Baking an American Cake in Paris

Unlike in America where I usually expect my friends to shower me with gifts (such as a Gators Snuggie) and funfetti cupcakes, it is typical custom in Paris to bake (or buy) your own cake to share with your friends.  So for my birthday yesterday, I decided to treat my labmates and friends with an American cake.  What is an American cake?  Well, I'm American and I made it.  Also, yellow cake with chocolate frosting... which I have not seen in any Parisian pâtisseries.  But I was confident that my French friends would like it... it contains lots of butter.

Well, I am usually the eater of the group, and never been the baker (that role was for Megan!)  And I quickly came upon the first hurdles which many Americans trying to bake in France encounter: flour (la farine).  Indeed I never realized how diverse the flour market was.  I was only aware of all purpose flour and cake flour.  And to make matters worse... French flour is different in gluten and protein content.

A sampling of the different types of flour in France, and Maizena (corn starch).

The farine type is written on the side of the bag.

It seems like all these flours might be the same (see image), maybe with the difference of "BIO" farine de blé being the organic flour (bio, pronounced B.O. ... hehehe, which is what the French stereotypically have!... generally means organic).  But upon closer inspection, we find some differences.  The white bag in the middle gives our biggest clue, with the label "T55" (or type 55).  It turns out that French flour is classified by the residual mineral content is left in the flour, as explained in this Cooksinfo.com page.  The BIO flour is actually type 65, which is written on small print on the side of the bag.  The Moulin d'Or flour is described as "pour gâteaux cuisine et pâtisserie fine" (for cakes and pastries), indicating that it is type 45 (also written in small print on the side).  The different types and their American equivalents was charted by this article at Chow.com.

So I grabbed my eggs (les oeufs), butter (la beurre), granulated sugar (le sucre en poudre... which literally means powdered sugar!  American powdered sugar is French sucre glace), milk (le lait),  baking powder (la levure... watch out! there are different ones for cake and bread) and my farine and got to work.  My second hurdle was that I didn't have a mixer.  But this was nothing I couldn't tackle with the help of a hand-held food processor, a whisk, and le boyfriend with a strong arm (insert joke here?).  Luckily for me, I also stumbled upon this blogpost which suggest that I mix half farine with half cornstarch (Maizena) to get that American fluffy cake.  Great tip!  I used type 45 farine and Maizena and got a great fluffy yellow cake which then I smothered with Scharffen berger chocolate icing.  I served it with coffee, tea, and French cider (5% alcohol).  It was a hit!

PS  Apparently a big difference for them between French cakes and the American cake was the icing... which they loved!

Marie Curie Week!

This week, Google had doodled Marie Curie on her birthday (Nov 7th), so I thought I would pay hommage to the great scientist, pioneering woman, and alumni to my institution, Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI).

Jeff Nye in front of the historical plaque at ESPCI.  The plaque translates to: "In 1898, in a laboratory in this school, Pierre and Marie CURIE, assisted by Gustave BEMONT, discovered Radium."

Similar to my alma matar, UC Berkeley, ESPCI has contributed to the discovery of many elements and is associated with a handful of Nobel Prize-winning scientists.  Although on a much smaller scale (5 Nobel Laureates instead of 22) and there is no element "ESPCI-ium"... but to be fair, ESPCI is MUCH smaller, admitting less than 100 students per year.  But it was here that one of the most influential women in science history, Marie Curie, and her husband Pierre, discovered radium.  Above is a picture of my friend, Jeff Nye, posing in front of the plaque at my institution and below is a picture of the plaque in front of the laboratory on campus.

Plaque reads: "Location of the laboratory where Pierre and Marie CURIE discovered radium in October 1898."

I don't have to tell you that Marie Curie's work was impressive, but I will anyways.  She was an accomplished scientist first and an accomplished woman second; she broke barriers in the realms of chemistry, physics and gender roles in science.  She was the first WOMAN to be awarded the Nobel Prize and to become a professor at La Sorbonne.  But she was the first PERSON to win 2 Nobel Prizes, and one of the only two people to have 2 Nobel Prizes in different fields.  Her first prize was in Physics for her work on radiation and her second was in Chemistry for discovery and study of the elements polonium and radium.  But you know you are badass when you have an element named after yourself.  Her and her husband were immortalized as element number 96, Curium, which, incidentally, was discovered by Glenn T. Seaborg at UC Berkeley.

Congratulations Megan and Will!

This post has nothing to do with my life in Paris... but two of my favorite people just got married this weekend, and I wanted to congratulate them since I couldn't be there in person.  The drawback to living in Paris: I can't take a weekend trip to the US.

The first time I hung out with Megan, she threw mud at my face.  And after I first met Will, he started singing Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason and then claimed that I was a "nougat."  I really couldn't ask for better friends.

But in all seriousness... Megan and Will: You guys rock!  I wish you nothing but happiness :)

Will, Megan, and I as Pacman, Clyde ("stupid ghost"), and Inky ("fickle ghost").
Thanks Dana, for the picture! 

No speako frencho

One of the more entertaining things about travelling in France with my parents derives from the fact that they don't know any French at all.  In general, I had assumed that everyone knew a little of the basics (bonjour, au revoir, parlez-vous français?) but apparently this is not true.  My friend Abby had a friend visit earlier this year, and she told the waitress that she "no speako frencho."

My mom runs around saying "messy" and "situ" and "voilaaaaaaaaaaa!" which are her versions of "merci," "c'est tout," and "voila!"  My dad looked at the menu and saw "soupe de poisson" and thought it was a bowl of poison:

  Me: No, dad.  "Poisson" means fish.

  Dad: Oh. I use the Poisson distribution all the time, so I am using the fish distribution!
  Me: No, the Poisson distribution is named after a French mathematician
  Dad: He was a fish!?

A few french friends had told me that they love hearing asian people speak english (as in, people with asian accents, and not me)... they think it is sexy.  Well, as an American, I can say that I love hearing asians speak french; I think it is very cute!

Top reason to love France: vacation!

This week, for les vacances, I am travelling in Southern France with my family: sister! (Prinda), mom, dad, and 2 cousins (Nong and Ying).  Our itinerary includes the French Riviera (Nice, Monte Carlo/Monaco, Cannes, and a few other small towns), Provence (Aix-en-Provence, Nimes, Avignon), and Carcassonne.  It is quite refreshing to get away from the busy (and currently quite chilly) city of Paris into the sweet Southern France living.  However, I am about a week behind in posts, and I do not have pictures uploaded yet... soon to come!

However, last weekend, to get into the right mindset for this week's vacation, le french boyfriend and I took a mini-vacation to Chablis in the northern part of the Burgundy region of France.  

Grand Cru vineyards at Chablis

The wines here include Chablis, Petit Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru, and Chablis Grand Cru... which are, in fact, different classifications of Chablis.

Drinking Chablis and eating gougères

Chablis, the town, is quite small and quaint.  We decided to camp at the local site which is about a 5-minute walk from town center.  It contains spacious campsites surrounded by creeks and lined with flowers; by far the nicest campsite I've ever been.

That evening the town had a wine festival and night market.  Apparently, in Chablis, this means that the city gives you wine for free... as oppose to other festivals I have been to which is just means to get you to buy expensive food and drinks!  I guess that is the advantage of being a rich wine town.  They were pouring Chablis, and pairing it with their local pastry, gougères, a puff pastry with hints of cheese mixed into the dough.

Along with the festival was a small French band covering American rock music such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers (whom the French call "Les Red Hots").  All in all, a great night.

The next day, we wanted to rent bicycles and take a tour through the vineyards... but it rained.  I guess if you get lucky with a free festival one day, you are unlucky with weather the next day.

Instead, we went to a wine cave to taste wine and visited the nearby city of Tonnerre.  One of the biggest attractions to Tonnerre is La Fosse Dionne, a large bluish green water source, providing the town with water at a rate of 200 liters/sec.  The "fountain" is surrounded by an old, lightly-deteriorating covered colonnade, which is then surrounded by colorful townhouses above, which is then surrounded by tree-covered hills above that.  Just layers upon layers of beauty!  The water is quite clear and very deep with all sorts of plants growing in it.  It is apparently extremely dangerous to dive in, that after several deaths, is now illegal to do so.  It was so cool that I had to see it three times.

How do you avoid Parisians?

Come to Paris in August.

This month is when most French people take their "summer vacations," and the French really know how to vacation.  In fact, most employers require 3-4 weeks of vacation in the summer, with at least 2 of them being consecutive.  Right now, there are about 5 people left in my lab.  One of my advisors is on holidays for 5 weeks.  Even the paraplegic who begs for money near my lab, and who I have seen everyday since I have started working regardless of rain or snow or sun, has not been around since the 1st of August.

Why would you want to avoid Parisians in the first place?  Maybe to avoid Paris Syndrome, as described in this BBC article.

Quiet streets and quiet metros.  It is quite nice.  Although, there are still MANY people (and very long lines) in the touristy areas of Paris.

Paris Invaders!

Mario Invader on the way to Beaubourg

Walking around Paris, chances are you will stumble upon a mosaic tile in the form of first-generation video game characters on the side of buildings and bridges.  This is because there are 1000 of them around Paris.  These have been placed by the street artist, known as "Invader."  Although he has characters such as Mario (picture right) and Pacman, his specialty (and original works) are the aliens from the game Space Invaders, which is very apt for what he is doing.  Recently, he had an exhibit at La Générale to commemorate his 1000th "invader" placed in Paris.

The exhibition was very neat... it included a montage of all his works around Paris, a collection of his specially made shoes so that when he walks he leaves imprints of invaders, invader shaped waffles with powdered sugar, maps of the placement of his invaders, and his works on "rubiks cubism," where he arranges rubiks cubes together to form mosaic pictures of famous people, scenes, and rock album covers.

1000th Invaders in Paris exhibit at La Générale

A sampling of the mosaics placed around Paris

Rubiks Cubism

He has spread his invasion to other cities too.  His webpage has a list of some of them (I am not sure how up-to-date it is kept): http://www.space-invaders.com/sominv.html.  Marisa, Priya, and I found a few when we were in Rome, though Rome does not appear on this list.  But his exhibit featured a map of invaders he placed in Rome.

His wikipedia page says that his invaders are strategically placed around Montpellier in order to form a larger invader when outlined on a map.  Neato!

Marisa and Priya in front of our 2nd invader found in Rome, this one in Trastevere

An invader mocking us as we stand in the 2 hour line waiting to get inside the Vatican