A hiatus from food.

HAHAH Due to popular demand I will refrain from talking about the f-word. ("Food", don't be dirty!)

Alors, aujourd'hui je suis allée au marché de St. Michel!! J'ai acheté beaucoup de cadeaux. =] C'est pour ça que je peux pas mettre des photos de mes achats, mais j'ai pris quelques photos du marché. Il y a du tissu, vêtements, sacs, chaussures, et de la végétation! C'est génial!

Comme la plupart de vous ne saviez pas, je suis un cours d'art ici à Bordeaux. Je suis, je pense, la seule étudiante qui ne spécialise pas en art. C'est dur, mais si si si amusant! haha J'ai fait des amis avec des types "artsy", et ils sont tous très sympa, particulièrement parce qu'ils savent que je suis une étrangère. En fait, une fille, Morgane m'a aidée en achetant et en trouvant tous les matériaux dont j'avais besoin. Elle est SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII gentille!!! Alors, je vous présente quelques "oeuvres". C'est franchement crotte-y, mais, ben... =P

Hier Morgane et moi avons eu une fête en faisant de l'art! Whoo! Elle a un apt... g é n i a l. (Comme tous lesquels français) Alors! Elle m'a permise d'utiliser ses outils... Morgane, merci!! Après avoir bu du thé de l'Egypt (mmm) nous avons commencé! J'ai fait un tableau qui est supposé d'imiter le style de Basquiat avec le thème du petit déjeuner. Alors, je comprends rien du tout de l'art moderne, alors, pardonnez-moi. LOL

D'accord, amusez-vous bien à ma galérie. ;)


**
Okay, so today I went to the market at St. Michel! I bought a lot of presents! =] Yea, so I can't put up pictures of what I bought, but I took some pics of the market. There were textiles, clothes, bags, shoes, and fresh foods! It was great!







Like most of you don't know, I'm taking an art class here in Bx. I am, I think, the only student who is not an Art major. It's hard, but so fun! I made friends with "artsy" peoples, and they are all so nice, especialy because they know I am from abroad. In fact, one girl Morgane helped me buy and find all the stuff I needed for the class. She is SOOOOO nice!!! So, I will show you some of my "works". It's seriously poopy, but yea...

Yesterday, Morgane and I had a little "art party"! Whoo! She has a kickycool apt! (Like all French apts) So, she let me use her tools (paints, paper, etc), Morgane, thank you!!! After having some Egyptian tea (mmm) we started! I did a painting that is supposed to imitate the style of Basquiat with the theme of breakfast. I understand nothing of modern art, so excuse me!!


Tea time!!


Morgane, the cutie!



She works hard!!


Okay, have fun at my gallery!! ;)


Okay, so here is the breakfast pencil drawing (I got a so-so grade for this), and in the beginning I totally messed up on the Basquiat imitation. Prof. Garcia told us it was "technique libre" (free style) so long as it was modern. Well, he lied! It was supposed to imitate the artist.


Here's my mess-up. Bof.


here is my Basquiat. eh heh...

Okay! It's REALLLLY gorgeous today, so off I go to the Jardin Public avec Katie! :) A +!

l'argot français [French slang]

les aléas de la vie : twists that life throws at you (usually positive)

une crevette : literal- shrimp, slang- 1) a wimpy/non-buff guy, 2) someone who has a nice body but a not so good looking face [comes from the fact that you rip off the heads of shrimp when you eat them, LOL]

un tombeur / une tombeuse : a lady-killer / a hot mamma


patati-et-patata : 'blah blah blah'; 'and so on, and so forth'

une peau de vache : literal- the skin of a cow, slang- a mean girl
*NB* it's equally mean to use it! :P


un loup dans le nez : literal- a wolf in the nose, slang- a booger
*NB* typically used by very young children

Le fromage de Savoie

Alors, juste sud de Genève, dans les Alpes, au côté français, se trouve Savoie. Une région qui produit du fromage… DELICIEUX. J’avais de la chance d'en goûter ce soir au diner. Mon favori c’est le Beaufort !! MIAM MIAM. Et il y avait aussi le Reblochon, et puis Tomme le Savoie. Tout est bien. C’était marrant, parce que Dominique a commandé Eric d’aller au frigo pour m’apporter le fromage. Ils savent que J’ADORE LE FROMAGE. Je pense que le fromage et le pain me manqueront le plus quand je reviens. (A part de mes amis, bien sur ! haha)

Okay, so just south of Geneva in the Alps, on the French side, is Savoy. A region that produces cheese... it's DELICIOUS! I was lucky enough to try some tonight at dinner. My favorite was the Beaufort!! YUMMY YUMMY. And there was also the Reblochon et also Tomme le Savoie. Everything was great. It was funny because Dominique made Eric go to to the fridge to bring me the cheese. They know that I LOVE CHEESE. I think that I'm going to miss cheese and bread the most when I go back. (Apart from my friends, of course! haha)

For my mom!

Hi all! This post is for you all of course, but especially for my mother!
Umma, you wanted me to post pics of the new shoes and bag I just bought! (They are for school, okay???)






And voila~! Okay! I am trying not to go on Internet too much because my French has gotten worse, and I will see all you lovely people in 2 months, anyways!

But before I go, I saw August Rush tonight and it was awesome!!! I was so surprised! And the music... PHENOMENAL! WOW!! So incredible it was credible!! (It was followed by French and English slang lessons with Pierrick, haha)


Tomorrow night... more Ethiopian food! And hopefully photos this time! =]

<3,
Michelle

I love Korean food!

Yes, like the title indicates I LOVE KOREAN FOOD!!! <3

My host family had never had Korean food so I happily agreed to introduce them! The only problem: I don't know how to cook it. -_-;;

With the help of Ian's google search, the Food Network website, and DaeGon I found a recipe for Korean Barbecue. Then I hit another stump, short rib meat needed for this dish does not exist in France! haha I even called a Korean restaurant in Paris to ask them how to say the name of the meat in French. I first started talking in Korean and the person says "I don't speak Korean" and so I switched to French. And then they say "Even though our restaurant is called Korean BBQ we don't really have any..." WHAT?! HAHAHAHA I started laughing at them. They should call it NOT Korean and NO BBQ restaurant.

Anyways! Eric (host dad) bought some super thick meat which I had to chop up into tiny pieces and dunked it in the marinade. I found a lot of good ingredients that are hard to find (like Asian pears and sesame oil) at a local Asian grocer's! Lucky! I also found sticky rice, dakkwang (pickled radish), kimchee (which was SUPER sweet, so not up to a Korean spicy standard-- but my host mom said it was spicy!), and kim (dried seasoned seaweed, yum!). It was great!! I had so much fun being in the kitchen again. Don't scoff, for those of you who have lived with me, I am not a master in the kitchen I know, but cooking is so nice! It was getting to be like dorm food where you just sit and wait for the food to come. So I let the meat marinate over night, and then last night it was time to cook!! Whooo!!!

I actually did a really dumb thing too! I was going to cook the rice first because I had never used their rice cooker (but super lucky they had one!) and I didn't know how long it would take, so I washed it and put it in the cooker. But I didn't want to leave the cooker on for too long since I was about to go to the gym, so I decided to let it sit. When I came back 1.5 hours later the rice absorbed all the water!! haha But this is how we learn, so I just laughed it off. Besides, the rice was SO GOOD.

So yes! They really really liked it! I was surprised! Tom (the 7 year old) actually ate the kim and Dominique (host mom) didn't believe it. And Dominique ate most of the dakkwang, she kept making fun of it earlier saying that it was a pineapple or a banana or something, and then she couldn't stop eating it. Haha. Eric LOVED the kimchee and the kim. (I showed them how to make kim-bahp! mmmm), and Dylan (13 year old) said the meat was "hyper bon" (HAHAH). And I was just content with the rice. MMM. So I bought 2 kg of rice (I WAS going to be cooking for 7 people who eat a LOT, myself included, I mean it's RICE), and Eric was like "Why 2 kg? 1 Kg serves 40 people at my restaurant". Oh yes, but Eric, this is not French rice, this is Asian rice! But just to not freak him out, I only cooked about 5 cups of rice... they all got mad at me for not cooking enough!! haha So I ended up cooking 1 kg (8-9 cups of rice) for the whole evening. Ya hoo!

So I guess I'm learning how to cook Korean food in France.

Oh and they had chopsticks, so that completed my happiness.


RICE!!!!!!!!! BAHP!!!!


Hello, Kim!


Cooking the meat... at the time I thought, "at least it smells good" haha


CHOPSTICKS!!! tee hee!


HAHAH =)

--

The night before (aka the night I marinated the meat) I went to my friend Jenny's birthday party, which was a dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. Never been to one... but... I will definitely go again! And I already looked up places in LA and SF for when I go back home. It was SO GOOD. You eat with your hands! So they set down a plate with a tortilla-like circle sheet (it was very soft yet sturdy! I was surprised at how well it kept together) with meat with spices and sauce (MMM) and salad. Then there was another plate of the tortilla sheets. You rip off pieces of those and you use those to pick up the meat and salad, and you wrap it up and pop it in your mouth for HEAVEN. It was sooo good!!!! And then for dessert, one of Jenny's friends bought her a cake, and it was like nothing I've ever tasted before!! It was chocolate, with cream and a crunchy rice cake (like KitKat) layer... oh man. Yea, this is why I joined the gym. ;P


Jenny et moi <3

(Sorry! I didn't take any pics of the food!)

More updates later! And maybe about stuff other than food. Maybe not. ;)

When in Rome, or Bordeaux...

I am SO out of touch with where I am! So, for you lovely folks in the States it was Daylight Savings! My computer automatically changed one hour ahead... but my host family has been running on the same schedule and no one here said anything about this major clock event! Hmm... I finally inspired myself to google it. Daylight savings for the European Union is the LAST Sunday in March!! HAHAHAH

And I clicked on one of those links that pop up when you sign into AIM because I was taking a quick break from studying (ALL DAY I'VE BEEN READING AHHH), and I found out Heath Ledger passed away last month! I can't believe it! :'(

So yes, those have been my recent revelations.

Back to studying! Haiii yah!

Miam miam.

Buon giorno!! Fresh from Italy, and... with my laptop! =D Let us rejoice and sing together!! La dee dee dahhhhhh!!

Let's see! Italy was great, but more than the monuments and ancient Roman ruins I loved Deda and her family!!!!! They are the nicest, sweetest, most knowledgeable about everything, best cooking bunch of lovely people I have EVER met. Thank you so much for everything, I can never thank you enough. =]

Mario e Rosaria. <3


Deda!


Mario e mi


Marioooo!!


Mario e Deda :)


Loving and cute, to boot! =D

I learned some Italian too!! Maybe that will be the next language I try to learn! =D Pancha mia fati capana! Mmmm!

I am going to do a major blog on Italy, but since I just took a midterm, let us save that for later.

Oui, it was my first test in Bordeaux! Go me! Too bad I FAILED it. It was a freewrite for an hour on the subject the professor chose, and she chose this prompt that was SO BROAD I wasn't satisfied with any of the vague responses I came up with. Sigh. It was the worst piece of writing I have ever authored. For shame!! Wahhh!!

Oh yes! Let me show you some wonders of France! Today for lunch I ate a kebab frites, translated as heaven with fries! haha Kebabs here aren't meat on sticks, they are sandwiches! The meat is put around a rod, and cooked by spinning on its axis, then the cook razors off slices of meat, and sticks in veggies, and FRIES and sauce... mm!! I have a favorite place called Oasis. It's a tiny stand I pass by on the way to the tram, and I like it because the guy realllly takes his time with sandwich so I know he puts all his love and tender care in it.



The fries made the kebab too big for my mouth, so I took some out to eat later... When that time came I put cheese on them... oh, not just any cheese (c'mon I'm in France), behold...




CAMEMBERT CHEESE FRIES!!! :D

(It was a biyatch trying to eat though! The nuts were falling into my sleeves and stuff! HAHA)

OH! Just in, one of my blogger fans has sent in a request. Yes, let's see, from Mr. Kono in LA: "I want more random stories. "

And so be it!! I never disappoint fans, or bored students in dinkie lectures!! WHOO!

So my first class of the day was my Greek/Latin roots class, where the prof is an actual grammarian. She collected some of our papers last week, so she was about to hand them out and she says: "Vous ecrivez vraiment comme des cochons" (You all really write like pigs)

HAHAHAH Great way to start the morning!! haha Usually she picks on me and reads my papers out loud, but today she smiled as she handed me my paper and said "Tres jolie" (Very nice) YAYYYY!!! (My paper was on heartbreak... yes, very jolie! haha)

I feel like posting pics. Facebook is where my BIG photo albums are, but here is where I will tell more detailed narratives and stuff! Yee haw!

Hmm... seeing as this post is very gastronomical, I think I will continue with it! Sorry if this makes you people salivate! (Note to self, don't read this blog on an empty stomach! Tee hee)

TODAY'S SPECIAL : ITALIAN CUISINE!!!

So after our first pilgrimage through the charming town of Fondi, Deda and I went to the patisserie (aka my heaven on earth) and then to Sidis... the super market!! (ALWAYS make it a point to go to super markets when you travel! Gives such a profound insight to local life!) Here I will share pictures of the ambush we did on a whole plate of desserts (that we vanquished)!

Here we unwrap the thing from its pretty package!



Why, hello!



Naked and free at last to be DEVOURED.

Let's see... starting from the top:
the bronze ball is 'Mont Blanc' with chestnut frosting on top and meringue and whipped cream inside (takes 12 hours to prepare!)
1st column aka furthest left (going down):
flaky bread with yellow cream inside and powdered sugar on top, cookie sandwich with buttery whipped cream, with chopped hazelnuts and powdered sugar on top
2nd column aka the middle (going down):
beignets (x2) with hazelnut cream inside and on top
beignet with dark chocolate inside and on top
3rd column aka furthest right (going down):
beignet with white cream filling, flaky pastry called 'Lobster' with chantilly cream inside (Deda's fave!)



Miam miam.


Eccolo!



And more pictures of more dessert (at a restaurant called La Magnatora-- literally meaning "place to eat" in dialect, Deda's family and I went to eat here my last night in Italy... DELICIOUS and UNFORGETTABLE. Ti amo!)

Rosaria got the Tiramisu. I don't even like Tiramisu and I wanted to eat some of it!



Deda ordered the Pana Cotta with berries! Mm....


I ordered what I thought was a fruit tart, but it was BETTER! Berries and Spanish bread!! It was moist and squishy and oh so wonderful...




And now for some pictures I took at another super market (not Sidis)! Enjoyyyy!!

Here are some veggies after all those sweets! haha

Look at the Zucchini's!! Like balloons!! So cute!!


Mmmm eggplants...


This was the Frozen Food section! Isn't that cute?! There was a woman who bagged whatever you asked for!


Do you see those smiley faces in the bottom of the picture? I tried to take a picture of them and the lady was like "NOOOO!" haha Well we bought them and ate them anyways! They are potatoes!!! :D

I'm not sure if you suckers, I mean, people in America know about it yet, but Ferrero Rocher now has the new box of Ferrero Garden!


t comes with the new flavors of strawberry, hazelnut,




pistachio, almond,


and coconut! (Coconut is the only one I haven't tried since I'm not a fan of coconut candies)



But yes, please try them! They are covered in white chocolate, drizzled in cream of the flavor you choose with filling! Miam miam!

Whew! Okay, time to run! This post was pretty lengthy!!

-Michelllleey

PS Since people always ask: today's weather was schizo: sunny, windy, rainy, hail, and now it's just plain freezing. =] Come visit!