A Moveable Feast

Poffertjes, canals and some good music

I have spent my most recent days off a 4 hour train ride away from Paris. Speaking in culinary terms in the land of poffertjes (mini-pancakes, on the photo), apple cake, Genever, Indonesian Rijstafel, good "French" (!) fries, and stroopwafles (which I all tried to capture within two days).

Culturally speaking the land of Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Canals, bicycles, coffee shops, tulips, (nothing of which I captured, besides sitting at the canal banks). I guess that's all stereotypes covered.

 

But the real reason for the trip was to listen to some of my favourite music live. It was definitely worth the trip. The sound of Bono's voice and some of my alltime favourite songs still makes me shiver. That weekend I have found what I am looking for...

Found Nemo !

It's been almost a week now that I returned to dull grey cold Paris after an exciting vacation in the Philippines. Twenty beautiful dives more in my logbook, interesting excursions to learn more about the Philippine culture (cockfights !) and nature, friendly smiling welcoming people, cute hideway hotels, great tasting food including tons of garlic rice, and a very nice group of people to share those two weeks with, with some of them I will stay in touch.

I must admit that the return shock was big this time. I have been busy with doctors visits to treat a heavy ear infection I brought back with me, travelling to a foodfestival with amazing chef demos in Deauville, and job hunting (after all being without job is not as cool as I thought). So I had no time yet for a full vacation report, maybe I'll upload the best of my 400 photos on flickr some time, for the moment only my favourite Nemo picture. Aren't they cute how they look at me ?

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Visayas

Visayas is an island group in the Philippines. That part where they don't kidnap foreigners. At least so I was told...;) Ok, now some people will be even more excited than me...

Anyway, this afternoon I am leaving to a scuba-diving island-hopping vacation there, a trip I have been dreaming about for a couple of years. 4 islands in 2 weeks. And lots of opportunites to find Nemo ... if I am able to dive, because I did not manage to get 100% rid of a cold that I have been fighting since 10 days, and any congestion in the nose/ear area means diving is impossible, because you cannot equalize the underwater ear pressure. But I am counting on the tons of nose and ear spray I packed and the warmer temperatures there to eliminate the last symptoms...

This will be my first real travel to Asia (not counting in a 3-day trip to Singapore 15 years ago for training the HP Asia technical support team on computer graphics). So I am really excited....

Current temperatures : 22-28°C / 72-84°F, yeah I need that right now
Relative Humidity : 96% (maybe I don't need to pack a hair dryer... ?)

For Christmas I got a underwater housing for my camera, so I hope to be able to take a lot of pretty clownfish pictures this time. 

A bientot !

Door #1 - my weekend in Alsace

In Germany we have a big tradition of "Adventskalender", a wall calender with 24 doors, where each day starting December 1st you open a door to find a little gift until Christmas day. So I thought I will do the same here and "open" until Christmas each day a door with a little story behind each....

Compared to traditions in Germany Christmas season in Paris does not really exist, except in shop windows. But no real Christmas markets, something which I miss most about Germany. To get some more hint of pre-Christmas I decided to spend my last weekend in Alsace, a region in the East of France, now linked to Paris by the fast TGV train within 2-3 hours. The region has a long and difficult history of back and forth belonging to either Germany or France. So while being a French region, you will find German traditions, town names, family names, and many people that speak still German.

The town I chose to spend three days was Colmar, famous for its Christmas markets, while not as huge and crowded as Strasbourg, and I also visited some small villages on the wine route, Ribeauvillé and Kaysersberg. Besides Christmas the best time to visit the wine route and therfore come back is obviously September and October, to admire the vineyards' colors and hop from wine tasting to wine tasting during the harvest season. A little selection among my 150 pictures taken...  

 

 

 

One of the culinary specialties to enjoy with a local white wine : Flammekuechen, or tarte flambée, a super thin "pizza" covered with cream, bacon and onions, yummie....

To make a link to my previous post's image : in Colmar I was surprised by a couple of connections to the US. I found out that Bartholdi, the builder of the statue of liberty was born in Colmar ! Also tonight it is official : Lance will ride through Colmar on July 17th next year. Good luck with the French spectators... 

And I was taken to an American WWII memorial monument in the middle of the vineyards (Sigolsheim "Bloodhill"), part of the difficult history the region has been going through :

 

 

 

Top 40 New England

This post is for my friends in the photo, and their family members, who made the last week of my vacation so much fun and relaxing at the same time. Thank you for your generosity and the wonderful time !!

Usually they would come up with a "Top 10 of Paris/Italy with Ulla"- list after we spend vacation together, but this time it is my turn.

So here it is, my the ultimate and public "Top 40 New England 2008 vacation with Kate, Margaret, Andy and Vini" list, of a lot of happy and some sad events that I should never forget. Not prioritized though !

The smell of fresh better-than-from-Dunkin-Donuts coffee every morning.  The chipmonkeys "Oooh eee oooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bang bang" in the Lagarde car looping.   Coldplay Viva la Vida in the Grosso car looping.   Andy's beach playgroup with mean William and his caring parents.   Evil-Eyes' break dancing.   Cesar salad dressing with Tofu - unexpectedly tasty.   Spicy Pizza at THE Mystic Pizza in Mystic CT.   An afternoon of tears watching The Notebook.   The scary waves of the Atlantic at Charlestown beach taking Andy.   Watching the DNC live with an impressive Hillary and a "cute" Michelle who loves her husband (Brak or some call him Bark), creating our new motto "you can make it if you try !", thank you for the inspiration cute Michelle.   The lemonade (?) that made me feel funny on our last night (also on the photo).   "Skinny Bitch" that will change now all our lives forever, and my -embarassing for all- attempts to understand what eating vegan Chicken Nuggets will do to you.   Getting overwhelmed and lost in Super Shop&Stop even though it is a supermarket "JUST THE SAME" as in France.   Omlette and Blueberry pancakes for breakfast, Tacos, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Pasta, Cesar's salad, Chicken Wings, all my favourite food when in America.   Stopping at Starbucks instead of Dunkin Donuts - thank you.   Butter Cheese from Meaux, France (we call it Brie here as a reminder).   Girl's reunion at Banana Republic on Newbury Street.   Sparkling Chardonnay.    Moskitos.   The blond surfer and his dog from next door.   Brian Surgeon - an American celebrity I didn't know yet.   Mrs Reilly's tomato soup and pesto (pleeeease. the recipe. pleeeease.).    European salad.    An appointment at Zoë's.   My first and private yoga lesson on the banks of the Charles river.   The other tiger.   Learning adult speak : "should we stop for eye-see-ee-see-are-ee-ay-am ?".   A suspicious treasure hunter in the lake, and oh-no mean-William's grandparents again.   A cup of meat.   Twelve salad dressings in the fridge.   Rasta's vocabulary : bacon, cheese, potty, mine, why, hi.   Getting addicted to wheat bits.   Kate's fun birthday party and meeting her family again.   My first Iron Chef with Mario Batali against Jamie Oliver.   My first vacation with five children...   The potty and poo talk.   The "CLEAN IT !" story.   Locating my home with Aristocats.   Girls without kids and great seafood at Olympia Tea Room in Watch Hill.   Tears (though less than during The Notebook) when my plane took off in Boston...  
 

As a farewell gift I received this precious bottle in appreciation of my love for hot and spicy food and as a tribute to the very Democratic week.

Thank you for everything. I miss you.

Rolling home

Already my last day in Bequia. But unlike most people here I am looking forward to go home, and I think this is a good sign for my current choices in life. Sure the two weeks here were great, and most likely I will come back one day, probably organize a sailing trip with friends next time around the islands. But come back every year for vacation as so many people I met here ? No, there are too many other nice places in this world to (re)discover.

Durning the last two weeks I survived -without seasickness- a fantastic schooner trip south to the Tobago Cays (above photo), my first earthquake, and the first one in 40 years on this island, 7.4 measured in Martinique (and it is not something I need to experience again), several wonderful scuba dives, and a couple of strong Pina Coladas with good Carribean rum. I was so happy to be able to dive again, one of the best activities I can imagine.

The good thing about going to a dive club anywhere in this world is also that you immediately have a family that "takes care" of you, even when not diving. here you see Tony the captain and James the divemaster, who made sure I had a great time below and above the sea. And on their boat I met some of the nicest English people who never let me dive/eat/drink alone again, until they sailed away...

Will now stopover a couple of days in Germany to enjoy the German Christmas markets before heading back to good old strike-country. It will be difficult to work hard after two weeks immersion the very slow Carribean pace.

I need to finish with the last view I am going to have right now from the bar of my hotel, like every night at 5:30 p.m., Carribean sunset time. Sorry for the postcard "kitch", Eiffeltower pictures will be back soon ;)

Researching

My research on fish has started as planned. Yesterday I discovered this guy preparing some dolphinfish on the pier in front of the restaurant, where the fish was going to end up in the kitchen for dinner (I felt an urge to discuss HACCP with him, but then resisted). Now I am ready to be chef de partie.



During my trip here that lasted a couple of days including a delayed flight, a missed ferry and one hour of seasickness on the next ferry after waiting of 5 hours in a strange bar near the harbour of Saint Vincent, I sometimes asked myself why the hell I was doing this to myself. But once I arrived on my little island I knew why I hadn't chosen an easier vacation destination. It's true "once you get there you'll know" (a slogan I picked from a hotel advertisment).

The story is, that about 5 years ago I was on a German cruise ship in the Carribean, and for one of the "land" trips, I had booked a one-day sailing trip through the Grenadines. We stopped for two hours in a bay that was so beautiful, that I decided that I want to come back one day to this island, called Bequia (pronounce "beck-way") and stay longer. Now, five years later, I am here and staying two weeks. And it is as beautiful as I had remembered. Not many tourists yet, sunshine, turquoise sea, empty beaches, very friendly and relaxed people, lots of beach bars no luxury or all inclusive resorts, and very cool atmosphere. After two days I have only seven moskito bites, one proposal to buy a catamaran with a Canadian guy, no sunburn (gettting carful with the age), one day trip booked on a schooner to go further south to the Tobago Cays and to become seasick again, five scuba dives scheduled. So you see I am very busy.

Every body talks to everybody here. And you are supposed to greet everybody you meet on the street. Something I still need to get used to. What a culture shock compared to Paris.

There are a couple of expats and lots of sailors. No French, some German and lots of Brits. I met for example that English lady, who used to be a manager and then decided she has had enough, and went from then on sailing everywhere in the world. Right now she is helping that Canadian guy, (the one who wants to buy a catamaran with me) to learn to sail. He quit his management job in Toronto, bought a sailing boat, will sail down to Venezuela, and doesn't know yet what to do after that. Or that German guy, who looks like Keith Richards, and lives here since 30 years, and sails every two years from here to Germany to visit his children. Funny crowd... My vocabulary is enriched by words like, jetty, dinghy, etc. In two weeks I will be able to talk like a sailor.

My hotel is in the "busy" part of the island, so today I walked across the island to the beach, called friendship bay, where I discovered Bequia initially. Here the postcard pictures for which some people will hate me. But I just need to enjoy my last vacation and life before starting my job in December. I deserve it. I just assume there won't be much of a life anymore then....

Friendhip Bay on Bequia

View on Admiralty Bay from my hotel room


The jetty of the dive club in Admiralty Bay

More on Bequia.

Gone fishing....

...and diving. For professional reasons of course ! I need to do some research on the original environment of fish. Hey, if they want me to be in charge of the fish station I'd better know something about those animals. So I think the best way to learn is to observe them under water in the Carribean.

I will try to leave strike-country somehow tomorrow morning (wish me luck, it is not obvious), and hopefully arrive on a small island in the Grenadines (close to Venezuela) Saturday afternoon. Until then I will take a two-hour train, a three-hour bus, an eight-our plane, a one-hour plane, a one-hour ferry and sleep in 3 different towns on the way (Strasbourg, Frankfurt and Barbados). I could have shortened the first part from Paris to Frankfurt, but now air controllers and Air France go on strike too...Actually today everybody is on strike in Paris, teachers, train and metro workers, post office, hospitals, air controllers, opera workers, etc. etc. It's getting insane. A good time to leave this country for a while. I believe my destination island has an internet cafe, so maybe I can share news about my fish research from there, if I find the time. But I will be extremely busy !

Otherwise will be back mid December.
Happy happy Thanksgiving to my American readers.

Back from Cappuccinoland

I am now back in Paris after having spent 5 fantastic days in Bologna. And my anticipation about the best Cappuccino of this world was confirmed. I don't know how they do it, but the milk's texture is close to cream rather than foam. Heavenly. And only in Italia they would make a love declaration even by the way they serve a Cappuccino ...sigh...

Bolli is requesting more torturing food pictures, but as I took about 150, I will select and post them later. Katrina and I also walked and visited a lot, although food research was one of our key activities.

Unfortunately I still have nothing in writing about the job I interviewed for, and when I called them today some elements were a bit confusing, so I think about starting to interview with other restaurants... I wouldn't be able to really enjoy my vacation planned for end November, without knowing what will be happening after my return.

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 !