Food Fridays >> French Cuisine at Home

((Note on the time stamp: I've changed the blog's time to my time zone so that I can publish my posts according to my time, so it will therefore not correspond with my home Central time zone in the U.S. I'm just letting you know in case you get confused:) ))

So far, all the food here has been wonderful. I mean, sure, there's Nutella, which is nice to have (and in a glass jar, not plastic- I find that interesting for some reason), but I'm talking more about the quality of food. My family will be glad to know that I ate cantaloupe, salmon, and tuna, and I liked it all. I'm convinced it's because of my sister's assertion that the food here is so much better because it's so fresh; she told me to try anything because it would probably be better than at home, and she's right so far! (But I still don't like apricots... However, I can stand them if they're not alone.)

It's also interesting to see how balanced the meals are. At lunch and dinner we drink only water; juice and milk is for breakfast only, and maybe for snack-time at about 4pm (and no soda! However, I wonder if this would be different with a family that has teenagers... I had some orange Schweppes courtesy of the Wednesday nanny.). There's a small main course that has a meat and vegetable, and that can be followed by cheese or bread. Finally, there's dessert: fruit or yogurt. The kids only get chocolate or nutella, etc. at breakfast or snack-time, and in very small doses.

Some examples of the wonderful food:

Brioche: a (sandwich, for us) bread baked with extra milk, butter, and egg so that it's nice and moist. It can come with little pieces of chocolate baked in, too. (And there are probably more kinds, but I haven't been to the grocery store yet to see.) Maybe I'll find some classic Brioche rather than the sandwich sliced variety at the bakery.

Camembert: (on the left of tray, above) A cheese that's white and slightly hard on the outside, coming in a round shape about 4in in diameter, and slightly yellow and soft on the inside. It's a teensy bit strong for me, but it's good- and it's the kids' favorite. Here's the Wikipedia entry for it.

Comté: (on the right of tray, above) A light yellow hard cheese that comes in rectangular blocks with a thin brown edging. It's pretty mild, and therefore good for my non-French taste buds. W Entry.

Mirabelle: (small fruit seen above) A small round fruit a little bigger than a grape with one large seed and a skin like a grape, native to France. It tastes like... je ne sais pas... It has hints of grape and apple, but is a unique flavor; pretty sweet and very good. W Entry.

Tuna Tart: I'm not sure what all was in it, but this made in a round dish with a pastry crust and tuna and small veggies, blended for the filling and cooked.


And sometimes I have "duh" moments, as I expect something to be totally different but is just like we have something here. An example: the Wednesday nanny made some fries and I thought everyone was callings them "les fruits," and I was thinking, well, ok, that's not fruit but whatever. And so I realized they were saying "les frites," which is short for "les steak-frites," which are fries! :) The brain does funny things when it's trying to make sense of something foreign to its current understanding! And yes, the kids here love fries with ketchup as much as American kids- some things are universal.