Two Weeks

The thought of "Slow Food" encompasses more than just the notion of raising food organically. It also involves the preparation and the consumption of a meal, with good friends and family. On Tuesday, we had dinner at a friend's house, and the entire start to finish of the meal was about five hours, slow. It wasn't a ton of food by any means, but everyone was there just to enjoy-to enjoy food, to enjoy good company, have good conversation, you catch my drift.

We arrived at six to have some appetizers, and play a rousing game of Pétanque, a version of boules.

The court

In Pétanque, you roll out the first ball called the cochonnet, which means little pig, and you switch turns rolling your boule to get the closest. The person closest doesn't roll again until the opponent gets closer than your throw. The game goes till one person (team) reaches 13 and often involves some wine consumption, which can alter how long it takes for someone to actually win. We had to cut our game short when dinner was close to being ready, but I'm proud to say I am currently undefeated in Pétanque.

Dinner started with a foie gras dish, placed on a flat, hot pan for a few seconds on each side, served on a bed of lettuce with a vinaigrette over. A first course I could get used to.

The main was a delicious pork, with dijon-molasses sauce, accompanied with herb potatoes, and a refreshing zucchini salad-with pine nuts and a lemony dressing. Perhaps some good use to your abundance of zucchini crop that always seems to show up this time of year?

The dish in the front was a side dish that was brought by another guest. Craving some spiciness in the very good, but not spicy French diet, she grew her own poblano chilies in her garden, which inspired her lovely creation. The dish reminded us all of the food we all seem to crave the most when abroad-Mexican. Of the guests at the dinner party, six were from California and the other two (our lovely hosts) have lived all over the United States but now call France and the Caribbean home, and all of us seemed to miss the spice, the seasoning, the utter deliciousness of Mexican food. Apparently, there is a restaurant that actually serves decent Mexican food not too far, but I don't really want to chance it. I just know it will be one of my first meals when I'm home in November.

Lastly, was dessert, which was our responsibility to bring. We decided to make some sort of cheesecake type recipe, to try and best incorporate the wonderful strawberries that are just nearing the end of their season, yet by no means have they lost any flavor. Since there is no cream cheese in France, Caitlin found a wonderful recipe (well actually 2) to make the delectable delight, a cake called gâteau au fromage blanc, translated literally into white cheese cake. I assisted in the ingredient shopping and cleaning, but left the master chef job to Caitlin. It used fromage blanc as the main cheese filling, complete with egg yolks (3) and egg whites (4), sugar, a wee bit of flour, and the zest of a lemon. The crust was a petite buerre cookie and butter crust.

Looks like a cheese cake right? But it was better. More melt in your mouth as it was much softer and fluffier then a traditional American cheesecake. And the fresh strawberry coulie on top, magnificent. I think the strawberries were even better since I had to bike and get the last basket from the local produce stand. I found a recipe that is similar to what we had. The key however, other then don't get any egg yolk in the egg white, was to actually let the top of the cake get brown, but not burn, tricky but well worth it. A nice layer of crust to dive your fork into.

Browned Cheesy Heaven

At the conclusion of the night, I had realized that I had been in France officially for two weeks. The meal seemed all too perfect for my two week anniversary. A nice blend of French and American cuisines and cultures, starting with the pétanque, and continuing on through the foie gras, pork (BBQ'ed on a Weber!), poblano chiles, and fromage blanc. Just looking at that list, one can see the vast array of flavors on a plate, yet the fusion was perfect.