Život v Cizine (was La Vie Expatriée)
I'm finally satisfying a long-held dream of living abroad.
I started with six months in France followed by two and half years in the Czech Republic.
Now, I'm giving Turkey a try.
- Život v Cizine
(was La Vie Expatriée)Previous Posts
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Friday, May 25, 2007
Impressing French waiters
Things I've learned about impressing French waiters:
- Ordering an apéritif, especially a Ricard (an anisette), impresses them to no end. I haven't quite figured out why this is, but they really straighten up at that. Kir is also very popular, and is frequently a default selection when a restaurant includes an apéritif as part of its menu.
- Ordering cheese instead of something sweet for dessert also marks you as a force to be reckoned with. It's not a bad move at any rate, since I find that French desserts are pretty boring. Note: Those luscious, creamy pastries you see in the bakeries? They never make an appearance for dessert; the French don't understand why you want something rich like that after your meal. (But you do want something rich like cheese? Well, no one says this is logical.) Pastries make an appearance only at the French version of tea time, the goûter.
- Ordering a digestif, such as an Armagnac or a Calvados, also wins over waiters. Outside of Paris, ordering a regional specialty will especially endear you. I ordered Izzara (a green, herby Basque liqueur, kind of like Chartreuse, only milder) in Lourdes, and my (Basque) waiter immediately became my new best friend.
I've thought about trying to train myself to eat with my fork in my left hand, in the Continental style, but finally decided against it. Any attempt to masquerade as a native withers and dies the instant I open my mouth to speak, so why bother? Besides, as Miss Manners observes, "American table manners are, if anything, a more advanced form of civilized behavior than the European, because they are more complicated and further removed from the practical result, always a sign of refinement".
posted at 9:27 AM permalink
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Sunday, March 25, 2007
The "Littleness" of French food and drink
French food and drink is almost always expressed in terms of "littleness". There's the petit goûter (little snack) to accompany your afternoon cafe or tea, the petit apéro (little apéritif) to precede dinner, the petit déssert and petit cafe follow dinner (no translation needed here surely!) And even in the markets, one orders a petit poulet rôti (little roasted chicken). Without noticing, I've fallen into the same pattern, asking for a petit pavé de saumon (little filet of salmon) or a petit morceau de bleu de causses (a little piece of bleu de causses, my favorite blue cheese).
So it was very odd in the bakery this morning when a gentleman ordered a gros morceau de quiche paysan (a big piece of quiche paysan). The clerk repeated his request, in an amused voice, and soon the entire line was buzzing, "A big piece?" "Yes, a big piece." "He ordered what?" "A big piece."
(For what it's worth, I think the piece he ended up with was the standard size.)
posted at 12:50 PM permalink
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