As I was walking by the butcher today, I took my nose out of my scarf long enough to notice an unusual number of whole piglets. Yes, piglets. Piglets roasting, piglets dangling. Piglets, piglets everywhere. When I asked why, the butcher told me that tomorrow is Noel Orthodox – Christmas in the Orthodox Church. Good to know.
While I was snapping my little photo, Madame behind the counter asked what it was for. Turns out she loves to read in English and took the blog address. This seemed like a good time to mention that I had a book coming out in which their shop plays a significant role. Learning to hold your own at the butcher is a Parisian rite of passage. “Deboning” was not part of the standard vocab in my highschool French class. One of the butchers bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon. Yum.
In honor of my recent flying leap into the 21st century, you can now become a fan of Lunch in Paris on Facebook. The page will list events (Brooklyn Kitchen on Feb 6th, anyone?), and even as we speak, there is a fascinating discussion on the virtues of ugly vegetables.You can also follow along on Twitter, because I’m sure at least some of you think about food as often as I do…
I had a nice experience at Boucheries Nivernaises a few years ago that you will enjoy. Like you, I had not learned the word for deboning in high school. I wanted some boneless meat, and asked for 2 kg "après le désossement." The butcher went to work, then took me aside so as not to embarrass me and said "C'est désossage." I never forgotten this word and was grateful for his politeness and discretion, which was exactly what people think the French lack, especially where their language is concerned. But butchers the world around are always nice in my experience.
ReplyDeleteI should note that my French teacher said she would not have known the word and thought that désossement was a pretty good guess.
In closing, and still on the topic of butchers and French, parlez vous loucherbem, Elizabeth?