Asian Honey BBQ Tilapia

Ingredients:

• 8 oz canned crushed pineapple in juice
• 1/3 cup onion(s)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1/8 cup white wine
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 small jalapeno pepper(s)
• 1 clove garlic clove(s)
• 24 oz raw tilapia

Instructions: Preheat oven to 450°F.  Chop onion, garlic and jalapeno. Combine all ingredients except tilapia. Put fish in 9 X 13-inch glass dish. Pour sauce over fish. Roast 12 minutes. Serve hot!

The most obvious reason for this recent development is my lack of Monday classes.  It’s a beautiful thing to be able to enjoy Sundays without the dread of homework or the thought of waking up early the next day.  Another reason is because Paris becomes mine again on Mondays.  A lot of weekend tourists have exited the city, and it is significantly less crowded.  The supermarket is relatively calm, the streets are not swarming with as many tourists, and I don’t have to fight anyone for a late-afternoon seat in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

After food shopping this morning, I edited and uploaded the rest of my photos to Facebook…I have passed the 400 mark for pictures here in Paris, and that’s only counting the best of the best, the ones I edited, and not duplicates.  I have easily taken over 2,000 pictures since January 17, but I only put up the good ones so that people don’t get bored looking through them.  I mean, no one really wants to see the same 230,987 pictures of the Eiffel Tower, right?

I also worked on my thesis proposal…scary.  Thesis means senior year.  Which means graduation.  Which means real world.  Which means…crap.  Okay, I’m not going into that.

By the time 5 o’clock rolled around (or should I say seventeen o’clock?), I was ready to get some Vitamin D.  I grabbed my sunglasses and my book and walked over to the Jardin du Luxembourg.  I got lucky and managed to snag a chair right by the central fountain, perfect for people watching.  I sank into my comfy, green chair and basked in the sun for a bit.  I eventually cracked open my latest read, Atonement by Ian McEwan.  I haven’t read much, but I’m enjoying what I have read so far.  I really liked the movie, and I’ve heard the book is even better, so I’m looking forward to doing some more reading over the next few days.  Having spare time to read is unheard of for me, so I’ve really been enjoying these little breaks here and there.

After a couple of hours, my hunger alarm was going off, so I wandered into a nearby boulangerie to pick up a baguette to go with dinner.  Back at the apartment, I decided to make lemon-pepper shrimp with linguine, which I have made before and enjoyed.  I threw on my cutesy apron and turned up the R&B playlist that I have been obsessed with lately.  I boogied my way through dinner preparations, and before I knew it, was sitting at the table with a  steaming plate of pasta and shrimp.  Yum.

And now here I sit, on my red couch, catching up with my blog.  Why is it that I can never seem to stay up to date?!  I guess that’s a good sign, one that indicates that I have a life and have been out and about rather than sitting behind a computer all day.  After all, one needs to get out and to do things in order to have things to blog about.

And just a bit of a newsy piece: an Iranian cleric blamed ‘promiscuous women’ for the recent earthquakes that have been shaking the planet.  It makes me sad that sexism is still running rampant in Iranian society, and that women are blamed for such unpreventable occurrences.  The reasoning that people have used for centuries to explain natural disasters also intrigues me because it proves that most humans can’t accept that they have no real control over nature.  It’s hard to accept the idea that if an earthquake is going to happen, it’s going to happen.  Same goes for tornadoes and tsunamis.  Because they cannot grapple with such uncontrollable events, they find scapegoats in society to blame for them, which have historically been women and lower classes.  Anyways, that’s my little rant/thought of the day.  Click here to read the article for yourself.

And before I head out, I just want to proclaim the sadness I feel for not being in Boston for Marathon Monday.  I miss it dearly, and I hope those of you who were there had a blast.

Bon soirée!

I woke up around 9:30, got myself psyched up, and walked over to the Jardin du Luxembourg.  As I stood by the nearest entrance to the park, I was astonished by the number of people swooshing by me.  There was a constant flow of runners moving past the entrance, so many in fact, that I had to wait until there was a lull in the crowd for me to enter.

As my feet started to move beneath me, I couldn’t help but think back to the last time I had exercised.  A month?  Two months?  FOUR MONTHS?! That’s right, ladies and gents, this formerly fit bod has not seen any physical exertion since December 2009.  The only exercise I’ve been getting is, in fact, walking to the nearest pastry shop, opening my mouth and chewing (sometimes).

Sad.

I felt parts of my body that I haven’t felt in months.  I think they’re called muscles.

I noticed some new additions, too…a little (okay the use of ‘little’ here is debatable) baguette belly, less-than-firm macaron-ed thighs, and some new junk in my trunk courtesy of the sticks of butter I have most likely been consuming in my restaurant explorations.

Okay, so my body has changed a bit, and I have certainly lost a considerable amount of muscle mass.  Truthfully, though, I’ve never been happier, and so I will continue to consume my crêpes, pâtisseries, and baguettes.

In other news, I went food shopping today and noticed that the WHOLE WORLD is in Paris (except thankfully not in Monoprix).  The nice weather has brought swarms of tourists, and I can see why; everything is absolutely beautiful in the springtime sunshine.

I went back to the Jardin du Luxembourg around 5 to enjoy some sun myself, and as I was sitting there, attempting to catch up on my blogs (it’s a neverending process, really), I saw two familiar faces: Mike and Erica!  It was a nice surprise, and I was glad to see that Erica hadn’t already left for Strasbourg.  We had a nice little life chat before they went off to dinner and before I continued my lame attempts at blogging.

One has a difficult time getting much of anything accomplished in this fabulous city, what with there being SO many things to do and see.  And with that, off I go…à bientôt, mes amis!

As awful and terrible as they were, I can honestly say that I’m now much more comfortable with speaking in front of large groups of people and with giving presentations.

Today’s exposé was on genetically modified food and the controversy surrounding it.  Basically, over the past decade, scientists have started tinkering with genes from plants and moving them from one plant to another to increase the frequency of desirable trait. For example, plant geneticists can isolate the gene responsible for drought tolerance and insert that gene into a different plant. The new genetically modified plant will then be drought tolerant, as well.  It’s kind of a cool concept, and it’s great that we can produce so much more food.  At the same time, however, there’s a lot of major issues associated with genetic modifications of crops; no one really knows the possible long-term effects such food will have on humans and on the environment, particularly with biodiversity.   Plus, there’s the fact that once these genetically modified organisms are developed, there is really no way to stop them from spreading and from crowding out other species.

Anyways, that’s just my blurb on GM food.

I’m going to a super fancy shmancy restaurant this evening with the girls: Le Procope!  It was the first establishment in all of Paris to serve coffee, back in the 17^th century.  It was frequented by Voltaire, Robespierre, Benjy Franklin, and T Jeffs, among others.  And it’s only (surprise!) a ten minute walk from my apartment.  I’ll write more about it later!

* * *

Le Procope.  Was.  Fabulous!  My two roommates Kelsey & Simone, our friend Chrissy, Simone’s friend Alicia and I all had dinner reservations at 10:30.  As I mentioned earlier, it was a pretty famous place back in the day, and still remains famous among tourists and locals alike!  We arrived a few minutes early and were asked to wait in cute lobby that had old manuscripts on the walls, and of course a picture of Voltaire hanging over the bar.  We were shown to our table shortly thereafter, and were pleased to find ourselves in our own little enclave between two of the dining areas downstairs.  The menu was pretty large and filled with choices that made me swoon…escargots, tête de veau, and of course, coq au vin.  I ended up settling on the French onion soup (which I had read was excellent) and the salmon (which I had also read was phenomenal), and Kelsey, Chrissy and I decided to split an order of escargots!  It was my first time trying it, and I absolutely loved the garlicky deliciousness of it.  The French onion soup lived up to its reputation, as did the salmon, and we were very pleased all around with the service.  Afterwards, we looked around the rest of the two-story restaurant, and saw the room where Benjamin Franklin used to sit, and were told where Voltaire used to spend his time, as well.  Legend has it that Voltaire used to drink 40 cups of coffee a day, and mix it with chocolate to boot.  I knew I liked that man!  I took some pictures of the restaurant, which I will add sooner than later…I promise!

…which is why I was exceedingly happy to go to the Marché aux Puces!  Marché aux Puces is one of the leading flea markets in Paris.  Kelsey, Chrissy and I were a bit concerned at first, for all we saw were creepy vendors selling bootleg designer bags & glasses, weird hats, and bizarre shoes.  We walked through the first set, somewhat amused, and eventually found ourselves among a huge section of beautiful antiques stores.  We ooh-ed and ahh-ed at this and that, marveled at some of the crazy prices, and discussed what we would be buying if we had an endless budget.

We eventually happened upon un magasin d’affiches (a poster store), which had old fashion magazines, maps from around the world, and other pretty Parisian images.  I was drawn to the map section, and ended up finding a beautiful, pastel-shaded map that depicted France in 1789.  I was incredibly excited about it, and knew that I simply had to buy it, get it mounted & framed, and hang it on my wall next year, so that I always have a little piece of Paris with me.

After an hour and a half of walking around, we stopped in a café called Le Voltaire for some café crème (espresso with milk) and warmth.  Realizing we were hungry, we finished up our coffees pretty quickly and went to a nearby crêpe stand, where I bought a sugar & cinnamon one.

We were pretty tired by this point, so we left the flea market and went back to our respective apartments.  I only got a few hours of sleep because I went out last night.  We actually didn’t end up going to the stock market bar (long story), but we went to the Moose again to celebrate a girl from BC’s 21st birthday.  I’m still obsessed with that bar; the cute Australian bartender was giving us free drinks every once in a while, which was a good treat.

Anyways, Kelsey and I decided to make some dinner this evening.  We went to two grocery stores, Carrefour and Monoprix, to pick up what we needed for a nice little feast.  We made a whole roast chicken, green beans with pine nuts, and Kelsey made the most delicious noodle kugel!  The chicken was quite an experience; it was my first time sticking my hand in a bird (woohoo!), and it turned out to be not nearly as gross as I thought and also ten times more delicious than a regular chicken leg or breast.  We used a Martha Stewart recipe, which called for lemon, garlic, some type of herb (we used herbes de provence), butter, salt & pepper.  Everything was just absolutely delicious.

I’m starting to get excited for tonight, too; Simone, Kelsey, Melanie and I have tickets to the Sciences Po rugby gala, and the boys rugby team from Columbia University will be visiting, too.  WOO, have to get ready!

Today was largely uneventful.  I had French today, and went out to lunch afterwards with a few girls from the class.  We went to this place called the CROUS, which is a student cafeteria where you can get quite a bit of food for not too much money.  I ended up getting some seafood paella with fish (bad call on the fish…I’m still nauseous thinking about it), and a little apple-y tarte for dessert.  It only cost 3.45 euro, which I guess in the grand scheme of things isn’t bad at all.

Other than that, I worked on my two papers and exposé all day.  Fun.  This whole school thing is interfering with my life over here…

Simone’s mother arrived in France just before I left for Ireland, and she and Simone have just returned from a lovely little trip to Bordeaux.  I didn’t get the chance to sit down and talk with her until today, and I’m so glad I was finally able to!  It was so much fun talking to her about her life and her travels.  She has been to so many different places, and knows so much about culture.  I liked hearing her talk about her experiences thus far in Paris, and also how she has been able to relate the literary history to the physical places she has been seeing.  She actually just finished reading Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and left it for us to read if we ever get the chance.

As I said, it was quite nice sitting here on the big, red, comfy couch chatting with her.  I was doing some research for my exposé while she prepared us a delicious dinner of chicken noodle soup!  It was so delicious and really hit the spot, especially with the chilly weather we’ve been having the past several days.

Not much else is going on my life, though; I have a lot of work this week, so the blogging might be lighter than normal!

Alright, so!  Today was a pretty eventful day!  The boys went to a few museums, Kelly and Alissa went to explore Rue Mouffetard and the Marais, and Nadia met up with her friend from home.  I decided to stay in and get a head start on my French paper, of which I was able to finish my rough draft.  I did a bit of research for my exposé, and then I realized how late it had gotten, and started to get ready for the wine tasting!

Kelsey and Chrissy had taken this class about a month ago, and have been raving about it ever since.  Melanie and I were originally signed up, and then since we had to reschedule (due to my illnesses and travels), Nadia and her friend Alix decided they would join us.  We all met up at this place, called O Château, and descended the staircase into an ancient wine cellar.  Our instructor, Sebastian, was fantastic and a wine maker, so he really knew his stuff.  The actual class provided 6 different types of French wines, including a champagne.  It also came with delicious (free) bread.  The champagne was excellent, and did you know that actual champagne is produced only in France and California?  I found that little factoid quite interesting.  My favorite wine was a lollipop wine from the Fronton region of France; it was sweet, and tasted absolutely delicious.  I want to invest in another bottle, but somehow can’t imagine a 5 euro bottle from Monoprix tasting as good as the 19 euro bottle at O Château…

Anyway, we were strongly encouraged not to spit out the wine, and who were we to resist?!  After two and a half hours of drinking – err, tasting – we definitely had within us a warm, happy feeling.  We made our way back to the Latin Quarter, and found a cute little restaurant called Le Marathon to eat in.  It was pretty crowded, most likely because it was offering a good deal: 3-course meal for 10 euros, which for Paris, is a steal.  I got some more French onion soup (can’t get enough!), escalope of veal in some kind of creamy mushroom sauce, and finished off with another apple tarte.  The food was much better than last night’s, but unfortunately the waiter was kind of a jerk, so it put a damper on things.  I’m not used to this by now because…why?

After dinner, the entire group met up back at my apartment, and we decided to go out to the Moose, my favorite little Canadian pub.  We had a few drinks, and called it a night.

After all, Paris, my friends, is one very exhausting city.

Jeff and his three friends Jeff, Erik and Matt arrived shortly after we three girls woke up.  They were raring to go, so I gave them some directions to go see the major touristy things: the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and so on.  Within 30 minutes, they were on their way.  Next, I gave some directions to Nadia and the girls, so they went to the Musée d’Orsay (my favorite!) while I ran some errands and did a bit of homework.

In a few hours, I met up with them to walk down Champs Elysées, to go to Ladurée, and to climb the Arc de Triomphe.  Despite the bitter cold, it was really fun and we got some great pictures of all of us.  After seeing the Arc, they went to do the Eiffel Tower, so I came back to the apartment to let the boys in and to figure out our plans for the evening.

We all decided to stay local and go to the Latin Quarter.  We found a restaurant called La Harpe, which was offering a prix-fixe menu of 10 euro for 3 courses plus a glass of wine.  Since we were all hungry and impatient, we went in and had a nice little dinner.  I got some French onion soup, beef bourguignon, and raspberry tarte (or was it apple? I forget).  It was decent, but you could definitely tell that it was a 10 euro meal unfortunately.  Our extremely friendly waiter made up for sub-par food however, as he was so fun and friendly, and spent the entire meal joking around with us.

After dinner, we were exhausted again.  The girls and I just came back to the apartment, while the boys went to the Bastille to explore that neighborhood.  I felt bad that I didn’t go with them, but I was honestly so tired that I fell asleep sitting upright on the couch (the tagged photos of me on Facebook are proof, although by that point I was kind of on my side, curled up in fetal position).

These fabulous visitors of mine are running me ragged!

We woke up around 9, had a bite of breakfast, and set out for Notre Dame.  It was a quick 10 minute walk from my apartment, and although I’ve seen the outside and taken many pictures, I hadn’t been inside until this morning.  It was really beautiful, and I love the candles and candle racks they have.  As beautiful as it was, I still think I prefer Sacré Coeur; the blue and gold leafing on the ceiling in Sacré Coeur is breathtaking, and I wish they allowed pictures inside the basilica.

After seeing Notre Dame, we began our walk to the Louvre.  Can you believe that I’ve been here for almost two months, and did not set foot in the Louvre until this morning?  I can’t, and to be honest, it’s a bit disgraceful.  Anyways, so we split a couple of baguettes and ate them by the pyramid before going inside.  We managed to get in for free with our student IDs and visas, which was a plus.  We walked around and saw most of the big-ticket items, such as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory.  I also attempted to re-enact my last experience at the Louvre, where I fell asleep in the room of Roman statues and got yelled at by a crazy security guard (embarrassing, I know).  It was great, and I can’t wait to spend some more time there as the semester goes on.

After the Louvre, we went to Montmartre.  We emerged from the subway right in front of the Moulin Rouge!  It was actually my first time seeing it, so we took some pics of it and then decided to swing by our restaurant of choice to make reservations.  After doing this, we stopped in a wine store, picked up a nice bottle of red and some plastic cups, and then made our way to Sacré Coeur.  We saw the church, checked out the nearby Place du Tertre, which is a little square with a bunch of artists painting.  As the sun began to set, we made our way back to the steps of Sacré Coeur to open our bottle of wine.

I can honestly say that it was one of the most amazing experiences I have had in Paris thus far.  So many people were sitting on the steps with their friends, sharing the beautiful view and wine or beer.  There were performers and live music, and the city was beginning to twinkle in the background…I should just stop, because words can’t even really do the whole thing justice.

After the sun set, we went to Refuge des Fondues!  I have been hearing all about this place since before I even arrived in Paris because it serves wine in baby bottles…crazy right?  I thought it would be really cool and fun, but to be perfectly honest, it really creeped me out.  The bottle smelled so rubbery, and just…yikes.  I am now firmly of the opinion that wine should be served in glasses, or in its original bottle (but only on New Year’s Eve).  The actual restaurant itself was really fun, though.  There are two long tables on either side of the little place, and to get to the wall side seating, the waiter has to help you climb over the table.  After you sit down, they bring little appetizers to nibble on.  It’s at about that point where you start to look around the place at the hundreds of signatures on the wall.  We actually ended up finding another BC signature from 2008 on the other side.  We added our own signature (reading: Eagles on the warpath, ooh (la la) ah!) on the wall right behind Kelly and I, so we felt preeetty cool.  The fondue itself was great, too…I can’t believe how much cheese we ingested between the four of us.  Kelly and I totally outdid Alissa and Nadia in terms of bread though…three baskets to their two and a quarter.

We kind of waddled back home, grabbing a jar of Nutella along the way (I hate them for doing this to me) and realized we were too tired to go out again.  Instead, we grabbed some spoons and dug in…the jar was empty the next day.