On my Berlin blog, I used to have posts I called "crumbs," which were short, mostly unrelated thises and thats. The word for crumb in French is miette, I see, so that's what this is about. There may well be a better word, and if/when I find it, I'll use it. Meanwhile, onward.
The skies over Montpellier (see above) have been very odd this spring, with, as I understand it, lots more rain than usual, some of it pretty violent. Given the area's reliance on agriculture, particularly wine-grapes, I'm wondering how this, and the forecasted hotter-than-usual next couple of months, will affect the wine being produced this year. My guess, which is totally uninformed, is not so well. Informed speculation, however, welcome.
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It would appear that Americans aren't the only people who don't know a thing about this part of France, if this story from the London Times, which nobly attempts to bring Brits up to speed, is anything to go by. But still, I could improve on it without moving from my palatial apartment, let alone what I could do with a few hundred euros' expense money. It's a place to start, though, for those of you who wonder why anyone would want to live here. But just a start.
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One great mystery I've found while adjusting to cooking here -- as best as I can cook on this teensy-weensy stovetop -- is that there doesn't seem to be any chicken broth for sale in the store. None. In the U.S., you can now buy chicken broth without MSG just about everywhere, and given that a lot of professional chefs use it as an all-purpose band-aid for culinary goofs, not to mention as a base for some sauces, it's hard for me to believe that French home cooks routinely buy and boil chickens just to get this stuff. Especially since, at around €7.50 a kilo, chicken's almost as expensie as cocaine in this country. (Do I need poulet de fermier jaune to make kungpao chicken? No. Does it taste better made with it? Yes. Do I make it as often as I used to? At those prices? Are you nuts?)
I hope someone tells me I've just been looking in the wrong place for this stuff. Boiling half a bio bouillon cube whenever I need some broth is a pain and dirties up one more pan. It doesn't have to be AOC poulet de Bresse broth. Just water with chicken in it.
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One thing we do have here is street art, and I'll be documenting some more of it soon. Meanwhile, this gal, impressively sized, showed up one day and I realized I should shoot her before she peels off. This artist has a number of larger and smaller pieces around, including ones of people playing games, and other portraits. Montpellier's most famous street artist is the guy who took Space Invaders figures and rendered them in mosaic. What I didn't know until Miss Expatria provided a link (which I now can't find), was that he arranged these mosaic tags in such a way that the placement described a huge Space Invader over the map of the area where he laid them. He subsequently went on to do this in numerous other cities (I've seen them in Paris and Berlin, for instance). No doubt by now he's a professor of graffiti at some small French university, oppressing the students.
knorr, j'adore (soups and bullion too). it's what the africans call le bic rouge, because it corrects the mistakes. It's a red and yellow package and in any, or perhaps, almost all, supermarkets
ReplyDeleteMaggi and Knorr are what's wrong with contemporary European cooking: both use tons of MSG, and while I'm not going to start an argument, the fact is some people are very sensitive to it and I'm one of them. I'm looking for chicken broth without MSG.
ReplyDeleteI just make stock and freeze it. When I don't have it around, I use bouillon cubes because I am terribly sensitive to MSG. But I would have thought France to be more civilized than Germany... And Knorr and Maggi are absolutely vile. I bring my bouillon from Costco (herbox).
ReplyDeleteYou might find a passable canned stock in the kosher section if your local big box has one.
ReplyDeleteI've made decent stock using the bones and bits from chicken portions, rather than a whole bird.
Big kosher section at the Inno (I picked up some bagels with the forlorn hope they wouldn't suck, but they did), but no canned stock. Or boxed stock.
ReplyDeleteI generally buy boneless chicken breasts, so that method of making stock is out. And the whole point is not to have to do it.
This is very frustrating.
When you make stock the point is to not use breasts: it's ineffective as well as expensive. You buy the stuff that's cheap and boney. you should be able to get legs, wings, backs, pounds and pound for less than the cost of two breasts. Then some celery root, celery, carrots, onions, dill salt and pepper and afew hours of simmering and you have an awful lot of freezable stock. That depends on having a freezer of course. Since we bought one, I have stockpiled all the things I miss here and stock was the first thing (second was rhubarb compote and unsweetened homemade apple sauce).
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know, but the whole point of this is to buy something I can keep in the fridge and use, especially for Chinese cooking, by the half-cup or couple of tablespoons. I know how to make broth, but it's a pain in the ass (not to mention it's warming up around here). I'm perfectly happy to sacrifice a euro or two.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, there's no lack of rhubarb in Berlin's markets, and the Biomarkt will have your unsweetened apple sauce.
So true- I have been making rhubarb pies and compotes by the liter. But I also want it out of season. And I make my unsweetened applesauce because I don't like the commercial ones and I find it hard to get around me- though I picked a dozen up last time I saw them. Good luck- I also miss decent bio stock in a box. I have just given up on finding it. I would have thought you would find it easily in France, but that's because I can't imagine another Western European country having such a lack of decent food and basics as Berlin. You can freeze your stock by the icecube if you want only a little.
ReplyDeleteA better word for crumbs? How about "remarques en vrac"? Just kidding.
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