May 2023 Newsletter
The curse of the frozen French croissant and the best chicken sandwich with chicken fat mayo I've ever eaten
To watch:
Family Business
In principle, this slapstick French comedy about a struggling family butchery business starting a side hustle growing weed might not be for everyone. However, its wackiness, the characters’ utter stupidity, their abilities to make almost every situation worse, had me absolutely addicted and, at times, I was laughing so hard we had to pause the programme otherwise I’d miss the subtitles. Intrigue, danger and drug barons are all hidden behind a veneer of silliness, much like their weed is concealed by a façade of sausage making. Family Business is an unexpected delight.
To read:
A recommendation that isn’t food or French-related is hard to come by here, but Heartbeat was such a pleasure to discover that I just have to tell you about it. It is a short-story newsletter full of rom-coms, so for the romantics out there, here is the publication to make you swoon. Sadly, the newsletter has recently come to an end, but their page is full of their archives, a delicious sultry anthology to enjoy when you’re on the morning commute, whisking you out of reality for a few precious minutes.
For me, home life and cooking is such a pleasure to read and I love all of Angie’s newsletters. I’ve made her broccoli pasta at least three times in the last month and she shares my love of Alison Roman, so it’s hard to resist reading her emails dropping into my inbox. Plus I love her monthly round ups of recipes she’s tried - even if I’ll never make the dish, these reviews are always so satisfying (it was surely not only me who scrolled down to the ‘what didn’t work’ section of her April Cooking Notes).
To check out:
Naturally, it was Natalie’s cake print that made me do a double take - who wouldn’t want what looks like a bakery display hanging on their wall? And as a proud lover of Mr Kipling cakes, I can’t help appreciate the angel slice and French fancy at the bottom.
Her range of food art is eclectic - from collections of cakes and coffees, to life-like prints of Heinz Baked Beans and funky retro tributes to custard creams, jammy dodgers, cocktails and citrus fruits. Whatever your kitchen mojo, you will find something that fits your personality. She has an eye for colour and bold designs - we all need a bit more colour in our lives, and a good place to start is on our walls.
Check out Natalie’s collection here and her Instagram here!
Hello and on to May in Toulouse!
This month has been the season of deadlines for my work as an editor with only the repeated mantra echoing in my head: finish, finish, finish. All exciting projects though so that was something; there was a cookbook, a spy novel, and I also wrote an article for The Good Life France about sex, drugs and chocolate in the Versailles court of old. As that treat isn’t published yet, my previous article here is about a very special pastry - the St Honoré, an exceptional pastry for an exceptional date in May - which I finally bought from a local patisserie then, for some unknown reason, shoved its beautifully wrapped box inside my backpack. Well, what can I say, I devoured that pile of whipped cream mush. But more from that review below…
When not thinking about work, obviously food is my primary concern and I tend to reward myself fairly often - sometimes just for showing up for the day. Of course, an excellent morning treat is a pain au chocolat, however, thanks to my frequent sampling I’ve learnt the variation between the options in Toulouse.
Alas, there have been too many disappointments. I don’t enjoy naming and shaming but I think we explorers of French culture must be aware and prepared, therefore this is a deep dive into the curse of the poor pastry.
The Curse of the Frozen Pastry (and Baguette for good measure)
Since arriving in Toulouse, I have eaten more pastries than I can count. I won’t attempt to do so because the result will depress me. France holds sway over viennoiserie, anything crisp, flaky and layered with butter, as well as sticks of bread forever known by the French word for wand or baton, ‘baguette’. My new favourite accessory for a roast chicken is, forget potato, a side of baguette - it’s just so helpful to mop up those lush chicken juices, or those 40 caramelised cloves of garlic… see the recipe below…
I grabbed hold of that swing rope of French cuisine and flown full-pelt into carbs’ waiting arms, as a result, started this year with a little anti-inflammatory diet to deflate. However, I’ve learned to be a little less trusting as, although this is France where you’d expect to find delicious homemade buttery baked goods in every boulangerie, the truth is indeed hard to swallow.
It is in fact considerably easier and cheaper for many boulangers to buy in frozen pastries rather than make their own. This is no secret, yet tourists and étrangers (us foreigners) forget that the rat race of supply and demand must be realised as cheaply as possible. We expect to leave the low-cost corner-cutting behind in inauthentic copy-cat ‘French bakeries’ in our home countries.
Alas, even the independent places, the boulangeries with the cute names and what appears to be bakers working industriously in the background, buy in their croissants and pain au chocolat. The Washington Post even claims that an unbelievable 80% of pastries in France are factory-made.
While I cannot claim that 80% of the pastries I have eaten in Toulouse have been bad, there have been a surprisingly high number of disappointments. My Pastry of the Month segment below is always a challenge to research, if you can believe! I have found four or five reliable boulangeries here, yet considering the total of boulangeries easily reaches triple figures, four is a meagre outcome.