Les Repas

A little while after Tina and I got to her house, le père came home and we ate dinner. Oh boy, the fun begins. First off, I'd like to say that I've tried more new foods in the past three days than i have in probably six months. First was salad. Their salad is lettuce and tomatoes, with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. I like lettuce, not tomatoes, and I found out that it takes effort not to grimace at the taste of the vinaigrette. I did it. They eat a little different than I'm used to. For one, salad goes on the main plate, all of it, and only salad at first. I put it on one side of my plate because I thought I'd be putting more food on there. Nope! So I ate the salad, actually everything I put on my plate, but managed to not take seconds. So for dinner we had rice; they eat a lot of rice in Madagascar, with some orange and yellow strips of something with some kind of spice. Haha, sorry for the great description. I know it was Malagasy and you mix it with the rice. Adam in MG, if you read this, and idea what this is? We also had canard. I was a little hesitant at first, but it smelled really good. And it was delicious, chicken may have a rival in my stomach. Every time I finished, la mere offered more. I'm not used to eating a lot at once, but I managed a little more. They also clean their plates. This means eating everything (except the bones of the canard) and also using the food to wipe up the sauce on the plate. They also cut the meat from the bone, they don't eat with their hands much. So to all of you (mainly dad) who said, 'just pick it up and eat it', I was practicing French etiquette. After dinner is dessert. They have something every night. The first night I had raspberry yogurt, even though I was already full. This prompted me to explain that I'm lactose intolerant. I had also had to explain that I can't eat bananas and raw apples. I hope they don't think all Americans are like me. After dessert they eat fruit. Le mere explained once that in Madagascar they eat fruit after dinner, So that was my first meal in France, not bad. Oh and for those who haven't eaten grapes with seeds, stick to seedless.

At breakfast I made my first mistake. They offered me hot chocolate, I said yes. In America if someone puts milk and chocolate powder in front of you, most would assume that you put the milk in a glass, then the chocolate, then mix and heat. oops! I started to pour the milk in my glass (which are very small by the way), and they informed me I was supposed to use the bowl to my right. I've found that internal humor is very good for this sort of situation. So they put the milk and powder in the bowl, then in the microwave. They took it out, I stirred. Now I was asking myself: do I drink it from the bowl, or do I pour it in the glass? Eventually Tina noticed I wasn't drinking it, and they asked if I preferred a mug. The rest of breakfast was toast, they had butter, quetsche (quite good jam type thing), and rillets de canard. I still don't know what it is, but at that point I didn't feel like trying canard on my toast.

Lunch was more salad, more rice, more canard. I tried flan with caramel for dessert. Dinner was crepes (so good!) There was chocolate, brown sugar, honey, and a different jam thing which I think was apricot and was pretty good. I had two jam crepes and two chocolate crepes. Breakfast was more hot chocolate, toast and croissants (which I love). Lunch we had rice and thinly sliced, herb flavored meat, served cold, and salad bien sur. Plus dessert (more flan) and fruit. Dinner we had sardines. Yes, I ate them. Well, first salad, then the sardines with lettuce and pasta. It actually tastes like tuna. Definitely doesn't look like it, but it tastes like it. Dessert was creme de dessert, I had chocolate. It's essentially pudding, but a little thinner. They also don't lick the top, they scoop it off with a spoon. Breakfast was the same. Then for lunch we had salad, but this time it was lettuce and believe beets. I definitely prefer beets to the vinaigrette and tomatoes, but they kind of taste like dirt. Then a melange of pasta, rice, herb baked potatoes, and little pieces of canard (cold) and the thinly sliced meat. Followed by creme de dessert. Dinner was at Tina's studio apartment in Orleans, just the two us. It was a little frozen pizza (we ate with our hands since her parents weren't there).

That so far has been my food experiences. I managed to clean my plate every meal, and only refused the rillets de canard, and seconds or fruit when I was way too full. The first night they asked me if Americans don't eat that much. I had to explain that most eat more than more than I do, too much in fact, and that I do in fact eat quite a bit less than most people.