Les moules et les frites

Bon ben, mon père a encore cuisiné des moules et des frites. Il m'a donc envoyé une photo, que je partage, parce que je partage pas mal de photo quand l'envie m'en prend, ou pour faire la promotion de mets que j'aime, comme c'est le cas. Ou sim-lement parce que food p*rn. Sinon, je n'ai pas grand-chose de plus à dire que ce que je disais des moules et des frites le 28 août cette année: C'est bon en tab. Je vais peut-être en cuisiner un jour, si je peux convaincre petit loup d'essayer.

Des moules et des frites

Mon père m'a envoyé cette photo. Il a fait des moules et des frites. Des moules marinières, je crois. En tout cas, je crois voir des échalottes. Enfin bref, je suis friand de moules, mais je n'en ai jamais fait. Je les commande lorsqu'il y en a au restaurant. Je me suis fait dire que c'est facile à cuisiner, le problème est que je serais le seul à en manger dans cette maison. Ma femme est végétarienne et petit loup n'est pas difficile, mais ce n'est pas toujours évident de lui faire essayer des choses. Enfin bref, des moules et des frites, c'est bon.

Hot chicken et frites

Qui aime manger gras? Moi, parfois. Et il y a longtemps que je n'ai pas mangé de hot chicken. Un met que je soupçonne d'être québécois, car le "hot chicken" tel qu'on le conçoit au Québec n'a pas d'équivalence ailleurs, enfin pas selon la recherche que j'ai faite. Enfin bref, mon frère PJ m'a envoyé cette photo, un hot chicken vraiment cochon avec frites patio, mangé chez nos parents. Me semble que ce serait bon pour le souper de ce soir.

Poutine maison

 Petit billet gastronomique: mon père a fait une poutine maison la fin de semaine dernière, quand mon cousin a visité mes parents avec sa blonde et sa mère. Avec frites maison, fromage en grains de la Fromagerie Boivin et de la vraie de vraie sauce brune bien épaisse, pas du petit gravy granulé. La vraie affaire, dans tous les sens du mot. Enfin bref, il m'a envoyé cette photo du festin et il fallait vraiment que je la partage ici.

Spies at Wimpy

As you may know, I am currently reading William Boyd's Gabriel's Moon. It's a spy thriller set in the sixties. And there is a little detail that may seem trivial, but that I find quite interesting: Gabriel Dax, the main character of the novel, has a girlfriend who works at... Wimpy. I know Wimpy. I have been to Wimpy repeatedly. I love Wimpy, maybe my favourite gentrified fast food chain. And I find it interesting that in a genre that is still associated heavily with glamour and exotism, there is in this spy novel a protagonist who also has a burger restaurants chain as part of his reality. And a girlfriend who smells of smells of burgers and chips when she gets home. It makes the whole world of Gabriel's Moon more relatable. Moral of the story: Next time I go to Wimpy, I will take a good look at the staff and the customers. You never know...

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

Can one wish a happy Good Friday? I love Good Friday, sometimes just as much as Easter. Because it's a bank holiday, at least in this country. And because every year I commemorate by "fasting". And by fasting, I mean I eat fish and chips.It has become a tradition since I live in England. We spent last year's Good Friday in York.It was our last night in the city. I bought these fish and chips in the nearest chippy. It tasted absolutely perfect, even though it stank up the place. I'm not sure where I will eat my next Fish and chips from.

Guinness (the crisps)

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day, so I am preparing myself to it. I bought a few pints of Guinness and... and, well, that's it so far. No food for the special day. The Irish make the best crisps (see my post here). And you may be aware, if not please keep it in mind for tomorrow, that Guinness is also a flavour of crisps by Keogh's. I discovered them when we went to Belfast. There's Guinness and Flame Grill Steak, which I tried, and Guinness and Oyster, which I did not, because I didn't know it existed. Anyway, these crisps go well with, well, a pint of Guinness. I hope I can find some tomorrow (you never know).

Moules et frites

C'était la fête de ma femme il y a quelques jours. Pour célébrer, nous sommes allés manger dans un restaurant français. Ce qui faisait changement des pizzerias où l'on se ramasse plus souvent qu'autrement. Pour la première fois depuis longtemps, j'ai commandé des moules et frites. Je ne sais depuis combien de temps exactement, mais je sais que ça date, lire ce billet. Les moules ne remplissent pas leur homme, mais les frites étaient à volonté, et avec de la mayonnaise, ben c'est solide comme repas. Ah oui, et nous avons eu droit à une coupe de mousseux (champagne? prosecco?) gratuit.

Crab, Mayonnaise and Vampires

 This may come as a surprise, but this post is another one for my countdown to Halloween. Because allegedly, crab mayonnaise and horror are somewhat related. Or rather, a famous horror classic. Because there is a claim that Bram Stoker found the inspiration to write Dracula after a nightmare caused by an indigestion of crab mayonnaise. It is only a claim and everything leads to believe that is unfounded. Be that as it may, I ordered crab mayonnaise a month ago for our wedding anniversary meal. Because why take a chance? It was delicious, but unfortunately gave me no nightmare to work on. To my wife's dismay, however, it made me snore.

Moules et frites

Des fois mon père m'envoie des photos de ce qu'il a cuisiné. Et il y a quelques jours, il a fait des moules et des frites. Lesmoules et frites, c'est pas mal mon idée du bonheur, la mer et la terre qui se rejoingnent dans une assiette. Ah oui, et avec de la mayonnaise pour les frites, bien entendu. Je crois que la prochaine fois où je mettrai les pieds dans un restaurant français, c'est ce que je vais commander. Ils ont souvent des moules et frites au menu et ça fait environ mille ans que j'en ai pas mangé.

Saison des frites

 Mon père m'a envoyé une photo des premières frites cuisinées dehors, ce qu'on appelle communément dans la famille des "frites patio". Je dis saison des frites dans mon titre de billet, mais on peut bien entendu les frire à tout moment de l'année. Sauf que l'huile, ça sent fort dans la maison, alors vaut mieux le faire à l'extérieur. J'aimerais être capable d'en faire des comme ça, mais je n'ai pas l'équipement ni l'espace nécessaire.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. I always loved Good Friday: it's a holiday, it's generally a relaxing day and it means that I can, ahem, fast. By fasting, I mean stuffing my face with fish and chips. Since I live in England, it's not Good Friday without fish and chips. I often enjoy more the Good Friday meal than what we have at Easter. I had these ones last year in Belfast, at the hotel restaurant.

Valid Reasons to Celebrate Saint Paddy's Day

 I found this meme on social media yesterday and I wanted to share it here today. I am not Irish, but I may have some Irish ancentry, maybe. I do enjoy a Guinness. I also visited Dublin once in my life and have been wanting to go back ever since. I tried Tayto's more than once and enjoyed it. So yeah, I think I'm legit.

Two guys and a gal

You may remember, a month ago or so I blogged about Five Guys. I have been curious about the one we have nearby and last time we went to the cinema we pondered about going there for lunch. In the end we didn't, mostly because there is little if anything that is vegetarian, so my wife cannot really eat anything there. Not that she like fastfood all that much to begin with. But Wolfie was quite curious about it. My wife explained the conundrum in these terms: "The problem with Five Guys and us is that this family is made of two guys and a gal and the gal is vegetarian." Which I found very funny and deserving to be a new great unknown line. Wolfie and I share a lot of things, but he got his wits from his mother's side.

Five Guys?

 We went to the cinema recently and found out that there is a Five Guys next to it. Now I have never been to a Five Guys restaurant, but I'm a sucker for a good hamburger and chips, especially the gentrified takes on McDonald's. And I have heard good things about it. So anyway, we did not really have the time to go there and we are trying to detox from all the rich holiday food anyway, but I think we might make a trip there at some point to spoil ourselves. I was wondering if any of my readers have been to a Five Guys and what they think of the food and the experience.

Frites (2)

Je partage encore une photo des frites faites par mes parents avec les pommes de terre de mon oncle, rien que parce que. J'ai mangé des frites hier avec le repas, parce que ma femme et moi étions fatigués pour préparer un repas. Et parce que je me sentais paresseux. Mais mettons que les frites que l'on mange n'ont rien à voir avec celles-ci. Ici, les frites font partie des repas rapides bien ordinaires, alors que chez mes parents, un repas de "frites patio" est un évènement, une petite célébration qui a toujours un air spécial.

Frites

 Mon père a fait des frites il y a quelques jours et, bien entendu, il m'a envoyé des photos. Avec les patates du jardin de son frère, qui paraît-il sont excellentes. Enfin, je dis paraît-il, je le sais, j'en ai déjà mangé, même si ça date de quelques années, sinon quelques décennies maintenant. Enfin bref, je sais que je fais souvent des billets de bouffe ces temps-ci, mais qu'à cela ne tienne, je partage quand même.

Homemade fries/chips

 My parents received my brother Andrew and his family recently, so my father did some serious cooking. He fried some... well, fries, or chips as we say in England (I finally got used to it), or, as we call it in my family, "frites patio", because they are fried in the garden's patio. Which is great, because the house would smell of oil for days, if not weeks. They are, in my opinion and experience, the best chips in the world. Just thick enough, crispy enough, they are perfect. I haven't had them in years, sadly.

Tayto

Here is another post about our holidays in Belfast,a post about one of its most important, most typically Irish topic. Because of course, when one thinks of Ireland, one thinks of potatoes. For centuries, it was their main diet. It might still be the case. So it made sense that we tried some of their local crisps. The brand Tayto was pretty much everywhere. Apparently it is also sold in England, but I don't remember seeing them here. I took no chance and bought a few. They taste lovely, or at least that was my impression. It was love at first bite for me. I guess I must have Irish blood.

Fish & Chips for Good Friday

I took this picture at Billy Winters in Dorset. Iam sharing the picture today because it is Good Friday and as it is tradition for me and many others I had fish and chips tonight. Not as nice as these ones, sadly, as I bought them in the supermarket. That said, the fish and chips at Billy Winters did not impress me all that much. They tasted all right, but knd of gentrified, if that makes sense. The chips were more like French fries. The local chip shop make better ones. Cheaper too. I should have bought it from there tonight. Oh well, at least I had fish and chips.