A Moveable Feast

pasta, vino, cappuccino, prosciutto, etc.

I am heading to Italy for a couple of days, taking the train tomorrow morning. I couldn't resist the temptation of discovering Bologna, a town I have never been to, and the local food specialties with Katrina, who moved there a couple of weeks ago from Paris, and invited me to join her there for the long weekend. 

It didn't take very long to make my decision. It is almost certain now that as of mid December I will have a job, which also means that I won't have vacation and the opportunity to travel for a while, and will spend my weekends sleeping to recover from a 70-hours-in-the-kitchen week, so I decided I need to make the most out of the time that is left before I start. And anyway I have never been sure whether I don't love Italy more than France, so it is good to check from time to time....

I am especially looking forward to really good cappuccino, often copied but for some mysterious reason nowhere as good as in Italy (although friends have told me, the one I make is not too bad....). 

Ciao tutti, a presto !

Tapas in San Sebastian

Before you continue reading, please take note of this warning :

The following pictures contain culinary tempting content and may torture your taste buds resulting in a desire to quit everything immediately and leave towards the Basque country.

So it happened at least when I showed my photos of the tapas (called pintxos there) bars in San Sebastian to Diane and Katia this week. They both wanted to go there immediately as a consequence.

San Sabastian, a seaside resort on the Bay of Biscay was just a two hour train ride away from Magescq, so I had decided well in advance to spend one of my free "weekends" (my days off were actually Monday and Tuesday) in October there. But I had not expected such a culinary paradise.

Quoting from the last "Food & Travel" magazine issue : "San Sebastian (Donostia to the Basques) is a city which devotes itself to food and drink, where foie gras forms part of the daily diet, where salt cod is more highly prized than caviar [...] gastronomy is a religion here". Do I need to say more ?

Now simply enjoy the photos. I am happy that I eventually found a great tool that lets me share more pictures with you, without spending a whole day editing my blog. Just click on the big picture to move on to the next one, by moving the cursor on the small picture a comment for the picture will appear. If you want to go there, please let me know, I am in to repeat a bar-to-bar night anytime. If you go without me, find my adress list below... ;)

Tapas (Pintxos) bars :

Usually you get a plate, then you just pick all the tapas you want and show your plate to the waiter behind the bar who will count, or sometimes the tapas comes with toothpicks, then you pay at the end simply according to the number of toothpicks you collected.

I got along very well in all those places, even without one word of Spanish. Everybody was very welcoming and friendly to me (maybe because I consumed a lot ?).

Garbola Bar
Paeso Colon, 11 (on the "other" side of the river, Gros neigbourhood)
small bar, but nice selection of tapas, and a prowd and friendly owner, that has pinned all his awards and press clips on the wall)

Martinez
31 de Agosto, 13
Award winning Tapas, but less ambiance.

Bar Aralar
Puerto, 10 (old town)
big choice of quality tapas, and very good ambiance

Bar Astelena
Inigo 1 (old town, on plaza de la Constitution)
my favourite one
"gastronomic" pintxos with foie gras and high quality bread and jamon
According to Food & Travel magazine the story goes that Juan-Marie Arzak was inspired here by one of the pintxos (hake in pastry) and turned it into one of his signature dishes ("pudin de krabarroka").

Hotel :
Following a recommendation in the French "guide du routard" I stayed in the

Hostal Alemania
San Martin, 53
+34 943 46 25 44

clean, quiet, safe, very helpful & friendly & professional service
1 minute from the Concha beach, 10 minutes to walk to the old town
reasonnable prices (I paid about 65 Euros a night)

I can poach an egg !!!

One of the biggest frustrations of my stage was the lack of interesting tasks given to me, and the feeling that with all the daily herbs chopping and vegetable peeling I applied almost nothing I had learned at Ferrandi before. Deboning poultry, preparing a lamb rack or fish were tasks apparently too risky to give to stagiaires like me, and only the sous-chefs or very talented apprentis were allowed to do that, while I watched them chopping my parsley (I am really good and fast at that though now).

The "highlight", the mother of all rejections, during this stage took place during the last two weeks when I was working eventually at the stoves where the hot starters were prepared and plated. One of the dishes my station was in charge of was the "poêlée de champignons",  a mix of mushrooms, simply sautéed, arranged with a poached egg in the middle. Right at the beginning I wanted to take the egg out of the water when it was time to plate it, but everybody broke out in panic "no, don't touch the egg !". I didn't get it, but continued to obey and shut up as usual. So all they let me do was do dig a whole with my fingers into the heap of mushrooms, once they were put by the chef the partie on the plate to make room for the poached egg. Very cool.

So obviously on of the most urgent desires I had back in my own kitchen here to cook this dish, and just demonstrate to myself that I could poach an egg. It sounds ridiculous, because it is one of the very basic things you are taught early in culinary school, and not really difficult. But as I mentioned before, after three months in an environment, where I lost a lot of confidence into my capabilites, I had to do this. And of course it was really easy.

A very simple but delicious seasonal dish. I used cepes (porcini mushrooms). After cleaning them carefully with a towel dipped in cold water (ah, another thing I learnt !), simply sautéed in very hot olive oil, and at the end some chopped garlic, shallots and parsley added. And then a perfectly poached egg put in the middle. Voila. I can do it. Anybody had doubts ? I can do more than digging holes into a heap !

Heaven

After three very lonely and difficult months in the south-west I am back in Paris since yesterday night, and therfore in heaven. My last kitchen service in Magescq was for the Sunday lunch one week ago. My friends from life #1 Sophie and Philippe with Charlotte had been driving to Magescq from Barcelona for six hours, for my "liberation" but also to taste the world's best foie gras. So my last experience in the Relais de la Poste was a faboulous dinner with them. It helped me definiteley to finish the whole experience on a positive note. My friends also reminded me of what I have achieved in the last year since working the last time for HP, and therfore put in perspective all my doubts that I had as consequence of my stage.

I went on to spend a couple of days in Biarritz on my own, to transition slowly back into my "normal" life. I needed to recover from an almost destroyed self-confidence and find happiness again. Now one week later I am the old Ulla again, being able to see the stage with some distance and even seeing some positive sides of it, which was not possible while living there.

Since my return to Paris I have spent already five hours in the Cafe de la Place, four of them with Katia (or "Bolli" in her comments, a German friend in Paris that I met thanks to this blog), catching a sunburn during a couple of cafés in an unusual October sunshine. I think the picture, just like the one with the Magescq signpost, speaks for itself about my state of mind...

Some people might notice that I have lost 10kg (about 20 pounds)during the last three months, which are the consequences of dull but regular and rather "healthy" staff meals, a lot of bicycling and the complete lack of temptations (off all kinds) in Magescq. A very good experience, from which I need to keep some lessons and habits (for those who know me, resisting temptations in Paris is the difficult -if not impossible- part here).

I am so happy again. Sleeping in my own bed is wonderful, seeing people older than 19 is great, no words for being able to meet friends, and of course the opportunity to cook in my own kitchen is something I missed. This morning I went to the market in Montparnasse, with great plans for trying new recipes, but Katia put this plan on hold for a couple of hours (see picture), although she showed me how to prepare the chipirons (small variety of octopuses) for a typical basque dish, that I wanted to cook as I have had it three times a day during my week in Biarritz. It will be documented in a later post.

I also received an SMS from the sous-chef I had the interview with two weeks ago. It said, that he received my documents and he will take care of my "dossier" (file) next week. I hope this is a good sign. Still not sure whether the 90% have become 100%.

We'll see. In the meantime...greetings from heaven.

Cuisine is...

Within the last week, I asked two outstanding chefs to sign their respective cook books for me. Jean Coussau, chef in the Relais de la Poste in Magescq, in the south-west of France, where I have spent the last 3 months as stagiare in his kitchen brigade and Elena Arzak, chef in the famous three Michelin star restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian, Spain, that some consider as Spain's best restaurant, where I had a culinary experience of a lifetime one week ago.

I think it is a nice and interesting coincidence, although maybe not surprising, that both of them gave me their definitions of cuisine on the way. Very different ones though...

Jean Coussau :

"La cuisine, ce n'est pas seulement des recettes, mais beaucoup d'effort et de passion"
("Cuisine is not only recipes, but a lot of effort and passion")

Elena Arzak :

"Die Küche ist Fröhlichkeit" (She signed in German !!!)
("Cuisine is fun/gaiety")

            

C'est fini...

Sting

Just checking email in San Sebastian, Spain (more about that later) and found that great picture in my intray from Diane who was at the Police concert too last Saturday in Paris. Merci Diane !!! When I told Ayako, that man is 56 years old, she didn´t believe me. Well, seeing the picture indeed you could guess he is thirty something. It was a fantastic concert, also for the eyes ;)

Ah and I forgot : Sting said hello to Sidney and to my Mother...

5 days in Paris

My short trip to Paris last week has lead to some significant consequences. I was so incredibly happy to be in Paris, to see my friends, to stay in my appartment, I felt I was in Paradise, and it made me fully appreciate the life that I live. The program was condensed especially on the social side.

When I entered the Café de la Place in Montparnasse, almost immediately after getting off the train, my favourite waiter gave me a big smile and said "but where have you been all the time !?!?!" Oh that was so nice and felt so good. The whole five days continued like this I was so happy to see everybody again, and I believe it was mutual. Katia for a wine and cheese feast in St. Germain, rocking with Ayako and still cool and young looking Sting Saturday night, Katrina, who cooked me a 7 course Italian dinner to die for in her tiny tiny kitchen corner, amazing. Michelin-star lunch with Diane and Cathleen (on the photo) my former classmates, which was like a reunion celebration, Allison and Ella, friends from Grenoble who have moved to Paris too a while ago, came to visit me in Montparnasse. And of course I went to Ferrandi to see Chef Sebastien again. I dropped in the middle of him teaching the new anglo class all about stocks, which was very funny for me to see... I also met one of my blog readers, Andrew during that visit, who is now in that Anglo class, I believe a little bit inspired by my blog....

(The Stade de France last Saturday, while Ayako, I and Sting (and 79997 other people) were screaming "You don't have to put on the red light"....)

I also had a great interview Saturday morning for a job in one of my favourite restaurants in Paris. The sous-chef is definitely a person I want to work for and I am waiting now for a final confirmation within the next weeks. He said it was 90% confirmed..... I will tell more about it when it's final. I think if it comes true it will be very very hard, but more on the physical and technical side, than on the psychological side...

Speaking of psychological difficulties.... Already when I got in the train back I wondered how I am going to make it until mid November. And the next morning in the kitchen I was missing Paris and my life there too much. The opportunity came the next day. When I told the chef here about my job opportunity in Paris, he asked me whether I need to leave earlier for that opportunity, and after two days of intense thinking about the pros and cons, I eventually told him, that yes, I would like to go back to Paris earlier than planned to get my life organized there before starting to work. So my last day here will be October 14 now. Sorry to disappoint those friends and blog readers who have written to me how much they admire me for hanging in. But I was just too lonely here, and I need to find my life back. And after all I stayed 3 months, not too bad actually.

I have now eventually moved to the "hot" area, and I am happy to feel the heat, to hold and shake a pan, burn my fingers when plating the hot langustines directly from the pan, even though the responsibilities are not very big. But I enjoy the busy services, I do learn, and the chef de partie, a former Ferrandi "sup" student, while he is very tough with me, is also very fair, and explains techniques and "behaviour" to me. So it seems that my last days here will also be quite good days in the kitchen.