"The Sweet Life in Paris" by David Lebovitz

"The Sweet Life in Paris" By David Lebovitz (nonfiction)

Paris, in all it's glamour.  After you're finished reading this book, its my belief that  you'll know which baguette is better: Pas trip cuile, traditionelle, or demise entierre.

As an American writer in Paris, this author explains why the French tend to accept defeat in things like paperwork.  He'll explain why customer service is not a priority in this country and why budging someone in line is considered the norm.  By the end you'll come to know helpful strategies to fend off those Parisians that you come in contact with and do as the author does "use a basket and spin it, to block anyone coming to you from an angle." (when your in the grocery store).   Basically, after your finished reading; you'll understand the necessities of becoming a Parisian.

Messy Kitchen

      

 

What makes a messy kitchen?  Well,  Culinary Arts College helped me find out.  Listed on this webssite are great Parisian Food Blogs.

 

 

www.doriegreenspan.com  Dorie writes a great Gingerbread baby recipe.This blog obviously explores the Parisian kitchen.  You begin to wander what makes a parisian kitchen, brass cooking pans for one, as is suggested on her cover page. 

 

 

www.bakeinparis.blogspot.com Kris writes a blog all about Parisian food and he has layered cakes as well as lemon cheese cake with caramelized cumquats, and orange tian, (of course french Tiramisu), chocolate and passion fruit lamingtons, caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting and Dobos Torta.There's something about layered cakes that I love. I don't care what's in between the layers as long as it isn't a surprise like some cakes that hide the flavoring right in the middle so that you don't know what your getting into by the time you get there.  Like a big gush of blueberry in the middle of a cake, no thanks!

 

 

 

 

Endangered Features:The Art of Baking from Scratch

After seeing the early emerging signs of the chocolate holiday ahead aka Valentine's day.  I wanted to do some research on the best chocolate blogs and see what makes chocolate blogs unique.

www.lakechamplainchocolates.com  I congratulate this business blog by Lake Champlain Chocolates and a post entitled spread chocolate cheer. 

Don't mind if I do..  I think, gazing out at their beautiful boxes of chocolate and an arrangement  of row upon row of chocolates I never seen before.  I'm like Forest Gump thinking life is like a box of chocolates you never know what your going to get.


http://www.chocablog.com This blog is unique in that it has exactly what I was looking for a chocolate tier dessert.  Now why am I looking for a tier dessert well after watching the movie The Departed there was a scene for which Matt Damon is eating a elegant tier dessert with his co-star Vera Farmiga and I was like I got to see more tier desserts.

 So here is one called chocolate-mille-feuille/ on this blog.  Here is another tier dessert called dalek-chocolate-cake wow very tall, its like the Eiffel tower version of a chocolate cake. 

If those blogs weren't enough for you William Curley has this business website called William Curley Pattisier Chocolatier and it has the most couture chocolates I've ever seen.  Chocolates with big chocolaty ribbons that loom over pastries like big waterfalls.

www.chocolateandzucchini.com This blog by Clotilde is absolutely amazing because it has all kinds of chocolates mixed with other food combinations that you never thought possible.  Coussin-de-lyon/ is a chocolate pillow dessert popular in France.

 It reminds me of desserts that I used to eat long ago at my Grandmother's house. I come from a long line of women who only eat desserts from scratch, (not box cakes and such) so I would love to come back to this blog and learn some more about the art of baking from scratch. 

 I like the fact this blog also has a vertical Paris garden wall.  I've never seen anything like it.  The writer also has a Chocolate-and-pistachio-surprise-cake-recipe

"Let the Great World Spin" by Colum McCann

"Let the Great World Spin " by Colum McCann, a combined-story novel.   I enjoyed this novel, and the way McCann spins the stories of characters who have unlikely chances of meeting one another.  One of the stories discusses two Irish brothers, Corrigan and Ciaran who are on two different wave lengths, but end up both leaving Ireland and eventually living together in the Bronx.

We are introduced to Corrigan, who as a child empathizes with the poor, and who will do absolutely anything he can for the poor. He tells his mother that their situation is not that bad in comparison to those who have absolutely nothing.  He meets the poor under bridges as they warm their hands, Corrigan listens to their stories.  When the father of the brothers walks out of their lives, Corrigan brings the poor people his father's clothing, and his brother Ciaran merely watches as he gazes onto random strangers walking on the beach with his father's suits on.

McCann also tells the story of Philippe Petit, the French acrobat who is a  tight-rope walker.

Its my belief that McCann introduces such a factual story into the plot of the book so as to raise the drama of novel and cast a story that readers can automatically visualize:The Twin Towers. 

 Petit decides to walk the lengths of the former TWIN TOWERS just to see if he can do it; adding to his collection of buildings he's walked across.  His walking between the TOWERS brings the attention of the New Yorkers who look up at him, in astonishment and see only a tiny speck in the sky, wandering who could possibly have the gall to do such a thing, admiring him, and at the same time holding great fear for this man's life.(the Global Dig)

"The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoleon's Court " by Michelle Moran

   

"The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoleon's Court," by Michelle Moran. 

 

This novel reads with a feminist point of view, of the French Revolution.  Although the second empress is characterized as being weak and without much power over her destiny and over her new Kingdom in France, Michelle Moran does an excellent job in her research of Napoleon.

 

Napoleon takes a second empress, Marie Louise.  Louise will have a task keeping France together as she is left in charge while Napolean begins one of France's worst Revolutions.The empress convinces French citizens to take refuge at the Chateau de Rambouillet.  Once its obvious that Russia is winning, Napoleon makes a retreat to France while his Army is still fighting Russia and, so as not to draw attention to his self, Napoleon dresses like an Austrian when he visits his sister Pauline.  How cowardly is that?

Marie Louise is worried about her solitary son whom she has, had with Napoleon.  Napoleon wrote a letter to Joseph, a former king of Spain telling him his hopes for his son: "Id rather see my son's throat cut than imagine him brought up as an Austrian prince in Vienna. 

 

The fact that Napoleon would rather cut his son's throat, than have him live in Austria tells the empress that she'd better make like a bandit and get her and her son out of Napoleon's line of vision.  She decides to take her son, against the father's will to live in  Austria with her family.  When Napoleon flees France, his carriage is stalked by villagers on his way out of Paris, and the people throw rocks at his carriage.  He tries to win the people over one more time, by giving the people a speech: telling them he wasn't a traitor for leaving Russia with his army still there, that he was helping the dying by returning to France. (the Global Dig)

  

"The Girl with No Shadow:A Novel" By Joanne Harris

   

 "The Girl with No Shadow: A Novel" by Joanne Harris.  This novel had a slow opening but like all things French, I thought I would give it a chance. Harris continues the story of the mother :Viane Rocher (Rosh-ay), Teenage daughter Anouk, and youngest Rossette. This is a sequel to  Harris' previous novel "Chocolat". 

 The novel starts starts getting interesting with the introduction of the character of Zowsie, who comes to work in Viane Rocher's chocolate shop.  Zowsie is a mystical character with witch like features, and when the daughter, Anouk confides into Zowsie about her personal life, revealing all of the intimate details of school life, and bullies, Zowsie uses the details to wrap a string around Anouk and tells her she can use powers to fend off bullies all the while becoming a confident young woman. 

 Readers are introduced to the life of a typical teenager, seems boring, (but oh, not quiet)   Zowsie connects with this teenager and tells her that being a freak is okay, because Zowsie is a freak herself.  She shows Anouk exactly what freaks can do, she triggers a rude, French waitress to spill her lemonade all over her customer, with a simple snap of Zowsie's fingers. 

 I enjoyed the mother's french lullaby to her baby daughter " Layla boom boom, Layla boom boom"(If I find the actual name for this song, I'm going to keep it for myself). A reader can walk away from this novel with a quiet innocence of a story and the easy culmination of French wrapped up into a small lullaby.

 But Harris uses a little too many metaphors in her novel.  She used the wind as a metaphor , for, foreshadowing problems that happen to this family.  It seems overdone.  In fact, when Viane Rocher  mentions "the black man"  periodically throughout the novel, as the father of Viane's illegitimate children (even though the father is not black).  This has an undertone of prejudice.  Why couldn't Harris just called this man, "the Man of Wind?"  Like her over use of the metaphor.

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas

   

 "Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)" by Amy Thomas.  This is a great Paris memoir for those food lovers out there. Thomas, the author, is initially indecisive about whether she should take an opportunity to live in Paris and work at Louie Vuitton, a fashion corporation, or if she should stay in New York. When she takes the plunge and moves to France, Thomas will ponder which city is better, New York or Paris? 
She spends her time in Paris; looking at houses and eating at all the dessert shops.  She rides her bike to work, in hopes of keeping her Butt the same size as it was before.
Thomas is filled with smart quips about French culture, and she'll throw them in where she sees fit.  One that caught my attention, is when Thomas was observing a French woman who was quite attractive.  When the woman glances back at Thomas, she says that she rolled her eyes, Thomas notes that "the French don't smile at strangers, if they do, their retarded."

 I like how the author describes her indulgance in American sweets as a kid.  She said that she ate anything from Ho-Ho's to Kit Kat's to Twix to strawberry whips, to gummies, to licorice, etc.  But these treats, she says have nothing on the french desserts, she tasted. 

When she goes into a French bakery, she criss-crosses the menus in french,(with descriptions she can barely read) with what she saw in the showcases.  

 You'd think Americans were indecisive when they walked into a foreign Starbucks, just topple that with a chocolate shop containing many more options.  

 I liked when the writer describes the real sign of her becoming a Parisian, Whens someone stopped me in the street to ask for directions, (She responds in French), "I look like a Parisian?

I, myself, (the writer of the blog) had the same experience, when I went to France, and I felt overjoyed when someone mistakened me as a Frenchy.
Throughout Thomas' stay, she'll contemplate renewing her contract in France and at one point she makes a list of her favorite things in both US vs France, which include:

 America/France

Manolo's/Rapettos

oversize sunglasses/oversize scarfs

diner/cafe

downtown/left bank

Carie Bradshaw/Charlotte Gainsbourg

NY/Paris

 Thomas has a brief scare with a cyst attached to her ovary and she questions her direction in life, and whether she is wasting her time, and aging instead of raising a family, before she's too old.  When she sees a French specialist, she is surprised by the woman's dispositions and her matter of fact attitude, Thomas says "I should have known better, I had been living there, the french and their all business demeanor, their eye rolling, shoulder shrugging, their mmm attitudes".

 Here are just some of the Dessert shops that she says exists in NY and what their famous for:

 vanilla Carmel Venice Coffee cupcake at "Spot" bakery

butterscotch pudding with bread surbee at "Grammar C Tavern"

crack pie at "Mama Fukoo" bakery

Peanut butter cookies at "City Bakeries"

Chocolate Blackout donut at "Donut Planet"a restaurant

banana creme cheese cake at "Billies" restaurant 

 Thomas dines at a resturant in France, where Hemingway, Picasso, and Fitzgerald had dined, she says, "I was thinking that Hemingway or Picasso had been in the very seat where I was;just left of the bar."

Pastry Paris: Everything looks like a Desserts by Susan Hockbaum

 




Reading, Pastry Paris: In Paris, Everything looks like a Dessert, by Susan Hockbaum.

Even though I say I'm reading this marvelously illustrated book of nonfiction.  Its more like I'm devouring the pages.  Hockbaum takes the French desserts and makes them her own comparing desserts like the Religieuse, a paair of cream puffs sitting on top of one another to a a military complex: Les Jnvalides, that houses Napoleon's burial ground.She mentions the following desserts:

French pastries like dolled up eclairs ,gateau caramelmacaron a l'anciennetartframboisier

everest pistachio cakefeuille d automne passionato celiacupcake de vanillesupreme fraisemousse a la menthe

"The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain

 "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain".  The first  wife married to Ernest Hemingway is portrayed as gullible. and a little too easy going. 

 When we first meet Hadley Richardson, the wife, I got this Scott Fitzgerald feel from "The Great Gatsby". Here's a couple whose got money, class and a husband who puts his own needs first.  Like the scene from Gatsby where Daisy Miller is invited to parties by Nick, likewise Hadley is invited to to gatherings with Hemingway's friends.  She is ushered into a world of what seems like fun, filled with friends and talk that extends late into the night. This is a couple who can take trips to Cape Cod  drink and lolly-gag. 

 Too bad for Hemingway, he wanted to get out from under his parents thumb and his parent's old money.  He takes an opportunity to write in Paris as a foreign corespondent , working on his work of  the "The Sun Also Rises".  He takes his first wife Hadley along for the adventures.  She can support him, she receives money from her own family.  Hemingway spends most of his time in his private studio, or spends his time philandering with other women.  Getting into the social scene with other writers like Robert F. Burgess.  

 Hadley doesn't fit in well in Paris. Unlike Julia Child, she fails to find a hobby like cooking to entertain herself.  Although she does make friends, she doesn't realize these friendly women, are after her own love: Hemingway.

I liked that  McLain talked about the scenic attractions in Paris. The way she describes Paris and the cafes Hemingway frequents.  The social interaction between Hemingway and the French.  Hemingway is unafraid.  Its my belief that Mclain lacked the ability to show the wife's good characteristics and instead Hadley is shown as doughty, self-absorbed and bending to the will of Hemingway.