Friday, January 21, 2011

Day 142 from France: Veggie-tales

Shaboom writes to us from Paris, France...

When I first arrived, I was eating way more vegetables than I am these days. Back then, we had the hook-up with a green grocer at the farmer's market where we got our food shopping comp'ed. We ate lots and lots of leeks. I may never have had so many leeks so often at any other time in my life. Leeks are incredibly popular in France.

We ate lots of peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, carrots, celery (branch and root,) and all sorts of beets! Usually the vegetables, broccoli for example, were steamed and then puréed. The leeks would be sliced thinly and fried until they'd melt - sometimes we'd add a little cream. We ate lots of lentils and lots of fresh fennel, sliced and munched on raw as an appetizer.

We ate soups of all types. Either they were mixed vegetable purées or stock made from scratch with rice noodles or simply rice. Of course there were onions and mushrooms and such for flavor but carrots, celery and/or potatoes were very central ingredients.

Now and then we would make samosas from scratch - veggie or seafood (not my fave.) Sardines were also very popular in the house although I preferred pickled herring. Mmm... There was also oftentimes french pâté and pickles! Yum!

Like I mentioned before, we always sat down for a proper meal. I drank no alcohol - only tea or coffee (milk, no sugar,) and water. There were always three courses minimum to each meal - appetizer, main course, dessert. Dessert in France is not what it is in America. Dessert here is 3-4 clementines, or 2 ripe pears, or a small yogurt, or an apple, or cheese (none for me, thanks,) or fromage frais ...you get the picture?

Here are some more photos from when I first arrived of a lovely walk down by the River Seine...










4 comments:

  1. Sitting down and taking notes!

    You probably already know this, but there's a series of books, called French Women Don't Get Fat - they are a bit didactic and patronizing in tone, but they are saying essentially the same thing as you've described. Their cookbook is full of fish, vegetables, purees, etc.

    One question: Did you always eat three times a day? And if the lunch and dinner consisted of three courses, but you're mostly eating vegetables, what did the courses look like?

    Also, who was doing all this cooking all day long?! - Jenn

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  2. Just discovered you...what a great idea for a blog...routing for you! (and then write a cook book:) )

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  3. thanks everyone!

    JENN:
    someone bought me a copy of french women don't get fat that i have yet to read. i'm trying to make time... i will get there, i promise!

    i ate three times a day usually but sometimes it was just a late breakfast and dinner. as far as what the courses looked like, i'm going to have to go dig out my external harddrives and find my photos from back then to see if i took and pictures. if i find them, i will post!

    the cooking was done by one of the most wonderful men i've ever known who refer to here as obsessed! he now owns his own crêperie so if you're ever in paris, i'll have to send you his way...

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