INSEAD Culinary club 2010

New food blog

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:37:00 +0000

Insead is now over. I moved to Moscow and started a new food blog and a cooking school - Pinch of Cinnamon. Please come to visit us.

Tarte Normande and French opening hours

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:05:00 +0000

The most difficult part of my adaptation to living in France is getting used to the French opening hours. I’m still struggling with these after living in Moscow:

* Pharmacies close for 2 hour lunch
* Food stores close at 1 pm on Sunday
* Hairdressers are closed on Monday
* Coffee shops close at 7 pm

To give you an idea of how patisseries work:

I thought that it will difficult to surprise me after getting to know all this. However, I went to my favorite patisserie on rue des Sablons yesterday and found the following:

They are on vacations!?! :) :(
OK, what do I do now? How am I going to live without palmier till Monday? I’m going to Rue Grande. No great palmier of course. Let’s try ‘tarte normande’. Large round sectored apple cake. After eating it and recognizing how delicious it was I go check wiki and wiki know it J. One of traditional Normandy desserts: Apple slices baked on buttery custard and tender puff pastry with calvados!

This is the second apple dessert that has deeply impressed me. The first one was ‘tarte tatin’. Seems that every several regions here in France have their own proud apple cakes!. I can’t decide, which is better! They are both so good.
Which is your favorite one?

Pain au chocolat aux amandes and Artisan Boulanger

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:34:00 +0000

Pain au chocolat aux amandes and Artisan Boulanger

Yesterday I went to a new patisserie in Fontainebleau and found a pleasant surprise there. The place is called ARTISAN BOULANGER and is located in the heart of the downtown (11 Rue Grande).

It was Saturday morning 9 am. The queue was standing along the long display window. Now, having spent 2 months here, I’d probably get suspicious about the quality of pastry if there was no queue at this time :)

The choice is pretty similar to what you’ll find anywhere else.

Croques (hot sandwiches) and pizzas

Sweet gateaux

Bread

Approaching the counter I saw a bit carelessly looking ‘Pain au chocolat aux amandes’ costing almost €2.

I was curious: ‘Pain au chocolat’ is something you can find everywhere (including wiki :) and it is clearly very popular, given that there are shops in Paris famous for this pastry. One of these is Boulangerie Malineau (18, rue Vieille du Temple, Paris), we went to recently (see the post about it). But this looked totally different, a little resembling the ‘croissant amande’. So I bought it to try.

It was worth it. Very tender warm puff pastry filled with soft chocolate and almond marzipan. To me it was much more impressing than the classical pain au chocolat. I’m just curious, why isn’t it more popular?

French pastry: Mille-Feuille

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:10:00 +0000

Once more I’m standing in the Sunday morning queue leading into my favorite Fontainebleau patisserie. Old ladies, mothers with baby carriages, men with dogs crowd in front of colorful window with beautiful gâteaus. ‘Deux traditionells’ (which means two baguettes classic) is the phrase with which most of them approach the counter.
As always, I’m staring at the sweets. Today I feel like Mille-Feuille. I see it everywhere, since I came to France.

Layers of puff pastry, alternating with layers of custard and glazed with white and brown fondant.
When I’ve bought it I realized that a very similar dessert has been very popular in Russia since I was a child under the name Napoleon cake (торт Наполеон). It was cooked even during the Soviet Union period (though the recipe was largely changed due to the lack of necessary products). Thus in the version which was normally cooked at my home layers of puff pastry altered with layers of cream made of butter beaten up with the equal amount of caramelized condensed milk.
I have not seen the caramelized version of condensed milk in the food stores in France. It is made by heating the canes of condensed milk during 3-4 hours. As a result the milk becomes thick and acquires the caramel taste and color. It looks this way:

And the dessert itself normally looks like this:

Party #3 Indian dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Party # 3

Feb 21, 2010
Club members count: 105
Nationalities count: 32

When I just came to Fontainebleau Prashant, one of my housemates, proposed to prepare an Indian dinner in the culinary club. He comes from India, but has lived in US for the last several years. We arrived at implementation of his idea last week.

The Indian population in INSEAD is the strongest one: over 40 Indians in my intake. Many of them have come with their partners. We were lucky to have many of them cooking for the event.

Wednesday, Feb 17. Prashant, Anuj and I in the campus bar. This is the start of menu planning. I hear many Indian words which I don’t know and which probably stand for some Indian dishes… Guys decide on several starters, several main courses, several deserts – we expect to have a lot of guests. Indian food seems to be very popular in INSEAD community. The team of cookers has finally grown to over 7 people. They were crazy coordinating: who has this spice here? Who is going to an Indian store in the neighbor town? Prashant has even brought something from San Francisco…

Sunday, Feb 21, 8 am. We are going to the supermarket and buy up the whole stock of Naan.

Prashant ended up cooking the whole day. We were afraid to have the lack of food: more than 25 guests were coming

Peas pulao (rice with green peas). We need to compensate for the lack of Indian bread J

Dal Makhani (black lentils with kidney beans, spices and creme) – tastes spicy but mild at the same time!

Veggie Uthappam (spicy pancakes with vegetables) for the start

By the evening the cooks start to gather in the kitchens of our house.

Monisha brings the Cholay (chickpeas in flavorful curry souse) with her and cooks a delicious starter: Bhel puri (fresh and crispy salad made of puffed rice with potatoes and a tangy tamarind sauce). She mixes it right before serving; otherwise it will lose its crisp.

Anuj brings Chicken Tikka (spicy chicken, marinated and baked)

Mansi cooks the Butter chicken (chicken marinated in yoghurt and spices: garam masala, ginger, pepper, coriander, cumin, turmeric etc, baked and served hot in tasty butter souse)

And serves Raitha (Yogurt with cucumber and spices) – a great fresh starter

Priya cooks Mutter Mushroom (peas & mushrooms in cashew gravy). It tastes unbelievable. Cashews create the sweet and buttery taste.

Abhilekha brings Mutter Paneer (Peas cooked in the souse made of Paneer cheese, tomatoes and spices)

Guests coming… and rushing to the table. One doesn’t know where to look first. So many tastes... Most of them are very exotic for the majority of guests. When everyone calms down a bit, the cooks tell us about the food we are eating: it is impossible to remember for me, so I write it down J

Now the most interesting part of the party begins: desert!

Monica has prepared the carrot halwa. A very traditional desert made of grated carrot slowly boiled in milk, butter and sugar. Requires a lot of standing near the pot and stirring. Served warm with vanilla ice-cream. Ice-cream is the modern addition, Monisha advises to try the halva firs without it, to get a sense of traditional taste. Soft, sweet and buttery. Hard to stop eating…

Aditi brings the Jilebi (Saffron candy). They disappear instantly. First come first served…

Pyasam by Monisha. Vermicelli boiled in sweet milk. It is surprising, but we eat a similar dish for breakfast in Russia…

And finally the Gulab Jamun (pieces of milk dough in sweet syrup flavored with cardamom seeds), that Prashant has brought canned from San Francisco.

We are relaxed and loud now. Full and cheerful.

It is night. The guests went home. We are done with the dishwashing and removing the mess. Prashant and I are sitting in the kitchen: damned tired we still can’t believe that it finally worked! :)

See more photos below:

French pastry: branch in Thomery

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:25:00 +0000

Last Saturday it was a great sunny day and I was wondering how to spend the weekend when I got an email from my Indonesian friend Genie Njoto. She invited me for a Sunday branch at her place. There was no need to persuade me :)

10 am, Sunday, we are in the Fonty morning market (I’ve written about it before, when we did the cheese plate masterclass). We pick up some pastry, cheese, baguettes and jam and drive out of Fonty. We pass the garden of Chateau de Fontainebleau and drive through the Fontainebleau forest to an amazing small ancient village, Thomery. The village is on the river. It looks friendly and hospitable under the morning sun.

When we start serving the food our Indian friends Prash and Sunil come.

Everyone is hungry, so it takes them a serious effort to continue to listen to me talking about what we have bought for the branch.

So I’ll better write it, hoping that you will enjoy reading :)

We’ve picked up pain aux raisins that seems to be very popular. You can find it in virtually any patisserie. What makes it that delicious (in my view) is the vanilla cream that they add to the stuffing along with the raisins. Hard to stop eating but it is still too much to taste left.

Chocolate twist is also great. It is stuffed with small pieces of chocolate that melt if you heat the pastrie. Vanilla cream is also in place!

Flan is also sold everywhere. Custard baked on the short dough base to form a round cake. Personally I’m not amazed by it. But it seems that the French like custard very much. Another example of this is crème brûlée.

Finally – a fruit cake with pears in almond dough – delicious. I don’t know how they make it. Should ask my French housemate for a recipe!

This time we did a lot of tasting at once :) We are talking about classes and plans for the week. Genie might cook something Indonesian for us at one of the upcoming club events. A pity, but it is time to go home. We’ll meet at school tomorrow.

Tartiflette: French dinner for cold times

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:16:00 +0000

Yesterday I just came home from school around 8 pm. Passing by the kitchen, I saw Frederic, my French classmate, cooking. Mansi and Breanne – watching. I was lucky:

Mansi: You wanna to join us for Tartiflette?
- I: Sure! What is it? :)

Frederic peels boiled potatoes and cuts them into thick slices. Puts a layer into a large and deep backing tray. Fries the onions – another layer. Chops the ‘lardon’ (this is not the ‘bacon’, c’est une autre chose) and fries them to crisp. Layer.

Then the show starts: Frederic takes the half round of Reblochon cheese, cuts it horizontally into two slices and puts above the lardon. Repeats the layers.

The tray goes into the oven for 12 minutes. Reblochon melts.
Now everyone apparently finds it difficult to wait longer. Tartiflette is on the table and Frederic serves it on the plates. We start eating this delicious gratin. Potatoes covered with thick souse of creamy cheese spiced with onions and smoked pork. Red wine.

- Prashant: So, if you eat this every day for two weeks, you are quite probable to get the heart attack straight after?
Frederic explains that Tartiflette is definitely a winter dish, coming from the mountain regions of France. Yes, it is provocatively fatty and nourishing. This is why it suits the cold weather and hard physical work so well!

Latin-American dinner in INSEAD

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:44:00 +0000

It is the end of Latin-American national week in INSEAD. Several weeks during every year are devoted to particular countries/regions that are selected through pitch competitions (see youtube).
Tonight is the most culinary event of the week: national dinner. The food apparently doesn’t go without music and dance: the evening started from a salsa/samba class today, then continued in the bar with Cuba Libre, Mojitos and saxophone. Finally, 9 o’clock students are gathering at the buzzy lunch hall, drinking beer and Argentinean wine. Onda Cubana Band starts playing. While everyone is still sober the food comes into play!

Delicious appetizer - assortment of fried plantains with cilantro and pico de gallo sauce. Crispy fried bananas sprinkled by sugar served with tomato souse and shrimps – unexpected sweet-sour-salty combination

Mouthwatering entrée 1 - ropa vieja home stew: shredded beef stew with slow Cooked to perfection in a hearty tomato, onion and garlic sauce

Stellar entrée 2 - pescado sudado -caribbean style stewed fish filets with a mild vegetable sauce. Probably this meat – rice – bean combination is very common for Latin-American main courses. This is the impression of different national foods we had in the lunch hall during this week. Killing-filling. Very tasty!

Healthiest choice ever - entrée 3 - vegan andean delight - peru's stellar. Quinoa salad with tomatoes, red peppers and mozzarella cheese. And for the hungry ones - moros y cristianos side dish to compliment: white rice with delicious black and red kidney beans
And finally – the dessert - mi sweet mamasita: rum & brown sugar fried sweet bananas on the sticky milk rice

But the band is playing salsa and many are no longer patient enough to sit! Tables are moved away from the hall center. It is the dance time…

Trip #1: Paris patisseries

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:19:00 +0000

Feb 7

Club members count: 73
Nationalities count: 30
Today I feel that it is quite competitive to organize entertainment in Fonty. After the yesterday party in chateau Villicerf hardly a half of people who planned to join the trip managed to get up to leave to Paris at 11 am. So there is 6 of us today. It is chilly and cloudy outside. We are going to visit several Paris patisseries that we’ve chosen from a guide by Jamie Cahill. These are old cafes and shops, each famous for some sweet specialty.

Unlike the rest of the group, I visit Paris for the first time today. I must look funny holding all these maps and guides in my hands… We get out the Gare de Lyon building and take the direction towards Seine to get to the 4th arrondisement. It is around lunch time and we are hungry so our first stop ideally suits us. After some wandering around rue de Barres we finally find L’Ebouillante (6, rue des Barres).

The café is small and cramped. Its 10-15 tables are packed with people (a good sign!). Noisy. The waiter (resembling the owner) tells us that they have no free tables. We wait for around 10 minutes and squeeze into the 4 person table.

This is a creperie also famous for its home made tarte tatin.

Coffee with milk and hot chocolate are incredibly to the point! I’ve never seen the chocolate to be served this way.

Thin and crispy crepes arrive. There are around 10 breakfast fillings available: eggs, vegetable salad, seafood etc.

Tarte tatin served with sour cream is incredibly soft and light. The dough almost doesn’t feel at all. Nothing resembling what I have tried in Moscow.

Lemon cake is presented in the menu in the following way: Tarte au citrone (sans meringue!). Probably most of people expect the Italian lemon cake ordering this, so the strict disclaimer is needed… Delicious sour lemon curd is baked on the thin short dough. Tarte au cannelle is an airy and tender cinnamon cake with walnuts and probably lemon rind and nutmeg.

After all this magnificence we are definitely ready to continue walking. We want to visit several more sweet shops so we start moving away from Seine along Pont Louis Philippe. Boulangerie Malineau (18, rue Vieille du Temple) is the next stop. Small shop with beautiful glass window displaying big round sablés and a line standing outside.

The place is famous for its pain au chocolat flamboise. Though it is best eaten warm, it is delicious even now at 3 pm. By 4 pm it will probably be totally sold out.

Pistachio sablés are tender but still crisp and crumble as they are supposed to.

Further down rue Vieille du Temple we are stuck in front of the crazy chocolate shop window. ‘Cacao et chocolat’.

The fact that we’ve just had lunch doesn’t confuse anyone at all. It is just impossible to refuse this delicious hot chocolate and freshest éclairs…

We turn left to Rambuteau. Pain de Sucre (14, rue Rambuteau) is supposed to be the place selling best guimauves and marshmallows.

Another discovery for me: I’ve never tried anything resembling this soft airy desert in Moscow. The closest sweet there is ‘zephyr’ and it is quite far from what we eat here by its taste and texture. Pistachio and caramel marshmallows are great.

I also buy some macaroons here. Very expensive (€7.2/100 gr). Many tastes: lemon, blackcurrant, chocolate, pistachio again… These macaroons also have nothing to do with what is normally sold outside France. Much finer in texture. Much less dry. Melting in your mouth…

Sebastian joins us here and gives another insight right away. There are two shops considered the best macaroon producers in Paris. Ladurée is the oldest and used to serve the kings in the past. Pierre Herme one is newer, but Sebastian sais that they are doing better macaroons now.
Next stop was supposed to me La Fougasse (25, rue de Bretagne), famous for its sables, but it turned out to be closed. So we decide to return to the rue Vieille du Temple to visit some more places on the Rue des Rosiers. Sebastian notes how lucky we were to choose the 4th arrondisement for today. This is the heard of the old city. Everything began here… Deviating from the subject of the trip we stop in Korcarz that sells sweets from Eastern Europe as well as Arabic sweets.

Strudels and Arabic sweets look so appealing! We’ll probably return here next time.

Sacha Finkelsztajn (27, rue des Rosiers) is the international pastry place.

Quite unexpectedly entering you notice that while displaying pastry on the left hand side of the shop they sell meet and some appetizers on the right hand side. Great crispy vegetable cakes. Cheese cakes. Strudels. I expected to find different style cheesecakes here, but there is the only one (probably Polish style), seems that the choice seriously narrows by the evening.

It’s half past 5 already and we are totally tired. Seems to be enough sweets for today. Apparently we will return to visit chocolate places (particularily Angelina rue de Rivoly, 226) and ice-cream shops including Berthillon (29-31, rue Saint-Louis-en-L’ile) and Amorino (47, rue Saint-Louis-en-L’ile) when it just gets a little warmer…

Restaurants: Aladdin (Algerian) in Fontainebleau

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:24:00 +0000

Today I was lucky to share the dinner out with Majed and Rasha. They come from the Middle East (Jordan and Palestine) so we are going to the Arabic restaurant in Fontainebleau. It is Aladdin, offering Algerian food, on Rue de France between Rue des Sablons and Rue Saint-Honore in Fontainebleau.

As it happens with most of the students coming here from outside Western Europe, we are not used to ‘hours’ of French restaurants. ‘Hours’ mean that you hardly can expect to be served for dinner before 7 pm. Thus we spend extra 30 minutes walking along Fonty streets…

Seems that today we are the first here for dinner. 7 or 8 tables, purple – white interior, Arabic music. Majed and Rasha are smiling – they are listening to the songs they know from their home countries. 4 page menu of Algerian dishes in French: I’m totally out of the game :) Guys start questioning the waiter in Arabic and soon we get oriented in the menu: starters, couscous, tajine, kebab.

Service is unhurried, we start from tea. I’m amazed by the elegant silver pot and beautiful movements of the waiter pouring the tea in the colored glass. The tea is green and (!) sweet. The atmosphere gets very relaxing.

Our starter is delicious crispy pastry filled with soft hot cheese (akkawi).
The food comes out served in pottery:
Mutton couscous

Seafood tadjine that they also serve with couscous

Majed mentiones kanafeh, his favorite dessert, he has told me about before. But probably next time – we are totally full. Or we could try to make kanafeh at home, if we find the ingredients in the Fonty shops…

Stereotypes about food in foreign countries: Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:36:00 +0000

Kunii Hiroyuki in response to the survey results:

What else are typical (or widely consumed) in Japan?I did not expect 'honey and lemon' would come up, but otherwise, we Japanese enjoy most of the foods and drinks nominated for Japan quite a lot to my mind.

Foods: Tempura, Grilled Eel, Okonomiyaki (looks like pancake or pizza), Curry & Rice (Japanized), Nabe (any kinds of one-pot dishes including Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu), Tonkatsu (pork cutlet), XXX-don (e.g. Gyu-don, Ten-don, Oyako-don, Katsu-don, etc: a bowl of rice topped with XXX), Foods made of soy beans (e.g. Tofu, Natto, Miso, Yuba, etc) and seaweed (e.g. Nori, Wakame, Kombu, etc)

Drinks: As popular as Sake are Shochu (spirits distilled from fermented rice, potatoes, wheat or the like), Beer (domestically produced by and large) and Wine (mostly imported)I wonder whether 'teriyaki chicken' nominated for India and 'yakimeshi' for China have its origin in Japan. At least they sound like Japanese... Anyway, many Japanese dishes are cooked outside Japan. For example, sushi nowadays is not just a traditional Japanese cuisine; customized sushis have been invented overseas. They are different, but either tastes good! In fact, reverse-imported California roll is getting popular in Japan. Likewise, when cooking at home currently, I am more than satisfied with local ingredients cooked with some Japanese seasonings; haricot vert et sésame en France will make a good Japanese starter with only soy sauce and sugar!

Now, look at others in the opposite way. Curry, ramen (noodle with its origin in China) and beer are very, very common in Japan. They were propagated to Japan in late 19th century and have long been tailored to the Japanese climate and taste. Japanese curry, originally imported via UK, is typically similar to Western stew. Ramen has local varieties in different regions all over Japan. Japanese beer producers add rice as ingredients.

Would you enjoy such 'Japanese' foods? I believe most of you will do. However, I am not sure whether you could overlook those who slurp spaghetti as if it were Japanese noodle... Your generosity would be appreciated.

Let us enjoy with some creativity and tolerance.

Stereotypes about food in foreign countries: Russia

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:22:00 +0000

The picture of Russia in the survey came out much more full than I expected. But still it is rarther far from reality.

I’ll try to give my perception of how people actually eat in Moscow. First of all, people tend to consume a cocktail of world famous dishes including Caesar salad, pizza Margarita, California rolls, mushroom cream soup etc.
I’ll also name some “Russian” dishes that are still widespread. Among soups these are certainly borsch (on the picture, nice to see it in the survey), shi (beef and cabbage soup), chicken soup with noodles.

For breakfast it is often porridge (oat, rice, wheat, millet and whatever you want), sweet, boiled with a lot of milk and raisins. Salads (mostly coming from the Soviet Union period) – “Olivie” (cubed boiled potatos, carrots and other veggies, dressed with mayonnaise), vinaigrette (nice to see in the survey). For dessert, pancakes – yes. apple cakes, curdle baked pudding and curd fritters.

Dumplings – first of all I was not sure what exactly was meant. I asked one of my friends, who took part in the survey. He told me that he mentioned dumplings and what he meant was boiled dough filled with meat. So I arrived at thinking that it is about 'pelmeni'. It really is a very traditional dish, which is consumed a lot. Most of the time people buy it ready made (frozen). Most of brands are rather affordable, and the dish requires some 10 minutes to cook, so it is often associated with 'bachelor food'.

Pirozhki (patties) are also widely consumed with whatever fillings. Commonly they are stuffed with meat, beef liver, cabbage&boiled eggs, fried mushrooms with onions. Open small salmon patties have special name: 'rasstegai'. There are also common sweet fillings like apples&raisins, sweet curdle, berries etc..

Special comment in relation to salmon and fish in general. The supply of quality fish in central region of Russia is quite limited. It is very difficult to buy good fish at reasonable prices. That is why it is not really consumed a lot. Mostly - in casual or fine dining restaurants. Caviar is consumed mostly on certain dates of the year (New year’s eve, Shrovetide), and is not normally eaten throughout the year. Vodka is certainly a dominating alcohol drink, but along with it largely consumed are beer, vine, Champaign etc.

As far as non alcohol drinks are concerned – we drink tea (most of all), also coffee. I’d say that national soft drink is cranberry water.

Party #2 French cheese plate

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:28:00 +0000

Jan 24, 2010

Club members count: 40

Nationalities count: 22

The classes are running already. We start getting busy, consumed by group work, career activities, clubs etc. The house often becomes silent and I can only wonder if there really is no one at home, or everyone is just sitting in their rooms.

Fortunately, we still often gather downstairs for dinner. And happily many of us have found some time to meet today. This time we are lucky. Claire and Sebastian, both coming from France, are telling us about French cheeses.

It is Sunday and we start from the morning market. It opens at around 7 am and closes at 1-2 pm and works on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays on a small Fontainebleau square bordered by rue des Pris, rue de la Paroisse, rue du Commissaire Calas and Halle du Marche. We come at 10:00 and the market is crowded already. “I planned to obtain the cheese map of France, but it was too late to order it” – Sebastian sais – “so we’ll have to use the road map”.

Entering we pass several stalls selling clothing. No idea where it comes from… We go through the rows selling fresh fruits and vegetables. Beautiful mandarins, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, apples, pears… A stall selling honey. Sebastian stops in front of the long cheese showcase. There are several cheese sellers in the market, but he prefers this one. A smiling girl behind the counter is glad to see him. She welcomes us in French. Sebastian shows us several cheeses that he has chosen for today and we move on. A stall with home made fruite cakes and gateaus. Meat. Long table with fish and seafood displayed on the ice. We stop in front of bread stall and buy several baguettes. Looks like we are done.

5 pm. The guests gather around the table and start feeling the strong cheese aroma (photos by Breanne Gellatly).

Claire and Sebastian are quite serious. A large map of France comes out and the story starts. “Some people will tell you that the French can eat one cheese per day” – Sebastian sais – “that is not true. We have only around 100 cheeses protected by AOC”. from the North of France.

“There is no Camembert here” - Sebastian sais – “It is known by everybody so I didn’t buy one”. We move from the North to the South France excluding Bretagne, which represents the only region not producing cheese:

Vieux Lille
Brillat-Savarin
Brie (the cheese of our region, that is why we constantly see many varieties available in the market and stores)
Munster
Selles-sur-Cher (goat cheese)
Époisses (we are watching it melting gradually as it gets warmer)
Morbier
Salers
Saint-Nectaire
Ossau-Iraty and wide known Roquefort.

Sebastian strongly recommends white wine to accompany cheese. This is because red wines in general have stronger taste. If you combine strong tasting wine with strong cheeses you miss a lot in tastes of both products. Our cheeses are accompanied by several light white and red wines: Moulin à Vent (Lion), red Morgon (Lion), white Savigny-lès-Beaune and ice wine Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – sweet white.

We notice a couple of jars standing aside. These are jams, traditionally complementing certain cheeses: cerise noir (cherry), confiture de figues, confiture d’abricots. Claire and Sebastian recommend these, as well as sweet wine, with the strongest cheeses.

The insightful lecture is over and we start breaking the baguettes and filling the glasses. Where to start…? Everyone looks a bit mixed up in front of the plate. But gradually people start trying unfamiliar cheeses. Most are very strong. Some are really surprising. This is truly an experience!

I' sure that this is just the beginning of the voyage. Which is your favorite French cheese? What would you advise to try?

French pastry: drives me crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:30:00 +0000

Buns are a very important part of my life. Their role has strongly increased when I moved to Fontainebleau. I can’t say that there is a lack of pastry in Moscow. But what I have found here is much more than I expected. Small ‘pâtisserie’ shops surround you wherever you go. You get the best choice if you come before 3 – 4 pm. Many of them are crowded, but it is normally worth it to queue on. Don’t worry, the queue moves very fast!

So what do I choose? Today I managed to stop myself on three marvelous buns.

The best thing I’ve tried here so far is ‘palmier’. You will find if baked in different forms, but this one is ideal in my opinion.

Next comes ‘croissant amande’. Always looks a little careless, but the taste is totally nice.

The last for today is ‘tarte au sucre’.

More pastry discoveries coming soon!

Stereotypes about food in foreign countries: survey results

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:34:00 +0000

In this community of people coming from all over the world it is almost impossible to voice a delusion and not be corrected by someone. These people know almost everything. And they feel relaxed to share their opinions.

We decided to find out how close to the reality we stand in our understanding of what people eat and drink in the foreign countries. We launched a questionnaire asking people to name what food/drinks comes to their minds when they think of certain countries that are not their home countries (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WL6TNJ3). The results are to be shown to each country nationals to hear their opinion.

Around 15 club members (more than 10 nationalities) have already completed the survey, so we can see what has come out:

Brazil. Leading guesses are Feijoada and Churrasco. Also named: Churrascaria, Bobo de Camarao, Caldo verde, diferent kinds of grill meet, Flavored meat, anything with beef. Among drinks absolute leaders are Cachaca and Caipirinha. Also named are Guaraná, sweet cocktails.

Canada. 50% scream - Maple syrup, besides: salmon, game fowl, pancakes, sandwiches, hot dogs, French fries, crumble, poutin. Drinks: beer, whisky (e.g. crown royal) and also rum, Ice wine, Canada dry, Coca-cola, soda, tomato juice.

China. Absolute leaders are spring rolls, Peking duck, wontons. Also named: xiao bao (soup dumplings), Yakimeshi, noodles, spicy sauces (e.g. sweet and sour), Kwetiao, Nems, rice, soy, tofu, Shanghai crab, Mapo Doufu, Tenshin, soups, stir fried veggies, ginger beef, pork dumplings, dim sum, pork in sour and sweet sause, fried worms, lychees in caramel, mango pudding. Among drinks green tea and Tsingtao is leading, sake named 2 times (!) also show up Chinese wine (inc. rice vine, plum vine), beer, fruit juices (mango, etc), Báijiǔ, Shàoxīngjiǔ.

France. 70% say “cheese”. Many say foi gras and different types of bread. Also names soups (onion, pure/cream soups), duck, Gibier, Escargot, Bouillabaisse, Truffe, ratatouille, gratins, desserts (Palmier, Mille Feuille, crepes, creme burlee, tart tatin). Drinks: wine dominating, also Champaign, Cognac, Pastis, Cafe au lait

Georgia. Not a lot of answers: kabobs, grilled meat, ciorba de burta, heavy food, yogurt, khachapuri, phali, kharcho soup and churchkella. Drinks: wine dominating and vodka (seems that they drink only alcohol there…)

India. Strongly stated Curries, Dhal and Nan. Also voiced: dosa, teriyaki chicken, papadum, tandoori chicken, pao bhaji, paneer, parathas, chats, chutneys, rice, mango. Drinks: many say lassi and tea. Also sounded shots and beer.

Japan. 70% associated with sushi and sashimi. Besides: yakatori, soy, rice, noodles, tamari, tepenyaki, honey and lemon. Drinks: sake dominates. Other versions: ocha, green tea.

Spain. 60% paella! Also strong tapas and jamon. Other versions: pinxos, olive oil, seafood, choriso, tortillla, crema catalana, hot chocolate and churros. Drinks strong leaders are sangria, cava and wine. Also sounded Vino de Verano, Txakoli, coffee.

Russia. Pancakes, dumplings and caviar lead the list. Also mentioned: salmon, fish, pelmeni, vinaigrette, beef Stroganoff, piroshki, borsch. Drinks: vodka (100% of answers…)

From the first sight, what came out for many of these countries seems strange.

So what do you think? Does what you see resemble the real picture of what is eaten in your country? Pleas share your thoughts with us!

Party #1 Appetizers & aperitifs

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Sorokina) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:45:00 +0000

Jan 10, 2010
Club members count: 16
Nationalities count: 12
We've just arrived on campus in Fontainebleau and the studies are about to begin. We started the club by e-mail and finally we gather to greet each other personally. Many of us have brought some local specialties from home. We decided to start with ‘starters’. The table looks equally diverse to the people who surround it. Appetizers & aperitifs from our home countries are set out and the party begins.

Claire and Sébastien are Parisians and we get a chance to taste foie gras (litteraly ‘fat liver’) (Photo by Mansi Maken). Put a piece on the white bread toasts. Take a glass of sweet white wine. Foie gras is traditionally served with Sauterne. We are drinking Jurançon (Domaine Bordenave) instead. “You will find out why if you look at the price”, adds Claire. What we are eating is the duck fois gras, which is more typical for the south of France. Tastes sweetish and creamy. Its taste is normally more intensive than that of the goose fois gras, produced on the North. Claire mentions the debate surrounding this specialty: as it is produced through intensified feed it raises the issue concerning the defense of animals. Each of us is clearly clad that the debate has not produced any bans for production yet as what we are eating is delicious.

We start moving around the table. Nino and David, who come from Georgia, are telling about churchkhela (Photo by Mansi Maken). Hazelnuts or walnuts strung on a thread and covered with viscid layer prepared of evaporated grape juice. We are eating a very fresh churchkhela, as this dessert is traditionally prepared for Christmas. As it never gets spoiled, it is then consumed throughout the year and gets harder to the year end. David adds that what we are eating is actually a byproduct of wine. It is the homemade wine, which is the best in Georgia and most of the families seeks to have their own cellars to prepare it.

Yolanda comes from the region of Barcelona. She invites us to taste the Spanish sausages: chorizo and salchichon (Photo by Mansi Maken). We are eating the smoked chorizo, which is sliced and requires no more preparation. It is made of pork meat of Iberico pigs, fat and spices, that create its red color.

Besides the sausages, each of us is lucky to have a glass of cava brut. Before the bans initiated by INAO (Institut National des Appellations d'Origine) this Spanish white sparkling wine used to be called “Champaign”. After the ban on the appellation, Spanish producers added a mention “methode champenoise” that was finally banned too. We admire that Cava tastes very good. Given its excellent quality and price competitiveness it is gaining more and more popularity in the world.

Kunii is our Japanese guide today. He brings in an appetizer made from boiled string beans in a Japanese sauce (Photo by Mansi Maken). We are surprised when we try it. The flavor is pretty intensive and unexpected for the beans. Kunii explains that the sauce consists of crushed sesame (a lot!), soy sauce and sugar. Light and fresh, whets the appetite.

Alex and Gilberto come from San Paulo. They are telling about Cachaça (Brazilian alcohol made from a fermented sugarcane). Leaving aside its official name, it is often called ‘pinga’ by the Brazilians. Alex has prepared Caipirinha, which is the most famous Cachaça cocktail prepared with limes, sugar and ice. It is the traditional recipe, but Brazilians now tend to consume its variations, where either alcohol or fruit is changed. Thus you may come across Caipiroska (with vodka), Caipisake. Strawberry caipirinha is also very popular.
Fei comes from Beijing and we see the spring rolls on the table (Photo by Mansi Maken). We are tasting these semitransparent envelopes of rice paper, filled with lettuce, rice noodles and chicken in sweet sauce. Fei notes that what we are eating does not actually constitute an appetizer. The concept of ‘starters’ does not really exist in China, so spring rolls represent a separate course. Moreover, in the region of the dish origination we would probably find it filled with shrimps instead of chicken.

I bring in buttery pancakes with caviar and sour cream as I come from Moscow. These are widely consumed across Russia, especially during the week of Shrovetide in February. Traditional pancakes are prepared from yeasty dough. These are thick and porous. Nevertheless, we are eating a thinner version of pancakes resembling French crepes as more and more Russians are switching to this at the moment (Photo by Mansi Maken). Caviar on our table is red. It is still widespread and relatively affordable in Russia. This is now already the case with the black caviar.

Everyone now looks full and relaxed and Breanne brings in an apple crumble. She comes from Montreal and shares with us this delicious traditional family dessert served warm with vanilla ice-cream and maple syrup.
Photo by Breanne Gellatly

It is getting late and we are breaking up. We definitely wish to get together again. So which topic is next? We have plenty of ideas…