Hey, it's Thursday, huh?

And time is going by pretty quick. Went out with Brian a few times this past week which was fun, last night to a cute classic kind of bistro in the 6th called Aux Charpentiers. A couple of pictures soon to come.
Been making some product in class the past few days: apricot tarts, chocolate tarts, apple tarts, apple chaussons (turnovers with puff pastry), brioche in different shapes, eclairs, vol-au-vents, a few basic fillings, etc. At this point what we're doing is pretty easy for me (well, obviously-- it's only the second week), but it feels good to learn the basic techniques again, which are in many cases better than what I have been doing. I'm finding bad habits I hadn't realized I had. For example, I'm trying to hold my pastry bag differently, in a way that makes more sense.

And the language is becoming more discernable... the seemingly formless flurry of sound is starting to crystallize. I'm trying to talk to the French people in class a lot, although I do frequently fall back on speaking english. I had a good conversation in French at lunch yesterday with a Korean woman in my class, which was kind of funny because she and I usually talk to each other in english (in which she is fluent). I've been cultivating a new, somewhat primitive, ability to joke around in French, too. Simple, well placed sarcastic comments can make an especially big splash when offered by us foreigners. It makes every cheesy saying seem like an inside joke, I'm not sure why. Think about it, isn't it always funnier when something intentionally stupid gets said by someone with an accent, especially when you know they don't speak english fluently (or maybe even hardy at all)? I'd like to know why that is. Maybe it's just so much better because you know they're trying, as best they know how, to simply share a funny moment with you. A minimum of spoken language can really be used to tremendous effect.
French tip of the day: if you mispronounce the word for whisk, you're probably saying what sounds like a conjugation for a slangy verb that means "to stink" ("Could you hand me the stinks? Should I stinks the cream?"). The word is "fouet," pronounced "foo-ay" not "foo-ET." On a similar note, a "hook" (as in dough hook attachment, or any type of hook) is a "crochet," and therefore Captain Hook for Peter Pan is indeed known in the francophone world as Capitaine Crochet.

Dinner last night, breakfast today

Roasted organic chicken from marché Batignolles with asparagus and leeks, puff pastry pizza from the brioche store (Ryan, tomato/lardon; me, tomato, anchovy, olive). The chicken carcass is becoming soup tonite.

Easter display at La Maison du Chocolat

Stohrer: the oldest pastry shop in Paris

Nice looking stuff. We had a chocolate éclair and a black forest cake which were both very good.

Class display

Pictures from the Meat & Poultry According to Joël Robuchon class and the Sauce and Jus' Application class. Lamb roasted in a salt crust with herbs, gorgeous roasted chickens, pork belly with something.

Class display

Pictures from the Meat & Poultry According to Joël Robuchon class and the Sauce and Jus' Application class. Scallop-stuffed salmon with chicken jus, langoustine something, kidneys with asparagus and something, chorizo-stuffed pork roast with red pepper sauce, and a huge beautiful braised veal shin, I believe. Niiice!

Macaron class display

The display from the 3 day macaron class this past week. The crackly ones are amaretti.

Sadaharu Aoki on rue Vaugirard

Everything here was beautiful and immaculate in a very Japanese way. The apricot-almond thing being held was fantastic, as was the macha financier (the little green cake). A cassis-chocolate thing I had was great too (the purple cake in the case foreground). Not bad prices, either.

Pierre Hermé on rue Bonaparte

That triangular cake in the case was called "La Cerise sur le Gâteau" (the cherry on the cake-- it was 70 euros), the thing in the (real) glass was tomato gelée, lemon cake, strawberries, and olive oil cream, the green one was a cheesecakey thing with pistachio, lemon, a sablé base and fraises des bois, and the macarons were such flavors as grapefruit-Campari with grapefruit confit, salted butter caramel, apricot-something, pistachio-cherry-something, and something-something else. Really nice presentation obviously. Some stuff was very good, some only ok. Expensive!

Super cool vegetable carving dude on rue St. Germain

Those flowers are carved too!

The market last week (Batignolles) and dinner later

Dinner: saucisse a l'ail, lentilles de Puy with veg, mustard.

Rungis photos are up

Over 50 pictures from Rungis are now up on Flickr! A word of warning: there's maybe a dozen or so from the triperie that are more graphic and might disturb some.

TEOTHIE

I am officially starting a Total Eclipse of the Heart in Europe tally. Whenever I or Ryan hears TEOTH on the radio, up goes the count! Most recent TEOTHIE was witnessed by me, yesterday, at 4am on the bus headed to Rungis. I'm shooting for at least 30. Can it happen?
As of today, 4/7/06, TEOTHIE is at 3!

RUNGIS

I have nothing witty to say about Rungis. It simply blew my mind. It is the largest fresh product market in the whole world, which, as you can see in the photo above, is essentially a city in and of itself.
Many more pictures will be posted on Flickr. I put a link to the Rungis website on the right, and it's also right here.
Got up at 2:15 am, got a cab, went to another student's place where we were picked up by yet another student, went to the school, got on a big charter bus, and got to the market at about 4:30 or so. The photos below reflect the circuit we made: fish/seafood, red meat, poultry and charcuterie, triperie (I didn't post photos here of the triperie because I'm sure they are more upsetting images to some people), fruits and vegetables, flowers, cheese and finally "lunch" at about 8am in one of the 24 restaurants --and I don't mean like booths or a food court-- that are at the market (all of whose quality is on par with the wares in the pavillions, but the prices are low-- they are the antithesis of a tourist trap).
Afterwards, we visited the Pré Catalan restaurant and reception rooms, which was crazy. After that, we visited two Lenôtre boutiques, of which I didn't really take pictures because I'll have 6 months to photograph their (my) products.
An insane day.

First stop: fish pavillion. Feisty little 3 inch crabs, lamprey eel, swordfish...

Tiny perfect quail, and of course le boeuf.

In one of EIGHT fruit/vegetable pavillions.

In the lovely flower pavillion.

In the cheese pavillion. Not only is there the warehouse itself, but also an underground "cave" of the same size, where affineurs from the different vendors ripen some of the cheeses.

La Salade Gourmande at L'Étoile at Rungis. Gesiers confits, foie gras terrine, magret de canard, and some Côtes du Rhône-- at 8 am.