To Market, To Market

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jigety jig!

Some childhood rhymes stay stuck in your head forever don't they? Nevermind that it also happens to be the title of a Sex And The City Season 5 episode......a series which I still love long after it ended.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Being a writer, it would be downright unethical and a slight betrayal to my profession to agree with that statement. But today when I was at the market I thought, since I wrote so much about it, it'd be nice to give you some visuals :) So here goes! Je vous presente.......

The Cheese Man...aka Tom "Fromage" Cruise. (Yes, even JF agrees that he does look like a young Tom Cruise!) We bought a lovely ripe St Nectar and an 18-month-old fruity Comte from him today. Tasty! Oh yeah the cheese was good too. ;)




Mr & Mrs "Vrai Poulet"! The "REAL Chicken" man and his wife...See what I mean about the licking fingers thing? They all do it! Food people here like to lick there fingers when serving you. I guess it's testament to how mouth-wateringly good their wares are. Along the lines of "Never trust a skinny cook" I guess. So it's when they DON'T lick their fingers that you should be worried ;p




The jolly olive lady! Doesn't she look sunny in her straw hat? More free tastings again today!



Her olives ended up as our Saturday lunch today, together with a great bottle of Anjou and some teensy weensy little prawns called "Crevettes Gris" and "Crevettes Rose". (Again, 1st time I tried and seen these in my life) Each prawn is about the size of your thumbnail and you usually buy them already cooked. They're the perfect combination of sweet and salty, and these ones were bursting with roe. A squeeze of lemon, then pop one into your mouth and the flavour just explodes.



Beefy Italian Tomatoes...don't they look like mini-pumpkins?



And lovely French vine tomatoes from Provence



Have you ever seen shallots so big? Those long golden-brown things.



Spears of white asparagus thicker than your thumb.



Bunches of radish and spring onions with big white bulbs.



Huge heads of artichoke



Berry heaven! I was such a Strawberry Shortcake fan when I was a kid! I know U still are Dawn Wee!! :) Remember how all those little dolls smelled so good and lived in strawberry houses? I think that's when my love affair with strawberries began....years before I tasted a fresh one.



Little French strawberries. They grow all over the place in summer, so much so that people who grow them have to make pots and pots of confiture (jam) so they don't all go to waste :) Homemade strawberry jam over a thick warm slice of brioche...mmmmmmmm!



Gosh I never thought I could get so exicted over fruits and veggies! Hahaha...those carnivores among you must be retching by now. Saying that, I could never be a vegetarian either......a good roast chicken still gets my goose. Funny, but before I met JF, I was never a fan of meat, and would NEVER eat beef or lamb, seldom pork. Just chicken and seafood. But since we got together, I've learnt how to appreciate good meat once in a while. A big steak is still not my first choice at a restaurant, but I would enjoy some bavette (the French restaurant "Le Gourmand" in Manila just NAILED it for me and made me a fan of bavette for life) or duck magret.........choices I wouldn't have made a few years ago. (I would probably be boring and order the fish again and again, as my parents will tell you.)

Now I know why French children eat their veggies and have balanced diets....with produce as good-looking as these, wouldn't you eat up too? :)

Ma 'hood n all dat

Don't worry, I've haven't turned into Jenny from da block. (We both do have big behinds, just that hers is WAY larger ;p hehe) I just thought that after the long read in my last post, you'd enjoy some scenes from ma 'hood...ok, my quartier, to give ur peepers a break.

Place de Jacobins - just outside our building.



Our local carousel - I have yet to ride on it!



MACAROONS GALORE! I think I must have eaten at least one (ok, two) a day since I got to Lyon. There are just so many macaroon stores and hundreds of flavours! It can drive a girl mad! Wee Keong, this is for you! Remember Le Notre in Siam Paragon? Wait til you get here!





My local breadshop...the one I prefer to go to anyway! They have excellent loaves there...so warm and chewy.



There's another boulangerie much much closer to us, but I don't like going to that one. The lady there just grosses me out. She coughs, sneezes, wipes her nose, then uses her bare hands to pick up your bread for you.

(Acutally almost every person I've encountered in a food related business in France uses their bare hands, some even lick them. Ah c'est la methode Francais. That's just the way it is in France.....they're not overly big on food hygiene. Plastic gloves are a rare sight on food workers here!)

Anyway in this particular BAD bread shop, I've even seen her drop a customer's bread, let it roll on the floor then pick it up and sell it like nothing happened!


Gorgeous window display at the local milliner's. Makes me want to buy a hat! JF's grandmother was a milliner :)




A pretty little "bouchon"...tiny little bistros which Lyon is famous for. They are all over the city, but not all as pretty and quaint as this one. These bistros are called bouchons because way back, inns serving wine outside of mealtimes were indicated by a wisp of straw (“bouchon” in French, which also means "cork") hanging from their signs. This marked inns where mâchon, a snack composed of charcuterie (cold meats) accompanied by a good wine, was served outside of mealtimes.




A GREAT LYONNAISE IDEA....2000 free bikes to ride all over the city.



This is FABULOUS idea that I wish Singapore would implement immediately. In town, eg. like Orchard Road and Shenton Way, and in different HDB estates. Forget about COEs and ERP. Singaporean drivers will still keep paying the escalating prices to own a car. This bike system however, works over here. It's environment friendly and encourages people to be healthier and happier too!

To cut down on traffic congestion, pollution etc in the city, the folk in charge of running Lyon decided to place 2000 free bicycles around the city for anyone to use. There are stands placed all over the city where the bikes are stationed and electronically "locked". All you have to do is sign up for an account and enter your credit card or bank details at an ATM-like kiosk at any bike station. You get a permanent pincode which you can use to unlock a bike. You can then ride it anywhere and return it at ANY of the 200 stations around the city.

Your usage is timed from the second you unlock the bike. The first 2 hours of usage is FREE, after that, the subsequent hour is 1 EURO, and the next hour, 2 EUROS. If you do not return the bike by then, a 150 EURO charge will be deducted from your credit card. Pretty clever and very useful! Each bike even comes equipped with a bike lock so you can park it while doing your errands before you return it to a station.

How to Peel an Asparagus (and other facts of Life)

I must apologise my dear friends, for the tardiness of this post. Ok yes it's been awhile since my last entry.
But NOT cos I've been laaaaazy (Wee Keong has been badgering me to post!)

You see my dear Wee Keong, while you've been cavorting with a certain Princess of Siamese origin, I have been busy wrangling with phallic looking vegetables. (And NO your life is not complete yet!! How can U say that! You have yet to meet the trumpet-playing Big Kahuna himself!)

My mother never taught me how to peel an asparagus. And what a messy time I had figuring out how to...I nearly lost the tips of my fingers!

Living a 2 minute walk away from a fresh food open air market, I've been doing my grocery shopping village style.... buying only what I need to cook for the day, everyday. If you were here, you'd see why! Stalls bursting with the freshest veggies of all shapes and colours, some of which I've never seen apart from a photo. (Luscious heads of artichokes, baby carrots the width of your pinkie with the stems and leaves still attached, bunches of rosy radishes.) The beautiful thing about French markets is that the produce changes with the seasons. Supermarkets seem SO boring and banal now. Food looks better too in the morning sunlight and crisp outdoor air. So right now, all the Spring veggies, fruits and flowers are de rigeur. For the first time in my life, I touched and inhaled the gorgeous scent of REAL lillacs! It reminds me of the scent of hyacinths but not as overwhelming. Tiger-striped roses and lilacs...lovely.




So U see how I ended up buying a big bundle of white asparagus....it just LOOKED so good. So how DID I peel them in the end? Well, first I used my fingers. You see back home in Singapore, my experience of cooking asparagus was limited to the skinny little green things that look like french fries. U could just peel the fibrous outer skin with your fingers.

But alas it didn't work with the ones I bought here, which were about 6 times the size and bursting with juice. So then I tried a paring knife. Now anyone who knows me, knows that Dawn and sharp objects don't go well together. Amazingly, I have inherited my father's knack for being able to handle tools INCORRECTLY. They usually slip and injure us. Til this day, I still can't peel a mango the way my Mum does. (Now, SHE'S nifty with a knife...and you should see what see can do with a screwdriver!) I just slice the mango in half and scoop out the flesh with a teaspoon.

So since the paring knife didn't work, I whipped out my trusty $1 potato peeler bought from the neighbourhood HDB Auntie shop in Lorong Ah Soo that sells plastic pails and mops. I never leave home without one. And YES, it begins to work on the asparagus, but unfortunately, I didn't know that asparagus was SO SLIMY when being peeled. After at least 45 minutes, I FINALLY peeled them all! GREAT SUCCESS as Borat would say. Only thing is, I also lost about one third of each spear! Hehe. Better them than my digits.

I must say that once you master it, peeling asparagus IS one of life's essential skills. The end result is SO worth it.... thick juicy spears of white Spring asparagus accompanied by a creamy, light mousseline sauce (made by me of course!) YUMMY! Finger-lickin good! ;)

OTHER FACTS OF LIFE

I love going to the market here, every day is a new culinary adventure. I never know what I'm going to cook.....just browse and see what's on offer. I even have a few favourite stalls now! The chicken man and his wife are so friendly!! They claim that their chicken is "le vrais poulet" (the REAL chicken) and "c'est extra" (extra good). I've always heard that chicken from Bresse is among the best tasting in the world....and gosh it's true. It's DELICIOUS. So funny how the chicken man said that it tastes good cos the chickens are happy cos they get to run around (making the wing movement with his arms as his speaks!) Heheh reminds me of the time Dominic was quoted in the papers saying that the chickens at the organic store he was working at were "happy chickens so they taste better"!!!!

My cheese guy looks like Tom Cruise...when he was in Top Gun (Not the mad Cheshire-grinned looney that he is NOW). What can I say...I don't need a reason to love cheese, but he sure makes going to the cheese stall a tastier experience....literally! Cos he lets me sample the different kinds :)

The olive lady is a darling too....she wears this big white hat and a white apron and encourages me to sample everything for free. "C'est pour votre plasir" she says. "It's for your pleasure". Today she said I should speak in French and she speak in English so we can practice the languages :) I got some cibolettes from her today...tiny little violet coloured olives from Provence...first time I ever ate one too!

The market stallholders always have a word or two to tell you about their produce or how to handle it, or how to pair it with other food. Things I've learnt from the market:

- You can buy and cook an ENTIRE calf's head. The brains are a treat, apparently.



- Never put tomatoes or strawberries in the fridge...it kills the taste. That's why tomatoes bought from supermarkets have no smell. The ones here are actually fragrant when sliced!

- Never wash mushrooms...again it kills the flavour. (Technically this isn't new to me....My friend Maarten taught me this some years ago and I was astounded...cos mushrooms were always washed in my home. How to eat with all that dirt? Well, you're SUPPOSED to BRUSH them with a mushroom brush...something I have YET to find. So I use a toothbrush.) If you really think about it, you're about to eat a FUNGUS, so why let a few specks of mud bother U?

- Dandelion leaves can be eaten. In French they are called Pessenlit. Which literally means "piss in bed" cos they have a direutic effect. These made it into my salad bowl. Tastes a bit like rocket. I was so capitvated by how the light hit them I just had to take a pic. Dandelions are so whimsical.



- Perfect looking, symetrical fruit that U see in supermarkets (think big red waxy apples and monster strawberries) are far inferior in taste to the smaller ugly looking ones. It's true! At first glance, I wouldn't have bought the small, mis-shapen French strawberries, but encouraged by the stallholder (and he was right!) they taste SO SWEET.

- Some cheese can mature over half a century and still be edible. Now I don't know HOW this is possible, but the hard 50 year old cheese I tasted sure was tasty!

- Dried mushrooms can cost SGD$680 a kilo!!

JF's Visual DNA

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Lost in Translation

Continually trying to express myself in French is very trying. Especially when it's a rather delicate matter and I need medical help! Male readers, you might want to stop reading now.

Sometimes after a prolonged period of stress, I get a yeast infection. I got it for the first time in my life last year and I thought I was going to die!! It's an UNBEARABLE itch which I can imagine in the 17th century, probably made those petticoated lassies go mad and jump off a bridge.

But after talking about it to some female friends and my gynae, I discovered its actually extremely common in females, even young girls. Surprisingly, it clears up very quickly (within 2 days) of taking the medicine my gynae gave me....Difflucan. Not exactly sure what brings it on, my gynae said it could be stress, illness, reaction to other medication, high blood sugar level, pregnancy, or "heatiness" which is what some TCM practitioners believe. In women, it occurs frequently before or after a period, due to the change in hormones. It's also aggravated by wearing tight clothing made of non-breatheable material such as synthetic underwear, tight jeans, damp swimsuits etc. and sometimes, scented products such as perfumed soaps, shower gel etc.

Well, I have it again now.

For those of you who don't know what a yeast infection is, it's basically an imbalance of good and bad bacteria in your body which allows yeast to grow. (So you better listen to your mother and drink up your daily Yakult! Or eat yoghurt. It's full of good bacteria) Some people get it in their mouth, but most women get it down there. Yes down there! So you can imagine the difficulty I had trying to explain to a French pharmacist that I need medication for my problem.

(Ent. Scene)

Dawn walks into a French Pharmacy

French Pharmacienne: Bonjour madame.

Dawn: Bonjour. J'ai une probleme feminin. (Translation: I have a female problem(??!!!!! now how lame does that sound?)

French Pharmacienne: (who looks like she's about to laugh) Quelle probleme madame?

Dawn: Je besoin medicine pour ca (Translation: I need medicine for this) (points DOWN THERE and makes numerous hand gestures and facial expressions to indicate extreme itchiness and discomfort)

French Pharmacienne: ?????????? (looks puzzled and trying to stifle her laughter)

Dawn: (in pidgin French) Avant mon gynecologue donner moi le medecine Difflucan. Maintenent, j'ai le meme probleme. Alors, c'est possible pour prend ca? (Translation: My gynae gave me Difflucan before for my problem, can I get the same now?)

French Pharmacienne (giggling) blabbers on about how I need a prescription and I need to see docteur for that. She suggests that I try a numerous variety of "produit intime".

Dawn: Ah d'accord, merci.
(Scuttles out of pharmacy looking dead embarrased and still itching like crazy)

Anyways, to my utter embarassment, I told my mother-in-law about it and asked her to get a prescription for me from her docteur.

(Due to some stupid HR administrative incompetency, I am not yet covered under JF's insurance, so I can't see a doc here. Well I can, but it will cost an arm and a leg. Of course we didn't discover this until after we left Singapore, and it's too late for me to arrange for my own insurance coverage. I asked my agent and he said the policy has to be effected BEFORE I leave the country. And my existing medical insurance doesn't cover me overseas or visits to the doctor for that matter, just hospitalisation.)

On the up side of things, I finally found a supermarket near the apartment, a bread shop, a cobbler and a place that does alteration of clothes. I guess those are my "little victories" and I feel rather happy that I found them all by myself.

Although I did get a MAJOR SHOCK at the cost of alteration. I wanted to shorten the hem of my skirt by about 5 inches. The shop that I bought the skirt from said it did free alterations, but couldn't do it for me cos my skirt had 2 layers. So I walked about and found a tailor. GUESS WHAT? Just shortening the hem cost 20 EUROS! That's the cost of the skirt itself! That's SGD$40!!! The tailor near my house in Singapore charges $5 for the same job.

Sigh. No choice lah, have to do what.

Living in Lyon

JF found a really nice area for us to live in. It's in the Presquile quartier, right smack in the centre of old Lyon. (To me, there's something about the word "quartier" that makes any place sound so exotic and a bit mysterious, when all it means is "neighbourhood". Well it sure sounds more alluring than Hougang New Town!)

Our tiny apartment overs looks a quiet square and is in a chic neighbourhood, but it's also the size of my mum's bedroom in our home in Singapore. Yes, the WHOLE apartment including bedroom, bathroom, living room and mini-kitchenette could fit into my mother's bedroom.

This part of the city is very pretty with a lot of Haussman style architecture, fountains, narrow cobblestone streets...like Paris but more laid back. And because it's Spring, all the trees and flowers are starting to bloom, truly gorgeous with blue skies and the buildings brushed with golden sunlight.





Amidst all this beauty, I feel lost. Ok maybe I'm being a drama mama, cos it's been barely a week since I left home, but I feel a bit sad and anxious cos I know that this is how it's gonna be, what's coming.....starting a new life in a new place, and most of the time, by myself. (Naturally, JF is at work all day so I'm left to my own devices). We are going to move almost immediately after the 2nd wedding in June. Probably to Istanbul.

I miss my family, I miss my friends (mostly Wee Keong) I miss my dog. I miss knowing where everything is.

A new life is very exciting - the new sights, sounds, smells and food!! But is also a bit daunting. Cos every little thing is a challenge. Simple things like getting food and water, and getting people to understand you. (Yes, I can get the message across, but my French isn't exactly precise or elegant. I must sound like a Primary One kid. Like the other day, I told my mother-in-law that I put the SALTY towels in the washing machine! The word for dirty is "sale" (pronounced "sahl") and salty is "salé" (pronounced "sah-lay"). She must have been wondering how I got them salty in the first place!)

Yesterday I walked around for an hour looking for a boulangerie (bread shop) or supermarket to buy lunch but couldn't find any. So in the end I had a salad at a cafe..it was so awful.....a mysterious spongy, cold piece of meat pretending to be chicken and a bunch of leaves tossed in a mustardy sauce. Worst of all it cost 9 EUROS! I could have had 6 plates of chicken rice for that!

It's kinda funny that we are living in Presquile now. Lyon is situated at the confluence of 2 rivers - the Rhone and the Saone. And Presquile is on a little islet EXACTLY in between the 2 rivers, with the Rhone on the right and the Saone on the left. My life right now is also at a confluence, don't exactly know where it's headed but know that it's changing fast and is a bit unstable at the moment. JF and I discussed this and he says that for us to feel secure, we need to hang on to "rocks". Just like when we're diving. If there's a strong current underwater, you grab onto a rock and hang on to rest until you regain your strength to swim on.







I guess it all boils down to the feeling of not having a home. Just being in transit all the time. Funny, you would think that living in Scotland previously, this would be a breeze for me. But somehow it feels different this time. Maybe it's the language thing. Maybe cos I was younger and more eager last time. Ah the invincibility of youth! Wish I could've bottled it and sprinkle it when needed, cos I need it now.

Easter in Brive with ma Belle-Mere

We arrived in Brive just in time for a late dinner. My mother-in-law was sweet enough to buy me the smelliest cheese she could find. I LURVE SMELLY CHEESE! Yummy. How can Americans eat those tasteless plastic slices?? Worse, Velveeta!! That must be the worst manipulation of cheese I've ever come across. It's a crime! A toxic looking orange paste in a metal tube that pretends to be cream cheese.

The next morning I wake up to see a glorious sight...cherry trees in full bloom! WOW! It's great to have Spring, something we don't have back home. Cherry tree in my belle-mere's garden.





Spring flowers



After breakfast, we're off to the chocolate shop. Ah life is good! JF's mum's friend Paulette Vimbelle owns a choc shop and everytime we visit her, she gives us a a huge stash of fine chocolates. Mmmm..... le noir c'est le meilleur. I LURVE dark choc! So many shops in France have window displays to make you drool, whether they're selling chocs, clothes, flowers or cheese. Her shop was no exception.





And here's what I got for Easter - Choc bunny n duckling bigger than the size of my head!



AND a giant basket of choc bunnies, teddy bears, chicks, ducklings, eggs, dolphins and clowns.



Later, we visited the Grotto of St Anthony of Padua. He rested in this grotto near Brive in 1226 during his sojourn in Limousin. He had the gift of prophesy and miracles. His image is often shown carrying the Infant Jesus because it is believed that the Infant Jesus appeared to him.

JF's mum says she has often had her prayers answered through St Anthony's intercession. He is also Kong Kong's patron saint. So we prayed for Kong Kong, and also for JF's ear to get better. His left ear has been blocked since we went diving in the Maldives. We saw a ENT specialist in Singapore before we left for France but the doc couldn't do anything.

Candles for St Antoine



The Archangel Michael

Easter in France

When you look out of your hotel room window, what do you hope to see?

Betcha wouldn't count on seeing a CEMETARY!
Well, I did. And I thought it was fabulous! Where else but ah, Paris.

I arrived in Paris on a chilly Good Friday morning. Fresh off a sleepless 13-hour flight, JF picked me up at Roissy and dropped me off at the hotel before heading off to work. (Surprisingly it's not a public holiday in la France). BTW Economy in Air France sux big time, SQ Economy is ooodles better....what can I say, I'm a patriot that way.

Before he leaves, he tells me, "Don't draw the curtains, just go take a nap". So what do I do? The minute I get into the room I throw the window WIDE open and see this:



The Montmarte Cemetary. Resting place of Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola and Francois Truffaut. Lovely. To be welcomed in Paris by famous writers and filmmakers. How romantic! :)

THE PARISIAN EXODUS

Around 1.30pm, JF rushes back to the hotel, we throw everything into our bags and make a dash for the autoroute. The mad Parisian Exodus has begun!! We hope to beat the crowd, but alas, we're caught in the massive wave of Parisian cars leaving the city for the long Easter weekend. (Monday is a holiday). It took us TWO HOURS just to get out of Paris and onto the highway!

Apparently this happens whenever there is a long weekend or holiday. Parisians pack their bags and head for the country. Nevermind the 6 hour drive, road rage, traffic jams, blaring horns and middle finger salutes along the way. It's all worthwhile to get to LA CAMPAGNE. (The countryside.)

La campagne c'est France profond! Yes the French believe that the essence of France is in the countryside. Chic Parisian femmes ditch their Christian Louboutins for green wellies to tramp the countryside, inhaling the wonderful Parfum de Cowpat as they pick strawberries for tea.