Whirl Wind!

So now I am officially back in the States - as of last night, and sorry that I haven't updated in the past couple days but it has been crazy! My last night in Dublin was a bit of a let down after I got rejected from the original restaurant that I wanted to go to, I ended up in a really bad pizza place right by my hotel. But the only good thing was that I was able to go back to my hotel, arrange a taxi for early the next morning and pack up everything that I had managed to accumulate on this trip. The next two days (Saturday and Sunday) are basically a blur of travel with lots of goodbyes. I took the earliest flight back to Paris the next morning (6 am) then took the train down to Clermont where I dropped off my bags at my host family's home and went out to a cafe to say goodbye to all the Americans who will still be staying in Clermont throughout the year. It was really sad and almost everyone had tears in their eyes. But this was also the place where the cheese changed hands - yes folks, I managed to sneak in 3 kg of unpasteurized cheese into the states! It's glorious! Anyway, then after saying good bye I went back to my host family's home for dinner where I met my host Grand-mother. She's so cool! We talked about knitting and food and French culture versus American culture back in WWII. It was really interesting, then my host mom asked me to help her make dinner. So we made crepes with a bechamel sauce. It was very fitting for my last night in France. After dinner we all watched TV together, talked and knitted. It was a very nice last night with my host family. Eventually I went to bed, and woke up early with intention to go to the boulanger (bread maker) to buy 2 loaves of bread in the morning. After a lovely breakfast of all of us together, I went to buy bread and when I explained to the sales lady what I was doing - she threw in a free Pain Au Chocolat! Whoa! Then I said a teary goodbye to my host family, and my host dad drove me to the airport. I got on my plane, made the connection in Amsterdam - and finally got back home in time for the super bowl! Yes, a very slow integration back into the US culture, with take-out chineese food for dinner and the super bowl on T.V. But after being awake and traveling for so many hours I crashed! Then here I am, eating my french bread and butter and drinking my tea out of a bowl. I guess some habits are hard to break!
So if you have enjoyed reading this AWESOME tale of cuisine and travel and would like more - please send money to ___ haha, only kidding! But seriously, I am thinking about starting another blog in the spring (march-ish) for when I get my own apartment and can cook on my own. This spring I am looking to "Live Label Less". This means that I will be trying to eat without buying things pre-made (no TV dinners, no Mac/Cheese etc.) it will defiantly be an adventure to try to do this through a Michigan Spring - but it should be worth it - So if you would like notice of when this blog will be starting please e-mail me at K07ko01@gmail.com or post a comment here. Thanks to everyone who followed this blog and for almost going through this experience of study abroad with me!
Peace, Love, and Love of Food!

Local/Vegan/Organic/What-have-you Eating Options!

Today I decided to find about Dublin food, but through a local/organic/hippee pair of eyes! Because my hotel does not offer Breakfast I went out for my favorite meal of the day! I found really good reviews for this small diner place called Honest to Goodness. I thought I would try it because it was right next door to a market, and it prides itself on fresh, local and homemade food. I ordered the homemade granola with greek yogurt and fresh fruit. Although the portions were skimpy, the granola was delicious and naturally sweetened with honey and no extra sugar. I also had a juice (kiwi, pineapple, and banana) it was delicious as well! Although the kiwi gave it a slight bite to overact the sweetness of the pineapple.
Then after some shopping and sightseeing I decided on a vegan and wholefoods place for lunch that was my other option for breakfast that morning. I walked in and it smelled delicious! I ordered the winter root vegetables, lentils and squash soup puree with a sun dried tomato slice of bread to dip. After ordering, collecting my food and sitting down in the cafeteria style restaurant, I people watched for quite some time before heading back out into the rain. The bread though was amazing, and I'm not quite sure how they did it - it was orange/red throughout and did not have the tomato in small bits, so I'm wondering if it was more of a paste than actual bits.
Finally after sitting in a cafe for a while knitting, some more shopping and walking around I decided to find dinner. I was walking along small streets by the Trinity College, and found this small restaurant called The Fresh Farm. It boasted organic and local foods - so I decided to stick with the theme for the day. I had another soup before dinner with a carrot and winter squash soup that came with small scones to dip in. I much preferred the bread from the previous soup as compared to the small scones (they were too buttery in comparison to the healthy tasting soup). Then for dinner I ordered a chicken pie. This was local, free-range chicken and it tasted wonderful! The sauce was a bit too creamy for my taste, but the whole fresh vegetables that were buried under the puff pastry was delicious! This was of course way too much food for me and I waddled back to the hotel very slowly taking in the rain and the falling night.
Peace, Love, and Rabbit Food!

Epicurean In Edinburgh

So Edinburgh was a delight for a foodie. The city was very non-chaotic and not very busy the entire time that I was there, it also seemed like a very safe city even late at night. My last full day there I decided to try out a couple restaurants that I got a recommendation on that were to serve good food. The first was for lunch - a specialty shop named Valvona and Crolla. It was a good thing that I had read about this place, because it was a store in the very front that sold all sorts of delicious and rare looking foods from Italy. I had to wind my way into the back to get to the cafe. It was a small place, maybe seating for 40 people, and luckily I was one of the few there that day. I sat down and ordered a ham panini and a tomato salad. The salad was by far the star of the meal. It was amazingly fresh for being February, and the light dressing that was on top didn't over power the freshness of the lettuce. The panini bread was good as well (obviously freshly made there), but it wasn't anything special unfortunatly, even though the ham was delicious. It wasn't as fatty as normal hams and it was slightly cured, but not too salty. It would have been made better with a slight bit of cheese or something to break the taste of the ham.
After lunch I wandered around for a bit of time, shopping and window shopping. I finally stumbled into a very hippee coffee shop. There was no delineation between the bar and the seating (even the customers were making their own espresso). I ordered a hot chocolate and went to sit in the back and knit. Little known to me, the barista was an artist! The foam in my hot chocolate came back with a beautiful flower design in it. It was amazing and I almost didn't want to drink it. But the delicious smell over powered me, and the dark chocolate with some steamed milk mixture was delicious.
A little while later I went on to go out to dinner. I found a French inspired restaurant that was a little walk from my hotel. This restaurant was the best find ever. The small restaurant (9 tables) filled up quickly while I was there, and the menu (which changes daily) was explained to everyone with painstaking detail by the only waiter, and assistant chef. I started with a glass of white wine (from the Loire Valley) and a squash and roasted red pepper soup. The soup was delicious, and very warming on such a cold night. I then had the halibut which was pan seared with rosemary, and some roasted potatoes. Every table had steamed fresh vegetables served with their meal. I ate all of the vegetables! But the halibut was good too - slightly undercooked, but that is much better than over cooked. Finally I had the toffee pudding cake, which had a caramel syrup over top, and a coffee for dessert.
This meal was the best meal that I had in quite some time!
Peace, Love and Caramel!!

Scotland, Beer Quest, Haggis among other things!

So having arrived in Scotland later at night, finding my hotel, taking a quick nap then getting out to explore the city I had found out that another American who is also staying in the same city ran into more K kids in her hostel! It was pretty crazy, but all of us went out to dinner together. We ended up going to a chain restaurant, which was loud, crowded, and dark - everything a French restaurant is not! But after eating some fish and chips, I went back to my hotel and went to bed early. The next morning we decided to tag along for a free tour that was leaving the Starbucks in the middle of the city. It was a really good tour (3 hours!) and the guide was really amusing, even though it seemed a little rehearsed. After wards we went to lunch at a pub down the street, and the food and atmosphere was a little more subdued than the night before. That night we decided to do a ghost tour after dinner. Basically Edinburgh is the most haunted city in the world (or so they claim), but it was cool to hear all about the traditional folklore in the area, and the reasons behind it. Finally after another pint of beer we turned in for the night and got a good nights sleep before shopping and walking around on our own today.
Now my quest for this Scotland/Ireland adventure is to not drink a single beer that I can get in the states. And thus far I have been more than successful and everything has been delicious! I always like the look in a barman's eye when you say you want to try something that's brewed locally - they always seem so proud of their city and what it can produce. The best that I have tried so far is at a small pub called Kay's Bar. I got recommended it by a cabbie that I took into town from the airport. We had a little trouble finding the place - but nothing too bad. It was a small establishment (maybe 8 tables total) and it had wonderfully cheesy red velvet all over the place. Everyone was friendly, but mostly stuck to themselves as it was a locals joint.
This was also where my friend ordered HAGGIS! She insisted that she could not leave Scotland without trying some. And honestly it wasn't that bad. It tasted a little grittier than I would have liked, but nothing disgusting. I had the Scotch Pie, which was delicious with chips and a dark local Edinburgh brew. All in all a very good adventure into the quieter pub life of Scotland.
Tonight's adventure has not yet been decided because it is raining outside and that might damped some plans (oh haha too funny!).
Peace, Love and Sorry for the bad joke!

Last Supper

Tonight was the last super with all the Americans together, the first person will be leaving on Monday - it's very sad! But I don't leave Europe for a little over a week. Anyway, our program director invited us all out to a restaurant for dinner. As per usual dinners in France, this lasted quite some time. But it was really nice to have everyone together at the same moment so that we could all chat (in both English and French) to each other about our experiences and different things that have happened recently. We went to a really nice restaurant (which is actually a chain in France) and we got to order what we liked, thanks Kalamazoo!
Anyway, I started with the escargots, because I had not had them yet in France, and they were quite good, less buttery than I expected, but bread dipped in the sauce was delicious! After I had the scallops and what I believe were cooked endives. They paired the endives with sun dried tomatoes which helped cut the bitterness of the endives, it was really ingenious. Finally for dessert I split a cream stuffed pretzel and a tiramisu. Also during this dinner someone had marrow on their plate and I was really excited that I was able to try it! I found it didn't have much taste but the texture didn't both me that much. After a really long dinner of talking we finally said good bye to everyone and walked home.
Today I also made a day trip to Thiers where I was able to buy some artisan knives. I was very excited because that was one of my goals when I had heard about Thiers, as a city though it is very depressing and there isn't much to do there. All in all, I would recommend going there to buy a beautiful knife, then get right back on the train and go home!
Peace, Love and Leaving on a Jet Plane

Meeting the Extended Family!

So last night when the doorbell rang right before dinner I knew something was up. Aperently without telling me, my host mom and dad had invited over all the cousins (from both sides of the family) for dinner! It just so happened that this random Wednesday in January all the cousins were in Clermont at the same time. What better time then for a cheese party? We started with appetizers and drinks around 7, and dinner and dessert didn't finish until about 10:30 at night! It was really fun to listen to other people my generation talk, and even though I didn't say much it was a good time over all.
We started with pistachios and kirs (a white wine drink mixed with flavoring like Cassis) in the living room all of us talking to one another. Then my host mom asked for my help in the kitchen to make sure everything was ready, we went into the kitchen and we were slicing up HUGE bricks of cheese, there were about 4 platters of cheese, and another 2 of ham, and a bowl of pickles! There was so much food - this is when she announces we would be having Raclette tonight for dinner. Now raclette comes with it's own little apparatus to make table side. There is a large heating system, that is covered with open slots all around. Into these slots you put small pans that you have filled with cheese, or bacon, or whatever you want to cook.
For this meal there were two raclette machines on the table, with about 9 pans to each machine. It was chaos and as always way too much food. You melt the cut cheese in the pans until it is gooey, then you pour it on your plate (with the help of a wooden spatula), you then pair it with ham or potatoes, or both as my host dad did. After wards you can munch on pickles to clear the taste if you so desire to change cheeses. There were 5 different types of cheese on the table that you could choose from. Honestly I couldn't tell much of a difference between them all other than one had herbs in it.
After cheese and potatoes (yum!) we had salad, now in a normal french meal this is the part where you would serve the cheese, so my host mom made the joke that she was going to go get the cheese platter from the kitchen and everyone groaned!! It was hysterical! After some salad, we all got ice cream cones (the pre-fabricated kind) and oranges for some dessert. At this time the younger cousins either left to go to the movies or to go home or to go do some homework, and all the older people (me included) went back into the living room with my host parents to talk over a tea.
Finally, everyone left because everyone was quite tired, and it ended the very long night by me helping my host parents and one host sister clean up the dishes. It was a fantastic evening meeting everyone, and also listening to everyone talk. The food wasn't bad either! Although I don't think I will be eating again for a week!
Peace, Love and FROMAGE!

Last Week Here

So it's my last week here, and because I thought i had a lot more work than I actually did I'm finished with all my final papers! It's very exciting, but it's also making for a very boring last week. That being said, I've been home and had nothing to do so I've been helping my host mom make dinner the past few nights. Last night she showed me how to make poached eggs, now I have never eaten a poached egg, let alone made one. It was an interesting experience especially when she said "now you put it in the microwave", wait what? Yes that is correct, she cooks her poached eggs in the microwave. Her secret is to put boiling hot water into a microwave safe bowl, add some vinegar, crack the eggs in and put them in the microwave!
We had this with pasta and a tomato cream sauce, considering I had pasta that day for lunch it was still pretty good. Although the egg had a strange texture, I was able to eat it the same time as some tomato pieces and it wasn't that bad, I might even try this method in the states to put it on some bruchetta!
In other French-y news, I am planning on what to bring home from France in terms of food. I have already decided to being home an entire wheel of cheese from this region (TSA says it's ok!). Also I'm going to try and smuggle two loafs of bread into my luggage. I am not sure how this is going to fare and if there will be crumbs everywhere in my clothes, but I figure I'm going to be washing them as soon as I get home anyway, so no big deal - right?
If any one has any other requests for French goodies please let me know!
Today is a relaxing day and right now I'm just trying to decide where to eat lunch - I'm thinking Indian?
Peace, Love and Spices

Pate Aux Choux - Cabbage Pastry?

My host mother, who now officially has a broken elbow (deemed by the doctor she waited 4 hours to see today) asked me to help her make dinner tonight because I was just watching the T.V. So I said sure, what are we making? Pate aux Choux was the response, and my first translation was cabbage pastry? But no, this delicious french treat does not include cabbage, nor a real pastry sense either!
So to make Pate Aux Choux:
Boil 2 cups of water with a GENEROUS amount of butter and a small amount of salt.
Once boiling, turn off the heat, but keep on the burner and add 2 cups of flour.
Beat well until it is all combined and it forms a sticky ball in the middle of the pan.
Add 3 eggs, one at a time and beat well in between each egg. At this point it will get a gross consistency, but you keep beating and it will come back to normal.
Add some more salt (if you want salty Pate Aux Choux, for sweet add sugar at this point).
Then add GENEROUS amount of cheese and beat again until well mixed.
Butter a circular pan (a pie dish will do) and create very large balls of the Pate and put them in the dish (it's O.K. if they touch).
Put them in the oven at 200 celcius for 45 minutes, then reduce the heat to 160 for another 15 minutes.
They will balloon up!
For salted, serve with tomato sauce mixed with creme fraiche. For sugared serve with ice cream or a chocolate sauce I've heard is good.
They are very light and airy, but also very filling so be warned!
Peace, Love and not-Cabbage

Two out of Three Stars

So for this week I was in a elective class called Cuisine and Tradition. The first two classes were based around opening a restaurant in France, what types of cuisines work, which don't and finally what kind of education is needed to open a restaurant and make it successful (hint: none!). The third day was canceled due to the person being sick. Day four was presented by an old Michelin worker who helped write all the Michelin guides for several different countries, that included giving starts out to restaurants and finding new restaurants in many cities all over the world. It was very interesting to talk to him for a while, but after two hours he got a little repetitive. Finally today was the best day of the week. We got invited to go to the fanciest and best rated restaurant in Clermont-Ferrand: Emmanuel Hodanq, don't worry I don't know how to pronounce it either. But it's on the second floor, above a permanent farmers market. We got to visit there all morning while the chef was there preparing for the lunch crowd. First we talked to the owner and manager about the restaurant, what it takes for upkeep, why she went into the restaurant business. Then she pulled the head chef out of the kitchen for us to talk to. It was a really good experience, and one of my favorite quotes from him roughly translates to: If the beginning isn't good, you can't make it better by covering it up, it's the same in food as it is in life.
After several minutes of asking him questions he invited the class back into the kitchen to see the professional kitchen. And boy did it smell good! They were pan frying guinea hen and wow it made the entire place smell amazing. The chef talked to us a little about kitchen set up and how to be efficient in professional kitchens versus private kitchens, and that was very interesting to hear from a French point of view.
After talking with the chef for some time, we went back out into the main restaurant where the French students asked about internships etc. and the piece of information that I found most interesting is that they serve a menu for very cheap during lunch time. This way people can eat well, eat good produce, but at a lower cost. I thought that idea was amazing. Now if only I could find someone to go with, because without someone there it's just food - it takes conversation to turn it into a meal.
Peace, Love and Delicious Food

Fondue in France

So my second host sister (who I just met this month) is leaving to move into her apartment in Paris this weekend, so we were having a goodbye party for me and her. Also my host mom has broken her elbow so she did not feel like cooking with her left hand. So they approached me in the evening, around dinner time, and said we're going out to dinner tonight! So we got our shoes on, put on coats and left out the door to walk to the restaurant. We were walking for about 15 minutes and I was about to ask if we were lost when my host mom pointed out a nondescript building and said that their favorite restaurant was just there! We went into the restaurant and we were the only people in there, we got our menus and my host family proceeded to explain everything on the menu. Although I had already learned all these words before, or even had these dishes before, they still felt the need to explain it to me, several times from several different people. I have gotten very use to hearing the same story a couple times each night however, once from my host sister, once from my host mom and finally with my host dad.
But they asked me what I wanted, and I heard them all talking about fondue so I asked for the fondue too. It worked out perfectly because all five of us had fondue. It was the normal cheese fondue that you think of from the 70's, and with a very strange tradition. After ordering and getting a bottle of wine for the table, my host mom explained to me that if any bread is dropped into the pot you have to take off a piece of clothing, and once you are naked you run around the block. Then my host mom said we wouldn't do that tonight because I needed to practice first. I thought that was very nice of her, but my older host sister explained on her ski weekends they do that tradition all the time.
We got some bread cubes and the cheese came in a very large pot and we all dug in. We also had a plate of sausage and hams delivered to the table, and another bottle of wine! After digging in and finishing off the first pot of cheese, we got another pot and an egg came to the table. Once everyone was finished with the cheese, they cracked the egg into the pot of hot cheese and it created a cheesy scrambled eggs that we dipped the bread into.
After the cheese we then all ordered dessert. I had a pistachio ice cream topped with caramelized apples. It was delicious.
All in all, it was a very nice dinner with my host family, and I am going to miss them a lot because I go back to the states in like 2 weeks! It's crazy I feel that I just got here.
Peace, Love and Cheese!

Cooking for One!

So tonight is my host sister's big party where my host parents are chaperoning so I am all alone for dinner tonight! This means that I get to cook! Now my host mother also left a bunch of things in the freezer that I can reheat if I don't feel like cooking up something, but I think that I will enjoy actually working over a stove to prepare a dinner. I am thinking about a breakfast for dinner theme. I am going to make an omelet with lots of vegetables in it and no cheese and no runny eggs! I also noticed there is some whole wheat bread in the kitchen so I will toast that as well without butter!! I know to some of you this sounds like a really plain dinner and why would I make something like this while I was in France with access to all the wonderful cheese and bread in the world. Well I'll tell you, after eating in restaurants for three weeks, then coming home to the butter and bread household it's been really tough! I'm craving just plain vegetables still!! Tonight I was also invited to another American's host house for a crepe party. I think I will go just for desserts so that I am not missing out on a party nor on crepes, because the French crepes are so much more delicious!
My first week back has been very busy and I can't believe that I only have two more weeks here in Clermont and only one more week of intensive classes. I am starting to get ready to go home, but I am also going to be very sad to leave this place, I feel that my French has improved so much, but has so much further to go. I also have been thinking about summer opportunities in France, but I will have to see about school and timing.
So, I wish that everyone had a restful week, and is looking forward to the three day weekend in the States. Happy Martin Luther King Day!
Peace, Love and finally cooking again...

Arrived in Clermont!

After several weeks of travel, I have arrived safely back in Clermont-Ferrand. I got in really late last night and went almost straight to bed. Then woke up early for a full day of classes. I just wanted to update that I have posted all the pictures from my vacation on photo bucket - and have organized everything into albums of where they were taken (by request of my mother), so this way you can see which pictures are from which city (check old albums because some new pictures might be in them!).
Also, I have taken a day-by-day account of the past three weeks, and if i do say so myself they are humorous, over the past couple entries they have been taken from the document. If you would like the entire document to read, laugh and enjoy please leave a comment here with your e-mail, or send me an e-mail and I will gladly send it along!
Hope everyone's new decade has started off well!
Peace, Love and Sleep!

Paris Still

We expected to wake up again with gusto and exuberance, but then we all wanted to slightly sleep in after the long day before. It probably didn’t help that it was pouring buckets outside and the weatherman said it wasn’t going to clear up. So we hung out in the hotel room for a while after breakfast and watched some news (the only TV that was in English, although my mom has a new fondness for the Italian channel). Then we decided to just go to museums, because that would be indoors and out of the rain. But once we got outside and started walking towards our metro station, it was clearing up and there was a slightest hint of sun in the sky. So we dumped the museum plan and went to the Eiffel Tower!
When we got there, there were so many lines weaving this way and that way, with men hawking fake Eiffel Towers all over the place. We eventually found the line to walk up to the first and second floor and got in line behind a bunch of Russians. They did not move for several minutes, and we could see the rest of the line moving. It was then that we realized they were just hanging out so we skipped around them and got into the real line. What a place to hang out! Once we got tickets, went through metal detectors and started walking up the tower, the views were amazing. It was a little scary at first to be able to look down while you were climbing up! Finally we made it to the first floor (the equivalent of a building’s 23rd floor) and we were walking around. This is the point my mom got chicken and decided to stay inside and me and the boys went up to the second floor (the equivalent of a building’s 43rd floor!). Once up there we discovered the views were pretty much the same, once you were over the roof tops of Paris nothing changes much. So we went back down to find my mom.
It being afternoon, we decided to wander towards Napoleon’s grave and also find some lunch on the way! We started out along the seine, but being bored with the scenery we turned down some side streets and continued walking in the general direction of the grave site. We found a small Chinese restaurant where we decided to pop our heads in. It seemed like a very local’s only place, and was very fun. After way too much good food and some hot tea, we set out again for the grave site. We passed by several car show rooms where the boys drooled, and several top designers of clothes where my mom and I drooled. We eventually found the cutest little street which was lined with food markets and cafes, the thing you expect to see everywhere in Paris! So we bought some cheese (from my region of course!) and some bread and continued walking in order to find a place to eat. We eventually got to the grave site and sat on the wall around the outside of the building and ate our bread and cheese. It was deliciously unpasteurized! Then we went into the building, walked around for a little bit, decided against the museum and left again.
We then took the metro up to Montmartre (the artist district back from the early 1900s). I had the bright idea of walking up the main street (which is very touristy) but it has the best upcoming views of the place, so that we could walk up to the Scare Coeur (which is a huge white basilica). Unfortunately several con men were there to try and get some money from the tourists. The idea is that they would say they have a bracelet where the donations will go towards the church, but really it’s a thug scam where they try and rob you of all your money. They were trying to get the pieces of yarn around the boy’s wrists, but we were all able to get away without much harm done, just some scariness. Then we got into the church, wandered around, saw enough and got over to the artist square. Now this is my favorite part of Montmartre. Everyone enjoyed walked around looking at the paintings and also who was being sketched in the square. My mom had me get my profile cut out of paper, which was pretty cool. Then I bargained for two paintings for my cousin. After wards we decided to walk back to the metro station, drop off our things at the hotel then return to the cute market street for dinner that night.
The market street really became quiet without the fruit stands and other things being sold on the street, but there were still several cafes open and we chose one and sat down to order. Strangely enough, our waiter was from Miami and could speak perfect English, so everyone was speaking English and I didn’t have to be a translator for our last night in Paris! I ordered a delicious goat cheese salad with spinach and olive oil dressing. But my cousin decided to try out the hamburger in Paris. It apparently wasn’t as bad as he had expected! So he came to Paris, only to eat a hamburger and French fries, oh well, you can’t convert them all!
After dinner we took the metro back up to the hotel, wandered around the quarter a little more until it was a little after midnight. At this point when we wanted to reenter the hotel, we needed to show our hotel cards. Finally we got up to our rooms and crashed so that we would be all ready to take the Eurostar over to London in the morning.

Welcome to Paris - First Time

Today was our last morning in Bordeaux, I explained the game plan of how we were getting to our hotel in Paris to my mom in the morning over breakfast at the hotel. We both agreed it would be best to go to the hotel before picking up my cousin at the airport in Paris (since he was flying in today). We ate breakfast, went back up to our room to pack and checked out of the hotel. Good thing the tram station was right next to the hotel, because we were able to take that to the train station. After waiting for a little while for them to post the train dock number, then following a huge crowd of people towards the train, we got on our train to Paris and were on our way. For lunch I had picked up two sandwiches at Paul (a delicious chain of sandwich and pastry shops). We ate on the train and admired the French countryside as we passed by. My mom slept for most of the train ride and at the Paris station we joined everyone getting off and found our metro station to start trying to get to our hotel. We had to transfer metros, and by this point in the trip we’ve started to get use to lugging our luggage around town, up and down stairs and everything! We finally got to the ride station and looking at a map in the metro station I thought I had it figured out of where to go to get to the hotel. But as soon as we were top side I got turned around. We started going up one street, couldn’t find it. Looked at another map and chose another street, couldn’t find it. Finally we stopped into a bakery in the area and the woman brought out a huge map and showed me exactly how to get to the hotel. It was so easy! So when we got there, it was actually a very cute street and a very nice neighborhood, so we went into the hotel very cheerful.
Unfortunately as soon as I saw the help I knew things were going to be trouble. I go up to the front desk and a guy who was hanging out with his buddies comes over to check us in. First he didn’t know what to do with me because he couldn’t figure out that we had reserved a triple when there were only two of us (at this point). Finally though he gave us our room keys and my mom and I went up in the tiny elevator to our room. The tiny elevator should have been an indication for the TINY room. Now, French hotels are notoriously small. This is ridiculous small though. There was barely enough room for the three twin beds and our luggage, let alone the one table and chair they tried to squeeze into the room. The bathroom was small and badly kept, and above all? It smelled! So, then after dropping off our things, my mom and I left for the airport to go pick up Brian. When the sleazy guy who was smoking out a window in the lobby asked for our keys when we left, my mom and I knew – we needed to check out of this hotel. We managed though to go get Brian and pick him up from the airport though. Because he was a last minute addition to the group, he knew that he would have to wait in the airport for a little while. We didn’t think it would be this long though! His plane landed early and our train came in late! Just before he was about to call us to ask where we were, we found him and whisked him back to the hotel. We all agreed at that point that we needed to move hotels. Thank goodness that I had stayed in Paris earlier that month because I knew of a nice hotel, a little further away, but it ended up being a lot cheaper for two separate rooms! So that evening before dinner, we all went out to the other hotel, got a reservation and then set off for dinner.
We ate in the Latin Quarter that night because I knew there was tons of restaurants right next to each other, all different types of cuisine too. We ate at a Greek restaurant; I had the moussakka, which was really good for being in Paris. Also the salad was very fresh. Unfortunately the dessert of crème caramel was too sweet and did not live up to its expectations. The décor in this restaurant was fantastic though! Think T.G.I. Friday’s, with the “flair” but Greek style. It was pretty fantastic.
Finally after staying out late by walking around the Notre Dame and other famous monuments at night, we all went back to the sleazy hotel, got our key from the desk clerk who was now drinking with his buddies in the lobby and watching a soccer game. We fell asleep – after sanitizing the pillows and everything else in the room and setting a door alarm (Thanks Grandpa!). All packed up and ready to move into the next hotel.

Past Again - Bordeaux first Night Revisited

Tuesday 22nd December, 2009
Because of icy conditions on the road, we all had decided it best if I took the local train into Zurich in the morning so that I could catch my TGV to Paris. But this meant waking up at 5 in the morning to catch a 5:30 am train into Zurich. Oh well! We woke up early and prepared to go into town. Sue and Fritz dropped me off at the train station and waited for the train to come with me. It was so sad to be leaving them after such a short time – but it was time to move on and go collect my mom at the airport in Paris. So I got on the train, then arrived in Zurich and was waiting around for my train into Paris. I must have looked like I knew what I was doing because a couple people asked me where the TGV was (because there was a local train on the tracks where the TGV was supposed to be!). They soon moved the train and we were able to get on board. The train ride into Paris was uneventful, except for the fact I was seated next to a woman traveling with a baby. And I mean a real baby. She had the car seat balanced on the table in front of her so she looked so squished, and it was almost impossible for me to be able to get out, and to move around the train.
But it was only a couple hours, and we were only a half hour late so it was ok. My train pulled in about a half hour after my mom had already landed, so I was trying to hurry to get out to the airport so she wouldn’t freak out. Unfortunately I had to wait in a really long line to get tickets to get out to the airport because I don’t have a French bank card (which seems to throw everyone off in restaurants, shops or wherever I try to use it!). But after watching a scene with a guy who could barely speak English (and not a word of French) banging on the counter windows, demanding they sell him tickets to get on the metro. After this all happened, I was able to get tickets and get on my way out to the airport. The metros weren’t busy – but boy, they aren’t fun with luggage! After finding out my mom’s flight had been moved to a different terminal, finding the new terminal and finding her trying to figure out how to dial me on her Italian phone that she borrowed from a neighbor. We got back on the RER and another metro line to get down to the TGV train station together. We arrived at the train station about an hour early and got lunch. After her first experience with French bread, some coffee and a little less time, we found our TGV and got on the train. My mom was really impressed with how fast the trains in Europe go – but anything is fast compared to Amtrak which ambles down the track! We arrived in Bordeaux without a hitch and got on the tram lines to get to our hotel in the center city. It was a much larger city than my mom or I expected, but beautiful at night!
We finally got to our hotel, got into our room, and went out to dinner before we were too tired to leave again. I saw in a guide book an oyster bar right around the corner from our hotel and we decided to give it a try on our first night. It was less than a block away, and there were only a handful of other people in the restaurant. We ordered fish soup for the both of us to start and a sampler plate of 14 oysters for the main course. The boy who served us was nice and explained where the oysters were from while his dad was behind the bar shucking the oysters for the other tables. We also got a bottle of white wine from the region – nothing fabulous, but it complemented the oysters very well. The fish soup was delicious, if not a little rich. But the oysters were defiantly the hit of the night! They all had a very different taste and it was cool to be able to compare them all. It seemed like everyone ordered the same dish that we did in the restaurant. After eating we were exhausted, I had been up almost 20 hours and my mom was up 36 hours --- we got the bill and left for the hotel where we quickly fell asleep after catching up some more on photos together.

In to the Past - and a Happy New Years!

So due to the lack of consistant internet on my travels, I have been unable to post as regularly as my culinary experiences arise! Which is both a good thing and a bad. So here is a small tidbit from a day that I spent in Switzerland - when my mom read it she couldn't stop laughing, so I decided I should share it. And now presenting:
Eating like a German but Dressing like a Welshman
A wise professor told me this story while I was in Clermont. There used to be this duke of something or another in Germany that had a brother that moved away and married a woman in Welsh. The first brother (who was still in Germany) was writing to another German to talk about his brother, he was saying that even though he was living in Welsh, he was still eating like a German! And German’s can’t fit into the clothes of a Welshman, so he was spending a lot of money to both be eating like a German and dressing like a Welshman! And that is exactly how I feel today. It started off with me sleeping in late, waking up leisurely then eating breakfast, which I was told is supposed to be brunch, so I figured we would not be eating much until dinner. Oh how I was mistaken. After a well missed breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast (and for the record, no one looked at me funny when I made a sandwich of my toast and eggs!) then I was told to try this little brioche bread thing that was surrounding a bologna of some sort, then a jelly went on top. It was good, but I couldn’t tell you what was in it. Then I had a couple slices of this whole grain bread with a homemade strawberry jelly. It was delicious! Then we sat around and talked for a while around the table. It felt like home on Saturday mornings. The Christmas tree was also being set up at the same time. It was really nice to be in a home close to the holidays because my French host family didn’t really decorate for the holidays this year, I think something like they weren’t having any parties so why bother?
Anyway then Adrian said that he was going to the cabin for a couple days with some friends to go snowboarding, but also that his car couldn’t make it in the snow, so his mom was going to drive them. This is when I got invited along! It was such an experience to be in a car driving through the Swiss mountains with 3 boys! They were all such characters, and very funny even though they didn’t speak much to me. But it was ok because I had a good time anyway. Then half way there we stopped at a MacDonald’s. Being still full from breakfast, but also not wanting to be rude I asked just for a small French fry. Their portions are bigger in Switzerland than in France!! So while Sue did the grocery shopping for the boys, we all ate MacDo.
After getting back into the car to drive the rest of the way in semi-white out conditions! It finally felt like December when there was snow in the air and the cars were spinning out of control. Ah Home. Then after French fries I was handed a croissant with chocolate in the middle. Now, you all have heard about how good Swiss chocolate is right? It’s better. It puts our chocolate to shame! So then we finally got up the mountain (had to cross the ski path even to get up there!)
Then we dropped the boys off and it was just me and Sue to ride to Miriam’s horse show. But unfortunately with the weather we were just in time for “half time” which was an aperitif! Of hot mulled wine and little finger foods, in the middle of the arena! You would never see something so classy in an American barn! Then the riders started again and we all went up stairs to warm up before Miriam had to ride. I was then asked if I was hungry, at this point I was still full from the on going eating that had been happening all day, but I figured this was dinner so I said sure to the “menu” which turned out to be really good for barn food! It was this meat in a gravy sauce, steamed veggies (one that apparently doesn’t grow in the US) and then this flour egg mixture that is boiled, or fried, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. But it was good with the gravy from the meat. Then I watched the horses for a little while. It really made me miss horseback riding, it’s been such a long time for me! Finally Miriam won though! So that was good, and she got the trophy and a present and a ribbon. It was a lot of fun, and we went back up stairs after putting the horse away to talk to everyone. We were talking and I was handed another mulled wine. It was really fun, even though I couldn’t under stand a word of what was going on, it was really interesting to see all the people and how they interacted with each other. It was very different from French culture. For example, everyone was smiling all the time, no serious faces, also they were much louder than the French can get. And it was just a completely different atmosphere. It was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately what did me in was then they yelled that there were free bratwursts. And Sue said I just had to try one. It was good but I don’t think I will be eating for a week! It was a lot better than any hot dog we get in the states. SO finally after talking some more, we started to head out, which is always a process in a group of people who like to talk! But it was fun, we said good night to Bootie Call (the horse by the way!) and we packed up the car and left for home.
All in all, it was a really amazing day, even though it was too foggy to be able to see the mountains clearly, that just means I’ll have to come back some day!
Peace, Love and Happy New Years!