spring has sprung in paris

It's been a pretty long time since I've gotten some blog time in. I've just been busy with my awesome life... sorry! For the sake of not making this post a novel I'm just going to summarize the last 3 weeks for you.

I had my final exam for Basic Cuisine and it went really well. The way our final works is we are given 10 dishes out of the 30 we've cooked during the trimester and then we are randomly assigned 1 dish right before we enter the kitchen and we have 2.5 hours to cook it and plate it. I cooked Durade which is a white fish served with a sauce made from the stock and fennel. I had a lot of fun doing it.. unlike any other final I've ever taken.

That same week I went to a restaurant called Breakfast in America with Ali, Bradlee, and Bradlee's two guy friends. The name explains the food we had. It was delicious and made me feel at home! We also went to Shakespeare and Co., a famous book store by Notre Dame.

THEN, I had a week long break from school and I took a vacation to where else.. ? The US! It was so great going home and spending time with my family and friends. It was a busy couple of days and if I didn't get to see you I'm really sorry!

My Besties.. I miss you terribly. Get here now!

Two of the main reasons I miss America: Drunk Mal and Tengo (Pictured Below)

 
When I went back to Paris I brought a little someone named Annie Banannie back with me. We had an amazing week together. My favorite week in Paris by far! It was so great having her here and showing her all my favorite places. List of things we did:

• Champagne under Tour Eiffel 
• Up Tour Eiffel during the day
• Took the train to Versailles on the most beautiful day we have had in Paris and laid in front of the palace and fed the ducks
• Ate falafel
• She came with me to class
• Walked the Champs/shopped it
• Ate a very French dinner
• Ate crepes
• Went to the Louvre
• Met random french boys on the metro on Annie's last night in Paris and went out with them.. of course.

 

So, now that I've graduated basic and I'm not a "noob" anymore as some people like to call me.. I've started Intermediate cuisine. I've noticed small changes and things getting a little more difficult but nothing too drastic. I honestly haven't really liked one thing we've made yet but we're only on lesson 3 so I'll keep you updated as the trimester goes on.

 

("Know what you love, and keep it close" -Paris Je t'aimé)

xoxo, alex

Paris Cookbook Fair

The Paris Cookbook Fair was last weekend and being a culinary student at LCB I got the privilege of working at it! It was such a great experience. The fair was set up so all the stands with books were upstairs. Downstairs there were a bunch of tasting booths; wine, cheese, Italian food, and Malaysian food. There were also two show kitchens; International and French. I worked at the International kitchen helping the Chef's prep for their demonstrations. It was so much fun. 

The first Chef that I got to help was Vefa Alexiadou from Greece. She made a potato dip and a Greek dish with chicken legs, potatoes, olive oil, garlic and oregano. She served the potato dip with fried fish sticks which I thought was pretty hilarious. They reminded me of elementary school! She told me the reason she was using them was because she couldn't bring the fish she usually serves with it all the way from Greece and she couldn't find any thing else that was dip-able in the French grocery stores. Sometimes you have to improvise!

The next Chef I assisted was Chef Suman Roy from Canada. He was so great to work with; extremely friendly and let me get very hands on. I made his Fiddlehead Muffins for him and they were delicious. Fiddleheads are young uncoiled ferns and are eaten as a vegetable. Suman also made an apple vichyssois that was amazing.

Another great Chef that I got to meet was KC Wallberg. He is from Sweden and is the owner of Restaurant Gubbhyllan. He was in the back at the show kitchen making sure everything ran smoothly. This was not an easy job considering the space we had to work in and the lack of supplies but we all managed to get by thanks to his direction! Although I didn't get to see KC cook or taste any of his food it was an honor to work with him and get to know him.

It's experiences like this that make me so grateful for the opportunities I have living here in France. It was incredible to be surrounded by and even working with some of the great Chefs from around the world.

Our supply rack

Ana and Samia prepping

The International Show Kitchen stage

Large audience!

Hard at work plating food for the audience

Upstairs with all the cookbooks

LCB's booth

Last week at school we had our first written exam. I don't know why I got so worried about it because it was really easy. Most of the things on the test I already knew so that was nice. I'm sure we'll find out our grades this week so I'll keep you posted.

Here's a list of things we made last week:

 

Poulet sauté á l'estragon, légumes pressés á l'italienne

(Chicken sauté with tarragon, Italian-style vegetables)

 

Terrine de poisson chaude, sauce beurre blanc

(Hot fish terrine with beurre blanc)

 

Filets de daurade poeles au fenouil

(Sea bream fillets with fennel)

My friends and I have been missing Mexican food so we decided to make a feast for ourselves as best we could given the ingredients we found in the Marché Franprix. I'd say we did a pretty good job... 

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - J. R. R. Tolkien

xoxo, alex

we're out of bread, lunch service is over

I promised a post about Normandy. So here it is.

Last Thursday Ali, Alex, Elana and I took the two hour train ride to Trouville/Douville, Normandy. We arrived at about 1:30pm and spent the day there wandering around the precious towns.

Who sleeps like this?

First stop: Lunch. Of course. We ate at a little restaurant next to the beach that was made out of a boat. It was amazing. Well, the location. I would say the food was meh. When we first walked in they told us they were out of bread and therefore could not serve us lunch. We told them that we didn't need bread to eat and then they seated us. So, we learned how to tell when lunch service is over in France... when the bread runs out. Such an obvious concept, right? They started us with Salmon Tartare which was pretty delicious but needed salt. Then we ordered 12 oysters to share and those were really tasty. For the main course we all ordered battered and fried scallops; Coquilles St. Jacques. The plate was beautiful but the scallops were a little overwhelming. And, here in France they eat the entire scallop which includes the Roe. The Roe is an orange part of the scallop that we don't normally see in the States and I'm not a fan. The color is off putting and the taste is very rich. We had a bottle of wine and enjoyed the view so overall lunch was pretty great.

Then we took a walk on the beach and enjoyed the fresh air. I'll let the pictures do the talking..

Next, we walked around town a little and finally ended up at a brasserie drinking café au lait and eating pommes frites... 2 entire plates.

7pm rolled around and we were all ready to head home. We got on the train early and snagged a cabin for ourselves. All of us slept on the way back and were exhausted when we got home.

Normandy was a perfect little getaway and I can't wait to go back in the summer when I can really enjoy the beach!

I have my first written exam tomorrow and I should probably be studying at the moment instead of blogging/facebook stalking but those of you who know me well know that studying really isn't my style. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck! 

Cooking is like love. 

It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne 

xoxo, alex