French food memory lane

If you have followed me for a while on Twitter or on my blog you will know that I miss French food ridiculously. I miss everything from the cheese to the cheap wine at Carrefour. Baguettes and saucisson were things that I would just snack on like if my life depended on it back in Paris. And you know what the sad thing is? You can't find half of those things in Southern California! I know you can buy baguettes and brie here but come on, you know they suck!

Now before I go on, I must sadly report that the things that will be mentioned in the blog post were all sent from France (trust me, I'm also crying on the inside) but I hope that you still enjoy reading about me almost crying after tasting real French saucisson and paté for the first time in almost 8 months.
Orlando's roommates back in Paris sent him a package, which arrived sometime last week, with a lot of French goods. Unfortunately the cheeses didn't survive the journey to Orange County but everything else did. Here's what was in Orlando's box:

So as you can see there was three different kinds of cheeses, ready to bake baguettes, paté, saucisson, a jar of blanquette de veau, and a lovely picture of their cat Olive who used to slap me with her paws every time I would go visit Orlando.

Last weekend when I went up to visit Orlando, we decided to have a nice little French dinner. Orlando grilled up a steak and cooked the blanquette, and we also bought a baguette (since we didn't want to bake one of the ones that were sent) and brie for the dinner. This was my first time trying blanquette de veau because unlike Orlando I didn't live with French people, therefor I ate less French food. After we started eating the blanquette we realized that we shouldn't have bought steaks. In case you don't know blanquette de veau has carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, and of course veal. It so good! It would have been better on a cold and rainy Parisian day but what can I do? We don't get too many of those days here.

Now for the bread, paté, and cheese. One of those things is not like the other and that was the paté since it was the only thing that was actually French. The baguette we bought at the grocery store was whatever, but the brie was disgusting. Do me and yourself a favor and DON'T buy the Président brie!! Although the brand is the same as the French one, the cheese isn't. American cheese has to be pasteurized so it just takes away from what make French cheeses so good. The cheese was hard, and the taste was just so off! That cheese broke my heart but luckily the paté was able to cheer me right up.

Finally I've saved the food item for last.... THE SAUCISSON!! This has to be the hardest things to find here. The closest I've gotten to having saucisson has been the Trader Joe's salami which is great but its just not saucisson. I swear with one bite of the real thing I felt like I was at my apartment in Place d'Italie. It just brought so many memories of snacking on saucisson in Paris. I remember Orlando and I sneaking saucisson, chips, candy, and Orangina when we went to the M2K Bibliothèque movie theater to see Les adieux à la reine with our French Society through Film class. It also brought memories of having picnics by the Eiffel Tower and coming back from my French literature classes hungry as hell.

It funny how food that you don't have in months can have such an effect on you but as silly as this post can sound to some of you, once you're in my position you will completely understand. I can honestly say that I can now completely understand that girl that cried when In-n-Out opened in Texas.

This is going to be me when I go back into a French boulangerie in Paris.

I hope you enjoyed the video and if anyone knows were to get a really good baguette or saucisson in California PLEASE let me know. I will love you forever if you do.