Tag Archives: restaurants

A few more things about Lyon . . .

date:  Tue, Feb 17, 2009

subject:  a few more things . . . .
Hi Everyone,
I thought of a few more things of note to pass on your way from that weekend past.
1)  It rained so hard that la Saône was chocolate, like the rivers in Hawaii get when it’s rained a lot.
That lasted for well over a week. There were HUGE things floating very rapidly downstream (south in this instance, though I must add that la Saône is technically not a fleuve, or is it rivière?, because it doesn’t flow to the sea . . .). Large things like trees and who knows what all else. There WERE parking lots below the road level on the Saône-level, which have yet to open because the water was so high. So maybe this is why I see more canal-type boats on le Rhone rather than on la Saône.
2) For the first time ever I took a pair of scissors to my hair and cut, and I do mean chopped! I took off a good inch all around! I’ve cut my bangs plenty of times but never something so drastic as this!
First of all, I ventured forth and cut my own hair because I noticed that Madame’s hair was considerably shorter one day than it had been the day before. I asked her about it and she said she had cut it herself. If you remember, I got the MOST-LAYERED haircut known to man a few weeks back. Alors, the other length still was too long, so I thought, What the heck? All I cut was the part that hits the shoulder. And here it seems to be the style to have your hair all different lengths (at least to my non-professional eye, Laurie), so now I fit right in!

It was incredible watching the pile of hair on the newspaper grow. (I had laid newspaper on the floor next to the very large mirror in Madame’s chamber.) Needless to say, I did this when she was away visiting her parents.

3) “n’importe quoi” = anything (at all)
4)  I went to another restaurant with the school last week. Only thing is, I was the only student to sign up! I signed up because there were only places for 4 students and this was supposedly/allegedly a restaurant where you had to make a reservation for at least a week in advance. Romy, who is the “head” of the school and all of 31 years of age, said she’d never done this before, but she wanted to go with just one student, moi. Now I don’t think it had anything to do with my magical power of persuasion or interesting personality but rather simply because she was dying to experience this restaurant. And I reckon it was on “company” time . . .
Donc . . . it was super!!
It’s called “l’ourson qui boit.” The thing that drinks is a little bitty bear. I have the card with the cute bear wearing a pink shirt and black pants holding a little green bottle (in the same shape of a wine bottle, I must add!)

The chef is Japonais. The restaurant is in France. It was the coolest combination of the two cuisines!!! I loved it!!! Alors, Michele, I got the wonderful meal I was wanting.
For entrée I had a potage of spinach with 3 large dumpling like things that were the Japonaise version of St. Jacques. There was a wonderfully lemony flavor in the soup.
For my main plat I had the poisson. I don’t know what kind of fish it was but the waitress said it came from the sea. It was also served in a bowl over soupy risotto with a wonderful lemony and mushroomy sauce. On top of the fish was what I swear (sorry Mom, it’s the only word that really fits!) were little bitty pieces of sashimi, fresh, fresh ahi. Wow!
For dessert we decided to order two different dishes and share. She LOVED the creme whatchamacallit with a caramèl sauce . . .  but not the bizarre tiramisu ala Japonaise. So I just had two bites of the pudding thing and gobbled up the other . . . imagine a small, flat round dish like the ones used for crème brulèe (but a bit deeper).  Now imagine a cream like substance covered with little green flecks which were a lot like seaweed. The crème wasn’t very deep. In just the slightest press of the spoon you discovered the “cake” part of the tirimisu. It was deliceux; but I think just a bit too weird for Romy (yes, another Romy!!! She didn’t believe me at first when I told her I had a friend at home named Romey, Romey).
We decided to pass on the café after or apertif (both before and after) since we drank an entire bottle of wine between the two of us. I’ve found that most of the French just have 2 glasses of wine with dinner . . . now what they have before, is another story. Non, not really. But what do I know, I haven’t really hung out with LOTS of French people besides by hôtesse and her friends.
Today is mardi the 17th of fevrier, my last week. The week’s activities are as follows:
mardi (aujourd’hui)  bowling
      yep, you read right! bowling! we leave in 15 minutes.
I might go to a play tonight toute seule . . . or not, I saw a poster today that looked interesting. It’s a one-man-show (it said that in English on the poster so I THINK I’m sure) and it opens tonight. It’s tonight or never if I really have the urge . . . (I didn’t.)
mercredi the 18th is dinner night at Via Toscana. Yep, Italiana. I’m going. There’s a movie Wed. too but I think I’m going to pass because I want to go to the greco-roman musée and it’s then or never (maybe Friday I could but I’d rather not leave it to my last day in Lyon).
jeudi the 19th is an organized visit to the same museum I went to last Thursday night. Remember when I told you about the Vernissage? The opening night? I want to go again.
Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon
Vendredi soir Madame has said that her oldest son of 27 years and his wife and little 9-month old baby girl are going to join us for dinner. Should be very nice! And then hopefully afterwards I’ll meet “the gang” for a sending off. I think that’s when I really find out what they think of me . . . probably the only 48 year old they’ve ever hung out with.
And then samedi I depart for Annecy . . . it feels like the place to go at this point of my life . . . T booked the hotel last night and I’m going to purchase my tickets after bowling . . .
So, for the moment I think I’m all up to date.  Today I sent off a packet to Tones with a few things including the 4MB chip with a LOT of photos . . . maybe he’ll post them, or maybe he won’t.  It might be best to wait till I return and can add captions . . .
So for now mes bons amis, au revoir, bisous et à bientôt,
Suzanne

La cuisine . . . as experienced by moi

date:  Tue, Feb 3, 2009

subject:  la cuisine

Bonjour mes amis!
A few of you have asked about the food . . .. alors, Lyon is known for its food, its (notice Mary Hunter, c’est parfait comme ca) gastronomie.
Where to begin?
Okay, I’ll start at the apartment first.
The French do no eat breakfast.
****I should add a disclaimer right off the bat that this email contains MY views only and are in no way to reflect those of others . . .
Instead of breakfast they smoke cigarettes. They DO drink a lot of café espresso with sugar and maybe they will drink a cup of orange juice. When asked what I normally ate for breakfast, “Muesli,” I replied. Thank goodness I said that because the bread she has for toast is très horrible! It’s the ultimate in white air-bread, even worse if that’s possible. My hostess is very nice but she is a bit of a space cadet at times. Fortunately Teri had given me Anahola granola to give friends. That’s what I had for breakfast for about the first week until she remembered to buy a box of Muesli. Alors, for breakfast I eat a bowl of muesli with yogurt, a banana and for a hot beverage I have a pot of tea (which I also brought along–the tea that is, not the pot–thanks again Marty!) and then I also bought some tea later.
Lunch.
Seems like tout le monde eat sandwiches these days, and they even CALL them sandwiches here. I can imagine many professors of French rolling over in their graves.
At school we have a separate room where we are to hang out and eat lunch (or a snack on the break). There is a microwave oven in there that we are free to use. In the hall next to the bathroom is a machine which dispenses warm beverages for 40 cents (about 60 American cents, I suppose). There are a variety of beverages to choose from: espresso with or without sugar, with or without milk, with or without vanilla, hot chocolate, etcetera. But MOI, I bought a white cup (actually I bought 3, it was a set and it was THE cup I liked the most, the 2 office gals are now happily sipping their beverages in similar cups! Maybe that’s why Marthe let me make a print copy yesterday in the office workers and professeurs’ bureau . . .).  I leave it on top of the microwave and make hot tea when I wish. But of course I do BUY a coffee now and then, this is France after all, and the sweets which are occasionally passed around do taste better with coffee.
Back to lunch.
Today I ate half of a most wonderfully crispy and fresh whole wheat (just a little really, whole wheat that is) baguette which I purchased this morning.  On top I spread some butter (I just bought the 16 little packets of butter yesterday.  I figured life was too short to not enjoy the wonderful French butter!) and then I had 2 different types of hard cheese which I bought last week and have stored in Madame’s fridge.  I also had a hard boiled egg with a little bit of Uncle Mike’s wonderful Kauai-made, guava smoked salt. In addition I crunched on a raw carrot (to clean my teeth, of course). I brought an apple too but I was satisfied, so I stopped. Now I have a snack handy for after class.
Lunch during a weekend bike exploration
I have also gone to a couple of restaurants during the hour lunch break. Once I had a demi-pizza margharite avec une salade.  It was good. Not the VERY best pizza (compared to the place in Sarasota that Tony and I went to twice, but very good). They also served a complementary apéritif . . . I think because it was the new year.  But Tony and I have a saying. I don’t really know why they gave me the apéritif for free, AND I’ll never know.  I went back to the same place because I had a hankering for spaghetti bolognese.  Mistake. It was terrible. One day I went to a café and for 3 euros got a simple jambon sandwich on a baguette. It was very good and the bread was incredibly fresh. The grand café crème was very good too.
Before I got a hang of the buying cheese and bread on my own I bought a sandwich or two at the place called “American Sandwiches.” That’s where most of the guy/male students get their lunch. Needless to say, I decided to get my own supplies.  They’re giving us Americans a bad name!
I did one day buy a petite quiche avec champignons et fromage. It was very good. I heated it in the microwave and the cheese dripped all over the mushrooms. C’était super!
Time for class . . . I’ll continue a bit later.
Okay, I can hear you all groaning, we don’t want to hear about what you eat, what YOU prepare. What about the “French” food?
Okay, la Madame makes a very wholesome dinner every evening. There is usually a meat, a vegetable and a carbohydrate. And lately, there is usually wine which is a good thing. If I want to know what she’s going to prepare for the evening, I just crack open the cabinet where she stores her square glass dishes.
On top of a plate is either a chicken (frozen and set there to thaw) or a filet mignon de porc (like last night) or some other type of red-colored fleshy stuff.
Looks like it’s poulet from the South West tonight !
When the plate is empty, I’m left to wonder.
She has made potatoes au gratin, squash au gratin, haricot vert boiled in water and then slathered with oil or butter and garlic, pork cutlets, frozen hamburger meat thawed and then fried in a pan (this usually goes with the green beans), spaghetti bolognese (hers was good, just lots of meat and light on the sauce), plain ole rice (that was with the pork chops), steak (sometimes tough, sometimes not; again, simply fried in a pan), creamed spinach and a couple of hard boiled eggs (this was Saturday night, it was quite good but I think I’d make it with less cream) . . . . and with all of this we sometimes have salad.  The salad is either simply just that, green leafy lettuce, or a mélange of lettuce with corn, tomatoes . . . and I think that’s about the extent of it. Oh, we did have a casserole one evening that was endives covered with cream and fromage and at least 2 times we’ve had a roasted chicken, once simply with garlic and once with lemons. And she made a pot-au-feu once. When I told her it was like my Mom’s pot roast that she bakes in the oven she became offended. It has to be cooked slowly on the stove-top, not in the oven!
But it did taste just like Mom’s pot roast, complete with carrots and potatoes. It was good.
When I write this now, it seems that it might appear that I’m not happy with the food, but au contraire. I’m quite satisfied with it. Granted, it’s a lot more meat than I’m used to eating. The only odd this is that she must cook with a lot of salt because many mornings I awake with puffy eyes. This especially happens after eating out in a restaurant. Unless they cook with a lot of MSG here, that’s another possibility.
And oh, we had saumon one night. Those of you who know me well know I love salmon.
We usually eat anywhere between 8 p.m. at the earliest and 10 p.m. at the latest. Though we have been eating at 8 more regularly, which makes me happy.
Mom asked why so late? It’s their custom to eat between 7 and 9 p.m. (at least that’s what my trusty little guide from the school said). La Madame usually stretches out on the couch between 6 and 7 p.m. to possibly 7:30 and smokes her petit cigarettes (I figured out what she meant when on the day of my arrival she said that she smokes “a little.” She meant a little cigarette. But trust me, she smokes a lot. Perhaps that’s why she’s so thin.)  Around 7:30 she jumps up and says something like, oh the dinner!
But to be very fair to her, she very kindly peeks her head in my room where I am usually studying or reading and asks, “Un verre Susan?”  “Bien sûr,” I reply. “I would love a glass of wine.” Sometimes it’s cider but usually it’s wine.
And also to be fair to la Madame, she has a lot to think about with her parents. Her mother who is 90 years old is blind and I think is suffering some from Alzheimer’s.  Her Dad is a young 77.  Fortunately, he is in good health and can take care of his wife, but this must cause la Madame a good deal of worrying.
Okay, and finally on to the restaurants.
I haven’t eaten out a lot because to be blunt, I’ve paid for dinner at the apt. and will be in Paris with Mom later in the month when we will have to eat out (or cook dinner for ourselves at the fabulous loft studio apt. I found for us).
The St. Jacques (scallops baked in a little dish) I had in Paris was by far the tastiest morsel I’ve imbibed during this trip. A close second was the fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil and pesto salad, which my friend from Finland ordered (she left Saturday, she works for an aide company in either Senegal or Kenya . . . she asked if Tony and I would be willing to travel to Senegal to make a video  . . .  Bien sûr!!! I replied.) before we met the others in front of the opera for our night out at the “swanky” restaurant run by the best chef in Lyon.

That meal was “okay.” But it really wasn’t magnifique like we’d been led to believe. I had the salad of meat followed by the fish, which was fried in a pan. It was fine but nothing to write home about (so why AM I writing???)  Nothing like the fabulous poisson I’ve eaten at Roy’s or Sabella’s or Pacific Cafe. To be honest, it felt like a tourist trap.

 Angélica, Dominique et Marie–happy just to be here !

Tony and I were happily able to come back to Lyon 10 months later . . . we dined out at a sister restaurant with Jean-Laurent and a friend. It was the wonderful meal I’d been wanting during my solo trip. But I didn’t see any students dining there. Maybe they indeed did take us to “tourist traps.”

The next week we ate at a typical Lyonnais place that serves their regional cuisine.
It was a much finer restaurant but vegetarian beware! They served tripe and liver and sausage of porc . . . lots of meat.
 
Presentation is everything . . .
The classic salade Lyonnaise is essentially tiny pieces of bacon with a bit of lettuce and croutons.
Perhaps I exaggerate . . . I enjoyed it the most that evening, and the roasted potatoes; they were very good too. I entertained the idea of simply ordering something I knew I’d like but chose instead to do like the Romans. I ordered the meal with all the typical dishes; I copied my nice teacher Jean-Laurent.

Do I have regrets? No, but I don’t have to try that stuff again. The next restaurant I want to go do is on rue Lantern next to quai de la pecherie and le Rhone. It’s a pizza joint très elegant where they make their pizzas in a wooden fire. I can see Tony drooling already!

 A good time was had by all . . .
So, I think that’s it for the food for the moment. Oh, and the meal I had 2 Saturdays ago. It was very, very tasty and satisfying. To remember that meal go cherchez in that other email . . .
So for now, au revoir mes amis and best wishes for a very pleasant day.
aloha,
Susan
One of the many cheese carts at the open-air markets