The Tomato Knife

2011 was quite a year – full of travels and culinary adventures!

In the course of 12 months, I spent time in Berlin, Scotland, San Francisco and New Mexico – not to mention Alsace, the Loire Valley, and Bordeaux. I’ve never traveled so much – and, uh yes, sorry to admit, written so little! I’ve been taking notes though, and here is the first in a series of posts on my travels and favorite foodie finds in 2011.

Berlin, I must say, was one of my favorite trips of the year. I remember watching the Wall come down on TV when I was nine years old and have since had a deep fascination with the city. When we arrived on a Friday night last November, it felt exactly how I had imaged – modern (most of the city was destroyed during World War II and has since been rebuilt), yet full of history.

We only spent a long weekend, so it wasn’t enough time to see and taste everything, but we took full advantage of the time we had. It helped having good friends to show us around and take us to their favorite spots. The first place we headed was the Winterfeldtplatz Market in Schoeneberg. It had a different feeling than Parisian farmers’ markets. For one, it was rather calm (no one banged into my heels with their caddy) and most people were just arriving at lunchtime (when markets here begin to close up shop). For two, there were lots of samples and yummy items ready to eat (we tried melted “käse” on bread and “apfelkuchen”, apple cake). People didn’t seem to be doing their weekly shopping, but going to have Saturday lunch and buy a few apples or whatnots. The funniest difference, though, were the little children – instead of nibbling on pain au chocolat, they were happily walking around with sausages. I’m serious – miniature chubby hands and huge slimy sausages!

Continue Reading »

Tags: berlin, cooking, markets, restaurants, travel

I’ve been doing some major cooking since the beginning of the New Year.

What a joy to get back to my Sunday farmers’ market and familiar kitchen! The last months of 2011 were filled with lots of excitement, from several trips (including Berlin and New Mexico) to some fun Parisian restaurant discoveries – promise to keep you posted on all that soon.

There’s nothing like getting back to cooking though, and this recipe for Buckwheat Banana Bread is fitting to start off a healthy new year. Since moving to France, I’ve been a fan of galettes de sarrasin (buckwheat crepes), which are savory and traditionally eaten before sweet crepes. I’ve been experimenting with incorporating more buckwheat flour into my baking. Usually, I mix it with regular white flour, but I wanted to try making 100% gluten-free bread, so used only pure buckwheat for this recipe. The health benefits of buckwheat are numerous (high in protein, fiber, B vitamins, amino acids…). It’s also a great alternative for those who can’t tolerate gluten because, despite its name, buckwheat is not wheat, but a fruit seed.

When I make banana bread I’m always worried it’ll be either too dry or not cooked enough. I actually think the buckwheat, which isn’t too compact, actually helped with this problem. I also tried an experiment by whipping lots of air into the bananas before combining them with the rest of the ingredients. Whatever the secret, this recipe worked well for me. The bread tasted yummy, yet healthy at the same time.

Random thought: For a couple years now I’ve been using a kitchen scale to weigh butter. It is so much easier that scooping chunks of cold butter into my measuring cups! I’d definitely recommend equipping your kitchen with one, especially if you’re an American cook living abroad or simply enjoy using European recipes. I still tend to use my American measuring cups and spoons for the rest though, so bear with me as I try to find “balance” in my proportions!

Continue Reading »

Tags: fruit, nuts, spices

Before I get to the chocolate cake part, let me talk about the BEST MACARONS IN PARIS. Promise you they’re linked…

Last year for my sister’s 25th birthday, my mom and I trekked all over the city collecting macarons. The first part of our goal was to surprise the birthday girl with 25 (yes, an ambitious number) of these fancy (and easily squished) cookies. Our second goal was to find the very best in Paris.

We were successful in our quest and ended up in Montmartre (the best place to surprise someone with a plate-full of macarons) with four different names. Of course, we didn’t tell my sister or my husband which macarons came from where. Here was the verdict:

4. Random corner boulangerie (so-so compared to the others)

3. Ladurée (well-known and delicious, but on the sweeter side and not as original as the winner)

2. La Maison du Chocolat (pretty close to heaven)

…According to us, the very best macarons in Paris are from….

Pierre Hermé

(My favorite was olive oil and vanilla)

What’s the connection to the cake? Well, it’s already been a year since this macaron hunt (oh, yes, and we’ve been back to Pierre Hermé since!) and last weekend my sister celebrated another birthday. Since the weather’s been so nice (well, until yesterday), we had a picnic and I wanted to surprise her with a cake. I always bring my staple moeulleux au chocolat and wanted something more original. It’s hard to beat a pile of macarons! That was my inspiration, though – almonds. They are one of the essential ingredients in French macarons. So, I altered my recipe a bit and came up with a cake I was quite happy with. More moist than ever.

Continue Reading »

Tags: books, chocolate, dessert

First of all, it feels like summer here in Paris. I’m seriously getting more sun, and sweating more profusely, than I did in all of July and August! It feels great and reminds me why I love Paris in September so much.

Despite the weather, we’re definitely not on vacation and I’m getting back into the swing of taking the morning metro. While it’s hot and stuffy (especially right now), I’ve been secretly enjoying the ride simply because it forces me to “take some time to myself” and do whatever I feel like for 40 whole minutes (each way). I know that sounds strange, but the 7:30 am metro isn’t crowded or noisy (my fellow travelers are predominately a handful of students reading over impeccably written notes on their way to class). So, I’ve been either reading a book (all but Molière which I told myself I’d read before going to see Tartuffe in 10 days), jotting ideas in my journal or reading the free newspapers waiting at the metro entrance.

Today, I saw this headline: “Alerte officielle sur le bisphénol A”.

Isn’t that old news? I feel like we’ve been talking about BPA in plastic for a while now. Isn’t that why I said goodbye to my much-loved orange Nalgene bottle a few years ago? (Though my friends tell me there are now PBA-free ones). Isn’t that why I’ve been avoiding buying tomatoes in tin cans (often lined with such plastic)? Isn’t that why I think my brother should get a KleanKanteen baby bottle for my two-month old nephew? (I know. A baby drinking out of stainless steel seems a bit drastic, but why not?) Isn’t that why I’ve been using only plastic food containers marked with a “5” on the bottom?

BPA, as I recall, is what turned me into a PPP – person paranoid about plastic.

Isn’t this biphenyl A alert coming a bit late? Or, maybe time travel really does exist and I got a flash from the past on the early morning metro. I was still waking up after all.

Tags: everyday life

The second part of this post is all about the minestrone soup I made after this Sunday’s farmers’ market.

First though, I want to tell you about last weekend and the “Journées européennes du patrimoine” (or, European Heritage Days). I had already re-scheduled (note RE-scheduled) an eye appointment for Saturday afternoon, and Sébastien was set to play two tennis games Sunday. Though we’d been talking about it for about a month (“Oh, yeah, can’t wait to see that!” and “I’m sure there’ll be a long line, but we could try anyway.”), neither of us had realized the heritage days were this particular weekend when making all our other plans. I wasn’t about to re-schedule my appointment yet again, and, well, when there’s a tennis game, there’s a tennis game. So, we sadly didn’t think we’d end up taking much advantage of the long-awaited festivities.

As luck would have it though, Saturday was our day, as the eye doctor (over near Rebublique in the 11^th) proved to be a fabulous way to start the weekend (believe that!). Not only did the doctor say my view had gotten better (I know, right?), we stumbled upon La maison des métallos (more or less, the “house of the metal workers”). Now a cultural center in the heart of a diverse Parisian neighborhood, this was once a factory where wind instruments were made (and apparently sought after by American jazz artists in the 1930s). Then, the building was bought by the “Union Fraternelle des Métallurgistes” – with an entire history that we learned all about on our tour (thanks to the heritage days!). Now I’m looking forward to attending some of the center’s community-oriented performances, debates….

Sunday, we (after how many years in Paris?) went to the Musée Chaillot (directly across from the Eiffel Tower and dedicated to “architecture et patrimoine”). We chose it thinking it wouldn’t take too long and was doable between tennis matches. Wrong! We spent about an hour and need to go back. We didn’t see everything, but what we did was pretty neat.

Continue Reading »

Tags: carrots, events, noodles, soup, tomatoes, vegetables

It’s “la rentrée,” or French New Year, as I like to call it. The American term “back to school” is the closest translation I can find for the phenomenon that has been sweeping Paris for the past week. It’s a poor translation because “la rentrée” isn’t just for kids and college students; it’s for… well… everyone.

Our “new year” is off to a good start so far – back to work, back to sports, back to reading in the metro (I’m nearly finished with Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and can’t wait to take the metro to dance class tonight to get back to reading it – that says something if I’m actually looking forward to taking the metro!)… back to cooking up storms in the kitchen, to Sunday farmers’ market, to fresh raw milk from the local cheese shop… yep, summer’s over… it’s back to daily life in Paris, including the customary new discoveries.

Yesterday, I was on my way home from work – and I was hungry (I feel like I’ve started many a mischievous story this way). I’ll cut to the chase: I fell in love with Paris in the “fall time” and street crepes all over again. Why? Under the late afternoon, fading sunlight of autumn, I had my first crepe smothered in Speculoos spread – wow! I have two favorite crepe stands in Paris (well, three – but the third is a whole category of its own, see below): the one on boulevard Montparnasse (north-side of the street, just before rue de Rennes) and the one on boulevard Saint Germain (north-east corner of the boulevard and rue Bonaparte).

I’d asked for a simple sugar crepe and watched as Mr. Crepe Man poured a ladle full of thick batter onto the pan. Then, my eyes began wandering as I waited. That’s when I spotted THE jar.

Continue Reading »

Tags: everyday life, restaurants