Tag: French

Let gen AI and the Internet be your travel guide in this day and age

In the old days of travel (the 1980s), travellers would depend on printed guides from Fodor’s or Lonely Planet to be your travel guide. They were good, but very general.

Now with tools like ChatGPT and CoPilot, you can make your own highly specific guides just by asking them for it. For example, if you were travelling to Paris, you can ask it for walking tours of neighbourhoods like the Marais and prompt it to give you cafes to see or places to shop or museums to visit along your walk.  (Sure you can also Google that information, but by starting with gen AI, you can get it in a format you want.)

Likewise, you may think: what do I say to people once I get there? For that, I asked CoPilot:

Hello. You are a French to English translator. Please provide me with some common French phrases for that are useful for 1) when you arrive at the airport 2) when you come to your hotel 3) at a cafe 4) at a restaurant 5) at a museum 6) in a cab or uber

and it came back with such phrases as:

1. At the Airport

Bonjour, où est la sortie ? — Hello, where is the exit?
Où sont les taxis ? — Where are the taxis?
Où est la station de métro ? — Where is the subway station?
Je cherche la porte d’embarquement. — I’m looking for the boarding gate.
Où est la récupération des bagages ? — Where is baggage claim?
…
3. At a Café

Un café, s’il vous plaît. — A coffee, please.
Je voudrais un croissant. — I’d like a croissant.
Est-ce que je peux avoir l’addition ? — Can I have the bill?
C’est délicieux ! — It’s delicious!
Est-ce que vous avez du lait végétal ? — Do you have plant-based milk?

….

These were good, so I followed up with

Can you expand each list from 5 items to 10? Merci!

and it replied with this and more.

Parfait, Bernie ! Here’s an expanded list of 10 useful French phrases for each of the six travel situations, with their English translations:
…
4. At a Restaurant

Une table pour deux, s’il vous plaît. — A table for two, please.
La carte, s’il vous plaît. — The menu, please.
Je suis allergique à… — I’m allergic to…
Quel est le plat du jour ? — What is the dish of the day?
L’addition, s’il vous plaît. — The bill, please.
Je voudrais réserver une table. — I’d like to book a table.
Puis-je voir la carte des vins ? — May I see the wine list?
Est-ce que le service est compris ? — Is the tip included?
Je prends ce plat. — I’ll have this dish.
C’était excellent, merci ! — It was excellent, thank you!

Those are just two examples of how you can gen AI to help you with your travel plans. But really, the sky is the limit on what advice you can get from them.

N.B. Do I recommend you double check these guides outside of gen AI to make sure they are correct? Bien sûr! I found the answers we got back were good, but you’d be wise to use Google/Bing/Duck Duck Go  directly to confirm the advice you got.

Let’s get sauced! (Friday food links for food lovers, November 2023)

Sauces are the way to take a simple and maybe even boring dish and transform it into a great one. If you agree, here’s dozens of sauce recipes I’ve been collecting that can help with that. Grab a pan and let’s start in.

Pan sauces are a great way to sauce up your dish. Here’s something on the perfect pan sauce. If you want to make restaurant quality pan sauce, read this. Maybe you want to know how to make an easy pan sauce in minutes? That can help.

Do you eat a lot of chicken? Here’s 3 variations on pan sauce for weeknight chicken. Want something lighter? Here’s 3 Great (and Easy) Pan Sauces for Chicken from Cooking Light. Finally here’s one more pan sauce recipe for chicken to add to your repertoire.

if you’re cooking beef or pork, here’s how to make a basic red wine reduction sauce to go with it. Or make one of my favorite sauces: Supreme. I am a fan of veloute, too.

Bechamel is a useful sauce. Here’s how to make a perfect bechamel according to the chefs of Food & Wine. More on that. sauce here and  here and  here.

Here’s how to make a roux and use it right. Relatedly: this is a basic white sauce recipe.

More on the French mother sauces here and here: month and daughter sauces. Speaking of that, here’s how to make mayonnaise. Last, this is supposedly essential sauces for the home cook.

Not even meal needs a sauce from France. For instance, here’s some great sauce recipes for guacamole,  sofrito, aioli, pine nut free pesto, Peruvian-Style Green Sauce, more peruvian style green sauce, homemade ketchup, and fresh chili harissa.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include some tomato sauces. Here’s a good marinara sauce recipe. Though this one from the New York Times is my all time favorite.

This piece argues this heidi swanson 5 minute tomato sauce is genius. Who am I to argue?

Speaking of genius, check out this piece: Adding Oyster Sauce to My Spaghetti Was Probably the Best Thing I’ve Ever Done. The folks at Bon Appetit like to be dramatic. Speaking of dramatic, the Guardian argues that this sauce will change your life.

Let’s dial it back and take a look at these marinades from Food and Wine. Not sauces, but related.

Happy Cooking!

 

Starck + Perrier: two good things that go together well

Glad to see that Perrier has come out with a new and cool bottle done by my favorite designer, Philippe Starck. Vive la France!

Sadly this will not be in Canada. I need to find a way to get a bottle. Perrier, if you are listening… (Just kidding, this is 2023. Now if it was 2009…. :))

You can read more about it here at UnCrate and the Perrier site.

 

Let’s have some fish! And fun! And French! (Friday food links for food lovers, September 2023)

Here’s a collection of food links centered on fish, French (food) and fun. I have either made or eaten many of the dishes associated with these recipe links. All are highly recommended.

Cooked Fish: let’s start off with a fan favorite of many, salmon. To get started, we have recipes for salmon rillette and Ina’s salmon tartare. Love both of those. For those who love their spices, consider firecracker salmon, cajun salmon burgers or roasted salmon with zaatar. If you want something fancier, Saveur’s easy sheet pan salmon with dilly roasted potatoes could be what you want, or this sauted salmon in a beurre rouge sauce, perhaps. If you have to cook for a salmon hater, then read how to cook salmon for haters.

As for other seafood, one of my favorite is shrimp and one of my go to recipes is shrimp in a tomato sauce with feta and orzo. Here are four different versions of it — one, two, three and four — and they are all good.

Putting aside the feta for a sec, I love a causal bowl of peel and eat shrimp . But I’ve made this fancier Venetian shrimp with polenta and it’s fantastic (see photo above). I haven’t made this, Louisiana BBQ shrimp dish, but I want to. You fans of stir fries, try this stir fried shrimp and asparagus. And you can’t go wrong when you have shrimp with cocktail sauce.

Raw fish: I mentioned salmon tartare above. Tuna Tartare is also great. For crudo fans, I recommend this sea bass crudo recipe. This is flavorful: fish escovitch salsa. As is this poke sashimi ceviche raw fish. And you can always just get oysters…you don’t even need to shuck them: How to Open Oysters without Shucking.

Favorite fish: Besides the shrimp and feta above, two of my favorites fish recipes are Nigella’s Linguine With Mussels and Smitten Kitchen’s Manhattan style clams with fregola. Just the best.

More fish! If squid is in your sights, make Pan fried Calamari or Extra-Crunchy Calamari. If scallops are more your thing, try seared scallops with jammy cherry tomatoes.

Sole is simple and delicious, and so is this version: sole piccata. If your preference is for seafood that way, consider these Easy Sauces for Fish or these 10 quick sauces fish. Maybe read this Newfoundland Labrador cod memoir while you do.

French: let’s start off with a Southern French squid salad recipe from Saveur. If you crave something Fast and French, these fast French dishes might fill your table. Also fast are these French bistro recipes of which a croque monsieur is one of my favorites. Speaking of favorites, here are Food & Wine’s Favorite Recipes for Classic French Food. Read this with your steak frites or onion soup: How I rediscovered the joys of French cuisine.

Fun: Finally, here are some fun links on food….

 

 

In praise of bordeaux: red, white and bubbly

Perhaps you don’t drink (red) bordeaux (never mind white bordeaux). Maybe you are one of the people who nowadays prefer burgundy. Or new world reds. Or reds from elsewhere in Europe. I used to be like you. I liked big bold jammy reds. Reds with intense fruit and flavour. High alcohol reds.  Cab savs. Syrahs.

Over the last few years, though, I moved away from that and towards bordeaux wines. I like the high concentration of merlot in their reds. I enjoy “the chewier, drier style of red bordeaux (that) can go well with something more savoury such as roast beef” (as Jancis Robinson says here). I especially like that some of them come in under 13% ABV. More so, I love the value. You can obviously spend a fortune on great bordeaux, but you can find some very good ones around $20 per bottle.

I got thinking of writing about them when I read this piece by Malcolm Jolley. He talks about the region and its wine generally, then he focuses on this: Chateau Argadens. Not only is it a fine wine made by great winemakers, it’s also a bargain. Indeed, right now it is on sale for $16.95! Get a few bottles at that price. Mind you, it seems to come around every year in the Vintages section of the LCBO, so don’t panic about missing it. (Then again, if they are selling it off, who knows?)

Another one I liked in the past is this one: Jean Pierre Moueix bordeaux. It too is made by serious wine makers and it comes well rated. It has a lower alcohol content, and goes well with food like steak. (Want more? Try these: Clos Bel-Air 2016 or Chateau Hauchat 2018.)

There’s also some white bordeaux that’s good in the LCBO, like Cap Royal Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc 2021. I enjoyed that one. Again: good winemaker. Fans of fume blanc should check it out. (There’s also a lot of not so great white bordeaux in the general LCBO section, so buyer beware.) If you can get your hands on white bordeaux from the restaurant St. JOHN, do so. I had it there with a delicious meal of fish and pork and it paired up perfectly.

If you like bubbles, then there are several well regarded cremants from the region, including this one, which is a steal at under $15: Celene Bordeaux Améthyste Brut Crémant. Cremants will go with mostly anything, from oysters to dessert. Also fine all by themselves.

There’s so much good wine in the LCBO and elsewhere. But fans of good value wine should consider grabbing a bottle or two of bordeaux.

 

 

Why the Quebecois version of the Simpsons is so great

Apparently, there are two French versions of the Simpsons: one for France, and one for Quebec. This is great for two reasons, I think, as this piece explains: The French version of the Simpsons is oddly fascinating | indy100 | indy100:

  1. “When faced with an episode that used the French language itself as a narrative tool, the Canadian team were again able to fall back on the differences between French and French Canadian.” (Bart in Paris shows this brilliantly.)
  2. “In the Quebec dub, the Simpsons family speaks with a thick working-class dialect of Montreal French called joual. They also do something the France dub doesn’t do: they regionalize the scripts, subbing in Quebecois politicians or places for the more US-centric references.” You can see this in the famous bit with Principal Skinner and Steamed Hams bit:

Brilliant/brillant!

Friday (French) Food for You in September 2022

I love French food, both cooking it and eating it. If you feel the same and you want to get into doing more French cooking, why not start with these recipes from Chatelaine? I recommend them. Especially, I am a big fan of their coq au vin blanc, shown above. I’ve made it a few times and each time it comes out well.

If you find the idea of making French food daunting, fear not. Here are some easy French Bistro Recipes to start with. That said, the ones in Chatelaine are not hard. Either way, you have no excuse not to start due to difficulty.

If you are feeling more ambitious, here are the best classic French dishes according to chefs, via Food & Wine. Some of those will challenge you.

Mind you, even dishes that are considered laborious can be made without too much of a fuss. For example, here’s how to make Cassoulet at home the easy way in under an hour. Traditional? No. Delicious? For sure.

Maybe you just want to skip making it and go to France and have others make it. If so, see this:Restaurants, hotels and bars in Paris and across France.

Finally, here’s a man many associate with French cooking, Jacques Pepin. That link takes you to a good piece on him talking about French food, cars, and more.

On restaurants loved and lost: Cafe Cancan


I can’t remember how I came across Cafe Cancan on Harbord Street, Toronto, but once I did, I couldn’t wait to go back. I love French food, and their menu was full on French. They had classic dishes, but there were also innovative ways of cooking that felt both new and traditional at the same time. I wanted it all.

One of the things great about Cancan was their prix fixe. It was reasonably priced and extensive. You’d order and sit back while the servers brought out dish after dish of delicious food. Even better were all the extras. You might believe you would get five dishes with the prix fixe and you would end up with 7 or 8. Plus you would get an amuse bouche when you sat down and once while settled in at the bar they brought me a little additional sweet at the end of the meal. I felt pampered everytime.

The restaurant itself was a gem. The tables were fine, but it was equally fun to sit at the bar. What was especially great was sitting on the back patio during the warmer months. Whenever I was sitting there I wanted to stay all night.

The wine was always good, and they had Tawse rose on tap for cheap. Oysters were plentiful too, but even here they would come up with innovative mignonettes to make them extra special.

Sadly the pandemic hit it hard, as it hit other restaurants. In the first summer they opened but the menu was very different. Now they are gone.

It seems like a new place that is going to open that is related to Piano Piano. I am sure it is going to be good. But I am going to really miss that lovely pastel French restaurant on Harbord. I had so many lovely meals with lovely people on one of my favorite streets of this city of mine.

(Images from the articles in BlogTo linked to here).

The rise and fall of French cuisine?

So says this article: The rise and fall of French cuisine | Food | The Guardian.

I tend to disagree with the pessimistic assessment, but regardless, I recommend the piece because it really does cover what has happened to food and cooking in the last 50 or so years. For people who love food, it’s a worthwhile read.

I think the decline of French food is relative. So many more cuisines have been discovered and appreciated, from Italian to Vietnamese, that French cuisine has competition for people’s attention. That comes across in this piece: Bon appétit! How I rediscovered the joys of French cuisine | Food | The Guardian.  

It’s a good thing we have so many people writing and thinking and preparing food in new ways. French cuisine may no longer be dominant, but it is still great. And if you are going to Paris,  then check out this list of David Lebovitz for what he recommends in his city.  Or this list, somewhat dated, may still have value:
Top 10 budget restaurants and bistros in Paris | Travel | The Guardian

Best way to host a dinner party? Like a Parisian

Paris food
The wise David Lebovitz has great tips on how to host a dinner party in the manner that  Parisians do. If that sounds daunting to you, it shouldn’t. It’s filled with such smart advice such as “Keep it Simple” and “Finish with chocolates”. If you have a dinner party hosting coming up, drop everything  and read and follow this: How to Entertain Like a Parisian Tips – David Lebovitz. . From the good people at Food52.com.

(Photo from here)

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a candidate right out of a Philip K Dick Novel

Melenchon hologram
In France, politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon plans to be in seven places at once using  something similar to a hologram. According to Le Parisien:

Strictly speaking, these are not holograms. Jean-Luc Mélenchon will be present in seven different places thanks to … an optical illusion discovered for the first time half a century ago by an Italian physicist

Virtual Mélenchon reminds me of the politician Yance in Philip K Dick’s novel, The Penultimate Truth. We may not be far off where we get virtual candidate that look like people but behind the scenes we have AI or some combination of AI and people.

For more on the technology, see the article in Le Parisien. For more on Dick’s novel, see Wikipedia. Read up now: I think we can expect to see more of this technology in use soon.