The food in France is great. It really is. The bread is bread, true, but it is good. But what is crazy is that you can eat some seemingly innocuous side dish and suddenly wonder why you have never eaten such a thing before.
I had a spinach-egg slice thing that was on the side of my dish. I tried it. It was like eating cake and vegetables and eggs all at once, but in a good way. I couldn't place what they'd done to the eggs. Cream, yes of course, but what else? It was light and fluffy but made me think of home and Grandma and laughing with Jenny Penny. Tabea later told me that she had heard that French cooks often use nutmeg in their eggs. That was the secret ingredient I am sure, but I am also sure that if I add nutmeg to my eggs in Syracuse, choirs of gastrological angels will not be singing. It was amazing.
Today I had duck a l'orange. Yes, duck is greasy, but it was soooooo good. It was the plate du jour and we were late for lunch (everything in all but the very biggest cities closes for the afternoon. If you dont' eat by 1 or 1:30, just forget it. Food is not something to be taken for sustenance or on your way somewhere. You don't just stop in a restaurant in France it seems, you somehow plan it. But the people in the diner today had pity on us and fed us. We could only choose the plat du jour. I said we'd have two. And we had duck a l'orange for 10 euros each. Imagine! So it was pretty amazing.
We are seriously contemplating going to McDonalds just to see if the mere presence of France can make such a thing better. It's possible. Everything seems to taste better here. We buy fresh produce from the farmers on the side of the street or in the unused space in the roundabout. We buy bread every day. And we had poire au chocolat tarte one day. Pretty nice.
Food is just better here.
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