Talking to friends and family back in America, it's very difficult to explain to them just how good the food is here.
Mind you, I'm not talking about going to a Bistro or a Brasserie and ordering something off the menu, even though food in those places are typically good. No. What I'm talking about is the food we purchase from vendors and out of small markets.
This sure beats the h*ll out of that cheap cr*p
communion wine those priests handed out every sunday!!!
My wife and I buy as much "organic" food as we can for our meals. Here in France "organic" foods are labeled "bio" for biologique. When we shop carefully, we can find biodynamicly grown or prepared foods. The organic food production extends into beers and wines.
In fact, tonight we started in on a bottle of "El Vinyer d'en Parlou", vin de pays des cotes Catalanes. The label says "produit issu de raisins de l'agriculture biologique." It goes well with, um, everything!
The price? Just over 6 Euros. Do the conversion to USD and you'll perhaps see what a steal that is.
Be still, mon petit poulet... your flying days are done...
Food tastes like real food here. Broccoli tastes like sweet corn. Chickens taste like, well, vraiment chicken. Pork and beef taste better than the grass feed and organically raised meats in the US. Beer is good. I found I like "blonde". Organic, of course. Sweet potatoes are very sweet. The fish is fresh and wonderful... and so it goes... including buying a baguette traditionelle every day.
By comparison, we feel that the American food system is broken. Completely and utterly broken. How could it be anything but broken for the tons and tons of chemicals spread over the land and left to the wind as well as for the oceans of antibiotics injected into cows, pigs, and chickens? How could the US food system not be broken for how people love fast food and no longer have the time (supposedly) to gather around the dinner table and share meals with a family? How could it not be broken for the amount of corporate investment that is made into the US political system to ensure laws sway to the advantage of corporate farming?
Oh be quiet! This won't hurt you as much as it hurts me...
Perhaps the biggest surprise to us is that the cost of food here in Paris is very comparable to what people pay for cr*p food in the US. Yes. It's true. There's no getting around seeing just how badly people in the US are screwed.
I'm very happy that my wife has been such a good cook for all these years and that we can prepare our own meals. Nearly every night we look at each other over a meal and marvel at how good food tastes here.
It's worth the effort to cook our own food. You can't believe how good it is.
I have to leave this blog entry with one final thought; DOM (Deus Optimus Maximus!!!) Benedictine (not that B&B cr*p) in the States costs $40. My wife started us on a slow drip of this incredible elixir some time back. So imagine my surprise when, in our very first visit to Monoprix, we found DOM Benedictine for $20. The drip rate has been "upped" a bit since this discovery.
Mind you, I'm not talking about going to a Bistro or a Brasserie and ordering something off the menu, even though food in those places are typically good. No. What I'm talking about is the food we purchase from vendors and out of small markets.
communion wine those priests handed out every sunday!!!
My wife and I buy as much "organic" food as we can for our meals. Here in France "organic" foods are labeled "bio" for biologique. When we shop carefully, we can find biodynamicly grown or prepared foods. The organic food production extends into beers and wines.
In fact, tonight we started in on a bottle of "El Vinyer d'en Parlou", vin de pays des cotes Catalanes. The label says "produit issu de raisins de l'agriculture biologique." It goes well with, um, everything!
The price? Just over 6 Euros. Do the conversion to USD and you'll perhaps see what a steal that is.
Food tastes like real food here. Broccoli tastes like sweet corn. Chickens taste like, well, vraiment chicken. Pork and beef taste better than the grass feed and organically raised meats in the US. Beer is good. I found I like "blonde". Organic, of course. Sweet potatoes are very sweet. The fish is fresh and wonderful... and so it goes... including buying a baguette traditionelle every day.
By comparison, we feel that the American food system is broken. Completely and utterly broken. How could it be anything but broken for the tons and tons of chemicals spread over the land and left to the wind as well as for the oceans of antibiotics injected into cows, pigs, and chickens? How could the US food system not be broken for how people love fast food and no longer have the time (supposedly) to gather around the dinner table and share meals with a family? How could it not be broken for the amount of corporate investment that is made into the US political system to ensure laws sway to the advantage of corporate farming?
Perhaps the biggest surprise to us is that the cost of food here in Paris is very comparable to what people pay for cr*p food in the US. Yes. It's true. There's no getting around seeing just how badly people in the US are screwed.
I'm very happy that my wife has been such a good cook for all these years and that we can prepare our own meals. Nearly every night we look at each other over a meal and marvel at how good food tastes here.
It's worth the effort to cook our own food. You can't believe how good it is.
I have to leave this blog entry with one final thought; DOM (Deus Optimus Maximus!!!) Benedictine (not that B&B cr*p) in the States costs $40. My wife started us on a slow drip of this incredible elixir some time back. So imagine my surprise when, in our very first visit to Monoprix, we found DOM Benedictine for $20. The drip rate has been "upped" a bit since this discovery.
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