Welcome to the Year of the Lucky Rabbit.
It was freezing in my neck of the woods, but still no snow. Our neighbor Helene noted that the 27eme Course de traineaux à chiens may be canceled this year. I just Googled and learned that the course, La Retordica, has been rescheduled for February 26th and 27th due to lack of the white stuff. I'm hoping I can dash through the snow on a husky sleigh ride in a few weeks time. Boston, please send a bit of snow our way!
This morning, fending off the cold with lots of layers and a warm thermos of hot Early Grey tea, R and I ventured down to town to check out the weekly farmer's market. We arrived at the market square to catch the last few vendors cleaning up, selling remaining inventory, and stowing away their goods. Passing by the fishmonger, I noticed some filets of salmon and was curious if he had any salmon heads. The tenderest and tastiest (IMHO) part of a fish is the cheek meat you know. Malheureusement, the fishmonger was wrapping up a big bag of salmon heads for a man who had arrived there a few minutes before me. Note to self...arrive a bit earlier next week to snag some fish head for Tamarind fish soup.
The fromagerie vendeuse was cleaning up, but she gladly showed us what she had left, among them some good looking wheels of locally made Tomme de Savoie. She steered us towards the mild ones, away from the one she described as "assez fort". She wasn't kidding! Not wanting to contribute to our buyer's remorse, she even scooped out a sample from the middle using a special cheese corer. We got a deal -- the Tomme we bought only cost 3 Euros, but it had at least 15 Euros worth of stinkyness!
Traditionally Chinese New Year means a time for celebrating, feasting, and visiting with friends and family. In China and other countries that celebrate the lunar new year, such as Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, celebrations can last between 2 to 4 weeks. City folk travel large distances to visit their family in the countryside, mostly by train and these voyages would have been booked months and months in advance. There's an urban myth that those who get a seat in the train don't move from their seats the entire journey...not even to use the bathroom for fear of losing their seats to the masses that are standing, squatting in every square inch of the train cars.
These days, I would have maybe taken a day off, but I certainly would have gone to my grandmother's house for dinner on CNY's eve and to Chinatown for dim sum on new year's day. And of course, you would find me in Chinatown watching the dragon dance. In France, the cities with the most number of Asians, mostly Vietnamese, are located in Paris and Lyon. Paris actually has two Chinatowns. One in the city itself and one north of the city. While Paris is about 2.5 hours by TGV, Lyon is much closer. This upcoming Sunday, we'll head there to do some shopping and watch the défilé du dragon.
In 2009, the Year of the Ox, I was working in NYC and so I watched the dragon dance there. During CNY, there's a sort of excitement and more commotion and color than usual in Chinatown. Stores and homes have auspicious signs on their doors; people are dressed in their new clothes; streets are littered with red confetti, from firecrackers that are set off to ward away evil spirits; spectators form a perimeter around the dragon, trying to get as close to the action as possible; and drummers, also dressed in costume, accompany the dragon as it snakes its way from street to street, stopping in front of storefronts to accept hong bai (red envelopes as a thanks for warding off evil spirits) and to "eat" some cabbage. Since NYC's Chinatown spans a good part of lower Manhattan, there are multiple dragons streaming through the streets, and you can locate them by listening to the reverberations of the accompanying drums. And during CNY, there are many street vendors selling red envelopes, spring flowers, calendars, sweets, street snacks, and many souvenirs that are probably made in China. For friends and my nephews, I bought 2 giant firecrackers, 2 dragon puppets, and a lion mask.
I'm trying to continue the tradition of visiting friends here in France. Since I've been back, I've been spending time with R and my new friends in town. Yesterday, I visited my Japanese friend M and her two boys. They live nearby, so after whipping together some cupcakes which I filled with some raspberry jam, and frosted with fromage blanc icing, I walked down the road to her house with the cupcakes and some dumplings I had made the day before. We talked, we caught up, we laughed, we looked through French cookbooks (in Japanese), we cooked the dumplings and we ate. As a gift for her son Luc, I filled R's old MP3 player with some Beatles, Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz, and Muppets. Apparently he loves rock and roll and drums, so hopefully he'll enjoy bopping to la musique. M sent me home with some homemade tarte aux pommes!
Tonight, R and I went over to Helene's for an emergency computer support call. Helene's HP monitor stopped working earlier today and she had no idea why. So R tried a few things, and then flipped it upside down so he could try to take it apart. Emphasis on the "try" because he couldn't. I guess HP didn't want us to mess with their monitor, because we couldn't pry the darn thing apart. He gave the sides some quick whacks..and voila! The monitor started up just fine. As it was then apero time, we stayed for some drinks and nibbles (Helene's homemade cherry wine for me and H, and cognac for R). We watched le journal regionale (the regional news) while nibbling on dates, other dried fruits, and nuts. Before we left, Helene packed us a big piece of a jellyroll cake that she had just made and gave me the recipe for her tarte aux pommes. Score :)
Tomorrow, I'm baking some more and bringing the sweets to a mushroom club meeting. I think the mushroom expert is going to talking about wild plants found on the island of Corsica. Looking forward to seeing them after being away for more than a month.
Wishing you a healthy, prosperous and creative year filled with love and laughter! 恭喜發財! Gōng xǐ fā cái!
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