Questing for soy sauce

Although my skin and my heritage wouldn't suggest it, most people that know me know that I am secretly Asian. I have had 'Weird food-offs' with actual Asians and held my own, my favorite color is red, my favorite utensils are chopsticks, and I have terrible pronunciation of English words. Even though it might be sacrilegious while living in a foodie's paradise, I have been craving some Asian food. I didn't really care what type: some Thai noodles, Japanese sushi, Chinese stir fry...it didn't really matter as long as it didn't contain cream or butter. So, I thought to myself, fried rice is pretty easy and has pretty universal ingredients that I can get anywhere...I will make that.

The next day after work I set off for the grocery store, sporting my H-Mart (Asian market paradise in Atlanta) reusable grocery bag. This was a new grocery store that was larger than any I had yet seen here. Amazed, I walked around, admiring the array of juices and yogurts and cheeses. I picked up some rice, some vegetables, some shallots, some yogurt, and then started to head towards the checkout. Oh wait! I forgot the soy sauce! Ok, no problem, it's probably near the vinegar. No. Ok, maybe near the spices. No. Near the soups? No. (Slight panic setting in) At that point I went on a full out hunt for that luscious, fermented, salty, goodness. This was the biggest grocery store I had seen here! I seriously was verging on hyperventilation, clutching my H Mart bag, all the while remembering how many times it has contained soy sauce before. The only thing that calmed me down was that I was getting a huge back of shallots for 1.30 euros....no luck.

The whole walk home I contemplated how this could happen and how I could get my hands on some, my craving growing ever stronger. I sent an email to my Asian food guru, asking her how she could abandon me anywhere without soy sauce! HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP! If I couldn't find even thats basic of an ingredient, there was little hope for Asian style noodles or tofu! The day had taken a very dim turn indeed. The next day I asked everyone I could about where to find 'sauce soja', no one gave me a concrete answer, but one girl said that I should be able to find it in an International aisle of a grocery store. A faint glimpse of hope! I searched everywhere I could think to for a Chinese girl I had met, hoping she could give me an answer. I knew there had to be a 'Lucky Palace' or 'Sunshine Market' somewhere!

Growing ever stubborn, I decided to make fried rice with the ingredients that I could get my hands on: very starchy rice, 2 eggs, a shallot, bacon, and a beefy/oniony/mushroom sauce that I found at the grocery. It was surprisingly not TOO far off from what I had been hoping for, enough to satisfy my craving. However, the question still remained. Where in Nantes can I find soy sauce?

Yesterday I finally went downtown to shop around, determined to get my hands on a bottle or that lifeline to Asian cooking. I found a Monoprix, a massive department store/grocery store. I walked in passed the check out lines, the clouds parting and a beam of sun shining towards a shelf along the wall. First I saw tortillas and salsa, the first time I had seen anything of the sort here. Then I saw VERMICELLI NOODLES, I was getting closer. Then sesame oil! And then...there it was...3 different options depending on size of bottle and store vs national brand. My pot of gold at the end of a rainbow: soy sauce. I had an instant humongous smile, the largest I have had in awhile, and I just started jumping up and down. I'm sure that everyone around thought I was crazy, but I didn't care.

I browsed the rest of the grocery store with a renewed vigor and got some nice ingredients. The sun was shining and the birds were singing, my quest finally complete. I got home and was excited to start cooking. So I made: lamb loin slathered on both sides with pesto, sauteed and topped with melty emmenthaler cheese (I can't believe I can get a huge bag of Emmenthaler here for the equivalent of $1.50) and brussel sprouts sauteed with some bacon and shallots. It was quite possibly the best plate of food I have ever made, didn't contain any soy sauce. What can I say, I'm a complicated lady.

Don't worry, that night I made up a pot of rice, ready to wait for today to make fried rice. I just made up that fried rice, the right way. It was heaven.

Ps. the pic is of me eating dog in China

Where the lavender grows

Last weekend I had a 3 day weekend because Monday was a holiday here. At the last minute I decided to go to Avignon for the weekend. Avignon is in the south in Provence, where the lavender grows. I had a couple of hours to wait to leave Nantes between picking up my ticket and leaving, so I decided to walk around a bit. I found my new favorite place in Nantes. It is a nice gated park that features gardens and birds from different areas of the world. There are some nice ponds and flowers and benches...very nice! I decided to read a bit in there until it was time for me to leave. When I thought that it was about time I got up to leave...the gates were all locked! I looked at the time and the park had closed half an hour earlier! As I was contemplating how to jump the really tall gate, a golf cart came up and asked "Are you lost?". The guy led me out and I was laughing at myself a lot.

The train took off and it took the whole night to get to Lyon. Most of the time a baby war crying...:-/ Then I took a second train to Avignon. The countryside was gorgeous, with fields filled with red flowers and lavender. I got to the train station and just walked around to explore the city a bit. The whole city is surrounded by a stone wall in order to keep out flood waters because it sits on the Rhone River. This is the city where the popes went when there was a schism in the Catholic church.

I walked around the city as it was waking up. It was about 10 am and the city was still very sleepy. Little by little there started to be more people as I walked toward the city center that held a row of restaurants. Then I came to the square next to the Palace of the Popes. There were beautiful gardens that sat on a hill next to the Palace. I walked around those for awhile and just appreciated the sublime view of the Rhone River. For lunch I went back to the city center and sat at a cafe for some moules frites (mussels and fries) So delicious! The mussels were cooked in a white wine, buttery, herby sauce that was perfect for soaking up with fries and bread!

In the afternoon I toured the inside of the Palace of the Popes. It was really neat to see the history of the building. I took a walking tour and learned a lot about the time of the schism. For dinner I got a croque monsieur and sat in a beautiful garden next to a church to eat. I then took a gander at their grocery store- it was huuuge for French standards so I spent a lot of time looking through it! In Avignon one of the big things is street performers. I spent awhile watching this event called 'Street Sport Championship' or something like that. These boys that were all maybe 17ish would do some crazy tricks with soccer balls and basketballs. It was juggling like I have never seen before! That night I got to actually watch tv for the first time since I left home so I had great fun comparing the BBC to French news.

The next day I woke up to a rainy sky.. very sad for me because my plan was to walk around next to the river. I sat at a cafe for about 2 hours and wrote a lot and then decided that the rain was slow enough that I could brave it. I walked in and out of some shops and then got a veggie filled panini. I went to the Pont d'Avignon and learned a little bit of its history. There is a famous childrens song about dancing on it (although I learned that the people actually danced beside it and not actially on it). This bridge in the medieval times was the only connection from France to the Roman Empire. Pretty mindblowing!

Then the sun came out so I decided that I could walk around more next to the river. I eventually walked so far that I was walking in between French farms of lavender and vegetables. Chouette! It turned out to be a beautiful day from then on and I had some nice conversation with an elderly couple as there were lots of people taking their Sunday walk. For dinner I went to a stand and got a tomato and goat cheese panini. Delicious! I sat in the square next to the Palace of the Popes to eat and met some nice people that lived there and they gave me some tips about the area. I also got some violette flavored ice cream! Very interesting!

The next day I went to a boulangerie for breakfast and got some bread with rosemary and bacon mixed in. Delicious! I looked around some of the local markets and took in the culture, walking around a lot. It seems that Sundays are the days in Avignon to open your windows, blare music and clean. It was nice when I passed one house in particular and heard David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World'. The area is very interesting because it is just a maze of streets with houses that look like they they were made of brick, covered with concrete, and then reexposed and covered in graffiti.

For lunch I got a 'kebab salade' from a stand. I've seen these all over France and wanted to figure out what they were. It turns out it was a pita with tomato, lettuce, a white sauce, and some really salt gristley chicken that was shaved off of a spit. Very delicious and salty and filling! I was supposed to leave from another train station than the one I had arrived at and so I took a bus to get there because everyone said it was far. It turns out I had walked to about 2 blocks away from it the day before! The train rides home were fairly eneventful, I got back late and was ready for a 4 day work week!