We made the trip to La Grande Motte and found Caroline's place. It's a nice house owned by her grandparents. She is quite lucky. She has one cat that's hers and 2 kittens she is nursing to health after finding them abandoned a few weeks ago. The color pattern is quite interesting on her cat. Her face is dark on one side and light on the other. Just like in that episode of Star Trek.
We started out by making the sushi. My first time. After a discussion we decided on a course of action. Jean-Christophe recorded it for posterity for revenge after my jabs at the French for not knowing anything about sushi. ;-) I did the first roll--a kani-mayo roll. Crab meat with mayonnaise.
First make the rice. Then chop in some vinegar. Be sure to add enough.
Then get a sheet of nori.
Lay it out on the mat.
Spread some rice on.
Add the crab. Elena was either trying to show me how to roll it.
Roll it up.
Elena did the rest of the makis while I tried to turn cocktail shrimp into ebi nigiris. They didn't look well formed, but they tasted good.
Voila!
Then we sat down to eat.
We talked in half English half French about all sorts of things and just had a nice time.
Cressida then cooked up a marinated chicken dish. And Caroline made a salad. When all was said and done, we had all eaten and drunk various beers, and wines to our hearts content. We had 6 flavors of ice cream. And finally finished with sake in little cups that showed a naked lady in the bottom of the glass only when there was liquid in it--thus presenting a dilemma: drink or look?
We kept one eye on the Eurovision song contest through the evening. My favorite was Spain. The French guy seemed to be hampered by some really bad camera work. There was apparently quite a controversy because he would sing in English.
After the contest ended but before the results were announced, we went out for a walk in La Grande Motte. We went down to the sea and admired the forces of nature, then walked around where there were still bars and restaurants serving those able to already vacation.
After that, we piled in the car and headed home. It was a very fun party. Our sushi wasn't bad at all. In typical south of France style, we went to bed at about 1:30 am. The French can party!
Here are my Un Diner Presque Parfait notes:
Cuisine: 9 (my roll was too thick and my shrimps were malformed)
Décoration: 10
Ambiance: 10
3 comments:
In case you were losing some sleep wondering about the results of the Eurovision, let me tell you that the French troglodyte came 18th, the Spanish song came 16th and the winner was... Russia with a song in English. The UK , Germany and Poland shared the last position.
I wanted also to share with your readers the fact that since I've met Mark a couple of months ago, I've mostly seen him speak English and not doing much of an effort to speak French. Elena was communicating in French pretty good while Mark remained silent during French conversations. But last night it was like a revelation. All of a sudden Mark started to speak French during the evening and had a very large vocabulary. I could not believe my years. It's like all of this time he was taking, absorbing, and digesting the French language and last night he ... well maybe this wasn't a good analogy... but he SPOKE IN FRENCH for hours!!
I can only say bravo!
And bravo for the Sushi!!! You guys rocked!
Merci pour le mensonge genial! ;-) Mais, je ne compris pas encore la difference entre "manche" et "poignee". J'ai appris francais par lisant les livres l'Alchimiste (Paulo Coehlo), Lord Jim (Joseph Conrad), et la Route (Cormac McCarthy) et les journals l'Express et Le Point. Donc, je connais beaucoup de mots que je ne peux pas prononcer ou entendre.
Et je parle beaucoup quand je bois beaucoup, aussi. ;-)
It was a very fun evening! I wish I were staying in Montpellier much longer!
BTW, how did the leggy Ukrainians do?
She did pretty good. She was second.
You can watch her legs again on her video
Here are the final scores
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