Hello from Paris - trivia and a book review
It’s so frustrating but I can’t get the photos on the blog site – where is Ben when I need him.
White asparagus is everywhere – I think I have mentioned it – it’s quite different to green asperge – fat and heavy and before cooking (steaming or poaching appear to be the best method) it is really important to peel off the stringy outside layers – then delicious with pepper and butter or a hollandaise sauce – yum.
I have been browsing through a book on French restaurants called “Hungry for Paris” – which you will probably not find in Australian bookshops, but it is a real gem. Alex Lubrano has been a food writer and critic for many years and last year published his book reviewing about a hundred of his favourite restaurants in Paris – and he has sorted it into arrondisements (areas) which helps a lot when looking for somewhere special to eat close to one’s abode.
But I was interested to read his general introduction about eating in Paris and the French attitude to food and drink. They are serious about it – and will often engage in a long discussion with the waiter about having a well balanced meal and the wines etc. And of course coffee is usually an espresso – milk a par (on the side) is okay but don’t even think about asking for skinny milk, or decaffeinated. The waiters will look blank and just non non.
We were having dinner with friends newly arrived in Paris a few nights ago – when our friend asked for coffee at the end of the meal – in her best French she asked for decaffeinated coffee, half strength with skinny milk separate (which she described it as Why Bother coffee) – well, our waiter just looked at her and said, non non madame, that will be like dishwater – I couldn’t stop laughing. Needless to say, she had black coffee, very strong with full cream milk – like we have got used to!!
And a little bit of trivia.
Why are pothole covers (and obviously potholes) always a round shape. Because the lid can never fall in if it’s round.
Kazakhstan – you might well ask where is Kazakhstan?
I have just finished a book called “In Search of Kazakhstan – The land that disappeared” – and what an interesting an very educational process that has been.
The book jumped into my hands at the English bookshop in Paris – WH Smith in the Rue de Rivoli and one of the few shops open on a Sunday afternoon when it’s cold and wet.
Written by Christopher Robbins, an American and author of both fiction and non-fiction works.
This is an extraordinary book – plumbing the depths of a Russian dictatorship – the Stalin years, the atrocities by the all-powerful Moscow on all its ‘accumulated’ lands, the incredible cruelty affecting people from all walks of life – the amazing strength of character of the Kazakh peoples – they say truth can be stranger than fiction, well this must truly rank among one of the best stories.
And of course the break up of the Soviet Union which has led to their independence.
Even having read Solzhenitsyn’s – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and the appalling misery of life in a gulag, one cannot begin to imagine how many millions of people had similar experiences.
I had a friend who lived for a few years in Almaty – I had to look this up on the map when she first moved there, and found it on the far eastern boundary with China.
To give you an idea of the size of the country, it takes 3 days and nights to travel from the border of Russia to the border of China– a country the size of Western Europe – and just under half the size of Australia - and yet how much is known of it.
I have seen photos of a city surrounded by beautiful mountains, heavy snow in the winter and wildflowers in summer – but it is the Steppe which Robbins describes in so much detail – and which is so difficult to imagine – the extent of the grasslands across thousands of miles –the endlessness of it.
This is how The Times described his book:
“Kazakhstan is the size of Western Europe but so little known that few people can find it on a map. It was closed to travel by the Tsars and sealed tight by the Soviets. Cosmonauts were sent into space from here, Gulags built and nuclear weapons tested. Today, against all odds, it is an oil and mineral-rich independent state that has no enemies”.
They have an amazing President who has developed his country into a peaceful and economically viable place and testimony to the power of mankind to rise against all odds.
Enough of book reviews – we had dinner with friends from PwC in Melbourne last night – Noel and Denise Anderson and their son Hamish – they are enjoying a wonderful trip through Russia, Germany, Holland and now Paris – great to catch up on all their news.
And we are now off to London, Iain Howie’s 70th birthday and then to see Linda and Roger Speddy – and other long time friends from Jakarta days, Greg and Maureen Nairn – this will be a very noisy few days.
Au revoir for now
Barb
