Food Diary: La Mosquée de Paris

That time I had chicken couscous and mint tea at the Paris mosque, and had to keep staving off birds from dive bombing my plate. The food was good and the courtyard very pretty, but the whole avian threat thing sort of detracted from the experience. I had my back to the other tables so I’m not sure whether this was a problem for other customers, or the birds were just targeting me. Hopefully not the latter.

Next time I will ask to be seated inside.

Observations From My First Day at LCB

Spending five hours watching demonstrations this afternoon has not put my brain in a prosaic mood, so here’s a list of things I noted today.

- The student body is extremely international. In fact, there is only one French national currently enrolled. My class alone (of about 50) has students from Estonia, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, Mexico, Russia, India and more.

- Classes are predominantly female (true for both cuisine and pâtisserie), which I find surprising because the restaurant industry is notoriously male-dominated.

- The gender ratio is worse for pâtisserie. (Only 4-5 men in my class).

- Of the women in pâtisserie, the majority are Asian.

- There is a huge age range. Some students look to be about my parents’ age, while the youngest in my class is 17. Props to her. I was nowhere near brave/mature/independent enough at that age to live abroad on my own.

- I overheard more than several students state that their reason for studying at LCB was that they were going through a career change - from finance. All I have to say about that is I’m not surprised. Like at all.

- Taking the Metro home from class, I met an older student from Seattle! He claimed we were the only people at LCB from the Northwest. He also used to be in finance, but is now four months into the Grand Diplôme program (which includes cuisine, pâtisserie and sommellerie). I guess without ten years of investment banking behind him, he wouldn’t be able to bankroll tuition on top of the cost of living in Paris for that long.

I'm in Paris!

After some mobile phone troubles and an unintentionally long nap (forgot to change my alarm from AM to PM), I met up with my future roommate and subletter, whom I’ll call A and M, at la fontaine Saint Michel (pictured above). They are both 23 year-old French psychology students who will be entering their final year of school in the fall. M is going abroad for an internship at a hospital outside Montreal, so I’m renting her room for the summer.

For about two hours we wandered around the Montparnasse area and Latin Quarter, first heading up to Notre Dame, then to the Pantheon and finally to the Jardin du Luxembourg. I didn’t take any pictures of these, but I plan to go back real soon with my DSLR.

We talked about a lot of random things but the conversation ultimately reminded me of how very easy it is, by comparison, to make friends at school. At school you have the guaranteed common denominators of having class together, living in the same dorm, participating in the same clubs etc. etc. But outside of that, in the real world, there aren’t the same underlying social forces bringing people together.

This is not to say that we didn’t get along. On the contrary, A’s personality seems very bubbly and outgoing. M was a little more reserved, but I think this was because she felt self-conscious that her English wasn’t as good as A’s. (Oh yes, we spoke English - I definitely would not have lasted two hours only speaking French).

One of the more interesting parts of the conversation was when M mentioned that her older brother is studying to become a doctor. Curious to see how it compared to America, I asked what the training was like. First of all, medical school in France is free. Secondly, it takes 14 years. Granted, from M’s description it sounded like the last bit is basically residency. But still, even considering the fact that French students start med school younger because of how the education system works…becoming a doctor takes quite a lot longer than it does in America. Anyway, because a lot of my friends are pre-med, that’s some food for thought. Longer and tuition-less versus…less years but insanely expensive.

We parted ways at the Metro station near my hotel, where we agreed that I would move in on Sunday.

And now I’m off to go watch some Sherlock - trying to catch up before school starts on Wednesday.

Seattle's Best Eats

I was born and raised in the best city of the Pacific Northwest. While I’m a little sad that I can no longer call it home, I feel that it has served me quite well as far as unpretentious yet decently metropolitan areas go. Seattle is hip (just look at all the hipsters!), diverse and has pretty much everything you could want from a city. And did I mention we invented Starbucks?

I compiled this list for the benefit of some friends who will be moving there after graduation (yeah, I’m a little jealous). Note that the category of coffeeshops has been excluded. There are far too many and they’re literally everywhere.

Any Seattlites that take issue with my choices can suck it agree to disagree.

Affordable Afternoon Tea: Remedy Teas (Capitol Hill)

Breakfast/Brunch: Portage Bay Cafe (Roosevelt, Ballard, South Lake Union - best IMO), Geraldine’s (Columbia City), Silence Heart Nest (Fremont; great for vegans/vegetarians)

Burgers: Dick’s (Wallingford, Queen Anne, Capitol Hill)

Cheap Sushi: Sushi Land (Queen Anne)

Chinese Bakery: A Piece of Cake (International District)

Cupcakes: Trophy (Wallingford, University District)

Dim Sum: Harbor City (International District)

Diner: Luna Park Cafe (West Seattle)

Ethiopian: Central District (Lalibela, Meskel)

French Bakery: Le Fournil (Eastlake), Le Panier (Downtown)

Fish and Chips: Ivar’s (Wallingford, Downtown)

Fried Chicken: Ezell’s (Central District)

Happy Hour: downtown Bellevue, Belltown, Ivar’s Salmon House (make sure you sit in the bar area or you don’t get HH prices)

Hot Chocolate: Chocolati (multiple locations)

Japanese (sushi bar/tapas): Kaname (International District), Mashiko (West Seattle)

Mexican: El Sombrero (Columbia City)

Pho: Than Brothers (multiple locations)

Pie: Pie (Fremont). This is a serious recommendation because I have high standards for pie. 

Ramen: Samurai Noodle (multiple locations)

Thai: U District (Appethai, Thaiger Room, Veggie Veggie, Araya)

Traditional Japanese: Fuji’s (International District), Maneki (ID), Maekawa (ID)

Vietnamese: Moonlight Cafe (Central District), Seattle Deli (ID)