Most baked goods (like cookies) taste best right out of the oven. Carrot cake, however, always seems to get better over a few days.

I wanted to try my hands at making a healthy cake (or is it more of a bread?) that I could eat either for breakfast or as a mid-day energy snack. I wanted this cake to look and taste healthy, yet still be addictive.

Usually, I grate the carrots so small you can hardly tell they’re there. This time, I was going for a hearty texture, so I used a bigger grate. This also let me see the colorful combination of veggies I put in the cake – for I didn’t just use any old carrots! No, in addition to an orange one, I also used one purple carrot (according to this site, all carrots were purple up through the Middle Ages!) and one parsnip.

I didn’t use much sugar in this recipe. For one, I was going for healthy. For two, carrots are naturally sweet. They were once used to sweeten desserts in medieval Europe (sugar wasn’t readily available). While I didn’t altogether get rid of it, there’s much less sugar in this recipe than in any others I know. Also, I used “cassonade” (raw, unprocessed) sugar.

For the salt, I used “Diamant de sel du Cachemire” or pink-colored diamond salt from Kashmir that we found at G. Detou here in Paris. This had to be crushed with a mortar and pestle.

For the frosting, I used the French cheese “St Môret” in place of cream cheese (but either would work). I whipped it with a little bit of agave syrup and fresh lemon juice to taste.

The two longest steps were opening the fresh walnuts – a slightly tedious task, but worth it – and waiting for the cake to cook – about an hour.

Did you know that February 3 is National Carrot Cake Day in the US? I hold carrot cake in pretty high esteem – glad to know I’m not the only one!

Shopping List

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 carrots and 1 parsnip (about 3 ½ cups when shredded)

2 cups whole grain spelt flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 eggs

½ cup raw sugar

¾ cup olive oil

For the frosting:

250 grams soft cheese

Agave syrup

Fresh lemon juice

Recipe:

1. Prepare nuts and carrots.

2. Mix dry and wet ingredients separately.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry.

4. Add carrots and nuts.

5. Line a cake mold with parchment paper and bake at 180C or 350F for about 1 hour (a knife should come out pretty clean).

6. Let cool and frost (see above).

Keep covered in the fridge and enjoy over several days.

Like I said in the 1^st post in this series (on Berlin), 2011 was filled with lots of foodie adventures.

I made some fun discoveries traveling, yet many of my favorite finds were right here in Paris. From restaurants and wine bars to markets and vegetables, here are my top picks for the year.

Favorite Restaurant

Le vin qui chante (“the singing wine”)

Sebastien found this one for Valentine’s Day, though we didn’t celebrate on the actual day – which I recommend! Whenever we go out in Paris on the real Valentine’s Day we’re confronted with too many people, overwhelmed waiters and set-menus – none of which lead to the ideal dining experience. Instead, we find it better to go to a nice restaurant on any other evening in February.

Our meal at Le vin qui chante was excellent and we highly recommend it for a special night out. I enjoyed the “menu gourmand”: three courses, each paired with a glass of wine.

Address: 52, rue Sainte Anne (2e)

Telephone: 01 40 20 03 70

Metro: Auber, Quatre Septembre or Pyramides

Favorite Wine Bar

La Trinquette

A hidden-away bar just north of the Marais that specializes in wines from the Languedoc region in France. Very good tapenade and cheeses to accompany your wine.

Addresse: 62, rue des Gravilliers (3e)

Telephone: 09 52 07 80 60

Metro: Arts et Métiers

Favorite Crepe Stand

La Creperie du Comptoir

This is the most “gourmet” crepe stand in Paris, and offers both savory galettes (buckwheat) and sweet crepes. You may take crepes to go or stand inside at the counter for wine and tapas.

Address: 3, carrefour de l’Odéon (6e)

Telephone: 01 44 27 07 97

Metro: Odéon

Favorite Farmers’ Market

Marché biologique des Batignolles

100% organic! Excellent quality. Low-key, down-to-earth atmosphere.

When: Saturdays 9am-3pm

Where: 34, boulevard des Batignolles (17e)

Metro: Place de Clichy

Favorite Vegetable Discovery

Chou-rave

Kohlrabi, also known as German turnip or turnip cabbage, is easy to find at Parisian farmers’ markets. It’s a member of the cabbage family and great eaten raw. I like to grate it into lentil salads for example.

Favorite Vegetable Re-discovered

Choux de Bruxelles

Brussel sprouts are especially abundant in the winter months. I eat them like popcorn! Cut them in half, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake until they are brown and crispy. This is my version of crispy kale.

Favorite Bread

Quinoa and chestnut bread from Naturalia health food store. I like it toasted and smeared with salted butter.

Favorite Biscottes

Le Moulin du Pivert’s Spelt biscottes (without palm oil)

“Biscottes” are little crunchy toasts often eaten for breakfast in France. Finding anything without palm oil is difficult these days (yes, including something as simple as breakfast toasts!), thus I was happy to find these. They’re sold in health food stores.

Favorite Cheese

Fourme d’ambert

This is a creamy blue cheese from the Auvergne region. It is amazing in an endive and walnut salad.

Favorite “I can’t believe I ate that!”

Escargots with butter and garlic at Chez Chartier

I know, I really did eat snails!

]]> http://thetomatoknife.com/2012/01/best-of-2011-my-favorite-foodie-finds-paris/feed/ 0 http://thetomatoknife.com/2012/01/best-of-2011-my-favorite-foodie-finds-berlin/ http://thetomatoknife.com/2012/01/best-of-2011-my-favorite-foodie-finds-berlin/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:52:07 +0000 Joy Anna Becvarik http://thetomatoknife.com/?p=2026 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!

Our friends also introduced us to some of Berlin’s innovative ways of preparing and serving food. Kochhaus (also in Schoeneberg), for example, is a one-of-a-kind grocery store that specializes in “ready-to-make” meals. Basically, several “recipe stations” are set up around the shop and at these stations you find every ingredient you need to make the proposed recipe (down to a teaspoon of spice). The directions are printed on leaflets for you to take home. It reminded me of paint-by-number, but for cooking. Check out this article in the New York Times: “A Streamlined Approach to Eating at Kochhaus”

While it was fun looking around this “walk-in-cookbook”, we also had innovation in restaurants to check out. That’s how we ended up at Vapiano for lunch one day. Though it has since gone international, the first spot opened in Germany in 2002. This is an Italian restaurant where you use a “clip card” (kind of like a credit card) to keep track of your bill. You hand over this card, order from a menu on the wall, watch your food being prepared before your eyes and then sit down to enjoy. I appreciated that the restaurant used fresh ingredients. I even saw one customer picking basil off a plant to sprinkle on his pasta – apparently this was allowed!

We also stumbled on the mittendrin restaurant/café where I had a “flammkuchen” (I like to translate this as a “flaming kitchen”) with spinach, feta cheese and olives. Quite nice.

Above all, one of our favorite spots was the Solar, a bar on the 17^th floor of a 1970s skyscraper. The view was amazing, the DJ excellent and the drink menu as long as a novel (I chose the raspberry mojito).

Last but not least, we ended our trip with a traditional German meal at Joseph Roth Diele (Postdamerstrasse 75). The restaurant is named after the 19^th century writer and was bustling on a Monday at lunchtime. The decor was warm and inviting, and the menu fully in German! Fortunately, we had our friends to translate. I got my fill of German spaetzle just in time to take the plane back to Paris that afternoon…

Though nothing to do with food, here are three must-sees while visiting Berlin:

- The Reichstag Dome (admission is free, but advanced booking required)

- German Historical Museum (you’ll spend hours here)

- East Side Gallery (the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall decorated with colorful murals)

Like I said, a weekend isn’t enough and I’m sure we left lots to be discovered in Berlin.

Any other recommendations to share?

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!

Shopping List

120 grams salted butter (about half a cup)

3 very ripe bananas

1 ½ cups buckwheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¾ cup fresh, chopped walnuts

Recipe:

1. Melt the butter and set aside.

2. Whip the bananas with a hand blender until they are smooth and airy.

3. Add the sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon and butter to the bananas.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry.

6. Mix in the walnuts, but don’t over work the batter.

7. Bake at 180?C or 350?F for about 30 minutes (until the center is fully cooked). Note: if the top begins browning too quickly, cover with a piece of foil until the center catches up.

This bread keeps well for several days in an airtight container. It’s nice toasted for breakfast.

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.

In this recipe, I used salted butter and a bit less sugar.

Shopping List

1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) salted butter

8.8 ounces (250 grams) bittersweet chocolate

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

4 eggs

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (50 grams) white flour

1 cup (125 grams) ground almonds

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

2. Slowly begin melting butter over low heat.

3. Separate eggs.

4. Put sugar in mixing bowl, add egg yolks and mix.

5. Begin melting chocolate in double-broiler.

6. Add butter to sugar/egg-yolk mixture and mix.

7. Combine flour, salt and ground almonds, then add to the rest of the batter and mix.

8. Add melted chocolate and mix.

9. Beat egg whites until they are stiff and carefully fold into batter.

10. Butter a round baking pan and pour in mixture.

11. Cook until the edges begin to dry and break away from the pan (10 or more minutes). The inside should remain moist and stick to a knife when tested.  Keep an eye on it and don’t overcook!

If you’re still in a cooking mood, try your hand at macarons. This is a fabulous book: Mad About Macarons! by Jill Colonna.

First of all, it feels like summer here in Paris.

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.

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.

This was the conversation upon arrival at the ticket desk (yes, even when museums are free for the day, you still have to get a ticket):

Ticket agent: Would you like to see the Gaultier exhibit?

Us: Um, uh. Oui?

Ticket agent: Okay, I’d recommend going directly there since it closes at 5pm.

Us: Merci!

Up the elevator we go, into a sort of dream world. We enter a room covered (completely covered) with blue and white striped fabric. It’s pulled tight over the walls and furniture – making you feel simultaneously dizzy and quite curious. Imagine pulling a giant pair of striped tights over your living room – you can distinguish the objects (like tea cups), but they’re under a haze. We continued to a small series of rooms after that – taking note of the amazing view over Paris out the windows. (The exhibit’s on until October).

Back down the elevator, we saw the rooms dedicated to different architectural casts (life-size) from around France (like church facades and statues). Then, we headed to the architecture floor. Quarter to six came too fast and we had to skedaddle.

Heritage Minestrone

Didn’t I say I’d write about soup? Well, here it is: after a busy weekend and an equally busy week coming up, I made minestrone – to last several days.

It’s easy. My only recommendation is cooking and keeping the noodles separate – otherwise they get soggy after a day. I prefer them al dente all the time.

Also, soak the dried beans in water overnight (that’s what my mom’s always done with pinto beans back home). It keeps them more digestible (we’ll leave it there). It also means less cooking time, and thus more nutrition.

Shopping List

1 onion

2 potatoes (diced small)

2 carrots

3 stalks celery

A handful or two green beans

1 can crushed peeled tomatoes and their juice

1 cup dried red or white beans (soaked overnight and cooked – about an hour)

1 cup small elbow pasta (cooked)

Olive oil

Rosemary

Thyme

Salt

Pepper

Parmesan cheese (finely grated)

Fresh basil

Recipe:

1. Chop all ingredients into small squares or pieces.

2. Sautée the onion, then add the potatoes, carrots, celery and finally the green beans.

3. Cover with water, add some rosemary, thyme and salt.

4. Let simmer until all the veggies are cooked.

5. Add the tomatoes and their juice (Maybe you could add this right away, but I had to run out to get it – stove-top burner turned off of course!)

6. Add the cooked beans.

7. When ready to serve, dish a small amount of pasta into bowls, cover with the soup, grated Parmesan, pepper and fresh basil.

The best is making this soup on Sunday and enjoying it all week. The flavors just get better and better.

P.S. This weekend, September 23-24, is the Fete de la gastronomie in France.

]]> http://thetomatoknife.com/2011/09/heritage-minestrone-recipe/feed/ 2 http://thetomatoknife.com/2011/09/cest-la-rentree/ http://thetomatoknife.com/2011/09/cest-la-rentree/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:35:05 +0000 Joy Anna Becvarik http://thetomatoknife.com/?p=1893 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.

“Is the Speculoos good?” I inquired.

“Of course, a little bit, as long as you don’t abuse it.”

Interesting answer.

Next I know I’m about to sample what looks like peanut butter on the end of a small plastic spoon.

“I’ll have that instead. That’s more fun than sugar.” And to myself: “That’s all it is, is sugar! But, it’s fabulous. Kind of nutty, smooth, probably addicting.”

“You might be able to find this in the grocery store,” the man continues as he holds up the jar. “But that might be a bad idea,” he laughs.

“Yes, probably.” By now, I’m in crepe heaven.

So, yes, autumn has come to Paris. The leaves are changing from green to subtle tones of orange and brown. The air is that much brisker and the slower-paced rhythm of summer has faded away. The days are getting short (I’m getting up with the sunrise now – soon to be before the sunrise)… Wait, wait… not yet… I haven’t mentioned the best parts of summer:

I FINALLY GOT MY FRENCH DRIVER’S LICENSE!!!!!!

We also had two fun culinary adventures:

The first was L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon (Saint-Germain) with some good friends from the States. What a neat experience to sit up on high stools and watch the cooking (instead of sitting at an ordinary table in an ordinary restaurant away from the action). What was also neat about this restaurant was that you could choose from an array of mini-starters or “petites portions dégustation”. We chose two each, so ended up with eight different entrées! The marinated anchovies with grilled red peppers was my favorite, but one of our friends was raving about the “pieds de cochon” for the entire next week. Did I just mention pigs feet on THIS blog?!

The next was La Creperie du Comptoir (3, carrefour de l’Odéon, 6e). This is essentially a take-away place, but you can stand up at the bar and eat there. A friend had already mentioned this creperie, saying the galettes were “gourmet”. Of course I believed her but it took actually going to really understand what her enthusiasm was all about. I had a buckwheat crepe with tomato confit (dried, marinated tomatoes) and artichoke spread – you just don’t get that at any old crepe stand. Also, you can enjoy a glass of wine (the Languedoc was especially nice) and tapas starters (which are advertised on signs hanging from the ceiling). A very cool place to get a quick bite before heading to whatever other fun you have planned.

Yay! It’s almost time to go take the metro – and get back to my book.

It’s not raining.

S: Wow, this is great! We landed in Glasgow two hours ago and here we already are in Stirling!

J: Yeah, that was super fast. We got our bags, the car, went to the bathroom in, what, an hour tops?

S: Passport control, too.

J: I can’t believe how smooth is all was! The longest was just getting out of the city, you figuring out left-side driving.

S: We even got a phone card. So easy!

J: Good thing I had a few pounds saved from last year.

S: You’re the best!

J: You, too!

S: This is just all too easy. I feel like we’re in Meet the Fockers. You know, how it all starts out so well, and then…

J: Hey, take it back.

S: Hahaha….

J: Seriously, take it back!

S: Okay. Back. Hehehe. Meet the Fockers… England!

J: Scotland.

S: Same thing.

Conversation between Sebastien, Telephone Booth No. 1, and I:

Middle of Nowhere, Scotland. It’s raining.

T: Please insert 60 pence.

S: It’s a free number. I don’t understand.

J: Try again.

T: Please wait.

S: Silence.

J: Silence.

T: This call cannot be completed. Hang up and try again.

S: I’ll try the other number.

T: Please insert 60 pence.

S: It’s a free number.

J: I left the change at the hotel.

T: Please wait.

J: Let me try.

T: Bring. Bring.

J: It’s working!

T: Please insert 60 pence.

J: What?

S: Let me try.

T: Please wait.

S: I’ll do the first one again.

T: Bring. Bring.

S: It’s good.

T: Welcome to Bla bla phone cards. Bla bla bla. To register a number press star 2, or enter your PIN.

S: Five, eight, what’s that? You rubbed the number out?

J: I didn’t mean to. It’s a one, I’m sure. One. Then, three, seven….

T: Please insert 60 pence.

S: Sigh.

J: It’s a free number! Let me try.

S: Press star 2. Star 2.

J: Hold on, I’m listening.

T: To register a number press star 2.

J: Star 2. Now, five, eight, one…

T: Please insert 60 pence.

Conversation between Sebastien, Telephone Booth No. 2, and I:

The next day. Down the street from Middle of Nowhere, Scotland. It’s still raining.

J: I can feel it. It’s going to work this time. The other phone had a problem.

S: Yeah.

T: Welcome to Bla bla phone cards. Blab bla bla. To register a number press star 2, or enter your PIN.

J: I’ll enter the PIN.

T: This card has already been topped off.

J: What? What’s topped off?

If I were a sheep, I would live in Scotland.

The landscape in the Highlands is impressive – more so than I ever would have thought. Lochs, mountains, ocean inlets, hills, cliffs, fields… the setting took us far away from our city life in Paris. I was in admiration about how untouched and well-preserved this part of Scotland was. Nearly every house is a bed and breakfast, so we could tell tourism is important, but of all the places we’ve been, this was the most remote. We stayed to the western side and when we were out hiking, it often felt like we were the only humans in all of Scotland!

We started our journey in the Cairngorms National Park and were based in Kingussie (which we’d recommend over Aviemore, the main town twenty-minutes to the north). Then we moved on through the Five Sisters and toward Kyle of Lochalsh. From our base near Dornie, we were easily able to explore this area and the Isle of Skye. On our way to Glasgow, we drove through Glen Coe – and wished we had more time to stay there!  In addition to the fabulous hiking (usually under raincoats) and the incredible scenery, some highlights of our trip were:

High tea on the Strathspey Steam Railway. This is a 19^th century steam engine that takes you twenty miles over a part of the original Highland Railway (from Aviemore to Broomhill and back). We’d booked first-class tickets in advance for the 2:45 pm train. We sat in our own little cabin and enjoyed a copious “tea” as we watched the Cairngorms out the windows. Part of the fun was almost missing the train, as we’d decided we absolutely had to go see Loch Ness in the morning. We’re almost in Aviemore (where the tickets are waiting) when we see signs for the Strathspey Railway. Of course we follow them without thinking and end up in Boat of Garten (a stop on the train). It takes getting out of the car and looking around for me to say, “It’s not here. We’re in the wrong town!” Like two bank robbers, we hop back in the car and race toward Aviemore (getting stuck behind a tractor, of course) – we make it just in time. Really, just in time!

Breakfast at the Auld Alliance Guest House. The owner, Lydie Bocquillon, is a French chef trained in Burgundy – this shows through even at breakfast. I was glad to stay two nights so I could try both the scrambled eggs with smoked trout (reminiscent of the thick smoked salmon from the Pacific Northwest) and the egg and spinach cocotte with Isle of Mull cheese. The “cocotte” was full of flavor and the egg was perfectly cooked – amazing!

The four-poster bed and view of Eilean Donan Castle out our window at the Loch Duich Hotel near Dornie. Though the owners were a bit distant and the room/bathroom a bit shabby, the breakfast was decent. The majestic wooden bed and excellent view were worth it.

The local pubs. We especially liked The Silver Fjord in Kingussie and their house red, a California merlot called the Furious Boar – it’s the name I liked best. The Clachan in Dornie was also one of our favorites for the lively atmosphere and friendly people.

The villages Plockton and Killin. Plockton is a small village on Loch Carron, near Kyle of Lochalsh and the Isle of Skye. We found it by chance and enjoyed wandering through the main street one evening before dinner at the Plockton Hotel. Here, we watched the boats on the bay and found a random chess set out in the rain. In Killin, we stopped to pick up sandwiches and take photos of the Falls of Dochart.

I have lots more stories from Scotland, but I’ll leave you there for now. For the moment, it’s not raining here in Glasgow, so I better go take advantage!