Mussels
Yesterday was Armistice Day, which I hadn't realized until late the night before. Julien and J-L didn't get my email in time, so they woke up before 8am, as planned, and called me. In my groggy voice I apologized in terrible French and said I didn't have seminar that morning so we could go to the market at the more reasonable hour of 10am. That was apparently just for my benefit, since they had already woken up, eaten breakfast and caffeinated, but they were very courteous about it. So we met up and they tried our market for the first time. They bought from some places I recommended, and they bought from places I would not have recommended but couldn't discreetly pull them away from before they initiated the purchase. And so we got a mix of good and bad, along exactly the lines that my experience with the vendors would predict.
We went back to my apartment and Julien cooked up a chanterelle omelette, while J-L made a spinach salad. Very tasty, but then I had to leave to meet with Tuna on campus. He and I met for 3 hours: we edited my letter asking a university in Paris for support of my CNRS candidature, and then we figured out the hitch I was encountering in our preliminary proof.
I came back to my apartment, showered, sent out the CNRS letter, and then Julien and J-L came back over for the second half of our market bounty: mussels. We made 2kg worth, this time in a creamy broth with saffron, accompanied by a rice pilaf that soaked up all the juices. Yum. We had planned to play a game of tarot, or watch a movie, but Julien fell asleep right after the meal. I felt bad, since it was all because of my mistake that he had gotten so little sleep, and unfortunately it led to calling it an early night. After Skyping with Christian an hour later, I myself collapsed in bed from exhaustion, so it was probably for the best that they had left so early. In any case, good times.
We went back to my apartment and Julien cooked up a chanterelle omelette, while J-L made a spinach salad. Very tasty, but then I had to leave to meet with Tuna on campus. He and I met for 3 hours: we edited my letter asking a university in Paris for support of my CNRS candidature, and then we figured out the hitch I was encountering in our preliminary proof.
I came back to my apartment, showered, sent out the CNRS letter, and then Julien and J-L came back over for the second half of our market bounty: mussels. We made 2kg worth, this time in a creamy broth with saffron, accompanied by a rice pilaf that soaked up all the juices. Yum. We had planned to play a game of tarot, or watch a movie, but Julien fell asleep right after the meal. I felt bad, since it was all because of my mistake that he had gotten so little sleep, and unfortunately it led to calling it an early night. After Skyping with Christian an hour later, I myself collapsed in bed from exhaustion, so it was probably for the best that they had left so early. In any case, good times.