I need to learn French! Food... and more food...

Another "I don't know French" story... In the last few days, the air has felt a little drier than usual, and my skin had patches of yellow on it. At first, I told Quinn I thought I had jaundice, and then I wrote it off as some reaction my skin was having to the weather. Today, however, I looked down at my wrist and it was bright orange. That's when I knew it was the lotion we had bought. We looked at the bottle of lotion and used the online translator websites to see exactly what we were using, and it turned out to be self-tanning lotion! Oops!

I didn't have class until 3:30 today so I finally had a chance to sleep in and be a bum. For lunch, we headed to Samiin, a Korean restaurant in the 7th arrondissement, which was recommended by a friend of GCole's. We had the lunch formule, which was a 5 course meal of corn chowder, an intricate fusion salad, dumplings for the entree, bibimbap for the plat, and dessert. Quinn had the bulgogi. The presentation was nothing like I've ever seen in a Korean restaurant; you could definitely see the French influence on the first few courses. Everything was very well put together and not exactly what I would expect from a Korean restaurant (Korean restaurants remind me of late night food runs in college).

After lunch, we didn't make it more than 100 feet without getting more food (even after a 5-course lunch!). I couldn't help it! I was still hungry! We went across the street and picked up some pain au chocolat, which we enjoyed in a nearby park behind the Invalides.

Our demo class today was all about soups. We learned all about different soups, various thickening agents used for soups, seasonal ingredients, more about plating, and clarified butter.

Watercress soup


Cream of cauliflower


Crab bisque garnished with croutons, whipped cream, and a crab shell

Velvet swimming crabs... they were trying to escape!

Beef and chicken boullion simmering away on the stovetop

Nesle, Hazel, and I after demo class

One of the girls in my class is also taking Basic Patisserie and had some extra apple chaussons aux pommes (apple turnovers). I took one home for Quinn since apple pastries are his fav.

For dinner, we had the leftovers from my practical yesterday and followed that up with some cheese and wine from our neighborhood merchants. It looks like the neighborhood might be in danger of being overtaken because many of the stores are hanging large signs that say, "Commercants en colore, quartier en danger." It would be such a shame; the neighborhood is the only piece of what is left of the old Les Halles markets from the 12th century.

We watched Ratatouille later in the evening. I love that movie!