Taking time to eat a home-cooked meal is important in my community. From 12 to one p.m., most students leave school and shopowners close their businesses close so everyone can return home and eat lunch with their families. Restaurants do not open for dinner until seven p.m. I'm used to eating around six p.m. in the U.S., so imagine my shock when I walked down the street and found all the town's restaurants closed! Now that I've adjusted to eating at set times and later hours, I have become more mindful of what I eat.
I've also become more mindful of where my food is coming from. I am trying to eat more seasonal dishes and dishes that come from this region of France. One seasonal treat I have particularly enjoyed is la galette du rois. This is a flaky pastry cake with a filling of frangipane, a sweet almond paste. Eating this cake after Christmas has been a tradition in France— since the 1300s! I may still miss finding buche de noël (Christmas log cake) in the local bakeries, but la galette makes cold January evenings a little brighter.
In the spirit of eating more local dishes, this week I tried the green lentil of Le Puy. A lentil is a type of small, round legume, like peas or beans. You can find this type of lentil in restaurants all around Le Puy. I decided to try this lentil as a side salad.
