Tomme Daubée

Tomme daubée



Fromage frais (a fresh curd cheese made with cow's milk) mixed with aromatics herbs and served cold with rye or brown bread is quite popular in the Dauphiné region and in Lyon.  It is called: "tomme daubée" in the Dauphiné region and in Lyon (which does not belong to the Dauphiné) its preparation is slightly different and  called:  "cervelle de canut". Cervelle means brain. Canut was the name given to the people working in the silk industry in Lyon.  

The preparation of fromage frais in Lyon is slightly different than in the Dauphiné. The cervelle de canut is often mixed with cream (crème fraîche), shallots, new onions, parsley, chives, and white wine.

The traditional tomme daubée is  prepared with thinly chopped chives (called ciboulette or porette d'Avignon), vinaigrette (red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and black pepper) and crushed garlic.  In my family we also add Dijon mustard in.

The Tomme daubée can be served as a dipping sauce for raw veggies such as Holland radishes, endives/chicory leaves, bell pepper, etc. 

It is excellent served with boiled new potatoes, such as Rattes du Santerre, and salami (saucisson). 

You can also spread it on toasted bread!

Endives (from France) and Holland radishes



Rattes du Santerre (from the Picardie region)



Sweet Potatoes

Taiwan Style Roasted Potatoes

Sweet potatoes nicely arranged on circular racks

Cooked sweet potatoes ready to go!

Flowers in New-Territories

Flowers

I picked up these beautiful fallen flowers under trees in the Kowloon Tong area yesterday afternoon. 

Cherry Clip

End of May until beginning of July is usually the cherry season. Where my parents live, in the Rhone Valley, near Lyon, due to a warm month of March the cherries are already quite big and they told me they might eat the first ones within 10 days!

Cherries, cherry season, the cherry time - the famous song made famous by Yves Montand - and my cherry clip.  I fixed the pair of cherries made of peridot and garnet on a red heart-shaped wooden pendant, then attached a pin/hairclip at the back.  Et voilà!

Sai Kung -1

Sai-Kung on Sunday morning is crowded with people and dogs. Numerous fishermen below the pier are selling the fruit of their labor.
Tourists and locals alike are asking for prices and if a deal is made the product of their choice will be put into a basket and drawn up to them.
The seaside promenade leading to the center of this small town is packed full of dried seafood either piled onto on each other, hung from the beach umbrella or hooked onto the railing.  A pungent smell of oysters, squids, shrimps, etc drifts toward us. This is Sai Kung! I like to go there from time to time and watch these lively scenes.

Rowboat

People standing in a queue at the bus stop

A young girl selling dried seafood products

Paper like boats on the public plaza

Fish being hoisted up

Oysters drying on the parapet

Dried squids

Fresh giant squids

My 1st article in 有线快讯

Here is my 1st article in the first issue of Cable PLUS / 有线快讯 (April 15, 2011).

As the launch was originally planned for April 1, 2011 I had wrote about April Fool.  So this article comes a bit late!

April Fool! 跟你开个玩笑！ Poisson d’avril!

In France people who are fooled on 1^st of April are called Poisson d’avril. The tradition is said to have started in France in 1564. 

When we were kids my siblings and I used to stick fish-shaped cutouts on the back of our classmates on April’s Fool Day.  If we succeeded to attach the paper fish without being noticed this person would carry it on her/his back until someone will shout out: “Poisson d’avril!”

Now when I think of it I find this rather amusing / amusant though very childish/ enfantin.

The adults also have their way of playing tricks on people and make others look foolish. They make you believe into something and wait until they cannot hide the truth anymore to tell you that this is a joke.  Today the tradition goes on not only in France but although in many countries.

We also have another custom associated with the 1^st of April. Starting mid-March cake shops/ patisseries and chocolatiers are busy making and selling fish-shaped pastries and chocolate.  You can buy very small chocolate fish in pre-packed translucent paper bags, as well as large hollow chocolate fish filled with mini sugar Easter eggs /des mini oeufs de Pâques en sucre and/or small chocolate fish / petits poissons en chocolat.

I remember that my grand-father / mon grand-père used to offer a chocolate fish on the 1^st of April to my brother /mon frère as his birthday falls on this interesting day. My Mum / ma Maman) told us that the day he was born nobody would believe my father that he had a son (after 2 daughters)!