chez pim

the baskets of Lalbenque

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Continuing on the theme of memorable things from the Lalbenque truffle market, from the faces of the people, whose every wrinkle tells a story, and now to little baskets of treasure. The truffle hunters from areas all around Lalbenque, and some as far south as the Midi, came to market with little paniers or baskets full of treasures, demurly hidden in multi-colored kitchen towels. Walking around the market, it's these baskets -some handsome, some old, some new, some quite wretched workmanship, and others a marvel of homemade glory- that were sometimes even more interesting than the treasured content within.

Michelin Guide France 2007, really out

Now Michelin news is really out. The official Press Release came out yesterday, pretty much confirming the news that was leaked by François Simon (and reported here) early this month. The only place that Simon was off was Hélène Darroze getting a third star, which turns out to not to be the case.

So, the official new three stars are the following:

L'Astrance, Pascal Barbot and Christophe Rohat
Le Meurice, Yannick Alléno
Le Pré Catelan, Frédéric Anton
Pic, Anne Sophie Pic
Lameloise, Jacques Lameloise (regained the third star they lost few years ago)

The faces of Lalbenque

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Kate and I went to the truffle market at Lalbenque yesterday. And what a day it was, filled of amazing discoveries and deliciousness. But perhaps the most striking part of the experience was the faces of the people we encountered. Here are some of them that I can share.

Where is Paris?

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Where is Paris again? I seem to have forgotten. I came down to Gascony to visit Kate for the weekend, and now I might be staying forever. Well, perhaps not for ever, but for another week until I have to get back to London.

I am in a stone house dating back to the 1600's, in a charmed room with a view of the garden, the canal, and Kate's lived-in houseboat There's a clawfoot tub in my room, where I take my bath every night before bed, and a round wooden table by the window where I write, inspired by the fog creeping in over the landscape. There's also a door that opens to nowhere, and a fleeting spectre of a lady in white just turning around the corner.

We celebrated Chinese New Year Saturday night, with a charmed circle of friends Kate has cultivated, winemakers, poétesse, playwright, artists, cooks, writers, gardeners, and more. Lucy, having spent a few years working in China, made delightful chinese dumplings (the recipe and detailed instructions can be found on her blog.) I made beggar's rice -or perhaps to be appropriately fortuitous for the new year I should call it generosity rice- which was an impromptu recipe composed entirely of borrowed ingredients.

But for you-know-who waiting for me in California, I might never leave here, ever.

Self-portrait of a blogger

Where in the world is Pim?

(If you are reading this post on Bloglines, you might want to click through to Chez Pim for the slideshow.)

...in an old farmhouse in Gascony, eating locally raised ducks -with skin and fat a half inch thick- roasted in an open fireplace. More cooking in Gascony, and a visit to the truffle market, later.

Paris graffiti

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Neat graffiti found on the streets of Paris, around the 13e. Suitable-ish for Valentines day.

Truth in advertising: a veggie version

Now that's truth in advertising.

Dandelion is called Pissenlit in French. Dandelion leaves are known to be diuretic. And, so, what does piss-en-lit mean exactly? Ok I'll give you one little hint, lit is bed in French. Piss-en-lit, see? Yeah, it means precisely what you think.

If this is not truth in advertising, I don't know what is. Kraft could learn a thing or two.

What should you do with Dandelion? I love making a salad, dress with a strong shallot vinaigrette, toss into it some crisp bacon, and top with a softly poached egg. Eat enough of this salad and you might need to wear this stuff to bed though. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Au Marché

Going to market at the Ave du Président Wilson in the 16e.

Quite styling people for a Saturday morning. Well this is Le chichi Seizième after all, I guess.

There was one particularly stylish Asian girl who was also there just to take pictures. We exchanged glances but no one spoke. I probably should have said hi. I betcha she's a blogger too. (Last photo, in the slideshow.)

Speaking of taking photos, someone must give me a clue about how to photograph people. I am much better at shots of food. They don't move! They don't look at you funny when they realize you're taking photo of them. And they certainly don't do this. I've asked a couple people if I could shoot them, but then the shots turned out so obviously posed that I didn't like them at all. I am clueless. Help?

My street, and thereabouts

Get with the program, Pim!

Well, I was all proud of myself for actually following through on a meme someone tagged me. But then I got her name wrong, as she so graciously corrected me in the comment section. So, folks, it's actualy the lovely Bee of Rasa Malaysia, not Bea. Her name is Bee, like the buzzing beezie bees.

Adding insult to injury, I forgot that I had to also tag five people. That's how memes get around, you see, you get tagged by someone and then you tag a few more people. Sort of like a Ponzi scheme except without the witless investors. So I've got the get with the program here. Pardon my blond moment and let me tag the first five bloggers who left comments on my Five Things meme post.

Take it away...
My Husband Cooks (No, no my husband, I am quite happily living in sin thanks much. It's the name of a blog.)
Casey Ellis, who doesn't have a blog per se, but she has a website where she writes about food, so she can write about this meme!
Ester Kitchen (C'est à toi, Ester. Tu peux le faire en Français ou Anglais, comme tu veux -ça me gêne pas de tout!)
Cooking with Amy, Amy and I are good friends so she's got to work to find five things I don't know about her.
One Food Guy, take it dude.

Five things people don't know about me

Bea Bee at Rasa Malaysia tagged me for this meme. I'm not really good with memes usually, and this one is particularly difficult. It's a meme called Five Things People Don't Know About Me. You can imagine where the difficulty is, can't you? Having kept a blog somewhat consistently for the past four, five years, I'm not sure there are five things that people don't know about me. Well, let me rephrase myself: I'm not sure if there are five things people still don't know that I particularly want them to know. Now you see my point?

But a meme is a meme. You either do it or skip it altogether, no amending it or anything. So let's see what I can come up with. Five things you might not know about me. Here I go.

1. I was a cheerleader in High School. Yeah. Embarrassing, isn't it? Not a very good one even. And, no, I didn't keep the uniform.

2. I'm a sci-fi channel geek. You didn't suspect that, did you? And I'm not just a fan of Galactica, even. Everyone with their head screwed on right is a fan of Galactica. (Ok I exaggerated, no hate mails, ok? I'm sure your head is screwed, um, on, quite properly even if you're not a Galactica fan.) I am such a Sci-Fi channel geek I even adore, just adore Stargate SG-1.

3. My favorite city (besides San Francisco, where I consider home) is London. You'd think Paris, wouldn't you, from the many trips I've chronicled here, and being that I am typing this very post in Paris. But, no, it's London, actually. Paris is just a tryst -an exciting and exhilarating one, mind you, but a tryst nonetheless. It's London that is love.

4. I. Hate. Beetroots. Ok, that may be a common enough knowledge around here. But I was just at a restaurant recently where I was served a main meat course, a gorgeous plate of Venison, that was so contaminated with beet juice and beet purée that I could not take a bite. And then after the meal the chef came out to say hi and commented about how interesting to see the rest of my face (normally obscured by the coffee cup on top of the blog.) So obviously he read, or at least had seen, the blog. Yet apparently, the fact that I-Hate-Beetroots isn't evident enough. So here I am again. Telling you. I. Hate. Beets.

5. Last one, and it's a good one. My (soon not to be) secret (and yet unrealized) foodie wish is to be a guest judge on Iron Chef America, definitely sitting next to Jeffrey Steingarten, on whom I've carried on a peculiar sort of crush depuis longtemps. Pick the right battle and I might even out snide Jeffrey. As long as it's not a Battle Beetroot, ok?

Watch Cheese Mature

A gourmet version of watching the paint dry? Evidently not, judging from the thousands of people who have gone to the Westcombe Cheddar site to watch a wheel of cheese, yes, mature.

The cheese with its name in light is Westcombe cheddar, a farmhouse and appellation-designated cheese made in Somerset, England. It's been made in the same location for over a hundred years, though the quality had gone down for a time, the cheese has now been restored to its former glory. And now they've gone and put a webcam on it so we can all watch the cheese as it matures.

The concept of cheese as a living thing that matures and decays might be foreign to those used to buying dead, shrink-wrapped, plastic cheese from the supermarket. If you've never tried English Farmhouse Cheddars, perhaps this webcam might inspire you to do it. You'd never go back to that bright orange monstrosity ever again. Neal's Yard in London stocks the cheese. I've also seen it at Cowgirl Creamery in San Francisco. I'm sure someone in New York does too but I'm not sure where.

This Cheddar TV is all fine and good, but come to think of it, in the spirit of my Fabulous Girls' Guide to Eating Local post, how about the web cam on Tom Calver, the dishy cheesemaker and not the molding cheese, eh?

A walk 'home' last night

Guess I'm not in London anymore.

Fancy a go with Chrissy?

No, no, Chez Pim hasn't turned into one of those sites. These photos are from perhaps the hippest art installation in London at the moment: Simply Botiful by the swiss conceptual artist Christoph Büchel. The installation is at the newish Hauser & Wirth Coppermill Gallery in London's East End.

Simply Botiful is not so much an installation as a fun house, where one climbs into closets and freezers to get to hidden nooks or navigate a maze of dead fridges to see yet more appliances. I'm not entirely sure if I actually got anything the artist was trying to say, but it sure was interesting. Walking through bedrooms and rather mangy living spaces composed of everyday objects gave me a weird feeling, like being forced into voyeurism, especially since it was also strangely captivating. There were things that were there clearly to shock you –explicitly pornographic images, torn pages from the Koran, cling-wrapped copies of Mein Kampf, and half eaten, half rotten food items littered in every corner. Yet the entire thing was oddly convincing and stops ever-so-short of being completely surreal.

More like Pad Thai for Beginners?

I've been in London for nearly two weeks now and have been so busy I haven't got time to blog! Luckily the Pad Thai for Beginners post I put up right before I left has got some staying power. So, that's got me thinking, perhaps I should do more posts like that one. And perhaps we can brainstorm about which ones I should do here while I get my arse in gear to get on with normal posting schedule.

So, what other dishes would you like me to do a 'Pad Thai for Beginners' treatment to? Thai Curries? Another type of stir-fried noodles? You tell me! Leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

I'll stick with Thai dishes, as there are plenty there to demystify for everyone. But should you be so burden by your craving for a non-Thai dish I might just be able to get a certain 2-Michelin Star chef to do a 'For Beginners' lesson for us. ;-)