Food moments

I love living in Hongkietown for the most part, and I especially adore the amazing diversity of Chinese cuisine, but if there's one thing travel has taught me, it's to appreciate not-to-be-duplicated gastronomical glories in situ. (Photo is a pear growing on a tree in the garden where P and C got married -- tempting no?).

Following are my top 10 food moments from last year's vacation in France:

1. The bucketful of tasty, tasty, juicy mussels at Chez Leon, right on Champs Elysées. L’eau de pollution added a certain piquancy to the flavor.
2. Buckwheat crepes with cheese and mushrooms in Normandy, washed down with glasses of delightful cider
3. The sweetest green prunes and the juiciest pears straight off Auchan’s produce carts (I know it’s only Auchan, but I’m easy to please)
4. Potato chips à la ancienne or with moutarde. We munched on them in the car, in hotel rooms, along the autoroute, while picnicking at the various airs, in the garden, dans ma chambre, in the TGV…you get the idea
5. Stolen grapes from various Bordeaux vineyards (wages of sin: I got a nasty rash from a nettle-like weed growing alongside the vines)
6. Le photographe delicieux at the wedding (well, not exactly food but….)
7. My totally fab tan (comme une toasted brioche) acquired on the beaches of Pays Basque (again, not strictly food…)
8. Stuffed baked peppers with beautifully spicy-meaty chorizo de Bilbao that we had bought just the day before in Bilbao
9. Anchovy-fragrant Caesar salad with the nicest yellowy-yolky soft-boiled eggs and croutons
10. Pain d’épices!

And yes.....Foie gras! Foie gras! Toujours foie gras!