Beautifully written book that gives you a taste of 1970 Provence and food culture. Amazing to see how French food culture got to the US, which had jusBeautifully written book that gives you a taste of 1970 Provence and food culture. Amazing to see how French food culture got to the US, which had just undergone a big wave of microwaves and packaged foods in the 1950s/60s....more
Overall, very useful and helpful book that made me think harder about my habits around alcohol. My major takeaways that I'm enacting:
1. Two days in aOverall, very useful and helpful book that made me think harder about my habits around alcohol. My major takeaways that I'm enacting:
1. Two days in a row of drinking is extremely bad for you as your body doesn't have time to recover and you don't sleep well, it's a downward spiral. Avoid this if at all possible, and go light the second day if you decide to drink. 2. Binge drinking, or getting "wasted" is very bad for you, much better to limit how much you do this. 3. Occasional breaks from alcohol of 2-4 are very, very good for you as they establish the habit of not drinking, and tend to lower your drinking after you do drink again. It can take a few weeks to remove all effects of alcohol from your system and let your liver fully recover. 4. Have a glass of water for every glass of alcohol, and a big one before bed.
Other interesting tidbits:
Alcohol is a huge dopamine stimulant, which is in part why it feels so good, and why we might crave it when stressed.
I didn't realize that in the old days, beer and wine had much less alcohol in them than they do today (3-4% vs 5-8% today for beer). In middle ages I think it was even less, which is why people could drink it so often.
Drinking while driving is a huge cause of death. In the US we have a .08% limit, which is actually not even that safe. Many countries in Europe have .05%, and many in Scandinavia have .02% (basically sober).
A good way to drink consciously is to count your drinks and plan them for the week. If you know you will be drinking 2 nights in a given week, and then plan to have no more than 4 drinks on each of those nights, you are more likely to not exceed/overdrink.
Don't drink to drown your sorrows. I love this quote: "I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim. Frida Kahlo"...more
A good capture of French food culture by a Canadian author who moved to France for a year and was forced to learn the hard way. Some of her learnings A good capture of French food culture by a Canadian author who moved to France for a year and was forced to learn the hard way. Some of her learnings didn't apply to me - eg I was shocked at how much snacking she had her kids doing in Vancouver - like 4-5 snacks per day - crazy! But some of her tips were very helpful, and are confirmed by my experiences in France so far (I've been here for 4 months).
There is a lot here, and I encourage people to check out my notes. But my top takeaways are:
1. A kid has to try a new food ~10 times before they will start to like it. So the goal is getting them to try a taste of new foods. To this end, don't serve the kids different food than adults get - don't cook them a special meal - they need to learn to eat what adults eat and to try everything. This is probably the biggest takeaway of the book (and is its title) - that you can get kids to eat everything by getting them to try new foods. You can also help this process be easier by introducing the new foods in easy to consume formats designed for this (eg leek soup to get used to leeks).
2. The French prioritize healthy eating. Buying food in a French market is a pleasure, whereas going to a grocery store in the US is a chore. In France you can ask vendors where stuff comes from and what is best and they always have an answer, that sometimes leads you to new discoveries. In the US, you can ask the teenager at the grocery store those questions, but you won't get the same experience. The government has strict rules around food that ensures this, and that is something that I wish the US could enact, but it won't for reasons that I won't go into.
3. The French have a culture of eating slowly and enjoying their food. Lunches and dinners are at the table, and eaten together, with plenty of time for conversation. They also make sure to have plenty of variety at the table. This makes food more enjoyable and is healthier for digestion. It's also very health for families! The fact that many stores in France are closed from noon to 2 or 3pm is super annoying, but this is part of the culture of food and family. This is at odds with the culture of fast food and multi-tasking while eating that we have in the US. In French schools, the cantine (dining hall) the kids are served food by teachers, who make sure the kids get some of everything, and educate the kids about what everything is - and there is only one menu!
4. The French only have 4 meals a day, and do not snack at all outside these. Breakfast (which is small and literally called petit dejeune or "small lunch"), lunch (often the largest meal of the day), goûter (afternoon snack at 3 or 4pm), and dinner. So there is a snack, but it's planned, and importantly, it's also done with fresh, health foods, not processed foods. As I learned in The Obesity Code, snacking and particular midnight snacking are particularly bad for you. A particularly important bit is to not allow snacking before a meal, because kids certainly won't eat something new if they aren't hungry. Also, water is a food group!
5. To enjoy food, enjoy local food. This means buying and cooking local products, something the French call Terrior. So the veggies and meats you find in France in a given season won't be the same as at home, but the key is to search out and find those fresh, local products and enjoy them. That is a the key to enjoying where you live, great food, and is a great bonding activity with family and friends.
A bit old, but a great overview and tour through French wines. Fascinating to see that even then the wines that tasted best were not the big names, buA bit old, but a great overview and tour through French wines. Fascinating to see that even then the wines that tasted best were not the big names, but the ones who were doing it "the old way" and not using huge modern technology that filtered the wine. But this of course doesn't scale so less and less of these are around.
One fascinating thing to me was how much Kermit railed against the big, bold, strong reds. Because those are my favorites!
But he points out time and time again that a good wine should pair with what it will be eaten with. And this means one can drink a wide variety of wines, depending on what is being eaten. This, along with many of the examples he gives has helped push my thinking a little about what wines to buy.
Another interesting bit was the examples he gave about how much shipping and storage matters. He would give examples of shipping wine via ordinary methods that arrived flat, and how it only tasted the same if shipping correctly.
Another bit I loved learning about was how much the terroir affects the taste of the grapes. Not just the soil either, but how much sunlight, and even things like nearby plants like sage, rosemary, lavender, thyme - he gave a great example of how one wine one year suddenly stopped tasting like blackberries, and he asked the vintner what happened, and learned that the wineries neighbor had removed some blackberry bushes that bordered their properties. Fascinating.
Wines it mentions to try: * Meursault: white and mineral * Domaine Tempier: best reds in Provence * Domaine de la Gautière: just outside the border of Côtes du Rhône but just as good * Northern Rhone: There are but a handful, including some of France’s noblest: Saint-Péray, Cornas, Saint-Joseph, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Condrieu, Château Grillet, and Côte Rôtie * Cote Rotie: A Côte Rôtie is by no means light stuff; it is a substantial wine, but what is unusual is this saplike quality combined with a certain finesse, a certain delicacy. Top it off with that amazing perfume of Syrah fruit grown in this special terroir and you have a wine set apart from all others. Anyone can make a heavy, oaky wine. All you need is a new barrel and sugary (or sugared) grape juice. But a Côte Rôtie that tastes like Côte Rôtie can come only from the terroir of the roasted slope and from the traditional vinification developed over the centuries in the cellars of Ampuis. * Bergundy: Savigny or Pernand, a Mercurey or Rully. Volnay or Pommard, Chambolle or Nuits. * Today, from all the appellations of the northern Rhône that produce white wine, there is only one sure thing year in and year out, and that is the quality of the Chave Hermitage blanc
Magical descriptions and prose of the authors life in Provence, France. Full of humor, and tantalizing descriptions of French food, and French life. WMagical descriptions and prose of the authors life in Provence, France. Full of humor, and tantalizing descriptions of French food, and French life. Written in the 90's but still likely relevant (I'd be curious how much Provence has changed, but I'd bet this book still applies). Biggest takeaway was that the national sport of the Provencals, at least according to the book, is food.
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