WTF. What the France.

I'm hungry. But more on that later. The last week in January has been one of the worst of my short time on this planet. Hospital stays, fights with Chefs, emotional turbulence, and life just not going right. Saturday morning I woke up with a pain in my stomach that I just ignored, and went on with my day. Was very sick that night, and Sunday, the pain was still there, so I decided to go to the hospital. My friend Lesley joined me in my first taste of socialized healthcare. This is not a political rant, so I wont get into it, but it's awful. For the first 4 hours of my stay, I was given a Tums, and told to pee in a cup. Beautiful. I was then laid on a bed, and hooked to an IV, after having a bag fall on my face, and the nurse leaving with a needle sticking out of my arm. There were not enough Nurses, Doctors, or medical professionals of any rank to treat the hordes of people there seeking help. After 11 hours, x-rays, ultrasounds, and pain meds, I was sent home with a bruised and inflamed large intestine. Don't know how that happened. It's not my appendix though, so that's a positive.
I haven't given a food update in quite some time. So, here it is.
Intermediate Cuisine and Le Cordon Bleu = Stuffing proteins with other proteins. On friday, we removed all the bones from a chicken, and stuffed it with pork shoulder and foi gras, and then poached it slowly in Court Bouillon, or a wine flavored chicken stock.
Before that, a Lobster cooked in the oven, with rice, and Lobster sauce.
Magret duck breast with cream braised leeks, and potato cakes with bacon and mushrooms.
Times before that, Mullet stuffed with olives. Dourade stuffed with shrimp and more dourade, and we broke down and cooked 11,000 different bird varietals.
A chef and I got into an argument over the clarity in which a certain chef gives demos. But, it was cleared up, and he gave me a smile afterwords so thats good.
Ate at Le Comptoir
http://www.hotel-paris-relais-saint-germain.com/
Hannah
http://www.qype.fr/place/1527003-Hannah-Paris
And an oyster restaurant I cant remember the name of.
Maybe post a few pictures in my next post. Hopefully February is better.

Recap

Gallivanting around the globe has it's ups and downs. Seeing beautiful places, meeting wonderful people, and eating everything in front of me, are definitely the ups. Not being able to just sit and reflect, write a little, spend enough time with the people you love and miss, are the downs. Last I wrote I had just returned home from the U.S. Nothing too exciting there, drove to wisconsin and back in two days, the usual. During the second week of December, I decided to visit a friend in Barcelona, on a whim. After an hour and a half bus ride to some "Podunk" airport in the north of France, I boarded my 27 Euro plane ride. Also, before I go on, I flew home from Barcelona for 4 Euros. 4. I bought a sandwich on the flight for 5. This is sort of a shameless plug, but Ryanair is the greatest company in the world, especially for 20 somethings trying to travel around europe. After arriving in Barcelona, my friend anna took me to her home about an hour west of Barcelona. It's truly a beautiful place. I walked in the mediterranean, saw Montserrat, and ate and drank some of the best things ever. You know those movies where a man is on vacation, and he meets a beautiful "native" if you will. Well, jamon iberico, and pa amb tomaquat are my native vacation lovers. I could eat those two things every single day of my life. The later being simply bread with the flesh of a tomato rubbed into it with olive oil and salt. The blog isn't allowing me to post pictures right now, but i'll give the link to my facebook to see them all. After visiting castles from Roman and even earlier periods of time, and seeing structures still standing from that time period, it gives you a little perspective on life. After two days in the mountains, we went to Barcelona. It takes a lot for me to like a city, I am now just starting to love Paris. I am not sure if I liked Barcelona or not. The architecture was bizarre, the parking expensive, and the traffic bad. But, the food however, was life changing. Tapas have always been my second favorite food, behind Vietnamese and Thai, but this was a whole new level. Cerverceria Catalana was wonderful. Usually known as one of the best in Barcelona, I was very excited to get in. We had little deep fried green peppers, I can't remember the name right now, Tortilla, which is like quiche without crust, Pa amb tomaquat, sardine like things, sauteed wild mushrooms, and something else I cant remember. A good spanish beer, and a coffee rounded the meal out. We also visited Boqueria Market, which is a place I recommend all human beings to go to. It really is astonishing. Also, we went to Bar Marsella for absinthe. I recommend no human beings do that, unless they have to. My trip had to come to end, and so does this description if it. I got on the 4 euro flight home, for one day. The next day I had a flight to Norway.
Woke up early in a snowy Paris, and flew to a snowy Oslo. My Godfather Geir, my Father's best friend, picked me up, and drove me to his home in Ringsaker. A beautiful village, overlooking the largest lake in Norway, with a 900 year old church at it's center. A perfect place to celebrate Christmas, with my second family. We watched soccer, and I hung out with the kids, and went to work at the DMI. It was a wonderful 2 weeks of relaxation.
After coming back to Paris, my friend Peter flew in for New Year's from his school in Nottingham, England. Not much extraordinary happened. We ate a lot of Kebab, and witnessed the New Year at the Eiffel Tower. That was pretty spectacular.
School Started a few weeks ago, and I am now back into the swing of things. The dishes seem to be pretty easy still, so we will see. I'm doing well, meeting a lot of new people, and the apartment is still wonderful. I hope everyone had a happy holiday season, and I wish everyone a great new year!
Places Visited in Spain:
Vilobí
Vilafranca
Vilanova
Sitges
Barcelona.
Restaurants:
Cerveceria Catalana
Random Jamon shops
Random Tapas restaurants.
Bar Marsella
www.facebook.com/album.php?id=506912298&aid=256396#

Noël Navidad Natal Christmas クリスマス Hanukkah כאַנעקע Kwanzaa

I live in the most beautiful city in the world. There is no doubt about it. France may be a place full of bureaucratic nightmares, stiff and starchy people, and smelly metro systems, but they do one thing correctly. Christmas, or Noël. Every street is adorned with some form of Christmas ornamentation. Whether it be lights down the middle of the street, or a lit tree in a square, they do their best to make it look as nice as it feels. However, as I write this, something is missing. The lights, gifts, hot chocolate, even the snow, is all here. Trees, strange men in santa costumes, the obligatory car-driving-through-half-frozen-puddle-ruining-your-shoes kind of days, it happens here. But 5000 miles away is where Christmas really is. The 16 foot trees we could barely get in the truck, let alone the living room, the made up Scrabble words. The Disarono and anythings. For the first time in my life, I will not be there for that. It is a little bittersweet.
But, I know they will have a good time without me, and I will too. For I will be in Norway, the second prettiest place in the world, besides the view I have right now from my room.

Im not going to post all of my pictures, if you'd like to see them, just email me, post a comment or go to. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=506912298&aid=256396

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=506912298&aid=256156

More to come this weekend about my adventures. Happy Hanukkah!

Today, for one of the first times in 2 months, I wanted to cook. Its been a long semester, in and out of the classroom, and the tedious chopping, slicing, and "ecoumeing" has drained me. After the two most stressful weeks of my life, ending with the exam on Monday, all I wanted was a little sleep. But this morning, I craved the heat of the kitchen, and the camaraderie of our "Team." Monday after the exam, some of us went out to dinner at a 2 michelin star restaurant, L'atelier De Joel Robuchon. I will write a review later, no pictures. Graduation was yesterday. Long, boring and uneventful. Received my diploma, and proceeded home. Now it's time for everyone to go home for the holidays, and since I'm here until the 18th, I will spend my time in the city shopping, and walking around. Should be enjoyable. I'll start taking pictures of all the holiday decorations going on. It's quite a beautiful city.

Apartment and Last Week of Class

As a whole, the Basic group of students did very well on the written exams. It was very easy, and I do not know why i worried about it so much. But, that was the least important part of my week. I moved on Saturday, to a new apartment. Being it's in the Montparnasse district of Paris, this place has a little more going for it than the last place I was in. After crossing the entirety of a metro station, and up 14 floors, you reach me and Afonso's apartment. There's a verse in one of Lil' Waynes songs that says "So high up, I got birds in the condo" this isn't a condo, but there are birds, so I think I'm doing alright. To the north I see Notre Dame, Luxembourg, and The Louvre. To the west, The Eiffel Tower, and La Defense. Quite a view. This will be my home for the extent of my stay here. Which do to certain circumstances, has been extended, if the cooking gods allow, through the length of my stage. On to cooking. Tomorrow, is the second to last of our practical classes for this term. Fried Veal cutlets, Vienna style, with Fresh pasta, and Tomato Concassé, should be fun. Cooking exam is next week. A lot of speculation has been going on as to what the test will be, no one knows. We have been given 10 dishes to study, and of them, a class will get two. Half of that class will get one, the other will get the other. 2 and a half hours to complete the dish. Judgement, and then we ride off into the culinary sunset. For 2 months, until were back for 5 months straight, and then the rest of our lives. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Food.

Food is so much, to so many people. It is sustenance, feeding the masses. It is art, inspiring the world, and for others, its a coping mechanism. Something to help them through the tough times. It is a strange thing, food. It is inanimate, but comes from animate things. It has emotion, structure, a sense of being. For those of you that don't believe me, taste a fresh peach, and then a frozen one, you'll see what I mean. Food is very human. In all the good ways. You can mold it. Shaping it into something you're proud of, like a small child. It can surprise you. The sharpness of a cheese, the smell of a strawberry, the crisp skin on a pig. All these things are shocking the first time you try them. Food can comfort you, like an old friend. Not eating it, but the calmness of preparation. The quiet time it takes to create a dish. Then, finally, a taste of home, or a taste of a far off place. It can bring you where you've been, or as far away as you want to go. Food can not leave you, it can not break your heart. If it burns, you clean the pan out and start again. If it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you do it differently the next time. You can fall in love with a dish, and that dish can be the same for the rest of your life, it will not change. Humans should take some pointers from food.

Rungis, Je..The Me, Finals Week.

Wow, what a week! This post will be mostly pictures, because description will be hard. We've cooked some interesting things lately. Roast Duck, Shrimp, and a lot of Beef.. Throw some Pork and Veal in here, and we would have been cooking for kings. The smell of stress, fright, and mind rot is in the air due to finals coming up. Written exams have been taken by the Patisserie students, and a universal cry of help was heard from the Demo room on that day, doesn't look to good for us Cuisine students. 100 points of matching and true false, mixed with a fill in the blank recipe portion, should be exciting. In between all of the 50 grams of carrots, and 2 onions memorization's we have to do, some fun was thrown in. Thursday night, well actually, Friday morning at 2 am, I joined a classmate and his boss, on a trip to Rungis market. The largest food purveyor in the world, with buildings the size of full grocery stores, filled to the brim with whole sides and cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal. A room for poultry, and fish, and vegetables. Fruits and dairy, and cheese all having their own home. We were only going to see the Fish and Triperie (meat house.) But it was quite a sight regardless.

Friday night, I joined my friends Miguel, Micheal, and Bill at a dinner at Je.. The Me. It was featured on Anthony Bourdain's 100th episode of No Reservations. A small, 19th century grocery store, turned restaurant, it was amazing the quality of food that was put out by this place. First courses were roasted wild button mushrooms, paté of foi gras, and fall vegetable risotto with shrimp. They were all good, and warming on the cold late fall night. Main courses were a wild chicken roasted with cabbage "En coccotte" or in a casserole. Scallops with couscous, and my dish, which was crispy veal liver and sauteed duck kidneys in a brown sauce over a rice cake. I had the cheese plate for dessert, and chocolate cake and ice cream was served with pistachio cream and thyme ice cream; baba rum, and rice pudding with beet ice cream were the other desserts. Two very good Bourgogne wines and some digestifs rounded out what was a fantastic meal in a fantastic restaurant. Also, I acquired a internship there for a week during my December break, so I'm very happy. I should get studying. Happy National Bologna Day America!!