LOL - no. Word of advice: Don't be the first authentic French place in the middle of nowhere, where up until then people's idea of "fancy" is ketchup on their Cornish pasty. We were approached by a consortium of area bigwigs, who made a strong pitch for us to open this. We tried really hard - but, opening in 2004, the Iraq war and the fuel costs' skyrocketing made tourism take a serious nose dive in our area. Everyone was off by about 40% from the previous year, and as this was our first year, and we needed a strong set of tourist seasons - summer, fall foliage, and winter sports, we got badly spanked. We closed after about 1 1/4 years. Which is alright. I've been cooking this stuff since I was a kid, about 12 or so, but it's no life for a kid. I never saw my son, worked 17 hour days, 7 days a week (my crew was eager, and talented, but none of them had ever seen any of this kind of stuff - breaking down whole animals on premises, intricate techniques (like the micro-shave of pear slice, poached and then roasted to make a "leaf," see previous page; took several months until they were able to execute to the extent I could step away from the kitchen just a bit). I hated missing my boy, and much prefer to be out, now, though it was painful then.
I used to watch some cooking shows in Barcelona about 'cuina dels països catalans' and what you describe looks similiar with a lot of work and skill. I ate some escargot in Girona and it was good. The snails must be another breed because they are huge.
I don't usually wake up in the middle of the night because its getting harder for me to go back to sleep again.
Thanks, Bogart - very interesting. Spain is an incredible culinary mecca, and I would love to make the journey. Have you spent a good amount of time there?
I've spent some time in Catalonia in Northeastern Spain. Mainly in Barcelona and Girona. The language spoken there is Catalan which is also spoken is Southern France and is also an Occitan language related to Provencal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occitan_language Catalan's closest linguistic relative is Provencal, the language of medieval southern France. Provencal and Catalan were mutually intelligible in the Middle Ages. http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/iberianlang.htm
My meals consist of: http://www.consumatron.com/uploaded_images/yakisoba-743552.jpg This + Buffalo Wild Wings Buffy, don't worry I didn't eat your cousins yet.
Yeesh! Haven't you people had Cadbury Flakes? Totally yum! Packed flakes look like Wow! If you were twice as smart as you are now, you'd be absolutely stupid
Never eat in the middle of the night, however I usually get up in the middle of the night to smoke a bowl or a cigarette, if I smoke a bowl then I eat, because I get the munchies and eat like a pig, the little bit of food I can afford, usually a few cans of tuna and some moldy bread
Lol you never know. I bet there are a lot of stoners on these forums Or, you may be right and they all might be thinking that I literally smoke bowls.