Food For Thought

Food For Thought

I'm becoming more and more conscious of how weather affects diet. In the past that must necessarily have been the case since you could only eat what was available at the time. Now, with ubiquitous supermarkets, fridges and freezers, you can eat most things within your budget at any time of the year. But…….what do you feel like eating?

I find, much more so here than when i was in the UK, that what I want to eat/drink depends a lot on the weather. Most of the year I'm happy with a typical French breakfast: next to nothing plus coffee. But the weather has been cold for the past 2-3 weeks, sunny but cold, and so I have been indulging in plates of porridge and bacon sandwiches for breakfast. They set me up to face the cold outside. Also, when I'm entertaining friends to eat in the evening, I cook stews, casseroles, pies, curries and the like; and the wine to go with the meal has to be red.

In the warm weather, despite the fact that my body probably needs similar sustenance, I'd never dream of cooking a stew. I might cook meat, even a curry possibly, but the meat would probably be chicken and fish and salads would be on my mind. Rosé and white wine also; I almost never drink rosé wine in the winter, despite this region having some of the best rosé wine in the world. That's unremarkable except in that the preference is dictated by the weather. The food in supermarkets here is more seasonal than in the UK but I can still have more or less anything that I want; but I find my choices are very much influenced by the weather, which was rarely the case when I was in the UK.

The Wrinklies' Lunch

Still on food, «crumblies» might be a better translation for the French slang «croulants» to describe those of us of mature years. This year, as every year, the village offers everyone over 60 years of age a free lunch, served by members of the village council and the mayor. The reason given for this generosity is to thank the wrinklies for past services to the village. For the record, the menu this year was as follows.

Apéritif

Feuiilleté forestier sur lit de salade verte

Cassolette de la mer

Sauté de canard aux agrumes

Petite épautre des Baronnies et légumes de saison

Fromages

Tiramisu au café

Café, thé

Vins: Côtes du Rgone rouge et blanc, clairette de Die

The meal was great and so was the company. Having got through that lot I managed (just) to get home without going down on all fours and crawling. I think this is just one more brilliant thing about this village ;

A Thought On Brexit

If you are old enough to remember the early years of TV you may remember a frequent message on a screen showing extreme interference («snow»): Do not switch off your set, there is a temporary fault in transmission. I remember seeing somewhere a variation on that: Do not switch off your mind, there s a temporary fault in reality. Apt or what?