Welcome to October! I've been busy the past few weeks...all good things I promise you. First after renting out my Boston apartment, I revved my job search into high gear. I looked for jobs, contacted recruiters, researched companies, updated my resume, wrote cover letters, did phone interviews, met hiring managers at onsite interviews...sometimes I even had two three-hour long interviews in one day.
It was an exhausting September. In the end I received two, almost three job offers. I'm happy to say that they are all good companies. I decided on one stellar company and I am so excited to begin the next chapter here in NYC.
Naturally (and sadly) it also means my one and a half year sabbatical is about to end. I return to work as a project manager at an interactive agency on Monday!
So what have I been doing lately besides job searching and interviewing? I spent the past few weeks recuperating from a bad cold, visiting Queens County Farm's apple festival, and foraging for mushrooms in Staten Island & Forest Park, anticipating the iPhone 5 (which turned out to be the iPhone 4S), mourning the demise of Apple's genius, diving into retail therapy (after a year of not shopping except for food), it felt nice going out to the city. I met R several times in the city to have lunch, met my friend M in the city to do some bridal shopping. M and her French fiancé are engaged to be married next July in Ile de Ré, France.
Also I started French classes at Alliance Française. I'm taking Conversation and Grammar, Niveau B1. More to come on that!
Here are two interesting articles about foraging:
Nona Brooklyn: free range chickens in the park? Yes, you bet.
One Hungry Chef: I like his theory on shopping and foraging.
Showing posts with label French. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French. Show all posts
Friday, October 14, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Babar celebrates his 80th birthday
September 10, 2011—R and I were so thrilled to have met Laurent de Brunhoff and his wife Phyllis Rose at Books of Wonder in NYC. Laurent graciously signed and illustrated my copy of his latest book, Babar's Celestville Games. Phyllis Rose autographed Babar's Yoga for Elephants, a project that the de Brunhoffs worked on together. The couple took our address in France and will be sending us a paper invitation for Les histoires de Babar exhibition in Paris which is planned for later this year.
We recently found out that our Babar is special—not only is he proportionately made and the best example of a Babar toy the de Brunhoffs have ever seen, Babar speaks and sings in French. We put some batteries into him and he recounts 5 or 6 stories and sings about 15 different songs en français. Magnifique!
Links:
The 80th Anniversary of Babar
Les histoires de Babar at the Les Arts Décoraftifs Musée in Paris
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Legacy of the Brothers Michelin
R and I are preparing for a trip to Paris soon, and I'm researching sights to visit and places to eat. This has started me thinking about France and its food heritage.
Food and artisans are taken seriously in France and the French are justifiably proud of it. President Nicholas Sarkozy even put a bid to declare French cuisine a "world intangible heritage"—and last November 2010, it was awarded thus by UNESCO. Paris and Lyon have large international food and agricultural salons twice a year, with many smaller fairs spread through the year in different régions and départements. In 1992, France started a new autumn tradition, La Semaine du Goût, which has spread abroad to other countries in Europe and beyond. Basically it's a national week devoted to taste and gastronomy—a chance for people to appreciate and learn about local foods and their cultural heritage, as it applies to cuisine. The French even take the art of table setting to a higher level in Le Grand Prix Des Arts de la Table. Viva la France!
Recently I learned about Le Meilleur Ouvrier de France awards—a future post will cover MOF, but today I wanted to know what's all the fuss about les etoiles? Back in February, I noticed that our local bookstore featured a stack of Michelin Guides Rouges in its main display window. Now that I'm living in France—the birthplace of the Michelin Guide—I wanted to know, "What is the Michelin guide, is it related to tires, and what do the stars mean anyway?"
Food and artisans are taken seriously in France and the French are justifiably proud of it. President Nicholas Sarkozy even put a bid to declare French cuisine a "world intangible heritage"—and last November 2010, it was awarded thus by UNESCO. Paris and Lyon have large international food and agricultural salons twice a year, with many smaller fairs spread through the year in different régions and départements. In 1992, France started a new autumn tradition, La Semaine du Goût, which has spread abroad to other countries in Europe and beyond. Basically it's a national week devoted to taste and gastronomy—a chance for people to appreciate and learn about local foods and their cultural heritage, as it applies to cuisine. The French even take the art of table setting to a higher level in Le Grand Prix Des Arts de la Table. Viva la France!
Recently I learned about Le Meilleur Ouvrier de France awards—a future post will cover MOF, but today I wanted to know what's all the fuss about les etoiles? Back in February, I noticed that our local bookstore featured a stack of Michelin Guides Rouges in its main display window. Now that I'm living in France—the birthplace of the Michelin Guide—I wanted to know, "What is the Michelin guide, is it related to tires, and what do the stars mean anyway?"
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Rendez vous success
Yesterday I passed my interview with OFII and left with a brand new resident permit sticker. Youpie! With this residency permit affixed next to my Visa, I'm able to legally live in France and get a French bank account, etc. And I can legally travel in and out of France for the next year (or during the validity of my French Visa).
Before moving abroad I read stories about other peoples' nightmare experiences with French officials while trying to secure a visa or residency permit. With this in mind, I expected a lot of paperwork and encounters with unpleasant bureaucrats. Today I was also afraid I'd have to return at another date if I didn't have everything they wanted on the day of the interview.
On the contrary the two officials I met yesterday were very friendly and professional. The medical exam was a breeze. The doctor asked me questions about my health and my family's medical history. He took my blood pressure, weight, height; he listened to my lungs and heart. He tapped around to make sure my organs were in place. To my surprise, I did not have to disrobe or get a OB/GYN kind of exam. I had been prepping myself to disrobe in front of him and whoever happened to be there at the interview. Apparently, in France, doctors do not leave you alone to disrobe. They don't give you a drape cloth or tissue thin robe to wear either. You are expected to undress in their presence which seems a bit awkward to me but then again Europeans think Americans are prudes. Today's doctor also asked to see my vaccination papers and chest xrays even though the letter from OFII said I only needed to bring them if I already had them. Since I did not have them, I was unable to produce them for him. Thankfully, he was nice and took into account of the fact that I was American (and would have been vaccinated appropriately during childhood and beyond) and that tuberculosis is nearly non-existent in the U.S.
It was a beautiful drive to Bourg-en-Bresse. The heat and humidity has disappeared for now—it was all sunshine and blue sky. On the way to Bresse, we drove past fields upon fields of sunflowers saluting the sun. On the drive home we stopped in Cerdon and visited a cave to taste some of the rosy champagne-like wine. The vitner was incredibly nice and funny. Like many French, he is living the dream and is passionate about his work. I took a bunch of photos of the cave and the sunflower. As you can see in the photos below, the vineyards are set in the mountains.
Even though it's been hot, I've been cooking after getting home from a long day of classes: pad thai with shrimp, marinara with meatballs, chilled cucumber soup (no heating required for that, thank goodness, and tonight, I'm marinating some Chinese red roast pork to grill tomorrow. If there's any leftover roast pork, I will use it to make fried rice. R is a good eater and not overly picky, which is great, because I get to cook and experiment as much as I like. He is such a love, eating everything I make, even recipes that don't come out quite right. For instance, pork Morrocan style with honey and olives. I knew it was a bad combination in the middle of the cooking process but I couldn't turn back or throw it out. I tried a little at dinner, but god bless his heart, R tried at least half of it.
En route to school, we also drive by fields upon fields of sunflowers. In French they are called turnesols because they turn in the direction of the sun at different times of the day. Isn't that just beautiful and poetic? The tournesols are turned into cooking oil, tournesol margarine, and probably other things too.
Before moving abroad I read stories about other peoples' nightmare experiences with French officials while trying to secure a visa or residency permit. With this in mind, I expected a lot of paperwork and encounters with unpleasant bureaucrats. Today I was also afraid I'd have to return at another date if I didn't have everything they wanted on the day of the interview.
On the contrary the two officials I met yesterday were very friendly and professional. The medical exam was a breeze. The doctor asked me questions about my health and my family's medical history. He took my blood pressure, weight, height; he listened to my lungs and heart. He tapped around to make sure my organs were in place. To my surprise, I did not have to disrobe or get a OB/GYN kind of exam. I had been prepping myself to disrobe in front of him and whoever happened to be there at the interview. Apparently, in France, doctors do not leave you alone to disrobe. They don't give you a drape cloth or tissue thin robe to wear either. You are expected to undress in their presence which seems a bit awkward to me but then again Europeans think Americans are prudes. Today's doctor also asked to see my vaccination papers and chest xrays even though the letter from OFII said I only needed to bring them if I already had them. Since I did not have them, I was unable to produce them for him. Thankfully, he was nice and took into account of the fact that I was American (and would have been vaccinated appropriately during childhood and beyond) and that tuberculosis is nearly non-existent in the U.S.
It was a beautiful drive to Bourg-en-Bresse. The heat and humidity has disappeared for now—it was all sunshine and blue sky. On the way to Bresse, we drove past fields upon fields of sunflowers saluting the sun. On the drive home we stopped in Cerdon and visited a cave to taste some of the rosy champagne-like wine. The vitner was incredibly nice and funny. Like many French, he is living the dream and is passionate about his work. I took a bunch of photos of the cave and the sunflower. As you can see in the photos below, the vineyards are set in the mountains.
Even though it's been hot, I've been cooking after getting home from a long day of classes: pad thai with shrimp, marinara with meatballs, chilled cucumber soup (no heating required for that, thank goodness, and tonight, I'm marinating some Chinese red roast pork to grill tomorrow. If there's any leftover roast pork, I will use it to make fried rice. R is a good eater and not overly picky, which is great, because I get to cook and experiment as much as I like. He is such a love, eating everything I make, even recipes that don't come out quite right. For instance, pork Morrocan style with honey and olives. I knew it was a bad combination in the middle of the cooking process but I couldn't turn back or throw it out. I tried a little at dinner, but god bless his heart, R tried at least half of it.
En route to school, we also drive by fields upon fields of sunflowers. In French they are called turnesols because they turn in the direction of the sun at different times of the day. Isn't that just beautiful and poetic? The tournesols are turned into cooking oil, tournesol margarine, and probably other things too.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Busy, busy comme une abeille
Bon vendredi! R and I finished the 2nd week of French classes today with 1 week remaining out of our 3 week session. I've been occupe comme une abeille! Learning a new language is hard work and fun at the same time - there's so much to learn and I'm like a sponge, absorbing everything in and outside of class. The world is my classroom.
At school, we've quickly shed our initial trepidation, and everyone (myself included) is speaking with more ease...though not always with the same graceful rhythm or pronunciation of the French/French-speaking Swiss. The students/teachers are serious about learning...so it's not always fun and games, but we're often laughing together while doing role play/oral exercises. Other times, especially in my phonetique and pronunciation classes, we are working the muscles in our mouths, jaws, lips and tongue to make French sounds and it's pretty hilarious to hear a whole class in unison try to make the 4 nasal sounds of "an", "in" "on" and "un". Or when one of my classmates brayed like a donkey in pronunciation class when she was asked what sound a donkey makes in her native Greek. A theatre student by training, she gave it her 100% and it was the best darn donkey I have ever heard in my entire life.
At the end of the day, I am super tired and my brain is buzzing with new vocabulary, grammaire, tips from my phonetique classes, or French idioms (like busy as a bee and strong as a Turc or as tall as 3 apples..meaning, not very tall at all).
The biggest progress I've made is that I can now formulate sentences using a few verb tenses! I'm super excited I can finally communicate in French...albeit a bit slowly and with poor pronunciation. This weekend, I have to work on an expose - basically a 5 minute speech about a theme of my choosing to present to the class next Tuesday! Wish me luck..I'm either going to write about Boston..or about what I like about living in France.
I don't know about your neck of the woods, but SUMMER is ripe here. We're having a canicule - a heatwave of 30+C (which is 90+F) this week. Thank goodness for 3 things to beat the heat: 1) climitasation in some classrooms at UNIGE 2) free cold eau potable at most fountains in GVA 3) the huge, clean municipal pools close to our parking spot in France. Twice this week after school, R and I spent the afternoon at the outdoor pools. J'ai saute dans l'eau et j'ai nage! There are 3 pools, a tall slide, ping pong tables, mini golf, and lots of green park where we can lay in the shade. I tried the water slide twice...you climb up the stairs, sit your butt down, and then weeeeee!!! I thought I was moving fast, but apparently, I was slow..the little kids were zipping along but I was happy to be going at my pace. I heard it was hot in Boston too - and my nephew Isaac swam for the first time by himself!
R and I have colorful plans this weekend - what about you?
1. I will sleep in both days as much as possible on my new mattress! And I'm hoping to tend to my garden..R saw a few green tomatoes today. I'll also keep in touch with my family - my 97 grandmother broke her hip this week and just had surgery. She's awake but not quite alert yet and unfortunately, she's at the age where her short-term memory often fails her. So she will sometimes wake up and forget why she's in the hospital.
2. The Tour de France is passing by this Sunday on their 8th TdF stage! R and I will be dressed in yellow and will be supporting Lance and the hot Spanish one (or at least I will be. Heheh.) I can't wait - so excited! I'll be thinking of you Steven + Yoshie - who's your favorite rider? I will try to take a pic of him speeding by.
3. World Cup finals on Sunday: NL vs ES. We'll be sporting our oranje again and hoping for the first Dutch World Cup ever.
Lastly, here are some pictures from the past week or so. Enjoy! And keep cool.
The vide grenier (flea market) with 200+ tables in our little ville. R and I bought 3 copper pans, 12 DVDs, and an old leather briefcase for a great deal!
Picture of one of the cheese stations at the Fete de la fromage a few weekends ago. I sampled beaucoup de fromage...comte, reblochon, and more. So good!
At school, we've quickly shed our initial trepidation, and everyone (myself included) is speaking with more ease...though not always with the same graceful rhythm or pronunciation of the French/French-speaking Swiss. The students/teachers are serious about learning...so it's not always fun and games, but we're often laughing together while doing role play/oral exercises. Other times, especially in my phonetique and pronunciation classes, we are working the muscles in our mouths, jaws, lips and tongue to make French sounds and it's pretty hilarious to hear a whole class in unison try to make the 4 nasal sounds of "an", "in" "on" and "un". Or when one of my classmates brayed like a donkey in pronunciation class when she was asked what sound a donkey makes in her native Greek. A theatre student by training, she gave it her 100% and it was the best darn donkey I have ever heard in my entire life.
At the end of the day, I am super tired and my brain is buzzing with new vocabulary, grammaire, tips from my phonetique classes, or French idioms (like busy as a bee and strong as a Turc or as tall as 3 apples..meaning, not very tall at all).
The biggest progress I've made is that I can now formulate sentences using a few verb tenses! I'm super excited I can finally communicate in French...albeit a bit slowly and with poor pronunciation. This weekend, I have to work on an expose - basically a 5 minute speech about a theme of my choosing to present to the class next Tuesday! Wish me luck..I'm either going to write about Boston..or about what I like about living in France.
I don't know about your neck of the woods, but SUMMER is ripe here. We're having a canicule - a heatwave of 30+C (which is 90+F) this week. Thank goodness for 3 things to beat the heat: 1) climitasation in some classrooms at UNIGE 2) free cold eau potable at most fountains in GVA 3) the huge, clean municipal pools close to our parking spot in France. Twice this week after school, R and I spent the afternoon at the outdoor pools. J'ai saute dans l'eau et j'ai nage! There are 3 pools, a tall slide, ping pong tables, mini golf, and lots of green park where we can lay in the shade. I tried the water slide twice...you climb up the stairs, sit your butt down, and then weeeeee!!! I thought I was moving fast, but apparently, I was slow..the little kids were zipping along but I was happy to be going at my pace. I heard it was hot in Boston too - and my nephew Isaac swam for the first time by himself!
R and I have colorful plans this weekend - what about you?
1. I will sleep in both days as much as possible on my new mattress! And I'm hoping to tend to my garden..R saw a few green tomatoes today. I'll also keep in touch with my family - my 97 grandmother broke her hip this week and just had surgery. She's awake but not quite alert yet and unfortunately, she's at the age where her short-term memory often fails her. So she will sometimes wake up and forget why she's in the hospital.
2. The Tour de France is passing by this Sunday on their 8th TdF stage! R and I will be dressed in yellow and will be supporting Lance and the hot Spanish one (or at least I will be. Heheh.) I can't wait - so excited! I'll be thinking of you Steven + Yoshie - who's your favorite rider? I will try to take a pic of him speeding by.
3. World Cup finals on Sunday: NL vs ES. We'll be sporting our oranje again and hoping for the first Dutch World Cup ever.
Lastly, here are some pictures from the past week or so. Enjoy! And keep cool.
The vide grenier (flea market) with 200+ tables in our little ville. R and I bought 3 copper pans, 12 DVDs, and an old leather briefcase for a great deal!
Picture of one of the cheese stations at the Fete de la fromage a few weekends ago. I sampled beaucoup de fromage...comte, reblochon, and more. So good!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Supernatural brownies and listening to music loudly
One of the benefits of living in a house on a hill in the countryside is that you can turn your music way up. R and I are doing just that right now. R's going through huge collection of music and at this moment Dark Side of the Moon is playing.
I made a simple marinara sauce with farfalle with oregano that I picked from the garden.
I'm having fun dancing while baking David Lebovitz's supernatural brownies. He's the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse who has is now living and baking in Paris. I mostly use his recipes because they are tried and tested with ingredients from France. I loved his "The Sweet Life in Paris" and became a convert after making his recipe for chocolate peanut butter chocolate ice cream.
I chose the most plain dark chocolate I could find. There was a huge choice of chocolate with chestnuts, hazelnuts, curry, mint, etc. I haven't been able to find dark packed brown sugar (or light brown sugar for that matter), so I used something called sucre brut moulu. Crossing my fingers the brownies come out well.
It's R's birthday on Friday. I've found a recipe for a French fruit tart but I will make it with almond flour since I have some in my pantry.
I made a simple marinara sauce with farfalle with oregano that I picked from the garden.
I'm having fun dancing while baking David Lebovitz's supernatural brownies. He's the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse who has is now living and baking in Paris. I mostly use his recipes because they are tried and tested with ingredients from France. I loved his "The Sweet Life in Paris" and became a convert after making his recipe for chocolate peanut butter chocolate ice cream.
I chose the most plain dark chocolate I could find. There was a huge choice of chocolate with chestnuts, hazelnuts, curry, mint, etc. I haven't been able to find dark packed brown sugar (or light brown sugar for that matter), so I used something called sucre brut moulu. Crossing my fingers the brownies come out well.
It's R's birthday on Friday. I've found a recipe for a French fruit tart but I will make it with almond flour since I have some in my pantry.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The quest for vinegar, baking powder, and baking soda
Yesterday was my sister's birthday—happy birthday sis! It's the first of many birthdays I won't be there in person to celebrate. Missing my family and feeling a bit homesick this week. So I kept busy in my own way when in a foreign country. Though France is actually not that foreign. Within a 10 minute drive, I can shop at five major supermarkets: Carrefour, Intermarche, ED, LIDL, and Leader Price. If I'm willing to drive 20 minutes further, I can find many more shops. A few of these big chains try to be a one stop shop. Not only do they sell fresh and frozen foods, there's a fromagerie, boucherie, boulangerie inside the store. They further try to cater to the average shopper's every day needs for clothing, electronics, sports gear (even bait), dishes, pots and pans, yarn and thread. The one stop kind of shop may be good for these chains and customers but they are not great for the small independent stores.
With all these shops around, I'm surprised how difficult it has been to find what I think are common ingredients.
Plain white vinegar. There's a whole shelf devoted to vinegar: vinaigre du vin, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, flavored vinegars with herbs de provence, shallots. But no basic white vinegar. I scoured the oil and vinegar shelves at three different grocery stores before I found it at my local Carrefour. It's called Vinaigre Cristal avec alcohol. At .35€ it seemed very cheap, but I'm hoping it turns out to be what I'm looking for. I'm making Vietnamese green mango salad today and I need the vinegar to make nuoc mam which is the fish sauce that I'll be marinating the mango in.
Baking powder and baking soda. At most supermarkets in the U.S., there's an aisle which holds all your baking needs from baking powder, baking soda, baking chocolates, chocolate chips, Dutch processed cocoa powder to dry yeast, flour, sugar, powdered sugar, and spices. At Carrefour, most of the same items can be found (I learned that through many visits and asking people) but they're spread across different aisles. The sugar is in the sugar aisle while chocolate is in the chocolate aisle. Flour and yeast are in a third aisle. I can't yet find powdered sugar or chocolate chips. And baking powder and baking soda? I've been looking for the little cans of baking powder the past week or so to no avail. Due to my lack of French, I still haven't asked the employees at the supermarket. But thanks to this blog of a fellow American baker who is now living in France, I realized I had seen baking powder in a different form at the supermarkets. Instead of a little metal can, baking powder or levure chimique/levure anglaise are in individual packets. So excited! In her blog, I also found out the French keep the baking soda in the spices aisle. So now I'm fairly confident that I can find almost everything I need. I just have to figure out what it's called, what the packaging looks like, and which aisle to find it in.
Fresh herbs used in Asian cooking such as mint, Thai basil, cilantro (which is called coriander here and in the U.K.). I've planted coriander seeds, which is a perennial so I hope to have coriander for a long time coming.
An Asian market nearby. I do that thing now where I make contact with Asians to say hello (thee are so few of us here) or to ask them about the nearest Asian market. I stopped an Asian man the other day at Migros and asked him if he knew of any good Asian markets nearby. He was only visiting so his Swiss friend told me she had heard rumors that there is one in Ferney-Voltaire, France. I'll try to find that one next though it is as far away as Geneva but maybe it has a bigger selection of food. My wish list, to start—Kasugai gummies, vermicelli, large bottles of soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, rice paper, packages of Mama noodles, packages of chewy squid, roast pork buns, sushi rice, sushi ingredients.
Yesterday R and I spent the greater part of the day searching for French language options for me. We visited and spoke to people at 5 different locations: l'hotel de ville, la Maison Savoie, a social services center, le lycee (high school) which has an adult education center (think BCAE, CCAE), and another center for local immigrants. All fingers pointed to GRETA, a continuing education service which used to offer French language classes, but no longer does at this time. Apparently there is another organization in town that offers classes, but the administrator at GRETA had no idea about the new organization. Today R will telephone our department's prefecture to inquire about local French classes.
After our searches turned up empty R thought we could try visiting American Liz and her husband who live in the same village as we do. Even though she's lived in France for over 30 years, she's still known as "the American Liz" just as R is known as "the Dutch R". And what about me? Will I be given the moniker "the Chinese-American K"?
American Liz is at the gym but her French husband is home gardening and is quite helpful. He says he'll put me in touch with locals interested in language exchange, my English conversation for their French. In addition he would ask his wife about the baking powder (this was before R found me the blog above). And lastly, he pointed us to the house where a Japanese woman lives.
We thanked the schoolteacher and made our way down to the house...the same house that we had passed earlier with a cute kid outside on his scooter. We introduced ourselves to the husband and the kid, asked about his wife and where she shopped for Asian foods. He went inside to get her but she was busy bathing their littlest one. The French home is sacred. So unless you are explicitly invited inside, or have a very close relationship (like we do with our neighbors P and D), you don't automatically go inside. We waited outside for a bit and then he came out and offered me a box of arborio rice from Italy. He frequently travels to Italy and picks up arborio rice which is a good substitute for sushi rice. We chatted briefly about life and work until his wife came out with a very adorable 8 month old baby. The couple and their children were incredibly nice. They moved to town about 7 years ago from Annecy where the wife M had learned to speak French. Annecy has a university and many foreign students so there's actually a good language school there. M and her husband C invited us to stop by anytime (as did American Liz's husband) and we plan to!
With all these shops around, I'm surprised how difficult it has been to find what I think are common ingredients.
Plain white vinegar. There's a whole shelf devoted to vinegar: vinaigre du vin, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, flavored vinegars with herbs de provence, shallots. But no basic white vinegar. I scoured the oil and vinegar shelves at three different grocery stores before I found it at my local Carrefour. It's called Vinaigre Cristal avec alcohol. At .35€ it seemed very cheap, but I'm hoping it turns out to be what I'm looking for. I'm making Vietnamese green mango salad today and I need the vinegar to make nuoc mam which is the fish sauce that I'll be marinating the mango in.
Baking powder and baking soda. At most supermarkets in the U.S., there's an aisle which holds all your baking needs from baking powder, baking soda, baking chocolates, chocolate chips, Dutch processed cocoa powder to dry yeast, flour, sugar, powdered sugar, and spices. At Carrefour, most of the same items can be found (I learned that through many visits and asking people) but they're spread across different aisles. The sugar is in the sugar aisle while chocolate is in the chocolate aisle. Flour and yeast are in a third aisle. I can't yet find powdered sugar or chocolate chips. And baking powder and baking soda? I've been looking for the little cans of baking powder the past week or so to no avail. Due to my lack of French, I still haven't asked the employees at the supermarket. But thanks to this blog of a fellow American baker who is now living in France, I realized I had seen baking powder in a different form at the supermarkets. Instead of a little metal can, baking powder or levure chimique/levure anglaise are in individual packets. So excited! In her blog, I also found out the French keep the baking soda in the spices aisle. So now I'm fairly confident that I can find almost everything I need. I just have to figure out what it's called, what the packaging looks like, and which aisle to find it in.
Fresh herbs used in Asian cooking such as mint, Thai basil, cilantro (which is called coriander here and in the U.K.). I've planted coriander seeds, which is a perennial so I hope to have coriander for a long time coming.
An Asian market nearby. I do that thing now where I make contact with Asians to say hello (thee are so few of us here) or to ask them about the nearest Asian market. I stopped an Asian man the other day at Migros and asked him if he knew of any good Asian markets nearby. He was only visiting so his Swiss friend told me she had heard rumors that there is one in Ferney-Voltaire, France. I'll try to find that one next though it is as far away as Geneva but maybe it has a bigger selection of food. My wish list, to start—Kasugai gummies, vermicelli, large bottles of soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, rice paper, packages of Mama noodles, packages of chewy squid, roast pork buns, sushi rice, sushi ingredients.
Yesterday R and I spent the greater part of the day searching for French language options for me. We visited and spoke to people at 5 different locations: l'hotel de ville, la Maison Savoie, a social services center, le lycee (high school) which has an adult education center (think BCAE, CCAE), and another center for local immigrants. All fingers pointed to GRETA, a continuing education service which used to offer French language classes, but no longer does at this time. Apparently there is another organization in town that offers classes, but the administrator at GRETA had no idea about the new organization. Today R will telephone our department's prefecture to inquire about local French classes.
After our searches turned up empty R thought we could try visiting American Liz and her husband who live in the same village as we do. Even though she's lived in France for over 30 years, she's still known as "the American Liz" just as R is known as "the Dutch R". And what about me? Will I be given the moniker "the Chinese-American K"?
American Liz is at the gym but her French husband is home gardening and is quite helpful. He says he'll put me in touch with locals interested in language exchange, my English conversation for their French. In addition he would ask his wife about the baking powder (this was before R found me the blog above). And lastly, he pointed us to the house where a Japanese woman lives.
We thanked the schoolteacher and made our way down to the house...the same house that we had passed earlier with a cute kid outside on his scooter. We introduced ourselves to the husband and the kid, asked about his wife and where she shopped for Asian foods. He went inside to get her but she was busy bathing their littlest one. The French home is sacred. So unless you are explicitly invited inside, or have a very close relationship (like we do with our neighbors P and D), you don't automatically go inside. We waited outside for a bit and then he came out and offered me a box of arborio rice from Italy. He frequently travels to Italy and picks up arborio rice which is a good substitute for sushi rice. We chatted briefly about life and work until his wife came out with a very adorable 8 month old baby. The couple and their children were incredibly nice. They moved to town about 7 years ago from Annecy where the wife M had learned to speak French. Annecy has a university and many foreign students so there's actually a good language school there. M and her husband C invited us to stop by anytime (as did American Liz's husband) and we plan to!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Asian markets in Geneva
Watching Ocean's 13 right now as I write today's post. The weather was really nice, so R and I decided to spend the day in Geneva. Overall today was a success—I bought a Swiss cell phone so R and I can contact each other while in Switzerland (and for emergencies everywhere else). Then we visited some schools that offer French language courses.
FRENCH CLASSES
Alimentation Japonaise Miyai
45 Rue de Zurich, 1201 Genéve
Tel: 022-731-4862
Pros: Neat, well-stocked Japanese grocery store where I bought pickled plums, miso paste, wasabi peas, and gyoza wrappers.
Cons: Expensive, but not any more expensive than Asia Store or other Asian markets in Geneva.
Vietnamese Market (whose name I forget)
En route to find dinner, we accidentally found the best Chinese/Vietnamese supermarket.
FRENCH CLASSES
There are several good options which I've listed below—at this time I'm leaning towards Migros' École-Club which is located in Geneva, Switzerland just over the French border. Before signing up, I will check at the Mairie in case they can suggest French classes closer to home.
University of Geneva (UNIGE) offers fairly cheap, intensive summer French classes, and is located a short tram ride away from Cornavin, Geneva's central train station.
Migros, a Swiss supermarket chain offers French courses as part of École-Club. In addition to French and other language classes, they also offer dance, fitness, cooking, finance, and business classes. At École-Club, I took a free French language placement test and got 26/36 questions correct, placing me at the A2 level (which is advanced beginner). Ifage is another option. Like Migros, it is well-priced, with good schedules, and is centrally located at the train station. But it was kind of depressing looking. I saw some brochures for EF at Ifage, however, I don't think EF is associated with Ifage.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO GENEVA
Before arriving in Geneva I knew very little about the city, only that it ranked as the number one city to live (having tied with Zurich in a study conducted in 2007) and that it was home to the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions. Therefore I knew Geneva would be international, but just how much was quite a surprise. Wikipedia gives la ville de Genève a population of 191, 000 (as of 2010) while the Canton of Geneva has a population 457,428. Of that nearly half a million population, 39.2% are foreigners and more than 50% of people living in Geneva (the canton I believe) hold foreign passports. These numbers don't even take into account foreigners who work in Geneva but live in neighboring France (such as me and R and many expats who work for CERN situated both in Pays Gex (France) and Geneva).
The United Nations and its many agencies play a huge part in creating an international, bringing in diplomats, staff, and support from 192 countries, or member-states. Wikipedia cites that Geneva is home to 22 international organizations and more than 250 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). In addition Geneva serves as the European headquarters for many corporate companies like Proctor and Gamble, HP, and Dupont amongst others.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO GENEVA
Before arriving in Geneva I knew very little about the city, only that it ranked as the number one city to live (having tied with Zurich in a study conducted in 2007) and that it was home to the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions. Therefore I knew Geneva would be international, but just how much was quite a surprise. Wikipedia gives la ville de Genève a population of 191, 000 (as of 2010) while the Canton of Geneva has a population 457,428. Of that nearly half a million population, 39.2% are foreigners and more than 50% of people living in Geneva (the canton I believe) hold foreign passports. These numbers don't even take into account foreigners who work in Geneva but live in neighboring France (such as me and R and many expats who work for CERN situated both in Pays Gex (France) and Geneva).
The United Nations and its many agencies play a huge part in creating an international, bringing in diplomats, staff, and support from 192 countries, or member-states. Wikipedia cites that Geneva is home to 22 international organizations and more than 250 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). In addition Geneva serves as the European headquarters for many corporate companies like Proctor and Gamble, HP, and Dupont amongst others.
Due to its international setting, there are more Asian stores than I expected, most of them centered in the Paquis district, close to the railroad station. Walking around the Paquis, R and I found many more shops than we found through a quick Google search. I read somewhere that Geneva has a large Japanese ex-pat population. And more recently Geneva is trying to court the Chinese banks so there may be a small Chinatown here in the near future. Genève is quite small and compact so we weren't that far away from the Paquis district. Today we visited the stores below.
ASIAN STORES IN GENEVA
Asia Store
- Pros: Clean and organized, no weird smells, with good basic selection. A nice surprise was the owner of Asia Store was not only Chinese, but he spoke Teo Chew, my dialect. We chatted briefly and I found out his last name is Chan, which is as common as Smith or Jones. He emigrated to France from Cambodia and now lives in Switzerland.
- Cons: Tiny with only about 3 rows of food. Not a wide selection. Quite expensive. I paid 7.10CHF for ginger, vermicelli, and rice paper (which would have cost maybe $3 in Boston). Eating out, and food in general, costs much more in Switzerland partly due to universal healthcare and the high salaries the Swiss enjoy. I have to keep that in mind instead of making a straight comparison to Boston prices.
Alimentation Japonaise Miyai
45 Rue de Zurich, 1201 Genéve
Tel: 022-731-4862
Pros: Neat, well-stocked Japanese grocery store where I bought pickled plums, miso paste, wasabi peas, and gyoza wrappers.
Cons: Expensive, but not any more expensive than Asia Store or other Asian markets in Geneva.
Vietnamese Market (whose name I forget)
En route to find dinner, we accidentally found the best Chinese/Vietnamese supermarket.
- Pros: The owners are Vietnamese—and directed us to Cho Lon, a Vietnamese restaurant around the corner from their store. We should have heeded their advice, but we didn’t, opting instead for another one nearby. Before heading to dinner, we checked out the store. Although still quite small compared to Asian markets in Boston, it was still the biggest one yet. It carried a big selection of Asian fresh vegetables, packaged goods, big bags of rice, different kinds of tofu, lots of frozen fish, fish sauce, shrimp paste, rice paper, many kinds of noodles, and even "mam", fermented river fish. Most of the goods came from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand. I quickly bought some hoisin sauce, roast pork "char siu" marinade, and a bag of dried green mung beans. Why mung beans? From these dried beans, I can sprout my own bean sprouts at any moment to use in fresh summer rolls, or to use in Vietnamese dishes. I have yet to find fresh bean sprouts in my French markets, so I'm super excited that I found the dried green mung beans today!
- Cons: None
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