It's been 30 years since I took a year off from college to experience my great adventure in France. And of course I thought the food there was better than anything I had ever had, and it was. It wasn't just the croissants and the brie and the baguettes and the creamy pate, all of which I loved and none of which you could buy in the U.S. back then. I also remember eating Yoplait yogurt in Paris before it was available in American supermarkets and thinking it was exquisite.Now I can enjoy Yoplait whenever I want, of course. And I can buy decent croissants and baguettes here too. Even pate. Despite the proliferation of fast-food joints and convenience foods and all the bad stuff that is making Americans fatter every year, I do think it gets easier all the time to eat well in this country.
I bought wonderful camembert today at my grocery store, and some white asparagus (a spécialité of the Loire region, where we will spend part of our vacation in a few weeks). The asparagus I bought was a product of Peru, not France, and I steamed some for dinner, with chicken cooked the way my mother often made it, sprinkled with equal parts soy sauce and white wine, then coated with dill weed. (I baked the chicken for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.) It was good. Not anywhere close to what I'm expecting when we're on vacation in France, but good.
Do you suppose there's any way that French food could be better too than it was 30 years ago? Now that will make for a memorable trip.
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