakes and tarts left over from sunday's lunch. french families, typically eat a large meal for lunch on sundays which starts around 1 or 2 pm and stretches on until 5 or 6pm. my new favorite food is ratatouille. no, it's not a popular animated film about sewer rats in paris. it's actually a delicious dish of sauteed bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and zucchini all stewed together. i could eat it by the bowl full. my family also eats a lot of fresh grapes. my host dad warned me the first time to beware of the seeds because they don't have seeds in america. i told him that there are grapes with seeds in the states and proceeded to pick out the seeds as i ate a handful of grapes. when he noticed what i was doing, he made some remark about it being because i am american and he said he just eats them. in my determination to blend in, i then started eating the seeds. unfortunately, they got stuck in my throat and gave me a bit of a stomach ache. i don't think i'll ever be able to fore go the stupid american tag. the kids even refer to me as their american. i guess i can deal with that for now.
{first course of my lunch at the musée d’orsay in paris}