Learning about food continues...

We learned Monday that refridgerators do not work the same here as they do in the states.

Friday evening, we had bought some chicken and mushrooms at the grocery to fix over the weekend. We didn't get around to making them, so Monday for lunch I pulled both out to cook. The mushrooms were slimy and smelled awful. When I opened the chicken, the smell was disgusting! At first, we just figured we can't buy food and have it sit for that many days here (as the food is so fresh), but that wasn't the whole story.

When we arrived here at the Citadine, Chris didn't think the fridge was cool enough, so he turned the dial down to one and a half, thinking that it needed to be closer to zero to be cold. We learned the hard way that we had actually turned the temperature in the fridge up by doing that, so our food was not staying cold enough. It actually neede to be turned to at least 3 or 4 to be cold enough for the food and freezer. At least not EVERYTHING in the fridge had to be disgarded.

Sunday evening I broke down and told Chris he could go get McDonald's if he wanted to. He kept saying how the food at McDonald's here tastes better than in the states, so I wanted to see if that was true. Let me tell you, there is NO DIFFERENCE. :) It still tastes like fast food. Chris did find out that the guy at the cash register knew English better than some of the people working at McDonald's in the Bronx. hahaha

I'm the kind of person who likes to read ingredient labels before purchasing foods. It's more difficult for me now since I don't know French, but I'm starting to figure out what the labels say. I have found out that the French don't seem to use high fructose corn syrup here in their foods and drinks...which is fantastic! I really wish the US would adopt this practice, as everything there is made with this nasty stuff. Here, they use sugar to sweeten things so the food tastes so much better. Ketchup is SO good (a lot like the Whole Foods brand actually).

Chris has a new favorite saying "Do you want to make a duck?" While reading the book "Pardon my French", we learned that "to make a duck" means to take a sugar cube, stick it in some coffee or tea, and then suck the liquid from the cube. You can only do this about 2 times before the "duck" disintigrates.

Another thing that surprises me is that you can't find bacon in the grocery. Well, OK, not entirely true...they do have bacon, but it's pre-cooked bacon that doesn't look very good. I can't find just raw bacon to cook for breakfast.

Last, but not least, toast. Chris cooked toast the other morning (I leave the word "French" off the front of it because being that we are actually in France, do you still call it "French toast"? It was SO delicious! He used a baguette and let the ingredients soak over night. We found some maple syrup at the grocery (it was from Canada). Now, I just have to have crepes sometime soon!