Monday 18 April 2011

The Spring is Here

I have been meaning to update the blog for a while. I did in fact update it yesterday, but prior to yesterday, I had collected up a few photos and stories of other events in my life, outside of my personal eating habits. 

One in particular, was the arrival of spring.

 

Of course, what comes with spring? but Daffodils also known as Jonquilles, and in the spirit of Canadian bilingual packaging, I like to refer to them as daffodil-jonquilles. Kind of like Clous-nails. (according to my father, my uncle always thought that clous-nails were a certain kind of nail, due to the bilingual packaging... my dad said it was my uncle, but I wouldn't be surprised if he also thought the same thing for a while.)

In any case, no city streetscape is complete without the pigeons. Here are pigeons in the daffodil-jonquilles!


Interestingly enough, pigeons do have a purpose! 

(This is a little point that I picked up from my french class.)

Because they are scavengers and are so prolific in the city, on the sidewalks and around all human activity, there is, in the end, very little consumable refuse left on the streets. With the lack of scavengeable food left on the surface, the rats tend to stay below ground and not bother the general populus. 

So there you go, pigeons are good for something : they keep the rats at bay.


I am however not a particular fan of pigeons. They are rather unpleasant creatures. But that is just my humble opinion. I do think that I would prefer to see pigeons than rats loitering in the squares!

Sunday 17 April 2011

The Salad

A very close friend introduced me to my love of beet salads last year, and now they are just such a treat. However yesterday a few of my ingredients were missing...

Yesterday's Salad

So with the remainder of the MASSIVE beet I made my dream salad today.  Notice the sprouts and goats cheese, and of course a nice chunck of fresh bread. Lyaz picked it up on his way home this morning. Sunday's are certainly a pleasure!

Today's version

I used a simple mustard and olive oil mix as a dressing. Paris is apparently getting to me; my mustard consumption has increased dramatically in the last few months!

Close up

Oh and today I shredded or 'julienned' the fennel, as best fennel can be julienned instead of just slicing it, which in my opinion made a huge difference!