Meme time!

I’ve been tagged yet again! This time it’s by ma chere amie La Belette Rouge, a quatre par quatre meme that’s been making the rounds of late. Others participating include Colleen, Cassoulet Cafe, et B.

First, I’m asked: What four things do you love most about living in France? Of course, I don’t actually live there, nor have I ever been. But I can certainly imagine what I would love most about living in France, so I’ll start with those:

1. Food, glorious food! That includes all the outdoor food markets, the fresh veggies and fruits and meats that can be mine for the taking, all probably just harvested or butchered that morning, and all at prices that would seem ridiculously low compared to the limp produce and hormone-stuffed meat we get at our corner supermarket.
2. Les cafes, bien sur! I’ve read before that the quality of coffee in France was abysmal in the immediate postwar period, but surely it’s improved. Nonetheless, I’m really after the ambiance, the charm, the people-watching opportunities of the neighborhood cafe. I would start each day off with a wee bit of croissant slathered with a tiny pat of butter, a steaming cup of cafe au lait, and a strategically placed bistro table just outside the establishment — perhaps chat with the proprietor or waiter — and watch the world go by.
3. L’institute de beaute! And I really don’t care which one, although I hear Clarins is good. If I lived in France, I would want to have the money to be able to go to the spa and get at least a facial and/or massage every couple of weeks. I suppose my current budget would only feasibly allow for a facial a month, but considering the quality of products and treatments there, I think that can last me awhile.
4. The premium placed on intellectualism. God, I miss graduate school. I harbor a fantasy that living in France would be like living graduate school every day of my life. Interesting conversations, fascinating people, tons and tons of bookshops, and something mentally and emotionally stirring to visit (concert, book reading/signing, museum, gallery opening, art exhibit) every hour of every day.

Next question: What four most memorable jobs have you had?

1. Program officer for a nonprofit that sends surplus medical supplies and equipment to hospitals and clinics overseas. It was my first “real” job outside of college, and I loved every minute of it. There are days when I still wish I’d never left. I met all kinds of people and derived an enormous sense of satisfaction from packing up a 40′ container full of syringes, sutures, a few hospital beds, perhaps an autoclave (really in demand), and boxes and boxes of catheters and instruments, all destined for perhaps a needy hospital in, say, Tanzania.
2. Assistant English teacher in Japan. This was my first full-time, honest-to-goodness salary job out of college, but it’s difficult to call it a “real” job as most of my duties involved serving as a kind of tape player in my classes (i.e., the class’ full-time teacher would recite a sentence or paragraph in English, while I repeated after him/her to demonstrate “proper” pronunciation. It’s even more boring than I make it sound). I had sixteen schools to visit on a rotation during the school year, which meant that on a given week, I could be going to 3-4 schools, all spread out over miles and miles of green, lush countryside. Half the time, I wouldn’t remember where I was. But oh man, those were two of the best years of my life.
3. Research assistant in graduate school. Loved my mentors, especially the Japan specialist. I worked twenty hours a week, usually hunting down facts and statistics to assist the professor for whom I was working on the book he was writing. During my second year, I edited the newsletter of the international studies institute.
4. Developer for an Irish wind energy company. The hardest job I ever had, with the most demanding boss this side of Miranda Priestly, but it turned out to be the most educational. I traveled all over the Southwest and Chicago, Ireland, and the Northeast, and met some pretty, uhm, interesting people along the way. (I remember one craggy-faced farmer who lived in west Texas and was all of a million years old who told me that he would “love to take ya home, but you’d have to stay in the garage for a few days ’till the wife gets used to ya.” Tempting, sir, and I’ll definitely give it a serious think, but can we just get back to the negotiations regarding your land?)

Four quirky things about the way I eat (and drink):

1. This doesn’t really count as “quirky,” as most Asians eat like this (especially Southeast Asians), but I generally eat with a spoon and fork, rather than with a knife and fork. Much easier to eat this way, although I have to admit, precisely because of this there is a danger that you can eat too much.
2. I don’t like my food to touch each other. If I have a steak and rice and sauteed onions and peas, I separate them on my plate so that they don’t touch. Well, I take it back — I don’t mind if the rice touches the steak, but otherwise, no intimacy is allowed on my plate.
3. I hate hate hate when people clink their forks with their teeth when they eat. You know what I mean? They spear the food, then pop it into their mouths. During that short journey, they slip the fork between their teeth and bite down, making a barely imperceptible (to most mortals) clinking sound. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to my ears — I literally shudder when I hear it. For the love of God, people, can you just close your mouth and use your lips to pull the morsel off the fork instead of your teeth?
4. I slurp my soup. Rude, I know, but fortunately I rarely get soup at dinner parties or restaurants. A habit I picked up in Japan, it helps cool the hot liquid as it slides into my mouth. In Japan it’s not considered impolite; indeed, it’s a sign that you’re enjoying the dish with gusto.

What are your four favorite foods?

1. Lamb chop
2. Pesto (on pasta, potatoes, veggies…just about anything save for brownies)
3. My mother’s cheesecake
4. Mashed potatoes from scratch

Four recipes you cook all the time?

1. Tomato sauce. We grow tomatoes in the summer and make lots of fresh sauce, but rely on canned organic tomatoes in the winter.
2. Universal Quiche, courtesy of The Tightwad Gazette newsletter and book. This is seriously the best, most foolproof method of “recycling” leftovers into something truly delicious, usually even better than their original incarnation.
3. Polvoron. This is a traditional Filipino cookie that’s super easy to make (only 5 basic ingredients: flour, milk powder, sugar, lemon extract, and butter) and very popular with my friends, family and co-workers. No baking required, I make this every holiday and have made it for weddings and birthdays.
4. Rice. What can I say? I’m Asian.

Okay, who’s the next victim?

1. Randal
2. Amarie
3. Anyone else who wants to play!

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.