What more do you need?

Mastering the Art of French Eating

“I’m not a voracious carnivore, but there’s something about being in Paris that makes me want to sink my teeth into a bloody piece of beef.”

I’m not a carnivore either, and the even though being in Paris makes me want to sink my teeth into a hot, melty Nutella crepe, with that first line of Ann Mah’s Mastering the Art of French Eating, I knew I was in trouble.

Chapter by chapter, Ann—whom I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know while we were both living in Paris—takes us all over France, from the buckwheat fields of Brittany to Provence’s pink hills. It’s a culinary blitz through the most delicious country on earth—a loving and heartfelt blitz.

And of course in the center of the grand Gallic explorations, there’s Paris. It always comes back to Paris. And what it means to an expat: subsisting happily, if guiltily, on French bread; the pangs of loneliness at seeing gaggles of friends, not your own; and suddenly noticing that your American habits are un peu moche in the eyes of Parisians.

I’ve been excitedly waiting for Ann’s book to come out (I had the honor of reading, and blurbing, an advance copy so I’ve long known how delicious it is), and today the wait is over. Bravo, Ann! So excited that the lovely and amazing Mastering the Art of French Eating is out! Mes amis, scoop it up—it’s a wonderful book and it will have you dreaming of your own French adventures.

Victor Hugo said...

"A breath of Paris preserves the soul."

Little Birds

"Paris never gets too dark, because when natural light dissolves, you're never too far from a streetlamp—and they're often beautiful—set upon tall black stalks, each lamp a glowing pair of white balls in love with its very own length of street. Sometimes, they all flicker to life at the same time, as if together they can hold off darkness."

If you haven't discovered Simon Van Booy yet, I can't say enough about him. This lovely quote is from the story "Little Birds" in his collection titled The Secret Lives of People in Love. Last summer, I read his novel Everything Beautiful Began After, and fell in love. Go! Pick up one of his books!

More than a woman

“It’s all about life. And it’s all about being the woman you want to be.”

My first plum assignment as a writer was interviewing Diane von Furstenberg for CITY Magazine. I’ve been in love with her ever since.

Smart, independent, confident, sexy—she’s one of those women really does seem to have it all: a fulfilling, successful career; the love of her life; children and grandchildren whom she adores; and an exciting life of travel, filled with friends and inspiration.

And now she’s breaking ground on the technology front: this past NY Fashion Week, she was the first fashion designer to use Google Glass to show the runway from the models’ pov. Brilliant.

Haute Chocolaterie: La Maison du Chocolat

La Maison du Chocolat, 225, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, hit Paris in 1981, and it didn't take long to become an institution. Something like three weeks. Faces staring into the windows are studies in anticipation. The chocolates are made below the shop in what used to be a wine cellar. Owner Robert Linxe is less interested in chew than in flavor and melt. Marriages made in heaven are his forte: chocolate an coffee, chocolate and rum, chocolate and orange. An occasional flirtation with kirsch is permissible. For the more indissoluble union of chocolate with the well-defined personality of coffee, Linxe frequently has his coffee and cocoa beans ground together.

"Good chocolate won't make you sick," he said as he urged us to taste a Romeo, a Bohème, and a Rigoletto. "It won't even make you fat. Look at me, and I eat it all day long." True, he was as svelte and active as a live wire and as persuasive as a faith healer.

"Bitter chocolate is full of potassium and magnesium."

Convinced that it was so good for me, I could hardly refuse a Bacchus.

—Originally from Gourmet Magazine, 1987

A) I want to write this well

B) I want a job where I get to write like this,  about chocolate all the time

C) I miss Paris

D) Why, oh why, did Gourmet fold??

La rentrée: Inspiring or dreadful?

“La rentrée—a time of magical new beginnings in Paris that’s like “back to school” in the states, only bigger and more profound. More than just kids getting new pencil boxes and corduroys after a summer of catching fireflies and building campfires, it’s the season of renewal. Change is embraced and celebrated by every proud citizen; it’s a feted homecoming for the entire city that is returning to work after spending August frolicking à la plage—unless, of course, they were like me and the Louis Vuitton team, who toiled not only the entire sacred heat-filled month, but every weekend of it, too.”

—from Paris, My Sweet

Change is in the air in New York City. After three months of glorious summer weather—four if you include May, which was actually pretty spectacular, too—Labor Day weekend rolled around with overcast skies and cool weather. Aside from buzzing and bumbling NYU students, the city’s energy has been as deflated as a balloon three days after the party.

Personally I’ve been listless. Not blue, but not inspired either. C’est la vie, I thought. Until I searched through the past three years of this blog and realized I just don’t do so well with this “magical” time of the year. In 2009, I was in a classic meh mood. In 2010, I took an objective point of view. Last year—even while I was in Paris (oh, how I miss it)—I felt an inexplicable weight.

Maybe I’m grieving for summer. Maybe I feel the impending doom of eight months of progressively crummier weather. Maybe it’s an internal thing. I don’t know. I do know it’s time to shake the cobwebs and embrace this season of change, believing it will all be good change.

Et toi? How are you faring with la rentrée?

Lucky to live in New York

Happy 100th to joy named Julia

In honor of Julia Child’s 100^th birthday, here are my top 10 favorite quotes of hers. Many of these are from My Life in France, which, if you haven’t read, it absolutely must go to the top of your list. Absolutement!

“Life itself is the proper binge.”

“The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appétit. ”

“Remember, 'No one's more important than people'! In other words, friendship is the most important thing--not career or housework, or one's fatigue--and it needs to be tended and nurtured.”

“Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake.”

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?”

“Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you'll have a marvelous time!”

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.”

“I think every woman should have a blowtorch.”

"Being tall is an advantage, especially in business. People will always remember you. And if you're in a crowd, you'll always have some clean air to breathe."

“If you're afraid of butter, use cream.”

Sometimes you read something that just stays with you...

"It wasn't until Paris that something shifted. Paris was the beginning. Paris was everything."

—Gilad from Alexander Maksik's incredible book You Deserve Nothing

One week and counting

"What is it with this city? I need to write a letter to the Chamber of Commerce."
—Gil in Midnight in Paris

I love Woody Allen's sense of humor. And I love that I'm going to be back in Paris in exactly one week. Last year, my April visit was sublime. Sunny, warm, filled with great food and friends. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the same this year.

Book activities on the horizon

I'm off later today to eat sweets and do a book signing at the PLA conference in Philadelphia, followed by my first reading at White Bliss Boutique in Manasquan, New Jersey, which is in conjunction with BookTowne bookstore (Yay! Let's hear it for libraries and indie bookstores!).

It's been awhile since I've done a reading. In fact, it's been nearly five years since I read my essay from Single State of the Union. So, in the spirit of practicing and loosening my jangling nerves, here's an excerpt from the book:

Can one question change your life? I’m willing to bet a 25-piece box of Jean-Paul Hévin bonbons on it.

In the fall of 2008, I was sitting in my office, living what I considered to be a pretty great life. I was single, owned a cute apartment in the East Village, and I was braving New York’s dating scene. I had the best friends in the world and a jam-packed social calendar. I enjoyed my job as an advertising copywriter. But what I really loved were my moonlighting dalliances: exploring bakeries, dessert bars, gelaterias and chocolate boutiques and documenting my delicious discoveries on my “Sweet Freak” blog and column for Metro newspaper and other local magazines and newspapers. You could say my life was good: easy, fun, comfortable.

I was enjoying my afternoon bonbon (a piece of 78% dark chocolate hand-delivered by my boss who had brought it back from a business trip to Germany. It had these lovely little bits of cocoa that added a nice semi-crunchy texture to the sharp flavor). I was definitely coasting. My creative directors at Ogilvy & Mather, the agency where I worked, always made sure I wasn’t overworked. Which was a good thing since my best friend, AJ, and I were often in the habit of lingering over kir royales at Keith McNally’s fabulous Meatpacking District bistro, Pastis, until 2 a.m. On that particular autumn day, I was wondering if Rafaa, the Romanian gazillionaire I had met the night before, was going to call when Allyson, the agency’s in-house recruiter, walked into my office.

“What do you think about Paris?” she asked, pausing in the doorway to adjust her Ugg boot. I was surprised to see her. I had been with Ogilvy for two years, so there was rarely a reason for her to come into my office. I put the chocolate aside—already looking forward to getting back to its thin, almost-bitter bite later—and gave her my full attention.

“Why, are you going over for vacation?” I asked, her visit suddenly making sense. A few months prior, I had spent a week in Paris, touring the best chocolatiers on the city’s Velibs—three-speed bicycles stationed all over the city that, for just a Euro a day, were for the taking and leaving. It was genius because it not only allowed me to hit up multiple chocolatiers each day, but it kept my annihilation of the bonbons from going straight to my ass. After my return, three colleagues were planning trips to Paris and had asked me for my must-eat-sweets itinerary. I thought Allyson might be a sweet freak, too.

“No,” she said, brushing her bangs out of her eyes, still all nonchalant as she took a seat in front of me. “Well, actually, they’re looking for an English-speaking writer in the Paris office.” Pause. Our eyes locked. “I thought of you.” We both started to smile. “On the Louis Vuitton account,” she finished dramatically.

I spun myself around in my Aeron chair and laughed. “What? They’re looking for an English-speaking writer in Paris? To work on Louis Vuitton? And you’re asking me?” That elicited three nods from Allyson, and suddenly my life was changing.

Next stop: Books, Inc. on Van Ness in San Francisco. I'll be doing another reading there on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 7pm. Spread the word!

From Paris with love

"I just bought your book at WH Smith on rue de Rivoli in front of the Tuilderies Gardens!! Have bought many a book here so it's a really magical and exciting moment to buy yours. Big kiss xoxo Mel"

If you've had a chance to read Paris, My Sweet, you know how much Mel means to me. She is light, she is love, she is inspiration. Receiving her text and photo the other day put me over the moon.

The brute had some softness

"There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris."
–Ernest Hemingway

Simon Doonan, the new David Sedaris

"The macaron craze is the ne plus ultra of gay fooderie. I can't believe any red-blooded straight guy can even walk into a macaron shop. If you wanted to ruin a politician's career, just publish a picture of him shopping for macarons."
-Simon Doonan

My Vegan Mondays

Frugality in cooking has a long and powerful history and a pathetic present. With the exuberant abundance of the post-war half-century, many Americans forgot the lessons brought over from the old countries, honed during the rapid but harsh development of the 19th century, the lean years of the Depression, the rationing of the 1940s. Old-timers made soup from scraps, saw potatoes as a main course and considered three squares the pinnacle of good living.

Can you imagine? Now fast-food joints litter the eight-lane thoroughfares that rip through most cities and suburbs. If you want a pizza, you reach into the freezer or make a phone call; you get hungry, you pop something in the microwave, pull into the drive-thru, wait on a line. We have become accustomed not to real food but to “convenience,” one of the filthiest of modern catchwords, and to the ill health and waste associated with it. (Some estimate that 50 percent of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted, and that doesn’t include the junk that isn’t worth producing in the first place.)

I have re-read this post from Mark Bittman, not just because it espouses so many food ideals that I believe in, but because of many conversations I’ve had recently.

Food is political. It's worth getting worked up over. It's worth making conscious decisions about. I believe this more and more, especially reading after reading more of the excellent reportage and opinions of Bittman. In another article, he wrote:

Cooking changes lives in ways that eating never approaches. Cooking makes you care about nourishment, family meals, nutrition, pleasure, relaxation, skills, control, health, the environment, culture and the earth. And it leads your kids to care about these things too.

Why not make your Mondays vegan, too??

Morning
Green tea
Cereal with almond milk

Afternoon
Salad combo: roasted broccoli and leeks and chickpeas
Apple
Banana

Evening*
Veggies and hummus
Granola bar
Red wine

* Admittedly, a lame dinner. But the french fries and brussels sprouts AJ and I had last night at Joseph Leonard were vegan... that counts, right??

He was one of the rare ones

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
—Steve Jobs

It was such a punch to the gut to hear the news about Steve Jobs. It seems everyone, everywhere felt the same way. So it was no surprise to see the TV crews and crowds set up outside the 14th Street Apple store this morning.


Nor to see the written notes and tributes that accumulated on the window throughout the day—sort of sweet that they were such low-tech sticky notes.

Women who think

"France is a country that thinks. There is hardly an ideology that we haven't turned into a theory. In our libraries we have enough to talk about for centuries to come. That is why I would like to say: Enough thinking already!"
—Christine Lagarde (if you ask me, she's one smart cookie)

“What you focus on expands”

Someone shared this thought with me recently. Her words were in relation to diet and taking care of yourself physically, but they apply to every facet of life; the emotional and intellectual maybe even more so than the physical.

Since I’ve been home in New York, it’s been one giant, not-always-comfortable transition. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want from my life and what I can do, with my own faculties, to achieve certain things. I’m definitely in a massive transition phase, which, unfortunately, has had me focusing more on the negative than the positive. It happens. My Germanic tendencies rear their ugly heads and send me spinning into dour territory. I need to shake free of the negativity and embrace the possibility—allllll the possibilities!

And so I keep coming back to the words this woman, who’s much younger than me. They’re incredibly wise, insightful and precocious. Here was her full message: “Make sure you're giving yourself plenty of credit for the things you ARE doing. We all tend to focus on what we aren't doing or feel we are doing wrong or don't do enough, but the universal principle is that ‘what you focus on expands’. The more you do those great works, and the more you acknowledge yourself for them, the more those things will show up in your life.”

French word of the day: le plaisir

"Le plaisir… is something so much more definite and more evocative than what we mean when we speak of pleasure… To the French it is part of the general fearless and joyful contact with life."
—Edith Wharton

Page 22 of Elaine Sciolino’s book La Seduction, and I am already hooked. I am reminded why I love the French. Why I and gazillions of people like me go to Paris once and are hooked for life. It’s that je ne sais quoi that oozes from every Parisian’s gesture and glance. It permeates the air, making the whole city a moving, breathing, seductive creature. Elegance, sensuality, pleasure, beauty—things that are certainly missing in New York City. Things that are reminding me to get back to Paris, tout de suite. In the meantime, I’ll have to keep studying everything inside the book whose subtitle is “How the French Play the Game of Life”.