My name's Dana, and I love food.

Hi guys!

Several posts coming at you in the next couple of days – I couldn’t figure out a good way to combine all my thoughts into one, so bear with me and I hope you enjoy!

First up, what I’ve been waiting to talk about – food!

I am a self-proclaimed foodie. I can cook basics and am a decent baker, but really I love learning about different types of food and (cautiously) trying new things. I remember after I had my wisdom teeth taken out, my mom settled me into her bed and left the TV on Food Network all day, and I was quite content (besides it being post-surgery of course).

I think my love of food inadvertently led me to France. I originally chose French as my foreign language when I was 12 years old, and just kept taking classes through college. But when I started learning about food, I loved that I could understand certain terms because of my familiarity with another language. There are some culinary terms that don’t really translate into English, so for me it’s cool to know the actual meaning. With that in mind, and knowing France to be so well known for its food, here I am today!

I’ve had French classics while being here – escargot, cheese, crepes, croque monsieur, to name a few. But to be honest, I’m more interested in the pastries (les pâtisseries in French). It started out with me asking my program director for recommendations of bakeries in Paris. He then sent me a list, and another, and suddenly I made a pâtisserie bucket list. Most of these places are pretty well known and have some sort of specialty.  

After my coworker gave me some more names, my list probably has around 15 places. So far, I think I’ve been to about 8 of them (Laura comes with me to most of them so we can vary our purchases). Some have been pricey, but nonetheless worth it to say I’ve been there. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Popelini - cream puffs with different flavors

Hugo & Victor

Pierre Hermé - macarons (and chocolate I believe)

I also went out and bought a guidebook (with ratings) of other patisseries to go to – some of the names were already on my list, but I’m excited to discover more.

On the cooking/baking side of things, I’ve been slacking. I didn’t want to buy all new baking equipment to use for 5 months (now less than 2 months, woah), and my fridge is far too small for all the ingredients I might want. So I’ve been cooking pretty basic meals for myself, but I finally went out and bought a few cookbooks to use. So far I’ve made a croque monsieur…hoping more will follow!

Dana