Another guest post by Brendan Howley The first time I spent in Paris was a blustery March, out of season and dour; the city gathered itself for spring, hinted at in the cross-winds rising off the Seine the afternoon I chose to buy a book—any book—from one of the booksellers on the quai des Grands Augustins.
An Explanation of Civet In Both Its' Senses
If you're cooking and you've got your game on then you might just be making a civet—a French stew of furry game or fowl, the famous “jugged hare” in English. Typically civet is a winter dish made with hare or rabbit and flavored with onion, chives, garlic, red wine, and peppercorns; traditionally the hare swims in a distinctive dark brown broth, thickened with the little critter’s blood.
Bouquet Garni
Heaven in a demi-tasse
There’s an office building in Paris which belongs to one of the less important security branches of the labyrinthine French intelligence empire. On a frigid January morning twenty years ago, I rode the century-old elevator to the third floor; I was the guest of a mid-ranking French diplomat I’d met on assignment in Cuba: I’d helped him with one or two delicate enquiries regarding the equally labyrinthine Cuban foreign ministry.