cough sniffle cough sneeze

I’m currently lying in my sickbed for the 2nd day in a row. Two days of coughing and sneezing and runny nose-ing. It’s not the end of the world, I’m not even close to knocking on death’s door. But it’s damn uncomfortable. And, most importantly, I’m missing SCHOOL. I’m not paying [insert large sum of money here] for culinary school to lie in bed!

Like yesterday, I got all ready for school, made it on the subway, and got about halfway there before realizing this was not. a. good. decision. I felt miserable just sitting there. No way was I going to survive 4 hours of cooking. So, for the second day in a row, I admitted defeat and just took the subway home. (Yes, I’m using paper towels in lieu of Kleenex. I don’t have any Kleenex and I’ve got a nose of steel.)

My lovely shelf, in all of its sickbed glory. Clearly I have this idea that drinking Kombucha and eating soup and oranges will cure me (so far, it hasn’t worked).

Though I may be sick, this does not prevent me from being bored! After watching 4 movies yesterday, I figured I might as well be productive today. So! I will showcase some photos I took at school (waaah…I wish I were there RIGHT NOW) eons ago. Better late than never, right?

And so, without further ado, I present sea vegetable day:

Mise en place for our Wakame Cucumber Salad with Blood Orange. Some definitions: mise en place = all the ingredients for a recipe, cut, prepped, measured out, etc so they are ready to go. Wakame = a type of sea vegetable. You might know it from it’s common appearance in miso soup.

Chef Melanie prepping the cucumber for the salad and making it look lovely by making a pattern with the peel. Try! It’s a very simple technique and makes any plain old cucumber slice look more elegant.

Ta-DA! Pretty darn beautiful for a seaweed salad, no?

Next up, my favorite dish of the day (and in the running for top 5 favorite dishes of school so far): Hiziki Caviar

The hiziki…also known as hijiki…was rehydrated (all sea vegetables you buy in the US are dried), then cooked, then minced. It’s color and size makes it look similar to caviar. We then made a tofu sour cream (completely vegan, and really delicious) to top it. This was FANTASTIC.

My group also made a sea vegetable salad with roasted carrot vinaigrette.

Carrots, before roasting.

20 minutes later…wrinkly carrots!

Chef, helping us plate the salad so it looks gorgeous. (And dammit, that reminds me I missed the class on plating yesterday. Whine)

All done! Finished with a drizzle of the roasted carrot vinaigrette and black sesame seeds.

Our final task of the day was sushi!

We each rolled our own. Choices for fillings included carrots, mushrooms, cucumber, scallions, marinated tofu, avocado.

First, you put down a sheet of nori that has been lightly toasted. Then, you add a layer of rice (we used short grain brown) at the bottom of the nori.

You line the fillings in the middle of the rice. Not too many or it won’t roll up properly!

And then you roll! I’d consult the all-knowing google if you want precise instructions on how to roll sushi. It’s not quite as straightforward as it would seem.

Almost done…

So professional! How’s that for some pretty vegan sushi?

And at the end of the day, we celebrated!

It was chef Melanie’s birthday, so we surprised her with a little candle in one of the desserts we made that day. And yes, it involves sea vegetables! But don’t be scared… the Coffee Custard was made with agar flakes, which are a typical thickener, even in “mainstream” food. It did NOT taste like sea water at all, I promise.

A close-up of the dessert. This was vegan, made with soy milk, so it wasn’t quite as creamy as a custard made with dairy. But it was still pretty great.

And this ends the pictorial tour of sea vegetable day. Now, please excuse me while I go blow my nose for the hundredth time today.

DUMBO, brooklyn

I’m going to excuse myself from being absent for…ahem…a few weeks and blame it on culinary school. Because let me tell you, it is no easy feat going from sitting in a lovely back-supporting chair for 8 hours a day to standing on your feet for 6. And add moving to a new city to that, as well. New York City, which is quite a city. It definitely doesn’t give you any time to catch your breath, that’s for sure.

But as busy and no-nonsense and rough around the edges the city is, it can also be very beautiful and surprising. For example, after three weeks of concrete and steel as far as the eye could see, I went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park. And wow. It’s great. (Ok, I concede I’ve also been to Central Park in the past three weeks, but this one is just so much less…known. And I loved it for that). It offers you views of the city you probably haven’t seen before. I mean, really, just look at the view of the Statue of Liberty. Have you ever seen her from that angle? I know I hadn’t. It was a refreshing look on something that is so ordinary to me now.

And what about this? That’s the Brooklyn Bridge itself. I’ve only really seen it in a panorama view, never up so close. And it was magnificent. Now I just have to walk across it, and I’ll be set.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park is located in DUMBO, Brooklyn (rumored to stand for “Down under the Brooklyn Bridge.” The “o” was supposedly added for aesthetic reasons). The park was great and full of life. There were birthday party goers and sunbathers and tourists alike. And where else in New York City can you see scenes like this:

Very few places, I’d imagine. The Brooklyn Bridge Park is scenic, but dynamic. And it offers views of the city very different than what you’ll get on postcards. And that’s precisely why I’ll be back.

call me crazy

But I’m convinced the food in France is better. And I’m not talking about cooking style or technique (that’s debatable). I’m talking about ingredients. The wholeness of the food. The freshness.

To illustrate my point, let me give you a little anecdote. My boyfriend’s parents were grocery shopping in the little market in town. The shop was out of eggs, and when they asked the shopkeeper, she said she wouldn’t have any until next Tuesday. Consequently, someone else that lived in town heard their request and piped in: “Well, my chickens just laid eggs, I’ll bring some over!” And, without fail, a few hours later she rang the bell and presented us with half a dozen eggs. Gloriously fresh eggs. With feathers and dirt still on them (the very eggs that made an appearance in my previous post). They were real eggs. Imperfect and dirty, yes. But when you cracked them open, the yolk was brilliantly yellow. Orange, really. And when I slipped them into the pan to fry, the yolks didn’t break as easily as they do here.

I know, I know. This could attributed to the fact that we were in a terribly tiny town, rural town. But I think this example really describes the attitude the French have about food their food. Every morning, they go to the bakery for fresh bread. It doesn’t have preservatives and chemical additives, so it will go stale after a day. But that’s ok, because they’ll go get more the next day. The same with vegetables. From what I observed, grocery shopping isn’t a weekly (or bi-weekly) task there. It’s something you do every day, or every other day. You pick up what looks good and fresh in the morning, and make something out of it for dinner that night.

I so wish we did that here. Yes, you can go to a farmer’s market and pick up food. But that isn’t the norm. It takes forethought (and frankly, quite a bit of money) to buy your weekly groceries at the farmer’s market. Which is a damn shame. I wish that more Americans knew about farmer’s markets and at least bought some of their groceries from them. I wish that I didn’t have to walk up and down the length of a farmer’s market and swoon at most of the produce, restricted by my meager budget from buying everything I want. Hell, I wish that most Americans had the money to buy fresh produce, period. Be it from a huge grocery chain or farmer down the road. But, unfortunately, this is not the case. So instead, I’ll be envious of France and their way of life. And hopefully I’ll be back to visit soon.

things i’ll miss

the things i’ll miss about France:

eggs so fresh they’ve still got dirt and feathers on them

french yogurt. served in dainty little glasses. i love the sound of your spoon hitting the glass as you eat it. so perfect.

this is caillé. it’s unlike any yogurt i’ve had before. it’s creamy and sort of slimy — but in a good way, i promise. reminds me of the inside of creme brulee, minus that wonderful crunchy exterior.

and those tiny spoons. can’t get enough of them. though they are definitely something i could find in the u.s. i just might have to get some upon my return