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Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006 - 1:49 p.m.

Guess what I just had for dinner. Go on, guess!!!

Steak tartare? No! Creme brulee? No! Escargot? No, no, and NO!!! What did I have for dinner? CHIPS & QUESO!!!

And it was the BEST chips & queso I have ever had, in my entire life.

But Katie, I hear you say, you are in Paris. Why in hell are you eating chips and queso?

Well, you see, it's like this. Yes, I am in Paris. And yes, Paris has some kickass food. Unfortunately, all that kickass food is found in restaurants. One can not eat out every day, on accounta that's expensive, even in Paris, where you can eat an insane meal out for under $20. (Usually from 10-15 euros.) So one must make one's own meals most of the time, and when all one has for cooking is 2 sauce pans, a 2-burner hotplate and a very small microwave, one's options are rather limited. So most of my meals are comprised of some sort of salad, either green or caprese, quiche, sandwich, baguette, cheese, couscous, microwavable chicken of various flavors, microwavable tomato soup I jury-rig the heck out of, and pasta - usually in either olive oil and herbs, or pesto*. Every once in a while, I make up a sort of marinara out of diced tomatoes and herbs. Every single meal (except breakfast) is made up of one or two of those things. Sometimes I pop for chicken tikka masala from the Indian restuarant half a block away, which I have with microwavable basmati rice. I usually do that on Friday, every 2 or 3 weeks. The little guy at the Indian restaurant knows my order by heart now and is always very nice and friendly. I like him. He always seats me at a table and brings me papadam and this awesome orange and rose cordial that's very refreshing. I love the Indian food, but after 2 months of the other meals, they've gotten a little pale.

Imagine my joy and surprise, then, at having received a care package today, from one That33Girlie, who clearly should have an award from the Clara Barton Society, Girl Scouts, and National Organization of Kickass Mothers & Incredible Friends, all at once. I got a gigantic box FULL of foodstuffs, not the least of which was the gigantic family-size bag of Tostitos corn chips, a big jar of Salsa Con Queso, and Kraft Velveeta Cheese & Macaroni. And not one, but TWO huge bags of Cap'n Crunch...which I am having for desert, even as we speak. I am not kidding you people, I cried when I opened that box. It's packed plum to the gills with all sorts of treats. I only cited the ones here that actually moved me to tears. I sat here, crosslegged on the floor, with a cheese packet pressed to one cheek and noodles pressed to the other, and cried just a little for the sheer joy of something familiar. I had not realized how much I miss certain things until I opened that box and saw macaroni & cheese in it. And it's not even that I eat mac & cheese all that often. But every brand on the shelves here is something strange to me, so a product I recognize was just completely cool. Two weeks ago, I was looking for some kind of simple cookie at the grocery store, but everything on the shelf was elaborate and gourmet - chocolate and orange cream cake or dipped in coconut and dark chocolate. Not so great when you have a craving for something familiar - a little taste of home, and I said to myself, "All I want is a NutterButter," even though I only eat NutterButters like once every few years. It just popped into my head, and I really wanted a NutterButter Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie. Know what else was in the box? NUTTERBUTTERS!!!

Heaven. I'm not kidding. As I told my sainted buddy, now I know how soldiers overseas must feel when they open up a care package from home. It was awesome, and I haven't even told you guys half of what was in the box.

::sigh!::

Oh; while I'm thinking about it, if you decide to send me anything in the mail, please address it to Appartement 21, not Katie Doyle. There's a different name on my mailbox, and my building manager did not handle well a box addressed to Katie Doyle. I had to ply her with goodies after I opened the box to restore her good humor towards me. She was pissed. I tried explaining the concept of pseudonyms to her, but she was really having none. You'd be surprised how far a bag of cookies and cakes will go toward peace.

That's all I got for now. I'll have more Notre Dame images later. Just 1 or 2. I think I got some good ones from the front. I stood in the very center and as far back as I could get and still stay in the Parvis.

Peace out,
Katie

* Pesto here is not like America pesto. American pesto - at least the kind I buy, which is made by Classico - tastes mainly like basil. The pesto here does not taste mainly like basil. It tastes mainly like...um...something else. With a vaguely basilish taste about it. You can tell there's basil in there, but it just doesn't taste *like* basil. In general, the French suck at prepackaged foods. The fresh stuff can't be beat. And the frozen vegetables and the like seem good. But the prepackaged meal staple stuff is really not very good. Except for stuff like regular dried pasta, rice, couscous, and canned tomatoes, none of which suck. Their "fresh" pasta though, the kind you buy in the refrigerated section? Yeah, no. For some reason, almost none of their packaged foods taste wholly like the thing they're supposed to taste like. Don't get me started on the soups.

copyright 2002 - 2005 Katie Doyle; all rights reserved
Don't even think it, punk.






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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008

 

 

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