Today, I went to school - cooking school, that is. This was a half day course put on by Paule Caillot of Promenades Gourmandes. The other participants were a couple from Chicago/North Carolina and three ladies from Seattle.
The day first consisted of a shopping trip to the wonderful shops on rue Montorgueil (Les Halles district), where we visited the patisserie (which was a historic site and very beautiful), boucherie, poissonerie et le boulangerie. A very thorough explanation of market shopping followed. I must say that I would recommend shopping here to the market on rue Mouffetard any day.
Then off to Paule's house - in the Marais - where we cooked a fabulous meal - which consisted of a cheese tasting and then a vegetable terrine with a sauce vierge, two pork tenderloin dishes, pureed potato/celeriac, followed by a fruit tart - with some very nice wine, of course. Very yummy!!! The "class" ended around 3 pm after which I hopped on my bike. The exercise was very much welcome to try to burn off some of those caloiries!!! Below is a picture of Paule with the class.
I have lots of tip for French food shopping, cooking, eating, etc. which I will impart upon my return to anyone who wishes ....
Another quick trip the Notre Dame to pick up a statue of my favourite gargoyle and then home to rest!!!
Kathy and I decided (much later) to have dinner at a restaurant recommended by my friend, Kelly - Au Chien Qui Fume at 33 rue du Pont-Neuf, a restaurant with charming dog pictures, figurines, etc. in it (think those picture of dogs playing poker). Dinner was good but Kathy did have some problems - she ordered the chicken fricasee but what appeared was a full plate of what looked like a lot of pork - together with a small casserole of a whole lot more of the same. Well, after eating about 2/3 of what was on her plate, I managed to ask the waiter to confirm her order (ie. was it in fact chicken? - as Kathy thought it just might be some kind of different French chicken dish). Well no, it was a mistake, upon which the whole thing was whisked away and a whole new plate and small casserole appeared - which chicken, voila! It appears that Kathy has now perfected the art of the "fly in the soup" routine by essentially getting 2 1/2 meals out of this. Anyway, it looks like we're having chicken leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.
Roddy has been asking for pictures of us together - having dinner or whatever - below is the best we could do tonight.
