Emily in France 🇫🇷 On Fixing Things
Sometimes, a clean slate is better.
This time of year, a lot of folks who don't usually spend much time in the kitchen take to the stovetop with brio. For people like me (read: food writers), that means that there's quite a lot of demand for pieces like: What to do if your cheese sauce splits? How to fix a gravy that's too salty? Can you save burned rice?
Often, for as much as I hate food waste, the answer to such questions is... start over. Some kitchen mishaps can be fixed; others are best replaced with a new attempt.
I know this, in food. In writing, however, my instinct is to keep trying to fix what I've written, to iron out the creases in the prose while ignoring the gaping plot hole to the left. To cling to the words I've already wrung from myself instead of asking that all-too-essential question:
"What was the story you actually set out to tell?"
And the essential follow-up:
"Are you telling that story?"
Yesterday, I sealed up the most recent draft of my novel, certain it needed time alone in a box. In the middle of the night, I found myself grabbing the pen out of my journal and scratching lines from the new draft on my hand so I wouldn't lose them. Today, despite wanting to "fix" what was broken (or throw my toys out of the pram and never write again...), I started my novel again on page 1. It was sad, and terrifying, and lonely, and exhausting. But I haven't, in a very long time, been so excited to write.
That must be a good sign.
Cheese of the Week
The crottin de Chavignol is kind of the prototypical French goat cheese, hailing from the Loire Valley: the cradle of all things chèvre. As goat cheese bows out of season for the winter, I'm bidding it à bientôt with this brightly hued little number from the woman-helmed Fromagerie Quatrehomme. This smoked chèvre is bright orange on the outside and creamy white inside. It smells like woodfire, and it tastes like heaven.
Discover more of my fave cheeses on Instagram!
What I'm Eating
Benoit Castel founded one of my favorite bakeries, Liberté, but now he's moved on to his own eponymous pastry shops complete with cozy, on-site tea salons and filled with exactly the kind of not-too-sweet, slightly rustic but totally gorgeous pastries I love. This modern tarte Tatin was rivaled only by the seasonal pear cheesecake – find out more about both on the blog.
Discover more of my foodie finds via Instagram @emily_in_france.
What I'm Writing
1. From the archives: Beaujolais nouveau is coming out this Thursday! To learn about this French tradition – and the winemakers taking a new approach to the primeur wine – check out this piece for The Culture Trip.
2. Did you know that red rice is higher in antioxidants than white, and wild rice isn't rice at all? Find out more in Mashed.
3. From the archives: Turkeys are in short supply this year, but if you're gonna serve one on your Thanksgiving table, best make it a heritage one. For Organic Authority.
What I'm Saying
1. It's illegal to call sparkling wine Champagne unless it's made within a 130-square-mile region of France. This is just one aspect of an essential French concept known as terroir, which links geography, culture, regionalism, and identity. I speak with cooking school owner Fred Pouillot about why the French care more about regional cheeses than regional sports and how one 19th-century ruler convinced the French they were all descended from the same Gaulish chieftain in this week's episode of Navigating the French.
2. On Chez Toi, Caroline Conner and I pair your home-cooked recipes with the perfect wine and most complementary cheese. This week's recipe comes from cocktail expert Forest Collins. Her Pad Thai offers the perfect blend of sweet, savory, and sour flavors. We're both looking at the herbal notes present in this classic dish for inspiration in our pairings.
(And if you want your recipe featured in a future episode, shoot me an email! We're always up for a challenge.)
What I'm Reading
1. I have a habit of going a little gaga over writers and then attempting to read their entire opus before getting bored halfway through. Neil Gaiman is the only writer I'm still as gung-ho about as I ever was. More on the blog.
2. Many who remember 9/11 wonder why we can't band together as a nation in the same way now, but to hear some experts tell it, we have always been a "deeply fractious nation," with contention built into our very Constitution. More in the Washington Post.
3. With flexitarianism on the rise, more and more people are looking for better ways to consume meat, which made the demise of Belcampo all the more disappointing. Can we learn from the lies? More in Civil Eats.
A bientôt !