Bits and Pieces

Wife's blog showed the sites of Paris so I have to talk about the food. I know, you can't believe I'm going to talk about the food. Take a moment to get over the shock and then continue reading.

Before we get to the Parisian food, though, I have good news. I had an excellent hamburger in London on the night before we left for Paris. We had dinner at Hard Rock Café before we saw Spam-a-lot and I couldn't resist a burger. I was in heaven. It wasn't quite as good as a J. Alexander's burger, but definitely up there with Chili's or 810 Zone. But at that moment it was the most perfect burger on earth. It's surprising to me that something as simple as a really good burger is one of the things I miss most. But now I know where to go to get one!

So having sated my desire for some American food it was time to check out what the French had to offer. I'd been to Paris before, but the eating was definitely a mixed result. I was hoping for better results this time.

Things started off well. After getting to Paris from London via the Eurostar (highly recommended mode of travel) we checked into our hotel between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Dropping our bags as quickly as possible we headed out for a walk. Starting toward the Arc we hung a right on the Champs Elysee. We walked for a while before my stomach got jealous that my eyes were seeing all these great sites but it didn't have anything to chew on.

Having a penchant for the excellent baguettes in Paris it was fitting that our first meal was from a sandwich shop. Wife had a baguette with chicken, lettuce, tomato, and mayo and I had ham and butter. The fillings didn't really matter, though. The baguettes made the sandwich. Crispy crust, chewy interior. Heaven in bread form. For something sweet I had a raspberry tart that was the perfect end to a light lunch. Off to a good start in the eating for sure.

We pause here for an observation: Have you ever looked at a map of Paris and thought: "It really doesn't look that far from the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre"? If you have you were wrong! We got to the western edge of the Jardin des Tuileries after walking for at least a half an hour and we were only half way to the Louvre. That's the problem with straight streets. When you can see your destination it doesn't seem nearly as far as it really is. Especially when there's a minor slope involved so you can see even farther than you normally would.

Back to the original culinary discussion: Of course after that long of a walk I was famished. Okay, so I wasn't famished but the crepes looked good and we were on vacation. Now get off my back.

Crepes + Nutella = Ultimate sweet snack! I could have eaten two but Wife talked some sense into me, though after what I ate later I think she would have been happy for me to fill up on crepes. I'm getting ahead of myself though.

We sat in the park for a while for a rest and digestion and then soldiered on. Walking almost to the Louvre we hung another right toward the river. After walking along the river for a short distance we crossed the Pont Neuf bridge to the Ile de la Cite (yes, that's the bridge in the Bourne Identity after Jason contacts Treadstone). By this point I was getting kind of tired so I don't remember the island as well, though it was a very nice neighborhood.

For those with sensitive dispositions please skip this paragraph: Okay, I was sparing the sensitive in that last paragraph. I wasn't that tired. What I really needed was a restroom. I swear the French do not urinate. Even at the busiest tourist attractions the restrooms are hidden or non-existent. And they're not as friendly to McDonald's so you can't rely on that either. This must be why so many people died when it got so hot last year. They're programmed to stay slightly dehydrated because you can't find a public restroom to save your life.

Now that the readers who were silly enough to read the last paragraph have either gone to another web page or are finished we'll continue.

Despite any tiredness I was feeling we kept going. Notre Dame was close and we were tourists on a mission. From the outside Notre Dame is not really that imposing. Impressive, yes, but looking at it does not give one a sense of size. The city is so close around it that it is difficult to grasp the size of it. Also, I didn't get the sense of age from it that I've gotten from other churches. I'm not quite sure why this was. Even walking around inside of it I never got the sense of history that I've gotten from other places.

Maybe that was because of the number of tourists in the church. It's very different from other old churches that I've visited in that there isn't the reverence for being in a holy place that you get when you're in Italy or England. In the end I just didn't feel as impressed as I thought it would.

On that somewhat anticlimactic note we headed back to our hotel to relax for a bit before dinner. Unfortunately that wasn't as simple as we thought it would be. After getting on two different trains going the wrong direction we finally got turned around the right way and made it back. Ahhh, the adventures of travel in a non-English speaking country.

Our second foray into the city that evening was much more relaxed. We got as far as the corner café just down from our hotel on the Trocadero for a beer and then went to a brasserie one corner over for dinner. That's where the real adventure began.

We'd walked around for a bit looking for a place to eat, looking at menus, trying to catch a hint of the smells emanating from the kitchens to see if they picqued our appetites. The place we chose had just what we were looking for: good smelling steak frites, outdoor seating, and reasonable prices (at least for Paris). We sat down and a waiter brought us menus.

The great thing about countries like France and Italy is that you can walk into almost any restaurant and order the house wine with fair confidence that you're going to get some good wine. Nothing that will blow your socks off but that will go with food very well. This brasserie was no exception. The Cotes du Rhone Villages was excellent and also two Euros cheaper, for a half liter, than the beer I had earlier.

While we sipped our wine and perused the menu the sounds of Paris in the evening played in the background. The silent clatter of cutlery against dishes, conversations in a language we couldn't understand, people walking home from work or to a night out. It was picturesque. If only it had stayed that way.

Wife decided to have the steak frites, which I was going to have, but I felt the need for us to have different meals for more taste choices so I picked something different. Oh, the choices one makes in life. The good ones (marrying Wife), the neither here nor there ones (sausage or mushrooms on the pizza?), the regretted ones (Andouillette sausage). "Andouillette sausage?" you ask. "I've had that in jambalaya. It's good." No, that would be Andouille. Subtle difference, but subtlety in name does not imply subtlety in form. Wikipedia can explain much better than me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andouillette.

Yes, my friends, I ate some of this sausage. Wife couldn't even stand to look at it. Me, wanting to be sure that I didn't like it and wasn't missing something incredible, ate almost half of it. The texture I encountered was more soft than rubbery, but the cross section looked truly disgusting. Do you remember in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when they cut into the big snake at dinner and all the little snakes come slithering out? Cutting into this sausage made me think a little bit of that. Not to mention that there was definitely a slight fecal matter bouquet.

After getting about half way through it I gave up. Wife gave me a bit of her steak so I wouldn’t leave hungry and continued ignoring the disgusting lump on my plate. When we were finished she said she would have given me her whole steak when she saw the cross section after I cut into the sausage. I think she was more disappointed for me about the whole ordeal than I really was. She knows how much I enjoy food and felt bad that I had lost one of my chances for a good meal while in Paris.

Wow, this got a little longer than I was planning. I'll write more about the Saturday when I get a chance.

Cheers,
Frog

Paris

Went to Paris for our 1st anniversary. Can't believe it's been a year!! Wonderful and sunny, even after Aaron tried tripe.


Arc de Triomphe



Eiffel Tower

Back of Notre Dame

Having fun with photo shop. Up close of Notre Dame buttresses.


Inside of Musee d'Orsay. Old train station converted into really cool museum. Mostly impressionist.

Guinness is Good

Went to Ireland over Easter weekend. Lots of hiking, biking and of course Guinness.


Stayed near Killarney National Park. Beautiful. We decided to take a bike ride through the Gap of Dunloe (Lonely Planet's advice). Aaron figure it would be about 8 miles of riding. 17 miles and a mountain later we made it back to Killarney.


Check out the pant leg

First we took a boat up three lakes and a river to the gap

Our boat


Gap of Dunloe



Just a pic from the bike ride

The next day we drove around the Ring of Kerry, seeing as neither of us could walk.




Hiking in Killarney National Park



Tripping and falling on my arse. Luckily it was the last day.

She's back...

Sorry for the lack of posts. Blame it on rainy weather, no traveling and a serious lack of motivation. The sun is now shinning and we have several trips planned, I need to get caught up.

Went to Oxford a couple of weekends ago. Of course we picked moving day for the college kids. Still a lot of fun. Wandered around and had a great lunch.


What???



Christ Church College

Sunday lunch part 2

How can there be a part 2 to Sunday lunch? Well, when you smear some of the garlic on a baguette, add the leftover chicken pieces and have a sandwich for Monday lunch. Beats the heck out of deli ham or turkey any day.

Actually, I've come to believe that almost anything beats the heck out of processed deli ham or turkey. Lately I've been having chorizo or good salami sandwiches. The full flavor of the meats let's me eat less while still satisfying my taste buds cravings. Excellent for helping me cut down on the quantity that I eat. I highly recommend it.

Maybe I should start the campaign for flavor in sandwiches. What do you think? Would anyone care or would they still just go get a sandwich at Subway where the meat comes out of a plastic bag?

Cheers,
Frog

Sunday Lunch

Over the last several weeks Wife and I have been cooking a big Sunday lunch. Mostly this is my excuse to cook something elaborate. Dishes have included pork shoulder roast braised in a tomato and red wine sauce, fettuccine Alfredo, and lasagna with meatballs. Wife also made an extremely delicious Guinness chocolate cake in honor of St. Patrick's Day. To put it bluntly, we've been eating well on Sundays.

Today took it to a whole new level. Yesterday I started feeling ambitious so I decided that I would try to make some bread. I've made bread before, but I wanted to do something a little more involved than the standard white bread in a loaf pan.

Lately I've been eating some salami or chorizo on baguette sandwiches for lunch because they're very full of flavor so I don't feel the need to eat so much. The only problem is that the baguettes we can get from the grocery store are not as good as what I got used to when a Panera was close by. That's why I thought I should try to make some baguettes.

The recipe I used came from the Williams and Sonoma baking book, which we highly recommend. To get things started you make a sponge. This is something I'd never tried before so already on to something new. It was really cool to see the sponge start to grow. The start of my bread was alive! ALIVE!

Once the sponge had developed for three hours (next time I'll leave it longer to develop more flavor) I made the dough and began the standard rising process. Knead, rise, punch, rise, shape, rise, bake. The shaping part was really the only bit that went wrong. Had it gone better I would have posted a picture of the finished product. As it was, I thought it better not to post a picture of some bread that brought to mind something that wasn't exactly family friendly (baguette, not family friendly - you figure it out).

Good bread can be a something incredible on its own, but find something excellent to slather it with (good French butter or fresh goat's cheese come to mind) and it becomes something ethereal. Well, today's lunch provided just such a substance for slathering.

A favorite Good Eats recipe of mine is the 40 cloves and a chicken. It's a very simple dish of baked chicken with roasted garlic and thyme. The chicken and garlic bake with the thyme in olive oil so the garlic goes all soft and spreadable. It was the perfect thing to spread on slices of the baguette. The chicken gets very tender since it's almost braised and I use dark meat so it's that much more juicy. I made some sauteed kale with bacon and garlic to go with everything and we washed it down with a very tasty Cotes du Rhone (E. Guigal 2003 for the curious).

Now I'm going to spend the rest of the evening digesting and relaxing. Hope everyone else out there is eating well too.

Cheers,
Frog

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Yup, it's March Madness. Thank goodness for CBS broadcasting the first three rounds online. It's not HD, but it beats by a mile soccer, cricket, rugby, horse racing, snooker, and any other sport they televise here all combined.

Right now I'm watching the 'Nova-Kentucky game on replay. Have to scout for the 'Hawks next game.

Other odds and ends on this St. Patrick's Day morning (have you had your Guinness yet?)

Wife and I went to Oxford last weekend to check out the town and universities. It was a really cool college town, but it definitely wasn't a typical weekend. It must have been some kind of end of term because there were a ton of parents thre helping their kids move out of the dorms.

We got there in the late morning and took off wandering. Wife will cover the sites on her blog, so I'll cover lunch. Our guidebook said one of the best restaurants was a place called Quod. It was geared toward Mediterranean cuisine and sounded pretty good. It did not disappoint.

When we walked in I was afraid we wouldn't get a table because the place was packed, but we lucked into a small table. For an appetizer we split an order of fried squid. It was perfectly cooked: lightly crispy, just the smallest bit chewy but not tough at all, and very tasty. Main courses were a wild mushroom and goat's cheese pizza for Wife and porcini ravioli with parsley butter for me. Wife and I both agreed that the pizza was one of the best if not the best pizza we'd ever had. The ravioli had a wonderful mushroom flavor with a lot of parmesan as well.

Dessert was a blackberry and apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. Needless to say we pretty much had to role out of the restaurant after all that food.

But sometimes something like that can't compare to a homemade quesadilla when you're hungry for Mexican food. That's what we had last night to go with our basketball watching (along with lots of Corona of course).

Unfortunately there's not much of anything more exciting than that to report. Next month should be a lot more exciting because we're headed to Ireland for Easter and then Paris for our anniversary. That should be fun because we're taking the high speed train from London to Paris.

Rock Chalk!
Frog

Foie with a side of foie

Yup, it's another food post, but I couldn't resist. I had to go to Barcelona for a conference recently and had the most incredible dinner at the hotel my group stayed in (http://www.hotelcalasanz.com/en/index.htm). Check out the menu for an idea of the kind of place it is.

Since there was a large group of us we had a tasting of several tapas style appetizers and the choice of pan fried plaice or sirloin steak for a main course. I chose the steak, but that's getting a bit ahead of myself.

The first thing they brought out was a glass of Bach Cava Brut Reserva. It was a very light sparkling wine with some pear, apple, and a little bit of sour gooseberry. An excellent apertif, though I didn't need much to get my appetite going as I hadn't had anything but a sandwich and some chips all day and it was past 9:00 at night at this point.

While we were still finishing off the Cava they started bringing out the different tapas. First were some small croquettes of potato and cured ham lightly fried to golden brown. The meal was definitely off to a good start as Spanish croquettes are one of my more recent favorite foods.

Following the croquettes were roasted baby artichokes with Belotta ham and a sliver of foie gras on top. These were really tasty, though the foie gras got a little lost in the smokiness of the artichoke and ham.

After the artichokes there were ravioli filled with cep (porcini) and truffled foie served with light cream sauce. This was the dish that did the least for me. It was good, but nothing really distinguished itself.

Next were some grilled octopus with a little melted cheese and lots of paprika. Some lightly fried potatoes formed the base for the octupus. This is one of my favorite Catalonian dishes. The octupus is chewy but not rubbery, and the paprika adds a bit of spice that brightens up the dish.

The last tapas were slices of foie gras with a paper thin slice of apple on top. The apple was bruleed which added a wonderful caramel sweetness to offset the richness of the foie gras. Toasts were provided to spread the foie on and figs added another fruity component. This was just sublime and definitely the highlight of the meal for me. Luckily some of the group were not as adventurous as me so I took it upon myself to help them with their portions.

When the steak arrived I thought my arteries might jump out of my chest in protest. After all the rich appetizers, what was on the steak? Yep, you guessed it: a nice slice of duck foie perfectly browned. Roast carrot, potatoes and zuchinni accompanied the steak and were perfectly cooked. The steak could have been a little bit rarer for my taste, but the flavor was still excellent. It was seasoned to perfection and it restored my faith that it is possible to get good beef in Europe.

Throughout the meal the Rioja was flowing. The vintage we were drinking was a 2002 from Vina Herminia. It had enough age that the tannins were nicely soft and there were heavy notes of black pepper and cherry. It was very good. Unfortunately the duty free shop at the airport didn't have any.

Dessert, as if we needed it, was a molten chocolate cake. Cutting into the cake with a spoon and seeing that chocolate ooze out made any thought of restraining myself to a couple of bites go out the window.

I wanted to get pictures of all of this, but my stupid camera on my phone wasn't working for some reason. Oh well, the pictures probably wouldn't have turned out anyway. My food pictures never do.

Cheers,
Frog

Mmmm...Now that is a tasty burger!

Given that British beef isn't really that great compared to what's available in the Midwest it's really not that surprising it's difficult to get a decent burger here. They try, but so much of the time they put filler, eggs, etc. in the burger that make it more of a meatloaf. And that's on top of the poorer quality beef.

Well, imagine my delight when I found some organic, Argentinian ground steak at the Tesco this evening when I stopped on the way home. We had some excellent burgers and a very tasty replica of the NYO Mac and Cheese (aka Mac and Crack) at J. Alexander's restaurants. In a small recipe there was a cup of cream and almost 6 oz. of Gyurere cheese. It was heavenly. Now if I could only get their recipe for blue cheese dressing so I could have an Alex's salad. If you haven't had a burger at J. Alexander's with the NYO Mac and Cheese get there as soon as you can. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers,
Frog

One whole year...

I was just glancing at my blog to see if I still like the way it works and it hit me that this thing has been going for almost a year now. I'm not claiming that it's been going consistently, just that it's been around for a year. What has that year gained me? A couple of my friends give me a hard time if I don't post for a while and one of them actually makes comments. However, no one else does. So this is a plea to any of my other friends who read this. Please comment. It makes the blog more fun when it's interactive. And calling me a wanker does not count as making a comment!

Also, what do you want to hear about after a year of this? I think I should do something fitting for an anniversary post, but first I need to think of a topic. I guess I could do the top things that annoy me about Britain, but I believe that's been covered pretty well in other posts. Maybe I should rank the top ten meals I've had since Wife and I have been here. That's actually not a bad idea for a post, but I'm not sure it has the necessary import for something as momentus as a year of writing boring drivel. I'll keep thinking and look for a post on the 20th (unless I forget).

Cheers,
Frog

Of Roasts and Super Bowls

Last weekend Wife and I had a cooking weekend. On Saturday Wife prepared a dish from Giada De Laurentiis That was couscous in a tomato broth with scampi. It turned out excellent. The couscous was really tasty with the tomato and complemented the shrimp really well. I better get to work or Wife is going to be a better cook than me.

On Sunday I tackled a boneless leg of lamb roast. My aunt gave me a meat cookbook for Christmas and it was a good thing she did. I was planning on roasting the lamb low and slow like you would beef, but according to the book the meat is already so tender that cooking it for a long time will completely break it down. Therefore I seared in a pan to give it a nice crust and then baked in 375 oven until it hit 130 degrees internally. The lamb turned out really well. Juicy, tender, and very flavorful.

Since I had excellent pan drippings I went ahead and made some gravy. It tasted okay, but I didn't let it reduce enough to really make it good. Then I reduced it some more and it ended up a bit too salty. Oh well, cook and learn.

To go with the roast we had a trio of roasted vegetables: carrots, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. Wife and I both agreed that our poor kids are going to be laughed at for their irregular eating habits if they take after us. Please God have them take after us! I don't know how I could cope with a child that won't eat anything but peanut butter and jelly.

Yesterday was a bit disappointing because it was Super Bowl Sunday and I didn't throw a party. I've thrown a party for the last few years, but there's just not much call for it when the game doesn't start until about midnight here. To at least keep one tradition alive Wife made guacamole and I made chili, though not the uber-chili I usually make. That's a bit much for just the two of us. Besides, I didn't want to put that much effort in because I've got a horrible cold at the moment. (That's why I'm writing my blog during the work day because I'm home sick).

Cheers,
Frog

British TV

Wife and I have done a lot of complaining about British TV since we got here. The annoyance the programming selection causes is at its zenith at the moment. Celebrity Big Brother is on constantly (live feeds of celebrities sleeping!) However, there is a ray of light. The new series of Top Gear is on tomorrow night. If BBC America doesn't have this show yet it should.

However, for a selection of the worst in Brit TV with the funny commentary to go along with it, go to YouTube and search for Harry Hill's TV Burp. I think I could do his job except that I would I have to watch bad British TV all day long which would make me insane, or even more than I already am.

Cheers,
Frog

Lunch...

Allow me a bit of self indulgent boasting if you will. Yesterday I was lucky enough to fly to Paris for lunch. Yup, just for lunch. There was a candidate for a position with my company who was there so I met with him over lunch for an initial interview.

I’ve done a lot of complaining lately about living here, but this was a really cool thing about being over here. I flew over, got downtown from the airport, had lunch, went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe (see pictures below), and then came home. The food was pretty good. I had probably the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had (I know, what was I doing getting a Caesar salad, but trust me, this one was worth it). Then I had Steak au Poivre with some excellent mashed potatoes. Dessert was a chocolate fudge cake that almost exploded with fudge when I cut into it with my fork. The small scoop of vanilla ice cream that came with it was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Give it to the French, they know dessert.



La Tour Eiffel (I wish I'd had a real camera because the sky was really cool, but this picture doesn't do it justice.)



Champs Elysées (Looking toward The Louvre. The jumbled looking parking lot at the bottom of the picture is actually a roundabout. Ask Wife about that sometime because she's run across that. There's a tunnel that other people who are lucky enough to find it take.)

Au revoir,
Frog

I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

Celebrity Big Brother has taken over British TV. It’s Big Brother on several channels several hours of the day now. Wife is watching the train wreck at the moment because Face from the A-Team is in the house as well as Jermaine Jackson. Following in Michael’s footsteps of looking freaky, it looks as if Jermaine has had a recent chemical peel. Face seems to be too cool for all of it and sits around smoking cigars. Yes, good people, this is the crap that’s on TV here. Where are ESPN and Food Network when I need them?

Other random rants and musings:

Figure this out. Before we were home for Christmas I needed to get the tax tag renewed on the car. Since we were leaving on the 16th I went in early in December to get it taken care of. Not so fast, young American. In England they don’t have the new discs at the post office until the 15th of the month, so I couldn’t renew my taxes yet. I didn’t find this out until I’d spent 20 minutes in line. So back I went on the 15th, as if I didn’t have enough other things to worry about with leaving the next day for two and a half weeks.

If I have to hear one more time about how this warmer winter is an indication of global warming with no comment on El Nino (proven to cause this type of weather) I will no longer have any faith in the scientific community in this country.

Would anyone else vote for Dennis Miller for president?

There hasn’t been much cooking lately, but wife did make some really good cod croquettes for dinner tonight. She’s becoming a better and better cook. I need to start practicing more or she’s going to get better than me, and my competitive side can’t let that happen.

Short post, but that’s what I’ve got at the moment. Maybe I’ll be better about posting more if I keep the posts shorter. Whatever.

Cheers,
Frog