#carrement

[grandboute]

#sansTitre #abstract #instamachinchose #geometrie #carres #carrement

[annieetlesgateaux]

Spring is here! Let's celebrate with this raspberry cake inspired by Fauchon "carrément framboise". The base is pâte sablée breton (shortbread crust) with pistachio, orange zest and 1 gram of fleur de sel (flower of sea salt?). The cream is crème mousseline à la pistache, recipe from Ladurée prepared with homemade pistachio paste (recipe from Mr Pierre Hermé). Love the mix of orange, pistachio, delicate cream and raspberry #spring #springishere #printemps #carrementframboise #fauchon #paris #patesableebreton #patesableebretonpisatche #shortbreadcrust #pistachioshortbreadcrust #pistachio #pistache #framboise #raspberry #raspberrycake #gateauframboise #crememousselinepistache #carrement #laduree #pierreherme #pateapistache #pistachiopaste #ilovebaking #homemadepatisserie #yummy #orange #zesteorange #orangezest #fleurdesel #seasalt #beurre #butter

[chezbabette-blog]

Carrément (pas) trop cool!

Disclaimer: if you aren’t a fan of blatant generalizations or a believer in national character, this post will probably offend you. If you have a sense of humor, you may just enjoy it. 

In a sea of black (and occasional muted gray) my Puerto Rican friend stands out like an exotic peacock: neon orange jacket, bright blue Converse, light green glasses. And loud.

Emotively, the French are a lot like the colors they wear – not a lot of variety, not a lot of transparency, never too showy.

My short-lived romance with the Che Guervara-resembling Basque taught me this: stop saying “super” and “hyper” in front of everything. Or they will rigolent. Or wonder why you are so trop-contente. Alors, I have learned to scale down my overactive enthusiasm.

Even though the words do exist in the French language, I haven’t heard many non-foreigners use words like: magnifique, remarquable, extraordinaire excellent, belle or terrific. (They use terrible instead to mean terrific, ironically enough.)

Les Francais do like impec (short for impeccable). And enorme, which, like terrible, can be both positive and negative. Enorme: the fact that your professor didn’t show up for class and didn’t tell anyone. Enorme: getting the best grade in your law class.

When my (fill in the bureaucrat’s office) dossier is supposedly complete, it is impec, only to be returned one week later because I did not have a signed attestation that I did not copy my passport within the 0.3-centimeter margin that is désormais required. I must not really understand what impeccable means – I used to think it was a synonym of perfect.

Here is my through-an-ex-pat’s eyes scale of French expressions for things that on aime. (Don’t get the wrong idea; aimer (remember learning je t’aime?) really only means one likes.)

terrible (awful, terrible, affreuse)

C’est pas terrible (it wasn’t horrible) means it really was horrible.

pas mal (not bad)

Pas mal means good. Don’t say bon, which actually does translate as good – that’s too positive!

pas mal du tout (not bad at all)

This means: it is really good.

vraiment pas mal du tout (or even vachement pas mal du tout)

Literally: really not bad at all. It means super, excellent or really good. Vachement comes from la vache (cow.) I have no idea.

trop bon (super good)

Be careful when using this one– liking something this much is a big commitment.

terrible   (teriffic, great, awesome)

In this case, notice that terrible is a good thing. It all depends on context whether it veut dire horrible or terrific.

Hope you found your French lesson pas mal du tout.

Word of the Day: dégueulasse (filthy, yucky, crappy), much better and more familier than simply degoutant (disgusting)

In: Spring, thus the store windows are filled with the new clothing collections. Instead of bright colors: muted pastels, light grays, sandy browns…

    Out: Compliments – so American, so passé.