I’ve been wondering lately why I live here. Winter is freezing cold. You can barely go stay outside for more than a few minutes without the icy blasts (which sound good now) sending you back indoors, to get under the covers, snuggly with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Then we have spring. Which this year lasted 4 days. Then summer comes, and Paris melts…
[UPDATE: Vert d’Absinthe has closed their boutique in the Marais. Absinthe can be ordered via their website here.] Paris is always full of little surprises, like any major city. It’s always fun to poke around and find something new and unusual. And there’s plenty of the unusual in a big city like Paris, as I often report. I think of Paris as a big village,…
This sad news arrived in my inbox this morning: The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma from complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71. Doughboy was buried in a lightly-greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities in the food community turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and…
I recently attended a dinner here in Paris, at a well-known hotel, where the first course was Caesar Salad. That was the Caesar Salad. Yes, it has lettuce. And anchovies (speared around skewers). And cheese. But, like, what is with those batter-fried Chinese shrimp? Who gave the ok to put batter-fried shrimp on a Caesar Salad? Mon Deui, what is so friggin’ hard about making…
Griottes Like many things in French, there can be several names for the same thing. Chicken breasts can be blanc de poulet, suprême de poulet, or poitrine de poulet. And there are 7 different ways to say “because of” (a cause de, grace a, car, parce que, etc…) When people ask me how long it took to learn French, I tell them that even the…
As any American knows, procrastination is a way of life. For example, I’m nearing the end of a big project, yet am having a hard time bucking down to finish it. I even got so desperate in my procrastination that I pulled out my oven and cleaned all behind it, the sides, and scrubbed off the baked-on sugar around the knobs. I’m looking for other…
Join me on my Spring 2026 book tour for my latest book, The Great Book of Chocolate
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