https://soupsong.com/blog Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:28:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_637" align="alignleft" width="191" caption="British Museum sphinx considering Halloween activities"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_636" align="alignnone" width="281" caption="Prepackaged scariness"][/caption] No one is a bigger fan of Halloween than me. The creepiness of its very concept...the intoxification of fear...the cloying sweetness of the treats and the nastiness of the tricks. Who could doubt that it's an ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/10/nobody-spooks-like-the-english/ [caption id="attachment_622" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Me, knocking on heaven's door"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_621" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="A soup of a different color"][/caption] Who knew that REAL French onion soup began its life in Lyon? So declared lyonnais Bernard Chaléat, friend of Catherine (pictured), before we ever arrived: "La soupe à l'oignon ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/10/will-the-real-french-onion-soup-please-stand-up/ [caption id="attachment_594" align="alignleft" width="247" caption="Oysters or die, if you please."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_599" align="alignnone" width="348" caption=""Never had enough""][/caption] This silly drawing is from "Etiquette," one of W. S. Gilbert's "Bab Ballads," which recounts the plight of two proper but very shipwrecked Englishmen. Alas, they have not been properly introduced, so they can not ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/10/he-had-often-eaten-oysters-but-had-never-had-enough/ [caption id="attachment_571" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Dedicated to Traditional French Soups"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Soupe Locmariaquer"][/caption] I woke up this morning thinking about soup. Still too early for Paris to turn on the heat so, with all my casement windows open, I was double wrapped in down and still had freezing feet. ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/10/tis-the-season/ [caption id="attachment_552" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="vichy broomheads"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_551" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="soupe d'avocat froide au citron vert, brunoise de concombre"][/caption] As I stepped off my train in Vichy's exquisite station, I had all sorts of pre-conceptions. Yes, yes, I would find the perfect building or monument to capture the shame of Pétain's ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/10/collaborating-etc-in-vichy-france/ [caption id="attachment_493" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Shelled cocos with their pods"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_492" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Breton pumpkin soup with cocos"][/caption] "Coco de Paimpol"? Suddenly these big speckly pods were all over local French markets. I'd never seen beans like them before--soft yellow pods marbled with violet arabesques--and the name was crazy: coconuts ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/09/cuckoo-for-coco-de-paimpol/ [caption id="attachment_525" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bouillon for the Blessed"][/caption] There's no way around it, I am hooked on Saint Du Jour. "The Saint of the Day" appears as a small daily column in the free Paris metro newsrag, Direct Matin Plus--and is just short enough and easy enough for me to read in ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/09/un-bouillon-de-poule-revives-the-saint-of-the-day/ [caption id="attachment_498" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Brugesiastic stuff"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_499" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Waterzooie part II"][/caption] Don't you just want to slap yourself when you go to a cool place and forget your camera? That would be me this weekend on a trip to Bruges, a medieval Flemish city caught and preserved mostly in ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/09/bon-baiser-de-bruges/ [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="185" caption="Love Soup"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_481" align="alignnone" width="270" caption="Love French Lentil Soup"][/caption] When I was in Seattle this summer and daughter Meg was in the urping first months of pregnancy, she said, "Mom, my refrigerator is crushed full of greens and veggies from the farm that are going bad. ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/09/love-soup-the-world-of-anna-thomas/ [caption id="attachment_471" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Summer goodbyes at the Cafe de la Paix"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_470" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="French twist on a classic Spanish soup"][/caption] Well, you'd certainly think I'd been whisked away by little green men, for all I've been blogging. But, alas, I return with no Alien Soup recipes...only some that ... https://soupsong.com/blog/2009/08/whereve-i-been-captured-by-aliens/