Emily in France 🇫🇷 Summer as a Blank Slate
On the road again...
When I was growing up, my family spent summers on Long Island, and since our school let out far earlier than most, often, in early June, there was a sort of in-between-ness about the season. Yes, it was warm, and yes, I got that incredible open sense of a day ripe for the filling. But it still somehow felt as though we were sitting right on the brink of summer, like teetering at the top of a roller coaster and knowing the best is yet to come. (The simile is lazy; I say this as someone who is actually terrified of roller coasters and who, on my last trip on one, had to cling to my oldest friend, screaming in her ear, the whole way. She may have sustained some permanent hearing loss.)
Similes aside, I feel that same sense of seasonal anticipation now, somehow, though June is almost over. Maybe it's because despite having been in the U.S. for a week, I haven't actually seen my family yet, or maybe it's just because so many of the things I associate with summer – sunning myself on the beach with a library book, taking long and lazy dips in the ocean – have yet to transpire.
I'm OK with the feeling. It reminds me of all of the best parts of a blank page: The promise, the clean slate. The wealth of possibilities.
Cheese of the Week
France makes many cheeses boasting a variation on the name tomme or tome, a reference to the category of French or Swiss pressed cheeses. While a generic term, the category boasts loads of variety. Take, for instance, the Tome des Bauges: a Savoyard cheese covered with a fuzzy brown mold termed "cat hair" in French. It boasts a semi-soft texture and a woodsy aroma with mushroomy, buttery notes.
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
Â
Where I'm Going
To the Adirondacks, to sun myself, catch up on reading, subside almost entirely on corn and tomatoes, and smother my aunts and my grandma with more hugs than they will likely know what to do with.
What I'm Eating
I honestly didn't think that Laurent Dubois' iteration of the croque monsieur (a sandwich I explore in great detail in the first episode of Emily Eats Paris!) could be improved upon in any way, but on a recent visit to his eponymous restaurant at the top of Printemps department store, I was thrilled to be proven wrong. More on the blog.
Discover more of my foodie finds via Instagram @emily_in_france.
What I'm Writing
1. Egg-mayo is the simplest dish French people never make at home. I tapped into why that is (with help from experts including the latest vice-champion of the contest devoted to the oh-so-simple recipe, le Saint-Sébastien's Chris Edwards, whose iteration is depicted above) for Food52.
2. Want to know where Dominique Crenn gets her plates? I found out about the ceramicists making these and other dishes for top San Francisco chefs for InsideHook.
3. Chef John Manion's steak recipe begins with a build-your-own fire pit and ends with homemade meat butter. Other than that, the only rule is "don't f***ing touch it." For InsideHook.
What I'm Saying
1. That's right – we're back! This week on the Terroir Podcast, Caroline and I are digging into why the heck Champagne is perceived to be so fancy and delving into the nitty gritty of the most famous sparkling wine (and the stinky foods best paired with it). Spoiler alert: the sausage smells like a toilet, and the cheeses smell like gym socks. But they're delicious. Tune in here.
Â
2. The French may often look glum, but there's far more to their joy than meets the eye. This week on Navigating the French, I'm talking with author Harriet Welty Rochefort about why it's not ironic that we've borrowed the phrase joie de vivre from the French. Listen here!
What I'm Reading
1. Calvin Trillin was one of the first food writers I was ever exposed to, and he remains one of my favorites. I honestly love just how unapologetically he enjoys everything he eats. And I also aspire to assemble train picnics that even scratch the surface of his plane picnics. Alice, Let's Eat is a delicious (sorry) compilation of some of his best essays on his dining adventures.
2. I can't say much that hasn't already been said about the devastating decision the Supreme Court made to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Instead, I'll share two stories that moved me this week. This one, in the Washington Post, that explores the luck of the draw that may now mean that some women's lives are forever changed...
3. ... and this one, about one Texas teen and the sacrifices her family made to ensure her life wouldn't have to be, in the New Yorker.
A bientôt !