|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2009 0:16:02 GMT
Yes, well she flew in with my friends from Zürich this evening, and even though she is not staying at my place, they all came over to my place for dinner.
And she drank her wine out of a mustard glass just like everybody else. In my book, that is real class -- always being to fit into any situation.
She brought me a lovely gift box of macaroons from Luxemburgerli, the finest pastry shop in Zürich.
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 21, 2009 0:20:50 GMT
And ............ ?
What did you have for dinner? What's a mustard glass? When are you going to pass around the macaroons here?
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2009 0:37:09 GMT
A mustard glass is called a jelly glass in the U.S. I did make the concession of not bringing out the ones with the cartoon characters on them (although I almost did, but I didn't have enough cartoon characters for everybody).
Dinner was quite simple since it was nearly 11 pm when they finally arrived. Vegetable and goat cheese tart, North African taboulé, cold cuts (rosette, chorizo, Canadian bacon), green salad and cheese (Münster, Camembert).
The Countess and everybody else thought that the coffee was absolutely fantastic, much better than what they can get in Italy or Switzerland. I did not reveal to them that the secret was to use an old package of Cuban coffee that has been open for six months already since I never make coffee. I did remember to rinse out the coffeemaker, though.
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 21, 2009 2:33:21 GMT
Nice dinner! Did you make the tart? And how is North African taboulé different?
I thought the coffee in Italy was supposed to be so good! Another illusion shattered.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2009 6:27:24 GMT
North African taboulé is 90% semolina whereas Lebanese taboulé is only about 30% semolina and 50% cilantro.  Didn't make the tart either -- it came from the deli section of the supermarket. I didn't have time to cook yesterday. |
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 21, 2009 6:32:07 GMT
In the summer of 1966 my family moved to a town in southern Oklahoma, where my mother still lives. There are a fair amount of people of Lebanese descent there & it's where my mother learned to make tabouley. Remember that in the 60s cilantro was extremely exotic, especially in places like Oklahoma, so I learned to eat it with parsley & still prefer it that way. Ironically, the bulgar for the tabouley was available in abundance, since that town produced it as a foreign aid staple.
|
|
|
|
Post by mockchoc on Feb 23, 2009 7:22:35 GMT
Interesting, I've not heard of tabbouleh being made with cilantro before only flat leaf parsley but that would be interesting to try too.
I do prefer more parsley than bughal in mine too and tend to make it rather lemony but I like strong flavours.
Was the countess beautiful and why did you give her wine from a mustard glass ffs! Goodness.
I must add that I'm having champagne out of a plastic cup right now but I'm no countess so that is ok.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2009 19:57:52 GMT
Actually, the countess (who left this evening) looks a lot like like Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, with an impish face. She is an extremely pleasant person.
I was somewhat distressed, however, that it was she who grabbed last night's bill at the Japanese restaurant. The food was absolutely outstanding, but I am not the kind of person who thinks that it is normal to pay more than 400€ for six people to eat raw fish.
The restaurant in question is one of the few Japanese restaurants in Paris to have been awarded the Japanese "white cherry blossom" label, or whatever it is called, which indicates authentic Japanese restaurants of appropriate quality. This is due to the fact that a city like Paris has more than 2000 Japanese restaurants, but 95% of them are operated by the Chinese, the majority of whom have little knowledge of authentic Japanese cuisine.
The place last night seated just 20 people and had one sushi chef and one waitress. All but one of the other customers besides us were Japanese. We were able to determine the difference between tuna sushi and tuna belly sushi, and we also were given a foie gras maki that was truly amazing.
But, no, I am not willing to pay that sort of price no matter how good the food is.
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 23, 2009 23:40:12 GMT
Well, that was very kind of her to take all of you out for a really exceptional dining experience. Perhaps she simply wanted to go there with a congenial group, which was a nice compliment to you all.
|
|
|
|
Post by mockchoc on Mar 2, 2009 6:44:47 GMT
I'd be happy to be her friend  |
|
