Tomorrow we leave for Strasbourg, home of foie gras! What can I say? I’m excited about the goose and duck livers, it’s true. While we’re there, we plan to visit a couple of patisseries (I’m not sure if that’s plural for patisserie or not), tour Strasbourg, and visit at least two vineyards. Should be some good stuff. We’re all a little ready for a break from the hotel and its food. Now that we’ve started classes, we cook lunch for ourselves twice a week, which is giving us some variety. Yesterday, Sarah and I made a lovely tofu chocolate mousse with a pecan crust. Well…that was the idea. Remember when I said that we would have to make do sometimes? It turned into a walnut crust with butter substituted for canola oil and orange brandy for vanilla (there was no vanilla extract anywhere in the kitchen). The theme for the day was “heart healthy.” We were able to keep the tofu. Go us, keeping our hearts healthy. Ok, not really. We took the scraps from our tournee potatoes (we’re not very good-- there was still a lot of potato attached) and made French fries. We were all so happy. They really were just perfect. Today we were supposed to make apple strudel. Again, we had some ingredient issues. There wasn’t enough strudel dough so instead of rolling it up, we sort of made it like baklava. And there wasn’t an ice cream churner, so the dairy base for our apple glace turned into a sort of apple yogurt sauce. We just kept pouring in the Calvados, made a little caramel sauce, dusted the whole thing with powdered sugar, and served it with a smile. It actually didn’t turn out as scary as it may sound.
Monday was my second day at my internship. I worked with a really cool girl named Andrea. She could speak English, but I asked her to speak in German, and then we just translated what I couldn’t understand. I would tell her the words I understood, and then we would work out the rest. In our German class yesterday afternoon we learned some words for the bakery, so I think that will help. I’ll find out tomorrow morning. It looks like I’ll be working there twice a week from 5 a.m. until noon. It seems so unreal when my alarm goes off at 4:30, but it’s kind of nice to feel so accomplished by lunchtime.
At the beginning of the trip, I wondered how long it would take until we started showing our true colors. It’s happened! While there is a fair share of weird group drama (that I’m managing to mostly avoid, thankfully), my favorite thing is that a student in my class walked up to the chef yesterday with a bunch of celery in her hand asking, “is this celery or parsley?” She really didn’t know the difference. This is the same woman who is dying to go to Alain Ducasse in Paris, and is willing to spend 500 Euros to eat there. Hmmmm…..I’m thinking of so many things to write about, but will have to wait. There is some studying that I need to do. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing this. Sorry if I’m a little scattered and sporadic sometimes—so many things going on at once.