u m a m i

How much tomatoes can we eat

before we turn yellow from all those carotenes?

         

These were only part of my haul from the market. The yellow and red cherry tomatoes were so sweet V picked them all out from the fruit bowl within minutes. The long red ones are the colour of blood inside, super sweet too. Deep purple ones are a bit tart while the big mis-shapen ones are intensely tomatoey.

Every meal I cut the medium to large ones into crude chunks, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. No matter how large the serving, the three of us always make short work of it. If there is bread to soak in the juices, well, that's already a feast isn't it?

Salon International de l'Agriculture 2008

It's the time of the year for V to say hello to farm animals and for the adults to enjoy French regional specialities at the Salon International de l'Agriculture. It was as fun and exhausting as last year's outing, though next year we'll just leave the kid at home and take the time to get to know the stalls and their products.

When V and GG were resting, husband and I walked the stalls, his objectives was wines, mine was mustards, honeys and other edible stuffs. At one point a wine merchant waved me over and asked me to "send your husband to look for me, I have some wines for him to taste." which was a bit weird, we probably stood out among the mostly Caucasion visitors. And the politicians. The Prime Minister apparently spent 5 hours there if my understanding of the evening radio news was correct- he went before the doors opened and stayed for lunch. Other campaigning hopefuls were there to shake hands and be followed by press photographers but nothing as exciting as Sarko's "casse-toi alors pauvre con" incident happened, they were all very well-behaved. Please click the video to see the makings of scrumptious Grand Marnier crepes and coffees.

The entrance fee is still 12 euros but foie gras sandwiches were noticeably more expensive, up from 4-6 euros to 6.5-7 euros this year although some stalls soften the blow by offering an accompanying cup of Jurançon or Cahor. We were not sure which foie gras sandwich to go for, and there was no question we were missing out on it because this is part of the experience, to not do it is like going to the cinema and not eating popcorn. The first one we tried had won one gold medal but it was like eh? so we tried another - it is not as bad as it seemed because we asked them to cut up the sandwiches for sharing- and literally struck gold because the stall of Jean Pierre G was festooned all over with stickers proclaiming their many gold medal wins. Their sandwiches are lovely because they warm up the bread, also their foie gras is particularly yummy, one fan told us he's been eating their sandwich for the past five years and to him, it was just the best.

On top of foie gras, our haul comprised 15 year old Grand Marnier, honeys, apple juice, mustards, wines, coconut macaroons, chestnut jams,creamy blackcurrant liquers and vinegars and substantial hunks of cheeses. I missed out on some very fresh vanilla pods from Reunion thinking there would be other stalls selling the same things but then we got side tracked with ciders, bonbons pimentes and magrets de canards.....ah well, until next year.