Sunday, December 25, 2005

A French Christmas Eve

In San Francisco

photograph picture of an empty Foie Gras tin

I had the pleasure of spending Christmas Eve in the company of six French people. I always wondered about how the French do Christmas.

photograph picture of Fatted Calf Guinuea Fowl Rilette
How to abruptly stop six French people from talking French: Give them some Fatted Calf Truffled Guinea Hen Rillettes. Sigh. Peace for the approximately 37 seconds it took everyone to demolish the entire portion.

photograph picture collage of foie gras
How to eat really good foie gras on Christmas Eve (and lots of it): Make friends with a Frenchman whose father agrees to send a humongous slab of foie in the mail, simply labeling it "gift", for the sake of customs. Yes! It really does work. (Remember: Be polite and try to make sure to leave just enough for the gracious hosts to have some for breakfast the next morning.)

photograph picture collage christmas eve 2005
Drink wine, eat duck, eat potatoes cooked in duck fat and champignons, followed by the best Buche de Noel in the world (details to follow, one day, I hope).

Mercie a Del et Presd, the gracious hosts. I can't believed Del blogged it before me. And, to the rest of the world, I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas.




Archive Alert! On this date in 2004 How Fred Made me Cry.

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A French Christmas Eve

10:41 AM  

17 Comments:

  • At 25/12/05 04:41, Blogger Nawal said…

    Joyeux Noël et très Bonnes Fêtes de fin d'Année ! Nawal.

     

  • At 25/12/05 05:32, Blogger Papilles et Pupilles said…

    Merry Christmas

     

  • At 25/12/05 06:27, Blogger Nic said…

    Merry, merry Christmas, Sam and Fred!

     

  • At 25/12/05 06:33, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    メリークリスマス。
    恵美

     

  • At 25/12/05 07:34, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Have a wonderful christmas and new year, Sam and Fred - eat and drink well! keiko xx

     

  • At 25/12/05 10:55, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    merry xmas, sammie!!!!

    gibby

     

  • At 25/12/05 11:32, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I'm finishing the cake while taping this. You can shut our mouths with rillettes but your buche will make us speak for a while...yummy!

    Huhu sorry I blogged it before you.I didn't mean to beat my favourite English at her own game ;)

    You were a very helpful angel in the kitchen and I really appreciate after a day of work. Merry Christmas Sam!

     

  • At 25/12/05 11:35, Blogger Delphine said…

    PS:

    I gave half of what's left of the cake to Presd (best proof of love ever)

    "Sam, elle est douee!"
    (he says you're gifted)
    it's the first intelligible thing he says this morning.

    XX

     

  • At 25/12/05 14:57, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Merry Christmas Sam !

     

  • At 25/12/05 15:27, Blogger Elise said…

    Merry merry Christmas Sam (and Fred)!

     

  • At 25/12/05 17:29, Blogger cookiecrumb said…

    You're douee! Lovely. (I knew that, but I didn't know how to say that. In French.)
    Merry Christmas, and I genuinely hope to see you soon.
    xx

     

  • At 26/12/05 11:24, Blogger Mona said…

    Joyeux Noel a toi aussi. Now what brought you in the company of six francais? That's awesome. Even better you scored some foie gras.
    I'm in CA right now and don't want to go back to NY :)

     

  • At 26/12/05 11:25, Blogger Mona said…

    Joyeux Noel a toi aussi. Now what brought you in the company of six francais? That's awesome. Even better you scored some foie gras.
    I'm in CA right now and don't want to go back to NY :)

     

  • At 26/12/05 13:33, Blogger Sam said…

    Nawal Merci, a toi aussi.

    P&P merci a toi aussis, aussi!

    Nic I hope you hd a great christmas and will have a great new year too.

    Merci Fleur de Sel

    Thanks for stopping by Keiko and thanks for being such a great blog friend in 2005.

    Gibby - thank you. Hope LA is treating you good. We need to get you back in the kitchen in 2006.

    Del
    Merci del - I will try andmake you another buche de noel soon.

    Barbara thank you and a Happy New Year to you too, I look forward to reading more of your essays in 2006.

    Merci Krysalia

    And thank you Elise

    Hey Cookie - yes lets get together in 2006.So I hear: my mum and my nephews and niece are all in love with Bean Sprout.

     

  • At 26/12/05 13:37, Blogger Sam said…

    Mona
    well fred is french andd so we spent chritmas eve with the french connection. Christmas Day was more multi national. we also got some foie gras from the fatted calf here in SF which was absolutely delicious. I ate it for breakfast.

    sam

     

  • At 26/12/05 18:05, Blogger sailu said…

    Merry Christmas and a wonderful and cheerful New Year!

     

  • At 3/1/06 05:01, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee! Great pics!
    Christmas Eve with Frenchies? quelle horreur! ;-) It sounded superb!

    Bea

     

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