The Long Road

If you know me and Mich, you know that food factors into our lives quite prominently. I know, you’re saying “Duh! We all have to eat!”. And you’d be right. Now I wouldn’t call us “Foodies”, but we do look for opportunities to have great food. Couple this habit with our travel one, and you’ve got a couple of happy, well-fed travelers!

Now whenever we discuss our recent trip with someone, they often say something like “Oooo, you must have loved the food in France.” And indeed we did. But not in the way we may have expected. We found a fair amount of restaurants were quite overpriced (keeping in mind that this is Europe) for rather mediocre fare. So really, we didn’t eat out all that much. That said, there were a few things I wanted to be sure graced my plate on this trip.

Paella:
Yes, I know, this isn’t French food. But hey, we were in Catalonia, in the south of France where the Spanish influence is heavy. So when we walked past this little restaurant on a tiny back street in Perpignan and saw the sign “Paella 9.90€” I became hopeful. When I stuck my head in and saw this…

I don’t think I could fit this Paella Pan in my kitchen!

… I was in! We were told that Paella would be ready in 25 minutes, so we sat down for a glass of rose while we waited. The waiter frequently came out into the street to address the patrons with updates. “Paella in 17 minutes!” “Paella in 8 minutes!” When it did come, it was delicious and well worth the “wait”.

Jacqui and Glenn enjoying the ambiance. Methinks Jacqui has spied the garbage truck!

A funny thing happened during that meal. Although it was about 8pm on a Thursday evening (the night that Perpignan has a LOT of live music in the old city), the garbage truck came along to do its rounds. This was funny because as I said earlier, this was a rather small street. I suppose they must do this business in the evening simply to avoid the daytime traffic on the crowded, narrow French streets. Anyway, check out the video below of our fabulous Paella dinner interrupted briefly by the Perpignan Municipal Sanitation Crew hard at work. I THINK it is safe to say that it will be a once in a lifetime dinner experience, but then again, who knows…? Fine dining experience indeed!

Tapas (or Pintxos):
I know, this is supposed to be about French food. Well, being so close to the Spanish border, and due to the fact that we flew into and out of Barcelona, we did spend some time in Spain. Our last night in Europe was spent in Girona, a really delightful city, full of history and incredible cobblestone streets. It’s a future post in its own right. Anyway, seeing as we were there for a night, I felt we had to get some good Tapas. Glenn ran into a North American bloke on the street (quite literally - he said “excuse me” and we recognized his “accent” to be NA) and we had a quick chat. He was kind of a local in that he had lived there for 12 years. I pumped him for info on a good Tapas place and he did not steer us wrong. It was just the kinda place I was hoping for; no menu, rather they put the tapas out on a long counter and you just go up and pick up what appeals to you. Each one has a toothpick in it. They count up the toothpicks you have at the end of your meal and bill you accordingly. Awesome.

And no drool guard!

Fois Gras:
Here’s one I had some trouble with. I KNOW that I shouldn’t eat fois gras. I know it. I do. I know that it is cruel. I know that the geese have a really, really sucky life. But I also know the unbelievable culinary experience it is to dine on fois gras. People really, there really isn’t anything like it. So, this is one of those “when in France” moments. For the second time in my life (and perhaps the last), I ordered it. And I savored it. And I loved it. Like, I really loved it. I shared a bit with my table-mates, but really, I kept the lion’s share to myself. And it was good people, really, really good. Shame on me.

Fois Gras. Yes it looks like I’m sharing, but really, I’m not. Oh no, I’m not.

Cheese, Olives and Saucisson:
I can’t say enough about the cheese, olives, saucisson and, mentioned in a previous post, bread. The variety of cheese was staggering. Each village or region has their own specialty cheese, be it from cow, goat or sheep. It was fun choosing what to try and how much to spend! The same was true for saucisson (sausage). Probably the one we liked the most was this amazing little number that Mich got; it had pistachios in it! It was really expensive, but the saucisson man assured Mich that it would keep, unrefrigerated, in the cupboard for months! You’ve gotta pay for that kinda feature in your sausage! Plus, at the same market, Jacqui got some amazing cheese that was even more expensive. It had similar features though. It all came in handy when Mich and I did our multi-day hike. Nice to have cheese and saucisson for lunch on day three and not even have to be carrying a cooler with us!

Getting olives at the market. What a selection!

Cheese and Saucisson. Look ma, no refrigeration!

Cafés:
Of course we did spend some quality time enjoying coffee and baked goods out on the street. Mostly the little cafés or Boulangerie would have some seating out on the sidewalk, or more likely a little walking square. Many were very old businesses, handed down from generation to generation within one family. Pictured below are Jacqui and I enjoying morning treats from a Pâtisserie that was founded in 1775.

A Coffee Challenge:
And so it was that I decided that Glenn, a tea drinker, should become a coffee lover! See me in the above pic? That’s me absolutely LOVING a shot of espresso. Mmmmmmm. I wanted to see if we could show Glenn the way. I wanted to see him make that very coffee loving face!

We did finally convince him to have a cup. I asked him to express the love in his face so I could capture it with the camera. Below are the results.

The first try. I think he’s just warming up and only smelling it. Not quite ready I suppose.

Second try. What do you think Glenn? Hmmmm. He’s trying at least to look like he’s enjoying it.

Third try. Really? I’m supposed to like this stuff?

I don’t think he’s had another cup since. Back to Earl Grey for him.

In the end we did a lot of this; bread, tomatoes, cheese and olives. Accompanied by rose of course. And it was awesome.

France is part of the EU. Thus, they are certainly part of the EU’s act of legislation banning the import of Canadian seal products on the basis that commercial seal hunting, notably in Canada, is “inherently inhumane”.

You know, despite this bill’s potential hit to the Canadian economy (and perhaps identity), I have basically been on board with it. I mean, as a country, we can’t expect the French to get behind something that they deem to be “inhumane” right? None of us would. So good on ‘em…. right?

Well I thought so until recently, while in France,…

I saw THIS!

WTF? Seriously?

So clubbing seals is “inherently inhumane”, but clubbing orientals is openly advocated on the French streets? As a Chinese Canadian I have to say that I’m deeply troubled by the promotion of this kind of activity. I mean up until this moment, I felt pretty safe in France. Really, we saw none of the strife and violence that has plagued the country in recent memory. So I was literally walking the streets openly; sipping tasty french coffee at the cafés without a care in the world. Little did I know the peril I was putting myself into. Needless to say, I was WAY more cautious after viewing that poster. I even considered fleeing the country before things went from sweet to sour for me, and I wokked into some trouble.

In the end, I got outta there without incident. But not without being severely troubled by the whole situation. I can’t believe this has been allowed to go on unnoticed by activists ’round the world.

So I would like to use this forum to call for the immediate ban on certain French products, starting with French Fries. That should hit them where it hurts eh? Especially when you think about how many French Fries are consumed in Canada each day. Perhaps then they will start to think twice about this activity. Are you with me people? No more French Fries! And if that doesn’t work (though how could it not!?), I say we ban berets next. That should cripple their economy, leaving them little choice but to come to us begging for our mercy! Ha, they’d probably start asking us to ramp up the seal hunt and send extra seal pelts to them so they can create seal skin berets! I seriously don’t think they know who they are dealing with here.

** UPDATED**

Um… OK, perhaps I got this a little wrong. Thanks to all of you who have written me to let me know that this “Oriental Clubbing” thing is just some kinda craze or something at the Discotheques. Wow, um, who knew?

And yes, I also NOW know that French Fries are a bit of misnomer and that they were invented by the fine folks over at McCain Foods. Well, at least the beret is a French invention!

**UPDATED AGAIN**

Thanks to all of you who emailed me to let me know that in fact the beret really has Basque origins. I mean, come on, a good part of Basque territory is in modern day France! Give me a break here people!

Oh the sacrifices made for travel. It would seem that I am still suffering the aftereffects of allergic reactions to one very cute, but dander filled french feline.

Though Leelu’s range was severely restricted during my stay in her house (basically she was only allowed in the kitchen and outside), and I treated my body to a barrage of various anti-cat elixirs, she did get to me in the end.

Now we’ve been back a week and my nose still hasn’t quite recovered. Oh well, it will eventually. In the meantime, Otrivin is my best friend. Happily, my lungs fared a bit better and have suffered few negative efffects.

Sniff.

Nary a day goes by that my life isn’t touched by the ever present hand of Les Paul. That’s because I listen to a lot of music that features solid body electric guitars. And he pretty much made the first one ever. Now if you stop and think about that for a minute, you can see why he is such an important guy in my life, albeit indirectly. His musical and sound recording innovations and thus, influence on modern music hardly stop there either.

Les Paul died today.

Blake commented earlier with a request for a post about the wine we enjoyed on our trip. Well Blakey, said post was already in the works…

Let’s just say that there was a lot of this going on!

It goes without saying that France has a vibrant wine culture. But before our visit, I’m not sure I really appreciated what that meant. You can’t go very far without seeing a person with a glass of wine in front of them, be it through their kitchen window or at the internet place.

For example, we showed up one day at Alan’s place at about noon. As mentioned previously, Alan is a fantastic fella that Jacqui and Glenn met on their first day in the country. From Paris, he was on vacation, renting a place in Rasiguères, the village closest to our place. He was a great friend to make, full of interesting conversation and insights; a real window to help us peer into French culture. I wish we had been able to spend more time with him. Anyway, when we arrived at his place he asked us if we would like some coffee or wine. Of course, being that it was noon we requested coffee. He nodded and smiled and poured us some Rosé. It was his favorite, obtained from the Cave directly across the street from his place. And I’m not talking a bottle here folks, rather it was a 5 litre plastic cask that you can buy and have refilled onsite. Not bad! Actually, I should mention that I’ve never really been a fan of Rosé, but this trip has easily convinced me that on a hot summer day not much could be more refreshing that a cool glass of the stuff. Needless to say we enjoyed Rosé with Alan on more than one occasion.

I should discuss the Caves (or Caveau) a bit more. They are simply everywhere. Every town has at least ONE. Most have several. And we are talking about tiny towns here people; think villages. Basically they are the outlet that each winery has for wine dégustation , or wine tasting. They’ll pretty much crack any bottle you’d like to try, though there is an expectation that you’ll leave with something tucked under your arm. Well we always did anyway!

Some caves are fancy, some are far from it, but all have their wares ready for you to sample. And sample we did! In Languedoc-Roussillon, the region we were in, they had a few sweet whites, ambers, rose and lots of reds! We learned a bunch about it, though mostly about the reds. In this region the reds tend to be a blend of Syrah, Grenache and a third grape, usually Mourvedre or Carignan (one of the oldest grape varieties in France). Each winery has a variety of wines produced from this blend with several variables - the percentage of each grape, whether the wine goes straight to bottle (very common) or is aged (a year, six months, in old oak barrels or new oak barrels etc. and terroir -the type of soil the grapes are grown in as well as the aspect and angle of slope). We were amazed at how wines made of basically the same three grapes were so different given these variables, even from a single winery. We were so amazed that we decided we needed to do a fair amount of “research” into the phenomenon.

Even the Cave guy gets to sample each one!

What do you think of this one Glenn?

In the end we even got seven year old Andrew in on the action!

Oh relax! This is actually just jus de pomme. Though we totally had Andrew SMELL every wine we tasted! He had a few sips, but it didn’t really resonate with him the same way the Smarties Pop-Up ice cream bars did.

Of course we did find a Cave that was also a restaurant too. That is mostly another post, but the cool part here is that you could buy a bottle for dinner that they would crack for you at the same price as if you came in a bought it off the shelf. And if you didn’t finish it (as if!), they’ll stuff the cork back in so you can take it with you. Ever think that we don’t do things right in North America? I do.

One thing that was rather difficult to figure out was the way wine is classified in France. There are several “categories”: Vin de Pays, Vin de Table, VDQS and AOC. I won’t go into each here, but will mention that we did ask at a Cave where both the shop attendant and the winery owner tried to explain it to us (they both had pretty good English). In the end the owner decided that we should just understand that “it is very complicated”. ‘Nuff said eh?

Of course, if you didn’t know, Canada will only allow you to import 1.5 L of wine with you duty free on a trip like this. That equals 4 bottles for the two of us. So what is one to do after all these Cave visits? I think you can figure it out!

Yeah, I knew that you could!

Yes, we are back. Feels pretty good. Things are fine, the nice folks who stayed in our house in our absence did a great job of keeping the yard going and thus the garden harvesting is beginning in earnest. Yum! Mich is already back to work and we are actually sleeping pretty well. We were both up at 5 am yesterday, but at least we aren’t feeling like zombies all day!

We are totally missing being in France, so we’ve tried to soften the blow by picking up some nice french cheese, a baguette, pouring over travel pics and making Ratatouille, the one french dish I really wanted to have over there that I didn’t get to. Lots of fresh garden veggies in that one! We haven’t popped any corks on the bottles of wine we brought back… maybe because there are only three of ‘em!

To say I’m quite interested in seeing this film would be quite the understatement. I’m rather excited about it. Drooling really. While I’m not really playing much guitar these days, and haven’t for a while, I remain fascinated by it and really, guitar players in general. This seems to be a fresh approach at the whole phenomenon. Sure hope it comes to a theater near me…

Well we are still in France. For a few more days anyway. yes there has been a lack of posts. Basically our dialup at the house went belly up, there is an expensive internet cafe about 20 minutes away and I’m kinda hating the french keyboards (several keys are in different positions which makes for rather slow typing). It all adds up to me posting about this great trip when we get home!