The Friday Five love food...

[magnetic_pole]

Sorry! Didn't mean to post and then disappear last week. Every time, I forget what a big push the beginning of the semester is. (You'd think I get the hang of this after so many years, but no.)

Catching up with last week's Friday Five, all about food:

1. What is your favourite food? Any fresh baked good: croissants, bread, cake, baos, cookies.
2. What is your favourite food preparation method? Stir fry! It's the only thing I do, really, other than eggs and some breakfast foods.
3. What is your favourite cuisine or style of cooking? This is really difficult question: the one I like most of the time? The one I want right now? The one I'm most excited to eat when I have the chance? Mexican, because it's what I grew up eating at local restaurants, and it's always appealing to me, no matter the mood or situation. Malaysian, because it's a successful blending of two of the world's great cuisines, Indian and Chinese, with some amazing Malay spices and dishes thrown in. Ethiopian for vegetarian dishes. Vietnamese for soup. American for syrupy breakfasts and chocolatey desserts. Cantonese for dim sum, one the world's great cultural contributions.
4. Do you have any dietary restrictions and if so what are they? Not really. I'm very lucky this way.
5. If you could introduce the whole world to one ingredient to improve their culinary experience, what would that be and why? Hm....not sure I'm in a position to suggest anything to anyone--all of my food knowledge is a subset of someone else's. A basic ingredient I couldn't do without? Onions. Sometimes when I follow a delicious smell out to the kitchen and ask the better half what she's making, she's only started to brown the onions.

Also: my 2018 fall pledge: Every week when I post, I'm going to mention something lovely about fall, which has always elicited an unnecessary sense of dread in me. (Winter is bad, yes, but it doesn't really start until January here--there's no reason why I shouldn't enjoy September to December.) This week: I can continue to wear sandals well into September! The warm weather lasts weeks into the school year, and my toes can be free and happy for a long while yet.

And last but perhaps most important of all: happy birthday, minervas_eule! For you: a gorgeous 19c library that my students always say "reminds them of Harry Potter." (Not a music performance space, unfortunately, but an important music library locally.)



Sorry I'm so slow on comments, everyone! I'll catch up with last week's over the next day or two. Hope your September is off to a good start.

Comments

[minervas_eule]

Wow, thank you for the Picture for my birthday: this is a spectacular hall!!! The glass ceiling and the beautiful railings.... and to be able to see so many books at once - more than one can read in a lifetime ;-).

September is often the most pleasant month around here (and in NC, too, if I remember correctly) - the nights are comfortably cool, daylight still lasts into the evenings and we often have lots of sunny days (I don't expect that this year as we had sun only for months now...).

[magnetic_pole]

One day if you ever come to the DC-Baltimore area, we can visit this library. It's genuinely lovely every time.

I hope you enjoyed a great day yesterday and have a wonderful year ahead of you!

I need to remember this about fall: September and October can be perfect-weather months. Just like you say--sunny days, not too hot, cool in the evenings. We're still up well over 30C here and super humid and uncomfortable, but it will cool down soon.

Hope your regular schedule is back in full swing! M.

[liseuse]

Bread really is the best. And I don't think I could narrow down my favourite cuisine. I just like food too much! I'm probably never going to bother to learn how to cook Vietnamese food, but I'll eat it at any opportunity. I love traditional French cooking, but couldn't live off it forever.

Oh, autumn! I love autumn. I'm currently in the trap where I see the calendar tick over to September and immediately expect autumn to arrive, and have to remind myself that whilst the nights might be drawing in and getting colder (which I love), I'm in for a few more weeks of warm weather.

[magnetic_pole]

Fresh bread is truly the best. *loves*

What's traditional French cooking like? French here tends to be very expensive and very fancy, and so I don't have a good sense of what ordinary people eat.

I know you love autumn! I think about you autumn-lovers a lot when I'm trying to appreciate the season. (Seriously. In a "What would Liseuse find lovely about this? There must be something." kind of way.) Meanwhile, I have just the opposite reaction: we still have three or four weeks left that are basically summer, and then October will be gorgeous with sun and temps in the low 20Cs. It's our best season, actually, I think. M.

[liseuse]

Well, it depends on where you are in France. So coastal regions have seafood, obviously. Where my dad is, it's mountainous so it's lots of cassoulets (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/mar/19/how-to-cook-perfect-cassoulet) and things done with wild boar and venison. I went to the chasse dinner there a few years ago and we had a beautiful jugged hare. As you get closer to the Alps it all turns very Swiss and and Austrian - so lots of potatoes and pasta with cheese. And there's a heavy Moroccan and Algerian influence in some of France, so couscous is a big thing. And lots of Vietnamese food. In fact, I think I first had Vietnamese food in France.
I love that the French unashamedly cook with vegetables from jars, and I eat as much jarred white asparagus as I can whilst I'm there because it is delicious, but I still think jarred carrots and mushrooms are an abomination.

I love the bright crisp days, when the sky is vivid blue and I can see my breath in the air, and the leaves are turning and crisp underfoot. It puts a spring in my step! And, because I love winter, it heralds winter's arrival, and the drawing in of the nights, and the chance to eat baked potatoes, and stews, and casseroles, and crumbles.

[magnetic_pole]

The crisp days with blue skies *are* beautiful. I was thinking about that today, because so many of the really warm days we've had this summer have been a bit overcast, making them seem a bit grey or beige. I'm looking forward to the deep blue of late October and early November.

Once we get to winter...well, you're going to need to encourage me a bit more, I think. :)

Love hearing about all the food you've had and the various regional differences. I don't know why French food seems so uninteresting in American restaurants. (To be fair, i don't go to especially high end restaurants, where it may be done better.)

I was asking the first-year students the other day what they thought of College City, and one student from China basically said (much more politely) that he was horrified by how little Americans cared about their food. :( M.

[liseuse]

Today it is grey and rainy here, and very chilly. I like it! I'll be less enthused by it sometime around the middle of February when we've had months and months of it.

I think part of the problem is that french restaurant food - all over the world, and in France - is all the same dishes and it's lots of cream based sauces and it just feels very dull. Like, yes, yes, yes, steak bearnaise, fab thanks. Oh look, it's a souffle, great.

But French cuisine has a huge range and it doesn't seem to get made in old-style fancy restaurants; though in the case of the large amount of Vietnamese and North African food, I suspect this has a large amount to do with France and its complicated colonial/post-colonial history (not that I can throw stones where that is concerned, I mean I'm from England so it's very pot meet kettle!). This is a fairly good list from Buzzfeed about 44 French dishes everyone (who is a carnivore and not lactose sensitive!) should eat: https://www.buzzfeed.com/marietelling/44-classic-french-meals-you-need-to-try-before-you-die. I am now massively craving tartiflette which is one of my favourite things to eat on this earth. And I might have to see if the fish stall has some sole, because I am also now craving Sole Meunière (http://www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/katie-lees-sole-meuniere-recipe/).

Oh no! Hopefully he'll be able to introduce his classmates to some interesting food! Not that he should feel obliged to, but if he's the sort who enjoys cooking for people it could be fun.

[magnetic_pole]

You're completely right about the bias of seeing French restaurant food in the US--I'm not getting a very good sense of the cuisine. I love the items on the buzzfeed article you linked to! And immigrants are a blessing to every cuisine they've ever encountered. New tastes are a wonderful thing.

Did you get yourself some sole?

And I do hope that student manages to find himself some good Chinese food. The college runs a shuttle out to the suburbs to an excellent Asian grocery store, so the students who live in their own apartments can definitely cook what they'd like. He's in the dorms his first year, though, so I hope he gets some invites from older classmates. M.

[liseuse]

French restaurant cuisine is so bizarre. It's basically the same as it was in the C19 and ... I have no idea why! France has way better food than that!

I did not get myself some sole, but I consoled myself with the fact that I am going to France in a couple of weeks and can eat some then!

Fingers crossed he manages to find something he enjoys eating! I always wince at the plates of carbs and more carbs that our Chinese students buy from the dining hall at work. I can only hope they're eating better food in the evening!

[magnetic_pole]

It's basically the same as it was in the C19 and ... I have no idea why! France has way better food than that!

There must be some interesting story here. I wonder if there's a good book on French food abroad? There was a great one on Chinese food in the US a few years ago.

Speaking of trips to France, I just ordered Graham Robb's The Discovery of France, which seemed like a fun non-fiction read. Do you know him? He's written so much about France.

My one point of hope on the Chinese student food crisis front is the fact that bigger universities that have had more Asian students for a longer time than my college seem to have developed a tiny Asian district nearby--a grocery store and a few restaurants. Has yours? My college would be so lucky if that were to happen! M.

[liseuse]

I might have to have a look to see if there is a book about French food abroad. It's an interesting mystery! I mean, I suspect it remained much the same because it became the standard for fine dining, and the upper-middle and upper classes across the Western world are much the same. There was a TV adaptation of War and Peace a couple of years ago and some of the reviews were complaining that the ball/home scenes looked exactly like you'd find in an Austen adaptation. Which, yes, they do, because drawing room culture across the Northern hemisphere in the 1800s was fairly standardised and everyone spoke French etc. etc. That just doesn't answer the question as to who is still voluntarily eating dull French restaurant food outside France!

I do not know him, I'll look him up!

There's not so much an Asian district in Home City, but because there are lots of Asian students (both at my uni and the Big Uni), there are lots of Asian supermarkets and shops. And our international team do a lot of work each year in updating the city guides that they give to students to include newer shops, and instructions on how to get to them.

[write_out]

That library is stunning!

I am with you on the baked goods love! I think we've talked about that before, but basically if it's some sort of bread- sweet or savory- I will inhale it happily. Just thinking about it makes me want to run to the store to get these blueberry scone-biscuity things that are made in the bakery there daily. WHY DIDN'T I GET THOSE WHEN I WAS THERE YESTERDAY?

Few things smell better than an onion browning in butter.

I love that stir fry primer you shared; it looks familiar to me but if I have it, who knows where I've put it. I'm saving this copy!

I hope this is a good fall for you and that focusing on the nice things you can find about the season makes it more tolerable for you.

[magnetic_pole]

The stir fry primer is completely fool proof (and I know this because I am a cooking fool) and delicious every time. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Oooh, blueberry scone-biscuity things sound very appetizing!

Isn't the library great? It's part of a larger university system here, but it's still accessible and has a fascinating history as a nineteenth century philanthropic institution and one of the earliest public libraries in the US. Part of the reason I start Modern Architecture earlier than usual (in the nineteenth century) is so I can take the students here.

Thank you for your warm fall vibes! I think fall's actually an enjoyable season I don't appreciate enough, so this may be easier than I thought. M.

[semielliptical]

The library looks almost unreal in that photo! Just amazing. The library I work in opened in 1998, and the main entry/atrium has most often been compared to a mid-range hotel. Not quite as inspiring.

[magnetic_pole]

I know, right? To be fair, it's a really, really lovely photo, but in person it's not much less impressive. The intricacy of the wrought iron, the height of the glass skylight and sheer size of the space, and the number of books visible impress me every time.

Ah, modern architecture. Functional, wonderfully air conditioned, and...less grand. :) M.

[secretsolitaire]

*drools over that library*

[magnetic_pole]

And it really *is* that impressive in person! M.

[therealsnape]

Wow, what a spectacular space. A cathedral of books, indeed. Beautiful.

[magnetic_pole]

It's truly spectacular, even in person, even on the third or fourth visit. One of those nineteenth century spaces intended to elevate common folks, and it still works.

My undergrad library really was designed to look like a cathedral. Folks who have actual experience of real cathedrals probably find this a bit odd, but I was delighted and awed, every time.

Welcome back! Hope you had a great trip! M.