A Paris Thanksgiving: Without The T

Shopping at Picard

We celebrated our Thanksgiving last night, two days late and without the T.

Don’t get me wrong, we gave Thanks and we had Turkey. But we did it without even a mention of the other T. You know, the name that has been on the lips of Americans these past few weeks. The day before, my daughter banned mention of U.S. president-elect from our household.

I also did Thanksgiving without another T, which I can’t seem to get enough of: Time.

So I did as the French do, I rose early on a Saturday morning and went to a store called Picard, which sells only frozen food—great frozen food. There’s no place like it in the U.S. I grabbed bags of turkey, broad beans, celery rave, rolls, and for dessert, the French version of apple pie: tarte tatin. Something else with a T that I can’t get enough of.

Thanksgiving chez moi

The turkey wasn’t a whole turkey, because in France that’s for Christmas. Instead I bought turkey pieces and made a fricassee, basically a stew. Ours was with mushrooms in a white wine sauce spiked with black current liqueur.

But because Time wasn’t on my husband’s side, as he decided to make stuffing from scratch, we’ll have that tonight, with leftover turkey stew on the side.

The only problem: we’re out of an essential ingredient for the stuffing. It also begins with a T. We are out of Thyme!





Rose Marie Burke, an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home." Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. Or find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+.

The Tiny Country Between Paris And Pittsburgh

Kerid crater lake, not far from Reykavik

We’ve discovered a land between Paris and Pittsburgh that has solved a puzzle for us. It’s a common one for expats: how to see family back home and keep travel costs down, but see more of other folks and the world during our annual homecoming.  

The answer for us this year is Iceland. We’re not the first to discover the island of “fire and ice,” so named for its volcanoes and glaciers, a place of raw, unsoiled beauty. It’s become a trendy, offbeat place to visit (read about that here). Is it cold and dark? The average winter temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and even the shortest days aren’t inky black but more like a constant twilight. But watch out for extreme weather! Blizzards can blow in unexpectedly. In the summer, however, Iceland enjoys spring-like weather and long days that are a bonus for hikers and day trippers. 

The pull was Icelandair’s “free stop-over” program, where passengers can deplane in Reykavik and spend up to a week discovering the island before continuing onto their destination, without an extra airline fee. Warning: Staying in Iceland itself is not free! It’s known as an expensive place, but there are ways to keep costs down: We stayed in an AirBnB in the suburbs, soaked in public pools instead of the pricey Blue Lagoon spa, used city buses for transport, and made most of our own meals. 

At a farm outside the capital called Farmhotel Efstidalur,
which serves ice cream made from the milk of the cows it raises.

Branching out even further, we selected the airline’s Paris-Minneapolis round trip (with the Reykavik stop-over) so we could visit college friends in the Midwest, fulfilling an old promise. We completed our itinerary with a Minneapolis-Pittsburgh round trip.

We loved Iceland so much that we’d like to “stop over” again and see more of the sights. And that’s just been made easier because Iceland’s budget airline, Wow Air, that added Pittsburgh as a destination earlier this month. Read about that here. Wow starts the service in June 2017, and also offers free stop-overs.

Now that Pittsburgh International Airport is once again starting to live up to that name, with direct flights to Frankfurt beginning next summer as well, we hope to do more PIT-stopping on our way home.

Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+. Rose Marie Burke, an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home."

Breakfast in America—In Paris

The "2 X 2 X 2"

Every so often, after living in Paris for many years, I get a craving for a real breakfast that a dainty croissant can’t satisfy. Like those Saturday morning brunches I made for my brothers as a young girl growing up in Pittsburgh: Bisquick pancakes, slathered with Imperial margarine, and swimming in Log Cabin syrup. That was the life!

Those happy memories came flooding back as I read “Pancakes in Paris,” about how an unlikely American with no restaurant experience—Craig Carlson-- started a chain of diners called “Breakfast in America” or BIA for short.

In reading the book, I worked up a pancake hunger. Yesterday, my husband and I left our cozy suburban apartment for the Latin Quarter, home of BIA No. 1.

Now I had been to BIA before, and remembered a long line and an impatient little girl—my daughter. This time, there was a short wait and no daughter, who now as a normal teenager didn’t even have enough patience to join us. Refusing a tiny table for two, we took seats at the counter. The best seats in the house--in a diner!

CC's Big Mess: Not for vegetarians

Hubbie ordered the 2 X 2 X 2, which is two each of eggs, bacon or sausage, and pancakes, with a side of real maple syrup. (Ever the mathematician, he wonder why it wasn’t the 2 + 2 + 2?) I bravely ordered the owner’s signature dish, CC’s Big Mess: Scrambled eggs with bacon, ham, sausage, onions, peppers, mushrooms, avocado, and cheddar cheese, served on top of a pile of home fries—with a hold on the cheese and a side of salsa.

BIA's diner decor

We admired the décor as we waited for our dishes, including the authentic laminated counters. There was a reason BIA reminded me of the diners of Pittsburgh. Because that’s where Craig found his inspiration! After joining the Diner Rescue Fund, he was invited to attend Dinerama 2001, a bus tour of Pittsburgh’s finest in diners dating back to the 1920s. (For a history of diners, go here.)

“Thanks to the Pittsburgh diner tour, I met a diner supplier that still made the authentic 50's era boomerang laminate counter top, which I then had shipped to Paris,” Craig said in a Facebook message to me while on book tour in California.

“I have so many special memories! I wish I knew the name of the diner, but it was a 1950's shiny, classic diner where we were allowed to order whatever we wanted off the menu (included in the tour price!),” Craig said. “I also remember visiting a diner just outside of the city, where they had a muscle car show and Hank Williams, Jr. was there to sing.”

Our dishes arrived on diner-issue oval plates. My mess was hearty, to say the least, and I loved the concept of scrambled eggs and potatoes together. But you’ve really got to be a carnivore for this dish, and not just a half-hearted vegetarian like myself.

But the pancakes!

Before John had a bite, I had already had two. The hotcakes were near perfect, round, evenly cooked, tender, and generously hanging over the rim of the plate. (No small praise for a former restaurant reviewer and child pancake prodigy.) Proust had his madeleine that brought back memories. For me, it's pancakes.

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Rose Marie Burke,  an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home." Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. Or find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+.