Achtung! Katzen!

My last day of work at Lycées Descartes and Maupassant was April 17th, so to kick off spring break slash my very long break, I went to Berlin with my buddy Caitlin for a few days. We decided that Berlin pretty much wins over France: everything's cheap, there's tons of delicious food of all different types, there are way more cool young people hanging out, and everyone's über helpful, and there are vintage bikes and bike lanes everywhere. It was great-- I can't wait to go back.

The weirdest thing is that no one crosses against the light. I've found that in most big cities, if you're brave enough and have perfected your death stare, it's pretty easy and safe to cross the street against the light. Apparently this is hugely taboo in Berlin-- a friend of mine once crossed against a light, when there were absolutely no cars in sight, and a crowd of people waiting anxiously for the light to turn gasped as he stepped into the street. He later asked a friend why this was such a big deal. She didn't think it was so huge but said "I would maybe do it... if there weren't any children around."

So that's pretty weird, but Berlin still wins. Anyway, here are my pictures!!

First of all this is the St. Oberholz cafe where we spent a significant amount of time--it was really chill and full of cool kids, and they made DELICIOUS iced tea.


Here are some pictures from around Wombats, the great hostel we stayed in. There were tons of cool boutiques, cafes, and bars along this street.


TV Tower!

Next are some pictures near Kreuzberg, another rad area of Berlin:


Yep, Washington really was 2Tight2Mention.

I like that instead of Excalibur it's EcSKAlibur. Wows!ville.








And finally my two favorite pics, Meat Burger Die Lounge and Berlin's Newest Musical.
Way to go, Germany!

cooking pt. 2

So for more news in cooking, my favorite restaurant in town is called Le Nomade. It's a middle eastern restaurant, and my favorite appetizer is Brick au Thon. It's made with feuilles de Brick which are similar to sheets of phyllo--they're very thin and can dry out easily, but brick is much more pliable. Anyway, they wrap a sheet of brick around a filling and then pan fry it. At Le Nomade they do tuna with capers, potatoes, and sometimes an egg yolk which spills out all yummy when you start to eat. And it's served with a wedge of lemon.

Naturally I decided to make some at home, and it was deeeelish.


My next undertaking was homemade barbecue pork buns. Honestly, it was INCREDIBLY time consuming, and I probably won't ever make these again on my own, but they still turned out very very yummy.





Here's the Pork! This is just roasted barbecue pork. To make the filling I chopped it all up, added more sauce, and also some onions, etc.










Aaaand the bun! Not quite as nice as I hoped, but still awesome. Now I'm only slightly less antsy to get back to Oakland's Chinatown.






Next up, we have what is probably my favorite meal of all time: Thai Red Curry Chicken. Actually I think I made it with turkey this time, but it was just as good.














And finally the most exciting! I actually found Tofu at Carrefour one day, so I made myself a little sesame-soy lacquered tofu appetizer a few weeks ago, with chives. Simple and delicious.

cooking pt. 1

So here's my first post about all the yummy foods I've been making here in France. Mostly I try to make the things that I really miss from California. So my first big undertaking was to make my own Saag Paneer.

But first, let's take a look at my ridiculous stove!


It's super small--not even big enough to roast a chicken. Also the burners are basically just hot plates, and since they're fixed to the top of the oven they're pretty hard to use. Oh and it's impossible to use both burners and the oven at the same time.

Funnn.

But back to Saag Paneer (homemade indian cheese with spinach), I thought it would be too hard to find a substitute for the cheese so I decided to make my own. This, of course, involved boiling the milk with a touch of lemon juice to get it to curdle, and then pressing the curds together, and then cutting off bite sized pieces to brown in a pan, before adding them to the spinach.

Naturally I was both scared and excited to make my own Paneer.

<---See?





Next up is Bridel Entier, the semi-fancy milk I used to make my Paneer.

After I'd formed the cheese came the best part: pan frying!!

Yum and Yum.

Brittany, Feb 6th, 7th, 8th

Two weeks ago, I went to Rennes and Vannes which are both in Bretagne/Brittany with some friends. We had a good time, although I was disappointed that no one seemed to speak with a crazy Breton accent. Anyway, here are TONS of pictures!

First here are some highlights from our really weird hotel. When we arrived, no one was at the front desk. Instead there was a sign that said "Mlle Chaze, you are in room 14, your key is in the door." So safe. When we went up to the room, we found some awesome decorations.

First, this awesome mannequin with one hand not attached, and on a table.



Then some awesome vintage food posters:


And some randomly awesome posters in our room:


When we ventured out into town, we mostly hung out in the Place Saint Anne, where all the kids hang out. Actual kids, and kids my age. On Saturday they have this awesome merry-go-round all day:


There's Erika! (And Momie, look what was on the side of one of the carousel buggies!)

Here's me, right off the place Saint Anne (right by H&M), being French. Yes, that's a euphemism for smoking.


Here are some more pictures around Rennes.



This is the river that runs through Rennes, called La Vilaine. And then Christina, la vilaine.

On Saturday afternoon, Erika and I drove to Vannes, where our friend Liz has some family. And Liz and her cousin showed us around. Vannes is a really cute, quaint town about an hour outside of Rennes that's right on a gulf.

There is this great part of Vannes that's the pretty well kept ruins of the wall and gardens that used to go around the whole town:




Here's Liz, and a little stream that runs along the rest of the wall.



Here are some pictures of some probably important buildings around Vannes.



And finally, a picture of one side of the gulf at dusk.

Around town!

Here are some pictures of Fécamp, from one of the cliffs. This is from one of my first days, when it was mostly clear, and a pretty nice day by Normand standards. Andréa (my contact person) drove me to see an old church and a base that are located on the outskirts of town.




Here are some pictures by the water -- my favorite lunchtime spot when it's miraculously not raining.


If you continue down this walkway (above), you hit the Fécamp Casino. Sadly, the Casino is one of my favorite places in town. And the slot machines are called Centimania.