"My Life In France"

[fiefoe]

Surprisingly this book didn't make my mouth water too much, due to my lack of French. Julia Child's memoir makes relaxing listening, though cook-bookery certainly didn't come easy to this perfectionist -- just deciding what fish are called what names in what countries took tons of research.

The French:
__ (The bedroom walls) were covered in green cloth and so many plates, plaques, carvings, and whatnots that it looked like the inside of a freshly sliced plum cake.
__ The lady at the cheese-shop can judge the ripeness of cheese by the hour.
__ Paul had the same film developer as Capa & Cartier-Bresson.
__ (The tour de force pressed-duck dish) is made from a duck born of a domestic female covered by a wild male, smothered as to preserve all the blood. The duck press looks like a small silver fire extinguisher.  {This recalls the practice of making crabs drunk before steaming them .}

The nice couple:
__ "My job was to use my height and long reach to block the sun over his camera lens as he carefully composed a shot and clicked the shutter."
__ Paul was the bottle-washer behind the scenes when Julia Child went on TV shows to demonstrate her cooking.

OSS in Asia / foreign service:
__ a "fish-squeezing" department trying to create a shark repellent
__ an elephant that knew to turn on a tap
__ "I can't fertalize a five acre field by farting through a fence. "

Back then:
__ Elvis the Pelvis / newfangled self-serve super markets
__ Paul's salary was under 10k at one point, and their Cambridge house on Irving St was bought with 48k.
__ People thought TV would only be good for 'how to' shows and porn.