Je suis patissière des macarons!

Note: this entire entry is about food and beverages.  I know you love it.

So, last night was pretty fun!  A few friends came over here for a couple of drinks, and then we walked to The Frog & Princess, a bar which has quickly worn out its welcome.  It was so crowded you could barely move, let alone get to the bar to buy an overpriced beer.  If I’m going to be buying such expensive beer, I would rather do it with some breathing room.  We were looking to meet up with a few friends, but since we didn’t seem them in the sweaty throng of people, we left and went to a nice Irish pub around the corner, called O’Neil.  It was much less crowded, the drinks were a euro or two cheaper, and we managed to snag the VIP table up in a loft area (we’re kind of a big deal).  We were all pretty tired when the bar closed, so we just decided to head back to my apartment and hang out a bit before crashing.  I think we set the record for the number of people sleeping here (who don’t live here): 5!  We’ll have to see if we can top it at some point.

Anyways, the next morning, we all woke up pretty late and talked over a couple of cups of coffee.  The topic of conversation turned to American diner food…pancakes, burgers, milkshakes and fries.  After about ten minutes of discussing this, we were all drooling and trying to figure out how we could get our hands on some greasy, American goodness.  Fortunately (for all of our sakes), one of us remembered a place that our friend Marina had told us about, called “Breakfast in America.”  The whole restaurant is  owned by an American and is based on the idea of the traditional American diner.  Since it was only a 15-minute walk from my apartment, we decided to go for it.

The restaurant was pretty crowded even though it was nearing 1 o’clock.  We ended up having to wait for a solid 40 minutes before we were seated, partly because the group of kids sitting at our future table saw us eying them and their food while we were waiting, thus encouraging them to take their sweet time.  One boy smudged chocolate on another girl’s face.  Cute.  Not.  Another girl was trying to construct an architectural masterpiece with her change.  Go learn to be a real architect.  The other girl was taking pictures of everything with her silly little camera phone.  Stop being a creep.  I wish I were kidding.

They eventually got their act together and left, and we were shown inside by a skinny, very American hipster boy.  We hardly had to look at the menu; we knew exactly what we wanted.  All six of us got ginormous cheeseburgers and greasy fries, a few of us got milkshakes, and a couple ordered a side of a pancake.  The boys even ordered Budweiser and NY Cheesecake for dessert.  Our waitress was making fun of how much ketchup we used, and rightfully so; we used almost an entire bottle.  It was as if we were never going to taste the delicious condiment again!  Entirely too full about an hour later, we paid up, each of us in agreement that the food and experience was worth every single centime.

After brunch, Kelsey and I rushed over to BHV, one of the big department stores here in Paris.  We had signed up to take a cooking class!  What were we going to learn to make, you ask?  MACARONS, of course!  It was pretty intimidating at first, because the class was conducted in French.  There were only 8 of us, and it was quite apparent after a couple of minutes that we weren’t fluent in French.  The chef instructor was very nice, however, and spoke a little bit of English, so he was able to help us out and translate key bits of advice and information about the recipes as we went.  Cooking classes are  generally based upon demonstrations, and watching and learning, so it ended up not being much of a problem at all.

We learned how to make three different kinds: vanilla, chocolate, and caramel with butter and salt.  It’s a pretty intense process and involves a lot of random kitchen utensils that I unfortunately don’t have here (or at home), and I don’t think it’s worth buying them while I’m over here.  I’m definitely going to pocket the recipes for my return to Boston, and I’m going to take the city by storm with my crazy macaron-making skills!  At least, I hope I end up with them after some more practice.  I put a picture above and to the right of mine and Kelsey’s macarons, which came out quite pretty, if I do say so myself.  They tasted just as delicious, too.  YUM.

All of this cooking and eating has made me tired though.  I’m off to take a power nap so that I can hopefully muster up the energy to go out later!  Have a good evenin’!