Savory Saturday

 

 

Confit de canard, preserved duck leg, that humble yet sublime staple on many a bistro lunchtime blackboard.

 

 

 

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Duck Duck Go:

 

Known to disappear off plates the moment its crispy skin crackles under a knife, confit de canard originated in the quietly confident Gascony region of France. A simple culinary masterpiece, it showcases the rich, succulent flavors of duck preserved through a time-honored technique that involves slow-cooking duck legs in their own fat at a low temperature which creates a tender, melt-in-the-mouth texture and flavor.

Traditionally paired with crispy potatoes (pommes de terre sarladaises) preferably cooked in duck fat or, as above, served atop a purée of fresh potatoes to allow its rustic flavors to shine, it can also appear with nothing but a mixed-greens salad to balance its richness, and has become one of the highlights of classical French cuisine. - BPJ

 

Monday mouthful

 

Delectable crêpes to start off the week.

 

Above: galettes (savory sarrasin buckwheat flour crêpes) accompanied by crisp Brittany pear cider

 

Breizh Café 

Paris

"La crêpe autrement"

 

 

 

 

National Croissant Day

 

How does one celebrate National Croissant Day? By indulging in croissants, of course....!

Above: first-thing-in-the-morning, freshly baked, still warm

 ❤️

Day of the crêpe

Just when you thought the holidays were finally over today is the much-anticipated fête of La Chandeleur in France a.k.a. Candlemas in Anglo-Saxon countries.

The root of fête is "feast," and every holiday (Holy Day) is associated with good food and feasting. On this day, le jour des crêpes packages of ready-made crêpes and boxes of "crêpe mix" have been filling Paris supermarket shelves for days. 

La Chandeleur was a way to use the last of the milled flour from the year before and, some say, the very shape of a crêpe represented the sun, as winter days began to grow lighter. Just two weeks before Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - it heralded soon-to-begin Lent, when eating habits were curtailed for four weeks before Easter... and then the feasting cycle began all over again. - BPJ

Above: cidre accompanies savory sarrasin (buckwheat) flour crêpes that precede the more familiar white flour (froment) dessert crêpes. Their "crêpe-ness" - crispness - lies in their lacy crunch, and the Breizh Café gets it right

Pasta Parigi

 

 

Back to more home-cooking as new restaurant mandates go into effect Saturday.

 

Above: Monday's peppery whole wheat spaghetti w/mushrooms, leeks, aged comté, garlic, lardons....

 

"Monday night is Italian night!"

Weighing in

 

 

Yesterday I happened to walk into my local butcher shop just as everyone was still reeling from the size of an American woman who'd bought a chicken.

Knowing I'm from the U.S. they asked if it’s true that obesity in America has become epidemic, and brought up something I’d heard years before from a small group of French doctors at The American Hospital of Paris: "In Paris, most hospitals don’t have scales to accommodate such proportions, so these patients get sent to a veterinary clinic outside the city, in Asnières, where livestock gets weighed."




In Paris, obesity (not to be confused with being surpoids, or overweight), while it exists, remains a visual rarity, as noted with surprise over and over by visitors from the U.S. When severe obesity is spotted ("Mais c'est pas possible!"), usually it's in areas that are magnets for tourists, and it is assumed that they definitely are not French.

 
Illustrations often depict French girls and women as stick thin, which of course is not the norm nor is it the desired norm. But fashion and beauty, synonymous with Paris, is a big part of French culture. Most café terrace chairs face the street like front-row seats to a runway so passersby can be seen, and appreciated. One has but to look up at the sky just about anywhere inside the city limits and no electrical or telephone lines are visible because, as a French architect friend explained, "It ruins the eye!” 

 


I used to wonder if Mireille Guiliano's best-selling “French Women Don’t Get Fat” shouldn’t have been titled, “French Women Won’t Get Fat.” When I was growing up my father, who never lost his sense of style (or French accent that could melt butter), used to admonish us to "take a little pride" in our appearance. Stepping out with a tousled mop (think Caroline de Maigret) or wearing the same "uniform" every day (think Steve Jobs) was fine, but packing on the kilos? Not so much. Obesity was associated with personal neglect and lower-income communities and, as recent studies show, still is today.

 
In France, so far, beauty remains firmly in the eye of each beholder. We won't be bullied into adjusting our tastes to suit PC outsiders. When it comes to obesity, health is one consideration yes, but for now, at least, the French still like to quote Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Beauty will save the world." - BPJ 

 

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Adapted from:

Eating French: Why French Women Won't Get Fat 
a.k.a. 

A French Paradox: The French Non Diet and The Art of Eating for Pleasure - Barbara Pasquet James

Special thanks:

Treize au Jardin

5 rue de Médicis 75006

 

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 Updates:

 

4/2020 - Covid-19

"According to the first number from a national record released by Le Monde, 83% of patients in intensive care in France are people overweight or obese, the most often suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes."

 

3/2021 - Covid-19

"CDC study finds that about 78% of people hospitalized for Covid were overweight or obese."

 CNBC NEWS

 

9/2021 - Covid-19 

"Children and teens gained weight at an alarming rate" in U.S. [since start of the pandemic] says CDC.

NPR

 

 

Bio c'est bon

Foraging at the Batignolles Saturday morning organic market.

Below: how we like our carrots