Today

While eating lunch in my favorite park, a woman sat down next to me on the bench, and after a few moments of silence, she asked if I was American. "Oui," I replied. "Comment saviez-vous?" She pointed to the whole wheat oat bagel, vache-qui-rit and lox sandwich I was eating. Apparently she had spent some time in the states and recognized a bread shape she hadn't seen in many years. I informed her that a) you can totally get bagels in Paris (in addition to Ninasushi and La cérise sur le gateau in the 19th, yesterday I stumbled on an awesome-looking sandwich shop in the 6th called "Bagels and Brownies"); and b) you can easily make them yourself.

Then she told me her life story and the life stories of her kids, only stopping when she remembered she had originally sat down to smoke her one cigarette for the day. She asked, almost rhetorically, "Vous fumez pas, comme tous les américains?" I answered "oui," and she very kindly went off to smoke at another bench. I really do love that park.

Unrelated: Fast forward to tonight, when Maggie and I started getting ready for our trip tomorrow. We took out Panda's vaccination form to put it with her other stuff for the kennel and realized she's past due for a bordatella shot - which is the shot that's specifically for preventing disease while your pet is at the kennel. So tomorrow morning we're going to have to scramble to find a vet who will take walk-ins and hope we don't have to use the emergency service at the one place we know will be open. (Tomorrow is a state holiday. Emergency service is costly.) Luckily we haven't booked any train tickets, and since we're staying with couchsurfers we don't have any deposits down on hotels, so if we have to wait until Thursday to leave (when more places will likely be open) it's not the end of the world.

Oh, Panda.

Food Weekend

All food posts, all the time, at least through tomorrow - because there's so much to show and tell!

Earlier this week, we made whole wheat oat bagels, expanding our repertoire to something much healthier and every bit as delicious.

This may look like mac'n'cheese, but the cheddar-cheesy color actually comes from a sweet potato sauce we've made a few times since we arrived. It's basically sweet potato puréed with crème fraîche (sour cream) and spices. We did grate some gruyère on top, but more as a garnish. The whole thing went into the oven and was the perfect dish for the brisk days we've been having.

Salad's boring, except when there's apple and fresh French-style vinaigrette (Dijon mustard, balsamic and EVOO). Also French-style: we always eat our salad after the main course so that we have a light buffer between the plat and dessert.

Best Bagels Ever

Sunday afternoon, Maggie and I did something we never, ever expected to do during our year here:

We made bagels.

Once we stopped craving baguettes, we started craving bagels, and other than the odd, Orthodox-Jewish-owned-and-operated Sushi/Bagel restaurant just around the corner, we haven't seen bagels anywhere. So on a whim, Maggie bought this bagel recipe book, written in French by Marc Grossman, an American expat who owns Bob's Juice Bar in the 10th (just 20 minutes from our apartment!).

This book is INCREDIBLE. Our bagels are DELICIOUS. And as weird as it feels to be eating bagels in Paris, it's still a gesture of assimilation, since the recipe was in French! (cuillière à soupe = tablespoon!)

These bagels were remarkably easy to make, and next time we can throw on whatever toppings or mix-ins we want.  I'm not sure if we'll ever buy bagels again.