La nourriture

This entire blog entry will be dedicated to food and wine because the food and wine here deserves at the extreme, very least, that. Seriously, volumes have been written on French food and wine; so if I manage to keep it to one entry, it will be testament to my amazing writing skills (though I say so myself).
First of all, a disclaimer: Helen is English and Marc is half Greek, so I fully acknowledge that I am not being exposed to full on French food, but an English hybrid of French food. And Helen is not even traditionally english in her cooking; there is quite a bit of hippy, health food conscienceness in the mixture.
I have had a couple of full on traditional French meals. The first one was very soon after I arrived. I had been "tricked" into helping a sister move. I say tricked because at the time I really didn't understand anything and just nodded and said "oui" to everything. I spent all morning running up and down stairs with miscilleneous objects involved in the most innefficient moving process I have ever seen. I had a chance to escape when Marc showed up, but everyone said that I had to come partake in the meal, since I had helped all morning. So Marc, the jerk, left after five minutes and two hours later I sat down to eat.
French meals are very structured and very formal. The purity of the food is protected and appreciated by keeping all courses separate and each dish on its own. Those of you who have children who do not like one type of food touching another on their plate have witnessed not childishness, but a truely culinary and sophistacated approach to food. The French would never, ever have more than one type of food on a plate.
So first come the aperitifs. Which consist of nuts, pickled vegatables, or some other small warm up for the extreme work out your stomach is about to get. Usually apertifs also consist of champagne or a very small (about 4 oz) gin or vodka beverage. Then comes a salad. Also fairly light, just green lettuce with light dressing. Usually at this point the wine begins to flow along with the bread. A couple interesting things to point out at this juncture. When you sit down to your meal, you have a full setting of plates, knife, spoon and fork and THREE glasses. Because not only must the food be kept pure, but the beverages CANNOT be intermixed, not even a splash. There cannot be a drop of water at the bottom of a glass that could potentially be mixed in with the wine, and heaven forbid a droplet of white end up in a red. Also, the bread. Bread is a mainstay. There are as many boulangeries here as there are Starbucks in Seattle. And the cliché of people walking down the street with a baguette is completely accurate. And continuing with the abhorrence of cross-contamination on a grand scale; we do not put our slice of bread on the plate, it goes on the table, next to the plate. Interesting, no?
Ok, back to the first meal. So after salad often comes the main course. all though I have been to meals where there is a kind of pre-main course, usually a quiche or something similar. At this particular meal, we were served a pasta with a créme-fraich sauce with bits of ham in it and on top was half an eggshell with a whole raw egg in it! I watched in horror as a sister nonchalantly poured the raw egg into her pasta then merrily set in! But I could not allow them to see my fear. So feigning a "oh this is quite typical in America too" pose I did the same and tried to control the shuddering. I mixed it in REALLY well, then took a bite. It was delicious!!! No sign of the egg. Then a brother came around with some parmisean to go on top. Already having a sauce of créme-fraich, I didn't feel my interolerance to milk could handle the addition and I politely refused. He misunderstood my refusal as a sign (I am sure they were looking for it) of not knowing what it was, and proceeded to sprinkle a small amount on a corner of my pasta.
"Non, je connais avec parmesean!" I cried. "Phh, Americians ,ne connais pas avec la norriture" he scoffed. I really think he was waiting to pounce on me with this and had most likely been thoroughly dissapointed with my well-acted non-chalance in the raw egg incident.
The whole experience really sums up the French view of food and of Americans. And I am coming around to their side on a few points. They do inacurately view us as a complete nation and culture without any appreciation of food and I do in someways see thier point. Our lives in America are not built around enjoying a good meal and our overindulgence in multitasking has squeezed out any time we would have for the joy of preparing and enjoying a really good meal. Much of my day lately is taken up with food. I cook, eat and clean, then its time to begin the next meal. This sort of cycle was completely unfathonable to me before. In France the kids come home every day for two hours to have a meal with their family. Schools, works, shops, even the gas stations shut down for two, some even three hours to go eat. Its wonderful. Markets are open every morning till 11:30 and you get to buy produce, bread, eggs, cheese, fish and poultry from the people who grow it themselves. The French can enjoy purity of food because everything is fresh and local automatically, its not a movement here, its the way it is.
Anyways, after the main course is cleared from the table, its time for cheese (thankfully, a chevre is always amongst the selection). After cheese its time for desert. Desert has been pretty light. I think as Americans we definitely have them beat in the desert department. Although the meals are so geogeous that desert is completely unnecessary. And finally coffee!
Needless to say this takes a really long time to eat. If there is a dinner party, it usually starts around 7 or 8 and we don't leave until around midnight and we have been eating the WHOLE time.
One final note on dining on France. The host always lets each guest know where he or she is to sit. Men and women are alternated around the table. Unless you have been married for less than two years, husbands and wives do not sit together. The host also always makes sure that wine glasses are full (it is completely inapropriate to serve yourself) and manages the conversation. No one is ever left out of a conversation. Its really nice, and lends to a very enjoyable, beautiful meal.
So, I realize I haven't really touched on the wine. That will have to be saved until later. I guess I need to work on my writing skills!