Food
If you've read this far, you already know that food is a major theme of our daily lives. We not only eat very well, but we spend a lot of time thinking about and reflecting on food. Perhaps it's only natural given my line of research and Abe's and Ella's natural hearty appetites.
One of the things we've noticed is that for all of France's world renown on the culinary stage, originality is not a virtue they aspire too. It was often apparent in my baking class - we did it the way it's always done. The other students in my class loved my apple pie with cinnamon, but they would never dream of adding cinnamon to a tarte aux pommes. That's simply not how it's made. Restaurants here often have a hard boiled egg with mayonaise as an appetizer. They try to stand out by having the perfectly boiled egg, the creamiest mayonaise. They never offer a different sauce to try to distinguish themselves. And they certainly never try to change this into a main course, by adding toast and a nice green salad. Egg and mayonaise is an appetizer.
We have theorized that it may be in part this characteristic which has sheltered France from the same invasion of fast food that the US has suffered. People go to McDonalds for speed and low cost, but also for predictability. They know exactly what they will get when they order a big mac and fries whether they are in Ohio or Arizona. Same for the egg and mayonaise in Paris or Marseilles.
I recall that when I read Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnick, I was a bit baffled by their pasttime of inventing restaurant concepts, but oddly, it's a game we play regularly ourselves. I think the lack of "restaurant concepts" here in France - even in Paris where the restaurant choice is vast - is unnerving for the American consumer. Ella has continued to develop her restaurant idea ("the healthy and delicious restaurant") throwing out new ideas from time to time. The latest idea is that the greeter/seater/menu hander-outer must be a boy ("With me cooking and doing dishes, and mom making the pastries, there are already enough girls working there," she explained). It was agreed that Abe would take the job with a backup in place for days when he didn't feel friendly enough to greet everyone with a warm smile. I have a couple of restaurant concepts I've been working on too. The French pastry catering business fills an obvious need in Ohio. The other idea we've enjoyed developing is the "Picnic Place." People would come in and order, say, a French picnic for 4 (or Italian picnic, Greek picnic, etc.). The server would bring over a couple loaves of crusty bread, some cheeses, a bottle of wine, a bowl of grapes or other fresh fruit, etc. (in the Greek version it would be feta cheese and stuffed grape leaves; in the Italian version, pasta salad). Who doesn't love that kind of meal?
On a related note, I wanted to mention the results of a little food related experiment we conducted here at home. It is a truism in the literature on the acquisition of food preferences, that exposure is the best way to change food preferences. If you try a food that you don't like 10 times, you will come to like it. But, though I had read about it, I had never seen the principle put into practice. Ella recently agreed to become the subject of an experiment to develop a preference for red pepper. She started out hating it. She tried tiny bites of it consistently over the course of a couple of weeks, and sure enough, the 9th or 10th time she tried it, she liked it. She asked for more - ate almost a whole pepper. Incredible. We're trying to decide which food to work on next.
Finally, on a completely different topic (what's the point of a theme if you can't deviate from it?), the Centre de Loisir finished up with 2 terrific days this week. Yesterday, they went on a field trip to the Ferme de Gally - an awesome educational farm. The kids got to pet every animal (except the cows who were sleeping), make molds of animal footprints, see how sheep wool can be spun into thread and other farm related activities. Today is the fete to celebrate the end of vacation. Back to school on Monday.
One of the things we've noticed is that for all of France's world renown on the culinary stage, originality is not a virtue they aspire too. It was often apparent in my baking class - we did it the way it's always done. The other students in my class loved my apple pie with cinnamon, but they would never dream of adding cinnamon to a tarte aux pommes. That's simply not how it's made. Restaurants here often have a hard boiled egg with mayonaise as an appetizer. They try to stand out by having the perfectly boiled egg, the creamiest mayonaise. They never offer a different sauce to try to distinguish themselves. And they certainly never try to change this into a main course, by adding toast and a nice green salad. Egg and mayonaise is an appetizer.
We have theorized that it may be in part this characteristic which has sheltered France from the same invasion of fast food that the US has suffered. People go to McDonalds for speed and low cost, but also for predictability. They know exactly what they will get when they order a big mac and fries whether they are in Ohio or Arizona. Same for the egg and mayonaise in Paris or Marseilles.
I recall that when I read Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnick, I was a bit baffled by their pasttime of inventing restaurant concepts, but oddly, it's a game we play regularly ourselves. I think the lack of "restaurant concepts" here in France - even in Paris where the restaurant choice is vast - is unnerving for the American consumer. Ella has continued to develop her restaurant idea ("the healthy and delicious restaurant") throwing out new ideas from time to time. The latest idea is that the greeter/seater/menu hander-outer must be a boy ("With me cooking and doing dishes, and mom making the pastries, there are already enough girls working there," she explained). It was agreed that Abe would take the job with a backup in place for days when he didn't feel friendly enough to greet everyone with a warm smile. I have a couple of restaurant concepts I've been working on too. The French pastry catering business fills an obvious need in Ohio. The other idea we've enjoyed developing is the "Picnic Place." People would come in and order, say, a French picnic for 4 (or Italian picnic, Greek picnic, etc.). The server would bring over a couple loaves of crusty bread, some cheeses, a bottle of wine, a bowl of grapes or other fresh fruit, etc. (in the Greek version it would be feta cheese and stuffed grape leaves; in the Italian version, pasta salad). Who doesn't love that kind of meal?
On a related note, I wanted to mention the results of a little food related experiment we conducted here at home. It is a truism in the literature on the acquisition of food preferences, that exposure is the best way to change food preferences. If you try a food that you don't like 10 times, you will come to like it. But, though I had read about it, I had never seen the principle put into practice. Ella recently agreed to become the subject of an experiment to develop a preference for red pepper. She started out hating it. She tried tiny bites of it consistently over the course of a couple of weeks, and sure enough, the 9th or 10th time she tried it, she liked it. She asked for more - ate almost a whole pepper. Incredible. We're trying to decide which food to work on next.
Finally, on a completely different topic (what's the point of a theme if you can't deviate from it?), the Centre de Loisir finished up with 2 terrific days this week. Yesterday, they went on a field trip to the Ferme de Gally - an awesome educational farm. The kids got to pet every animal (except the cows who were sleeping), make molds of animal footprints, see how sheep wool can be spun into thread and other farm related activities. Today is the fete to celebrate the end of vacation. Back to school on Monday.
posted by M-E Family at 9:20 AM
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