Love affair with food...

I promised I would post/write about the best part of being in France… The food! It is, of course, my favorite part… hints the reason I’m here. The meals you can get and even the desserts… My mouth is watering thinking about it.

I have been told that I’m an adventurous eater… I have proven that to be true while being here. Some such dishes that I’ve had that others weren’t too keen on trying... like beef tartar. OK… I understand the off-standish comments… I’m eating raw beef plain and simple. Even having a raw egg on top, at times. I understand. But, seriously… OH MY GAWD! It is one of my favorite meals! It is intimidating when it comes out to you… this mound of beef with a little well for the raw egg, you see the herbs and some spices they have mixed in with the beef, on fresh greens with a simple vinaigrette, and some worscheshire sauce. Cracking the yolk and watching it seep and spread over the top of the beef before I mix it all up was surprisingly appetizing to me. I can only eat yolks if they are scrambled… I always eat around the yolks if I have them fried. They just weird me out. But back to the beef tartar… They will have fries to accompany the meal, but there is always a breadbasket on the table. The beef has this velvet texture and melts in your mouth. You get just a hint of the egg along with all the other herbs and spices… One bite, I was sold. It is a lot they give you so it is hard for me to put it all away. If I was able to sit there a longer and didn’t have places to go and see, I think I would have been able to put it all away.

Beef Tartar

Another dish I had was beef carpaccio. Yes… raw beef again. But this kind is very very finely shaved beef instead of minced meat. The plate is covered with the shaved meat and has a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice over top along with fresh greens and some shaved parmesan. Talk about meat that melts in your mouth.

Beef carpaccio

I know… I know… I have a special place in my heart/stomach for raw beef now. But that isn’t all I’ve been eating. We are given some pretty good/tasty meals for our lunches that are provided for us during the week before/after class. We always have a salad, a plate with different cheeses to choose from, local yogurt (which is really good and American yogurt can’t touch the yogurt here), fresh fruit and then we have a hot part of the meal… We’ve had lasagna (which is tied with my mom’s lasagna for the best), braised veal with butter noodles, stewed beef and scalloped potatoes, baked chicken with buttered rice… oh the list goes on. I’ve not had a bad meal since I’ve been here. And I’ve actually lost weight since being here all because of the walking we have to do and then all the walking around on the weekends.

Cinnamon Rolls our chef made for us one day

Prosciutto melon and a simple salad before the hot portion

Lentils with braised pork

I will miss the quality of food from over here in the farmer’s markets, and all the variety they have with the cheeses, dairy (butter, yogurt, raw milk (that I never got)), the meat stands with cured and fresh meats, wines, all the honeys and so forth. Such a great experience with that.