cultural differences in food packaging

i've learned that even simple inane things like food packaging can be cultural.

my first experience with a specificity to french food packaging was ...

#1. rice in a bag

instant rice comes in a box with four individual packages. naturally, i would heat up the water. cut open a bag. pour the rice in. and cook.

until one day, i was making rice for a french friend and as i was cutting open the bag, he was like... "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?! -- don't cut the bag! just throw the entire bag with the rice into the water!"

i didn't believe him. how could you throw a plastic bag into boiling water?

lo and behold, he was right. and let me tell you.

rice in a bag. is GENIUS.

(we don't have that in the US, do we? cause we should)

#2 sugar in a box

this one's for pilar.

ok, american and french have different food packaging concepts. understandable. but this is a spanish - french difference. you would think the countries being so close together, they would have a common base of food packaging. but no.

sugar in france often comes in a box. so pilar would open the sugar box from the top - like you open a cereal box. makes sense, right?

the french however, are quite clever when it comes to packaging. pilar did not notice the handy side opening - allowing for a clean and efficient pouring of sugar (rather than spooning out clumsily from the top).

and finally,

#3 oven-resistant pie dough wax paper

this packaging was definitely the biggest revelation for me...

in france, they sell pie dough wrapped in a wax paper.

sidenote: i never used to make apple pie in the US, but due to the combination of a) apple pie being the embodiment of american culture, and b) pie dough being so readily available, i started making it for potlucks and dinner parties -- and after three years of living in france and baking apple pies, it's become sorta my trademark (i was even graced with an apple peeler for my birthday last year to ease the process ... )

anyway. i also make quiches. so i use pie dough a lot.

and naturally - when making a pie/quiche, i used to pull out the wrapped pie dough, cut open the packaging, separate the dough from the wax paper and do my best not to massacre the dough as i transferred it to the pie mold. but--- it got messy every time.

until one day....

i was at a friend's house watching him make quiche. he cut open the pie dough packaging, unraveled the dough with the wax and put the wax paper directly into the pie mold!

i was. flabbergasted.

it changed my life.

not only do you have a neat crust, but you cut down on time. and you don't have to grease your mold.

i'm telling you, i was blown away.

that's it for now ....

have you misunderstood any quirky food packaging lately?

garden update

so it turns out that gardens - well, at least "balcony herb gardens" - are not so difficult to maintain. they're like babies. they just need food (water + sun), lots of it, and some lovin' care.

my last garden update dates from june at the end of this post. since that post, my chives/tomatoes/basil pot evolved incredibly! (see below)

but then, something tragic happened...

summer ended.

and gone were the days of glory. for us. and for mr ciboulette, mlle tomate, et baby basilique:

pretty dramatic huh? that's how evil winter is.

well, to be honest, what really happened was - my window frames are made of wood and therefore full of moisture. when it's hot, it's ok, b/c the moisture dries and the windows can open and close no problem. but when it's cold, the moisture stays, the frames expand, and I CAN'T OPEN MY WINDOWS (to feed my babies). and so, i just watch day after day. hopelessly. as they whither away. **

** right right, i should get this window problem fixed. that takes effort though. and i'm a bit lazy.

queso de cabra con miel

one very cool thing about europe is that you can decide to go to another country ya know, for dinner.

while riding the epics waves in biarritz this past weekend, we decided to cross the border to st. sebastien for some yummy tapas (also known as "pintxos" in the land of basque).

forty minutes later, we found ourselves (somewhat clueless) on the streets of spain, asking people "donde esta la bahia?" -- the "bay" - as in, the epicenter around which the city is based. (les boulets)

we eventually managed to find the "old town" where the streets are lined with pintxos bar after pintxos bar (bringing back a recollection of a st. sebastien visit with dad three years, where we spent an evening eating lots of jamon and getting drunk off of sangria... good times)

at our first pitxos stop, all seven of us ordered sangria. we were pumped and ready to go.

however ... i'm not sure if it was because we were foreigners or because it was the bartender's "specialty"-- but the version of "sangria" that we were served, consisted of wine mixed not with bits of fruits, but ...with a shot of every single liquor the bartender could find behind the counter!

despite the unpleasant concoction, we washed down our little tapas, and continued on our way.

we eventually ended up at a pretty good place called manto (or munto?). it was PACKED and we quickly realized that you had to be aggressive, methodical, and know what you're doing in order to access those finger-sized treats.

soon enough, our palettes were met with a melange of jamon iberica, croquettas, spicy squid, stuffed peppers... and the best of all (a semi-unanimous decision) was the chevre-miel. or shall we say, queso de cabra con miel.

let me repeat. from top to bottom:

a piece of goat cheese lathered in honey. sitting on...

a bed of onions sauteed with olive oil and a touch of sugar. atop...

a delicious wedge of baguette.

all heated just the right amount so that the cheese has a soft sweet texture that melts in your mouth.

yup. divine.

and well-deserved after a full day of getting "brassé" (beaten) by the gnarly waves......

mozzarella di bufala

real quick one.

the italian goddess letizia dazzled us with one of her "light" salads the other night- -

- grilled eggplant

- roquette

- jambon cru

- fresh basil

- cherry tomatoes and....

- mozzarella di bufala

(and just a very generous drizzle of olive oil)

when we were at the supermarket buying the ingredients for the salad, i was all ready to go with the cheap mozzarella, ya know the one i usually get.. and she was like, no! bufala is much much tastier. and i was a little skeptic that this buffalo mozzarella that was about 3 times the price of the other was going to be better than the normal one. so we got both. to test.

and ya know what ?? the mozzarella di bufala was not 3 times better than the normal one.

it was 10 times better!!!!!!!

and apparently it really does come from the milk of a water buffalo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_mozzarella

i'm not sure how i feel about that. i'm just not going to think about it.

and i'm just super excited about the salad i'm going to eat tomorrow (yup, i already bought me some buffalo mozzarella and roquette to replicate the salad. hehehe).

sign off.

le fromage qui pue

at last.  

the most appropriate post has arrived to this blog.  

i can not take credit however, because the experience and the following recount belong to the lovely Amy Caren Mednick **:

**Amy and the cute curly-haired hubby Aron, took the "Harmony of Wine and Cheese" course at Murray's Cheese

First of all, they told us some rules for pairing wine and cheese. Here are the basic ones i took away: 
1.anything with bubbles (beer or sparkling wine) goes great with very soft creamy cheese.
2.you can and should usually eat the rind unless it's really hard.
3.goat cheese loves white wine.
4.cheese goes best with white wine, so if you have a red, it's good with really strong cheese (the acidity balances the strong flavor, such as garlic)

most importantly, THE CHEESES.
best cheese EVER EVER EVER: Ossau Iraty. It's made in the Basque Pyrenees of southwestern France-- that's right by you right Alki? You should stop reading this immediately and go get some. It's a sheep's milk cheese and is magically creamy and delicious.
Our other favorite was Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, which was cheddar but was crumbly like parm. And there was a pretty good goat cheese called st maure.

thanks amy for your extremely insightful (and savory) report!!! :-)  mmm...cheese.  i am all over st. maure but i don't know ossau iraty (i bet ingrid, remi, or vincent are probably laughing at me now).  i'm so so so excited to try it next time i'm at le fromagerie.  

two years ago, when i finished my business program and was deciding whether or not to stay in france, i said to myself "if i find a job at areva, i'll stay in france.  otherwise, i'll take two months and do a bike-cheese tour around france and then go back to the US".   i ended up getting a job with areva.  

and so i never did that tour.  

but-   i'd still really like to.  

le relieur

ok two things.  

i just made a wicked sandwich :

first, i mixed some minced garlic with olive oil and salt and pepper, spread it onto my baguette, and stuck it in the oven for 10 minutes (also known as garlic bread).  

once i took the warm, garlic-y baguette out of the oven, i filled it with :

turkey

roquette

cucumbers

fresh chives (from the garden)

fresh basil (from the garden)

salt

pepper 

and balsamic vinaigrette.

yea, it was even more delicious than it sounds or looks. 

ok, so 2nd thing :

i live on the coolest street ever.  i'm embarrassed to say that i've lived here for almost a year, and never walked into the stores on my street.  first of all, there's this crazy bookstore, un regard moderne.  i really have no idea how to describe so instead, i will copy-paste a description i found with that amazing google thing, that i think does a pretty good job of capturing the essence of the place. 

Graphic Art, Sado Masochist, Snoopy, American Satanism, Freak Designers, Japanese Bondage, Pop art, Extreme Performances, everything you may like or dislike is available at "Un regard Moderne" a tiny bookseller situated near Saint Michel boulevard. The first time you come into the shop you feel scared by the silence and the huge piles of book that create kind of temple columns. Then you quickly learn how to find the different thematic piles: A pile of books stands for Erotic fetishist photographies, another one for eccentric cartoons (Pierre Lapolice, Stéphane Blanquet), experimental movies, beatnik literature. If you're lucky enough you'll discover original William Burroughs recordings declaiming his "cut up poems".

"Un Regard Moderne" owns a modest gallery and organize previews and exihibitions to support the launch of limited edition books. Pierre Molinier and Gilles Berquet two famous erotic french photographers has elected this amazing bookseller whenever they need to present their new creations. Be aware of the price because most of the books sold there are unique and cost sometimes a lot.

oooh, i found some pretty good pictures of the place. 

http://www.itsdeadlicious.com/2009/03/un-regard-moderne-cult-bookshop-in.html

 awesome, huh?

the second place i discovered was "le relieur"  what is a relieur ?  yea, i had no clue either.  a relieur constructs, assembles, and/or restores books -- a "bookbinder".  there isn't a wiki page in english.  probably because it doesn't exist as a profession in culture-less anglophone countries!  hehe. 

anyway, andre MINOS is .. amazing !  (and his father is greek !)  i spent about 1/2 hour talking with him about what he does.  he literally uses a sewing machine to bind pages together !! (ok, maybe this doesn't seem shocking for some of you, but to me, it was completely foreign !)

he also told me about his surprisingly many japanese apprentices (the french and the japanese are quite similar when it comes to.. what is the word i'm looking for?  taste ? meticulous ?  refined ?  detail ?), his international clients, our neighbhorhood.... anyway, he lives right next to his workshop so he invited me over for lunch on his terrasse sometime.  i'm stoked.  

yup, that's all.  tasty sandwiches and the coolest street ever.  

i'm waiting to hear back from amy and aron about their wine and cheese class (sue's and my wedding present!) for my next post........ :-)

flavored coffee

i was lying in bed this morning, thinking about my impending supermarket trip and creating a mental shopping list.  flavored coffee.  mmm.  

unfortunately... FLAVORED COFFEE DOESN'T EXIST IN PARIS.  isn't that sad ?  so then, i started making a mental list of all the culinary delights i miss from my beloved united states : 

(and then proceeded to cry) 

- flavored coffee.

- bagels bagels bagels.  i have never eaten a bagel in paris.  NEVER.  i know i could go to bagels and brownies, this cute little shop near st. placide or a jewish bakery in the marais, but it hasn't happened.  there's just not the same bagel reflex here as there is in the US.  someone at work asked me once, "if you have something to celebrate, what is the 'croissant' equivalent in the US of treats to bring everyone at work?"... good question, huh.  i was hesitating between donuts and bagels.  personally, i would go with bagels.  mmm.  with chives cream cheese.  and sprouts and cucumbers. ohhh ok, alki stop.  

- anna's taqueria.  i will enlarge that to quick, cheap, and tasty mexican food.  don't get me wrong, i've searched and there's some decent mexican options (el sol y la luna , la perla , anahuacalli <-- awesome expensive mexican food option by the way !!  oh the margaritas .... shoutout to penny and james.) but let's just say that there is a huge business opportunity for taquerias in paris.  

- interesting sandwiches. the french concept of a sandwich ("jambon beurre", for example) is a baguette smeared with a bit of butter and 3 pieces of ham in it.  maybe a little pickle too.  that's it.  disappointing, right ?  i know.  where is the surprise ??

the avocado spread??  the sprouts ??  the honey-roasted turkey??  the pesto spread ?? the tapenade??  ohh, how i long for a turkey sub from bruno's right now.  there's cosi (different from the new york one) that is pretty awesome and has killer crumble, and in searching for the address of bagels and brownies, i found this blog article :

http://lafleurdeparis.blogspot.com/2006/02/snack-chic.html

i'm totally going to check out all those places, especially LA FERME.

but in any case, let's just say that the frenchies are pretty oblivious to the magical possibilities of a sandwich. 

what else....

- trader joe's.

- new york style pizza.

- cheetos.  and cheezits for that matter.  

- kashi cereal. 

that's all i can think of right now.  i'm sure there's more.  i did miss greasy american breakfasts for a while but that longing is easily satisfied by breakfast in america (beth, how many times did you go there in a span of 2 weeks?  was it four ? haha).  

share you cravings!!  we can get through this ... together!  maybe we can open a diner that serves mexican food, huge pizzas, cheetos, awesome sandwiches, and flavored coffee.  oooh.  i like it.  we're on to something here.  

and finally, just a small update on my garden.  it's been approximately one week.  and the chives/tomatoes/basil/mint are in good shape.  and as for the radish/roquette batch, there's these cute little flowers (ok, maybe otherwise known as weeds, that are sprouting !).  all in all, things are looking a-ok.  and my morning eggs have been incredibly tasty lately.