Sunday Lunch

If you ever get invited to eat with French people, expect to stay for a long time.  This Sunday a couple invited me and others over for a quick lunch after church-- I didn't get home til 6pm!  Not that I care, I happen to be incredibly rich in spare time.  It simply seems that no one is in any rush.

First, a vegetable soup-- puree style, not chunky, made in a pressure cooker, which seems to be common in France.  Finished. Then the main course needs more time/preparation so 15 minutes later that comes out.  Roasted pork and potatoes in a Dijon mustard sauce and a side of vegetables. White wine.  How does a young couple with a baby and a toddler invite people over *spur of the moment* and just so happen to have enough food for 5 people?  And in the oven during church so that it's ready afterward? Odd.

Several minutes later, an endive salad (also popular in France).  I've noticed a strange thing: they rarely use cutting boards.  I've seen more than one French person make a salad (cutting endives, or onions, or garlic, whatever) by holding it in their hands when I would've whipped out a cutting board for convenience.  They also customarily don't use store-bought salad dressing.  Everyone seems to have his or her own way of combining olive oil, vinegar, mustard, etc, into a dressing.

Then le fromage.  I watched as they brought out their cheese board with five different kinds of cheese on it and asked their 2-year-old which one she wanted.  Only in France.... Then dessert.  An assortment of a fancy little store-bought cake, ice cream, fresh fruit, apple sauce, rum-soaked cherries... When you think about "eating in courses," you often think about feasts or fancy dinners, but I've found that it's just a slow-paced way to eat a relatively normal amount of ordinary (to the French at least) food.  And it's their way of life; they probably think nothing of it.

Oh, and that whole procession was followed by coffee and tea and another hour of chit-chat.  That was my Sunday!