So hungry I could eat a horse!

Cindy's father normally does most of the cooking in their household but he's been unwell so her mother has had to step up to the task. Cindy and I thought it'd me nice for us to contribute by cooking at least one meal so Cindy nominated Pachista, one of her favourites from my repertoire. Google comes up with nothing when I search for it so I guess it must be an Allan family recipe. It's just mince, capsicum, noodles, béchamel sauce and paprika in a casserole. (You dirty a lot of different vessels but if you know how to make white sauce it's not that hard.)

This time was slightly different. As we were buying the ingredients, Cindy said to me, "We always have it with beef mince. Why don't we make a French version this time and make it with horse!?" (Actually, it might not have even been phrased as a question. I was informed that it would be a horse pachista and the next thing I knew Cindy's mum was back from the market with a packet of horse mince.) Actually, horse is not difficult to cook, it looks and smells just like beef. The taste is not much different; less than the difference between beef and kangaroo. So I made the rest as I normally do, mixing the paprika into the white sauce and putting some Parmesan on top.

Cindy tucked in, hoping the horse would make it better than usual; I just pretended it was beef. But Cindy's parents reacted with trepidation. I don't know how I managed to scare French people who I constantly see eating all manner of liver derivatives. But after they realised that it was in fact a good combination they liked it.

Now I can say that not only have I had horse meat served to me, I've also served it to others.

My Amygdales are Killing Me!

When I need to guess a French translation of a technical word, I usually just say the English word with a French accent and change the ending a bit. That doesn't work with "tonsillitis", tonsille is only used by doctors.

They don't have anything like Betadine gargle or butter-menthols (these don't exist in America either, so I had no reason to expect them). Not every home has aspirin, for the same reason that you can't get iodine gargle, it's gone out of fashion. Apparently they're "not allowed" ready access to aspirin any more because of the side effects. I don't know whether this means a prescription or just behind the counter but it strikes me as weird having just come from America where they really do sell it in bottles like in the movies. At least paracetamol is called that here (unlike the US where it's "acetaminophen").

What they do have is pine sap lollies; yes, pine sap. Well, they do have a medicinal taste. They also have a strange lozenge that is made from Vichy water minerals. I dunno, that name just shocks me whenever I see it.

The Haul

Last night we stayed up until after midnight so we could open our Christmas presents ASAP, as Cindy's family always do. I had already picked out for myself a nice Bluetooth mouse and the first two seasons of my new favourite comedy.

But there were also a few surprises that had some cultural significance. Cindy's parents got me, among other things, a napkin ring with my name on it. The French still use cloth napkins more often than we do so they usually have their own named napkin rings and, for anyone who spends any time in the South, it'll be made of olive wood.

Cindy's brother lives in the east of France, not far from the headquarters of Lacoste. They came in laden with very chic crocodile-emblazoned boxes for everyone. I got a nice pair of socks and a cap (which I might need on our trip down to Morocco).

When we were in Belgium earlier this year we had a few meals with a couple of Cindy's cousins. Well apparently they remembered what we were drinking because I also received a boxed set of Belgian lambic beers. I don't normally like beer but this brand, Mort Subite was very good when I tried it in Belgium. As well as a fancy balloon glass, the set has two different cherry beers, a raspberry and a gueuze.

Noël vs Christmas

Some of the things the French do differently at Christmas:

This is the nativity inside Notre Dame cathedral. Look at that surprised look to see no baby in the manger. That's because the French don't put baby Jesus in there until midnight Christmas eve. But that just leaves us asking why Mary would be staring at an empty manger full of hay...

Similarly, the three wise men (always "three kings" in French) are not placed too close to the stable as they don't arrive until 6th January. That date is the Epiphany and the French mark it with a special pastry cake filled with almond paste. There's a trinket baked inside this Galette des Rois, some little ceramic figurine that some people collect. Whoever gets that prize gets to wear a cardboard crown (it's nicer than the paper crowns we get in our crackers).

And, in Cindy's family at least, they don't put the presents under the tree until Christmas eve. For them all the presents are supposed to be from Father Christmas, so there's no reason for them to be there any earlier nor do they put a "from" name on the tag. This is bad news for me because it means I don't get an opportunity to poke, prod, rattle and sniff my presents before the day!

It's not stockings here, it's clogs. Under Cindy's tree there's two pairs of clogs and four boots. The point is the same, that's where the presents were left, traditionally. They do have the occasional stocking, particularly in the touristy shops but Cindy insists that this is an exotic Anglo-Saxonism.

There are no Christmas cards. But there are end of year cards. So you get an extra week before they count as late.

Marché de Noël

This afternoon Cindy and I went into Paris to go to a Marché de Noël. I got to cross a few things off my list.

On the way we stopped to pick up a few things and while Cindy was queuing I saw that that department store that we were in sold Pierre Hermé macarons. I had heard all about this particular chef who puts inspired combinations of flavours into his macarons but was worried when I heard about the crowds at his shop. You've already guessed that they're expensive, so I only bought two: white truffle and hazelnut; and milk chocolate and passionfruit. They were very good but I'm not going out to spend €24 on a dozen.

Then we walked down the Champs Elysée, fighting our way through crazy crowds to get to the Christmas market. Every tree on the Champs Elysée from the Arc de Triomphe down to the Place de la Concorde was lit up with fairy lights and fluorescent tubes with moving lights inside. There was also a ferris wheel in the Place de la Concorde but we didn't go on it.

I was a little surprised that it wasn't just Christmassy stuff. Of course, some stalls specialised in Christmas decorations etc. One was selling just santons. While all these figurines are meant to go into your nativity, only about 10% of the ones on display were Christmas related. I still haven't worked out why you need a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker to fill out the scene; maybe it's because the three wise are arranged somewhere else, they don't arrive until 6th January. I looked for but could find a caganer, which is a shame because Mum's nativity really needs one.

But there was also all sorts of arts and crafts, and regular commercial products from French companies, like art deco bidets!

Of course there was the usual French street food like crêpes and waffles for sale as well as winter foods like mulled wine. While Cindy was pigging out on roasted chestnuts I tried a canelé, something else I'd heard about but never tried. It was pretty good too.

It's going to be a White Christmas

When we arrived in Paris it was snowing a little. Not enough to stop the plane from landing but enough to slow the cars on the highways. Cindy's parents were there before us so we left as soon as we got our bags but it took us about 3 hours to drive back to their place.

The Jet Set

Abstract:
Cindy and I were upgraded to Business Class between Washington and Paris. It was fantastic!

Long version:
Cindy and I have been doing a lot of travelling and were pleased when we earnt Premier status with United earlier this year. This doesn't change much but it means that you get to board the plane sooner and if there's space in Economy Plus, you get upgraded for free. I was a bit excited about this the first time we got it coming back from Australia. Then we realised that Economy Plus just means 2cm extra room. It's imperceptible sitting up but when everyone pushes their seats back that little bit does make a difference.

Then we found out about domestic upgrade credits. Because Cindy had flown enough miles after earning Premier status, she had a number of credits on her account with which she could request an upgrade on a domestic flight. We were kicking ourselves that we hadn't used this last time on the flight from LA to Indy but we figured that we'd try to use one for the Indiana to Washington leg of this flight. There was a bit of mucking around trying to get her to sponsor an upgrade for me (we paid separately so we were on separate itineraries) but it turned out that only she was on the waiting list.

We were even more disappointed when we reserved our seats for the long trans-Atlantic leg and couldn't get any in Economy Plus. I mentioned this when we checked in our bags and she had a look but said that it was full, leaving us at the very back of the plane. There were enough paying First Class passengers on the flight to Washington that Cindy didn't get off the waitlist. But that didn't matter because on a flight of one and a half hours they don't feed you so it makes no real difference.

When we got to Washington we had to rush a bit to find the gate. They were still using those bizarre shuttles to get between terminals. They started boarding just after we got there. We went up but when Cindy handed over her boarding pass there was a negative-sounding beep and a red light. But they didn't stop her, they just handed her a different boarding pass that had already been printed. The same thing happened to me. As we walked down the ramp checking to see if we were still seated together, we realised that they'd put us both in Business!!

The first thing you notice is the size of the chairs. As you can see from the pic, there's a leg-rest. We spent the first 15 min working out what all the buttons did. There was electric lumbar support and under that button another with a cycle symbol. That slowly hardens and softens the back, forcing you to change your position slightly and stopping you from getting bed sores. The only problem is that it's a bit too strong, I could only take it for a few minutes at a time. Every seat has its own screen but on a 777 there's only a 8 or 9 film channels to choose from.

We also got a pencil-case sized pouch with: an eye mask, socks, ear plugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, a pen, tissues and a moisturiser.

Yes, they do bring you a glass of champagne before take off and offer you a choice of newspapers (French and American). Then for the aperitif after take-off, alcohol is free, including things that can't even be bought in Economy, like Glenlivet single malt, which I ordered. Cindy had a Kahlua and milk; when she asked to keep the little bottle, the stewardess replied, 'This one's empty now. Here, have a full one.' The same thing happened later when she ordered a Baileys! Yes, all drinks come in real glass glasses. And instead of little sachets of peanuts, we got little ceramic bowls of warm mixed nuts. They tasted much better warm, or maybe everything just tastes better when you're sitting in Business!

For dinner, it was much better quality and there was more of it. They gave us a big printed menu and took our orders well before; then they laid out white linen tablecloths on every tray and gave us real metal cutlery wrapped in linen napkin. There was salad (Cindy got my cherry tomatoes and olives) and a smallgoods and raw vege entrée. For main I had braised beef and potatoes gratin while Cindy had a spinach lasagne. For dessert we both had tiramisu, which they served with port.

Here's a picture of the breakfast. A raspberry yoghurt came soon after.
Cindy said that it was the best day of our lives. But maybe when we go back to Economy we'll think that it was the worst day of our lives!

More Ice Cream Flavours

And I thought pumpkin scones were bad! Well, the name says pumpkin but the pic suggests that it's actually pumpkin pie flavour. Now that I'm getting used to pumpkin pies I find this a little less shocking. But, still, pumpkin in ice cream!?

Snow

Woke up this morning to see a thin layer of snow outside. We're expecting a high of +4˙C today.

American Ice-Cream

When I was preparing to come to America my friend Lisa, who had lived in New Jersey for a year, told me that one of the things that America does better than Australia is ice-cream. That's partly true; I certainly wasn't disappointed when I came here and discovered such ingredients as chunks of cookie (sic.) dough and mini peanut butter cups. The only flavour I miss is boysenberry (which is ironic, given that boysenberries were first cultivated at Knott's Berry Farm in California).

Then I saw this at the supermarket:

I'm not sure what to think. Americans seem to like crunch in their ice cream. They have a lot of nuts and occasionally chunks of cone mixed in (or even chocolate-coated ice cream cone fragments). But popcorn!?