Friday 21 January 2011

Let me eat cake

I know, I know, the phrase has all kinds of political connotations and is a mis-translation anyway but frankly French cake is so amazing that I believe the revolting peasants would have definitely chosen to eat it instead of bread if they could.

I've been systematically trying each type of patisserie deliciousness and so far my favourite has to be the macaron - I've only had pistachio flavour but I'm going to try coffee next.

Today, however, I had this:


It was quite nice, but a bit rich and gooey for me (I'm recovering from stomach flu, which has rather put the kibosh on the whole eating thing). It might have been nicer if I had eaten it yesterday when I bought it, but that is when I started feeling really ill.

Thursday seems like my day for buying lunch at the local bakery so expect lots of gorgeous cakes and a regular repeat of my favourite sandwich.

Saturday 15 January 2011

Bit of a hiatus

Well, it has been a while since I updated in here! That's because all kinds of things have been happening. I don't think I have mentioned it before but over the summer I got pretty sick with viral tonsilitis, which knocked me out for a week and would have lasted longer if I hadn't just had to suck it up and get on with things (I had flights booked to go to Amsterdam for a long weekend and then was straight into rehearsals and performances for two shows for the rest of the summer).

When I got back to uni in October I could tell something wasn't right because I kept falling asleep all the time; I would get up at eight after a fairly good night's sleep, go to a lecture or two, and be asleep again by ten. I think I spent a good two thirds of my time asleep and consequently I didn't manage to get any work done. It was all I could do to feed myself and wash every so often.

So in the end I gave up and withdrew from my course for the rest of the year, and headed home where lunch is much less interesting and usually just soup (either in a cup or homemade in a bowl) and some bread or a sandwich. Most days I slept until noon anyway so I often missed lunch and just had breakfast and an early dinner before sleeping again.

Jump to December and I was a lot better and I went off for a couple of weeks at Christmas. In Norway I discovered the joy of crispbread with mustard and slices of cheese! I will take a photo when I next have it, it's sheer heaven.

Now it's mid-January and I'm in Paris, having taken a job here. I'm living in at a family's house and surrounded by wonderful food so I'll make a real effort to take some photos and show you! France has a genius for cakes and bread.

So there we go, that's what's been happening lately.

The thing that inspired me to head back over here and update for once was thinking about breakfast. Since I got here I've been eating Special K for breakfast, which is flakes of wheat and corn. I normally eat at about 7.30am and that keeps me going until midday, possibly with a slice of crispbread or a yoghurt mid-morning. But one morning I decided to have a sugary kind of cereal marketed for children, Frosties, which I often had when I was at uni. By nine I was hungry; by eleven I was so hungry I had to eat lunch way early. It was interesting, particularly since in the past I've often been hungry mid-morning and compensated by snacking on unhealthy or stodgy foods. Now I'll just try to have a more solid breakfast and be more aware of what I eat.

I've also not had any kind of problems with stomach ache since I got here. I've been trying to keep track of what makes me feel ill and I think it's excessive sugar - I munched my way through an entire tub of mini chocolate rolls over two days and felt appalling. It's always been things like ice cream and chocolate which have been the triggers so I've been assuming it was lactose but maybe after all it's the sugar content. I don't know if there is an allergy for that.

Anyway, this has turned into rather an essay and unfortunately I haven't got any pictures to brighten things up. Tomorrow I'm going for lunch with a friend somewhere in the north of the city so I might sneak a photo if the waiter isn't looking.