Galettes and other good things

Here is a quick recipe I picked up from my flatmate. He comes from Bretagne (Britanny?) so perhaps the recipe does too, but I'm not sure. They are like the swedish oatmeal pancakes my aunt Andrea once introduced to me but you can taste also they're relationship to crepes.

• EGG one per person
• CREAM or creme fraiche, creme legere, I've found plain yogurt works well, I bet you could even do soymilk. enough to lighten the egg and not end up with an omelette
• OATS he used 'son d'avoine' which is somewhere in between oats and oat flour and looks a lot like wheat germ, I have used regular oats, uncooked (but not those hardcore steel-cut, which I don't think would work) or I'm sure any combination thereof. I think really however much you want, depending on the thickness of your (non)dairy
• optional SUGAR a dash if you feel like it but they're lovely without

Then that's it, beat the ingredients together, pour onto a hot skillet, and cook like pancakes!

I've been cutting and cooking an apple or a pear in the leftover ginger water from making tea and piling that on top. Highly recommended.

I successfully roasted chestnuts at home last week. This time I purchased rather than gathered so as not to poison myself. Very satisfying snack.

Tried chestnut cream/puree with nutella on a hot crepe one rainy day- that was divine.

The bakery around the corner makes the best millefeuilles/'napoleon' I think I've ever had. They forgo the sugar-coat topping and instead caramelize the pastry leaves. Um, yum.

Sorry no photos this round, this entry is for the imagination in your taste buds. And the recipe! Which you should all try and see what good variations we can gather.

Fete des Vendanges

In my experience it is always a good idea to wander out from one's abode on any given Parisian weekend. This past Sunday I meandered up to Montmartre where they were celebrating the Fete des Vendanges which is the Harvest Festival- I think especially referring to the grape harvest which then of course means wine:

I asked the man on the right in this photo about the water boiling contraption below but I'm not sure I could trust the answer he gave with a twinkling eyes about discovering how to boil water only to be informed later that humans had in fact figured this out long ago. And then he gave some anecdote about pulling the beast by the horns out of the water? I could tell no amount of further questioning would bring me to any logical understanding of the thing, so instead I took a photo and wished I still had 3euros for a cup of hot wine.

Apparently there are in fact vineyards in the city tucked up on the hillside of Sacre Coeur- urban farming anyone? And Montmarte is it's own republic with a drum band:

They joined up for one number with the accordionist at the Raclette stand- mmm melting cheese. So the festival consisted mostly of stands where various regions sold their goods- and these were mostly wines but along with the raclette there were several excellently rustic foods to be savored: potatoes and Mont d'Or cheese, Pondarin goat rounds, oysters, escargots, and this very impressive sausage stand where I have to say I thought fondly of Kyle.

As an aside here I am also including this article which a friend recently sent: Lost in Paris. A travel writer describes his experience attempting to rediscover this city he already knows and loves. And, with the exception of his purchase of a 200 euro umbrella, I find myself having many of the same reactions.

Nuit Blanche

This weekend the most important event was seeing my friend Carolyn who is here working forStella McCartney for Fashion Week. Our visit had nothing to do with that, but it's a wonderfully glamourous excuse to see each other.

On my way home, I biked home through the various events of Paris' "Nuit Blanche" which is an all-night city-wide celebration of modern art. More on that here.

But without too much explanation, I offer a few of the visions I saw on this curious night of all-out art.

"Black Cloud" by Carlos Amorales

they're made of paper, 30 000 in all

this installation I found stunning. a tangible reverence in the viewers

"Dance (All Night/Paris)" by Melanie Manchot

the film: dancers of all kinds each dancing 'to the beat of their own drummers'

the same courtyard that night where dancers and participants alike moved to the music being played on headsets distributed to the crowd. similar effect I think as a flash mob

"No Man is an Island II"

a film by Jesper Just

presented in a club called Le Divan du Monde in Montmartre.

You can see this short film 'suspended between drama and humor' reflecting on masculine solitude and identity here.

I watched it twice.