Marché de la place Flagey

I'm already tired of frites. I think Thursday put me over the edge: I had fries and pizza for dinner. It's the dinner every 10-year-old dreams of but I can tell you that it's not really all it's cracked up to be. Having solved my oat problem thanks to 1) the discovery of whole oat groats and 2) a coworker bringing me a can of McCann's, the two things I miss most right now are kale and rye whiskey. Don't get me wrong—I love beer, and we have had a beer from each of the Trappist breweries with the except of Westvleteren, and we have one of those in the fridge. But I have been craving a Manhattan and it's just not something I can find. In fact, most of the cocktails seem to be of the fruity sugary kind. Alas, I'll stick to scotch.

It is quite likely that we're doing it wrong, but the best meals we've had have been the ones we made at home. This is partly due to the fact that we haven't gone to any of the "nice" restaurants yet, but is mostly due to the nearby weekend market at Place Flagey. My coworkers insist that there are better markets and I believe them. But having this market just a few blocks from our house gives us a nice, convenient Sunday ritual—and a lot of great ingredients to cook during the week. The organic ("bio") produce stand, the fish monger, whole wheat bread, the Dutch butcher who hates Koshi, and the yogurt vendor are now mainstays in our week. We also found a really excellent coffee roaster and the coffee blooms beautifully. I am able to communicate with vendors in French a bit more each week, too, which is fun.

I think that the Sunday market has been instrumental in helping us to feel more grounded, like normal people. I genuinely look forward to going, and we also buy any kind of produce we've never seen before. This week we got some crosnes, aka Chinese artichokes. They look like larvae but apparently taste like artichokes. I'm excited about them! The produce vendors don't have kale but they do have savoy cabbage, which is close enough, and nice rainbow chard. I still miss kale, tho.