Cook'n With Class in Uzes, France

Four friends and I took a cooking lesson in the south of France with Chef Eric Fradeau. He runs a cooking school called Cook'n with Class. He founded the school in Paris and now has a branch in Uzes, in Languedoc.  Eric is French, studied with Alain Ducasse in Paris, ran restaurants for high end hotels around the world, and settled down in the small city of Uzes, about 1-1/2 hours from Avignon.  His Paris school has 6 chefs plus staff.  In the Uzes school, Eric is the only chef, plus 2 staff. The class is all about cooking local and healthy.  

With absolutely no menu planned, his only guidance was whatever looks best and interesting that day, limited by whatever allergies we have.

First stop: Friday market in Saint Quentin la Poterie, a small hamlet near Uzes.  

On market day, three rows of stalls are filled with providers of every type of food.  One lady owns only 4 cows but has a stall where she sells milk and sometimes, yogurt.  We headed to the fish stall at the end of the market to anchor the menu around the main course, and then worked our way back through the other vendors, filling in. The style of cooking is Provençal, but that label is often assumed to be limited to tomatoes and olives. So not true.

As we strolled by the items displayed for sale, Eric devised the menu:

Hors d'oeuvres platter of a spread (purchased from the fish stand) of ground salted cod bacala, mixed with mashed potatoes and milk; a dried tomato spread; and garlic basil mixture we got in the market - and crusty bread to slather it all on.

4 types of fresh sliced tomatoes with black olive oil and sea salt, cracked pepper.

Zucchini flowers stuffed with day old goat cheese mixed with garlic, scallions, black olives, milk, table salt and an egg to bind it (I'm going to jump out of order here and say that I adore zucchini blossoms and these were the absolute best because they were not fried like the Italian preparation) 

Zucchini Blossoms in the Market (Before)

(After) Zucchini Blossoms, Stuffed, Ready to go in the Oven 

laid on top of a salad of mixed greens, chestnut-fed pig smoked ham (that's a mouthful - and it was delicious), halved fig, and 2 Italian purple basil leaves.

Zucchini Blossoms all done - in the Salad

Sea bass fish roasted over herbs and greens and served over julienned caramelized fennel with roasted vegetable sauce of tomato, red pepper, garlic, scallions.

Before the Oven

Fish, Plated...didn't look like this for very long as soon as we got to it

After the fish course, there was a cheese course consisting of 2 types of goat cheeses, each paired with a jam to match. The new goat cheese had a dab of rose petal jelly (which is hand made in a nearby convent and sold on market day by the only nun from the convent who is allowed to speak from the otherwise silent order). The week-old goat cheese was paired with fig jam.

Apricot tart with chocolate mousse on the side. 

To do the cooking, Eric drove us in his van back to his school where he has a very comfortable, well equipped teaching kitchen.  He is a fantastic teacher, gives everyone hands-on tasks, and is an all-around positive guy. He was even nice when I left a sizable chunk of fish stuck on the carcass while I tried my hand at filleting.  I believed his smiled "it's fine" was genuine.

It was a fun, interesting and delicious experience. I highly recommend a class with Chef Eric.

Eric and his terrific wife Yetunde

Appropriate Chandelier, n'est-ce pas?

Strutting Through a French Farmers' Market with a Pro

Marketing while traveling is always interesting -- seeing thing you aren't familiar with - and always great people-watching. But, going to a market with a local pro, to shop with purpose takes shopping to a higher level. I went to the Friday farmers' market in Saint Quentin la Poterie in southern France with some friends, led by Chef Eric Fradeau. Our mission was to pick up the ingredients for our cooking class that day. 

As we shopped, Chef Eric offered a couple of interesting tips:

When selecting fish for freshness, look for an arch in the back, suggesting its muscles are taut from recent struggle while being caught. 

The French fish labeling system is extremely informative. The tag next to each item for sale in the fish case includes not only the fish's name and price per kilo, but also a number code to where it was caught (such as the Mediterranean), a code showing if it was close to the shoreline, and a different color, if applicable, to signify that it was previously frozen.  (The Gambas, or shrimp, in the photo below were frozen. Easy to tell, isn't it?)

The French do not refrigerate their eggs because they don't wash them. Apparently, if the eggs' natural coating is left on, they stay fresh left at room temperature for more than a month. (I kept doing a double take at the egg carton sitting out on our counter for days).

The olive oil choices range from picholine green olive  (the unripe olives which have a slight bitter taste) to black olive (ripe and salty).

Love to learn those little tips and nuggets!

Divot Stomping at Polo Half Time

According to the website sportpolo.com,
"Divot stomping is a long standing tradition at half-time. Spectators wander all over the field stomping down the torn up turf....You can meet great people just wandering the field. Even at high goal tournaments the players often walk divots to keep limber at the half"

At Newport Polo's match against Italy, we walked the field with our guests, stomping divots. Indeed, we did meet "great people" as advertised. I bumped into two beauty pageant winners: Miss Newport and Miss Rhode Island.  Couldn't pass up the opportunity to pose with those local celebrities. (Wink).

And, my favorite "great" person I came across was this guy stomping divots in his bare feet.

Kept Out? How to Make it Look Like You Got Inside

When you arrive at a place you've seen beautifully showcased in photos, it can be disappointing to be stuck behind a barricade.

But, with a little creativity, you can frame photos to ignore the fact that you were not invited. Use your camera's lens to zoom in and melt away the walls, signs and other irritations meant to keep you out.

Using my iPhone I got myself onto the lawns of mansions, skipping right past the chain link fence that keeps out the uninvited. Positioning the iPhone's camera lens in an open space between the fence wires, I was able to make it look like I was on the property, gazing at its pastoral beauty. Really, I was squatting on the public Cliff Walk which borders the back yards of beautiful properties, pressing my phone against the chain link fence, squinting at the view. But, who needs to know that?

Reality

Looks like I'm standing in an open meadow, right?

The Astor's Beechwood mansion was built in 1891 and was the scene of much lavish Gilded Age entertainment. Larry Ellison purchased the home in 2010 and it is undergoing substantial renovations for its intended use as an art museum for his personal collection, according to the Newport Daily News on January 5, 2013. Reporting that Mr. Ellison's name is not on any of the plans filed in City Hall and that representatives of the project are restricted by confidentiality agreements, curious neighbors resort to peeking through the fence to check in on the progress. Six years and counting - lots of work being done; lots more to do.... 

Oracle Founder Larry Ellison's Newport renovation

Ah, much easier view without the pesky fence

International Stamp Show - The World Arrives in New York

Having found a couple of old postage stamps among our family's  papers, I thought it would be good to find out if any of them had value. Short answer is "No".  But it was fun and interesting to get to the answer of "worthless". The International Stamp Show is in New York this week. Despite gorgeous weather on a Memorial Day holiday weekend, the center was filled with people who know and care a whole lot more about stamps than I do. For me, the hook was seeing John Lennon's childhood stamp collection. 

Then...down to business. I walked the floor and found the countries from which the stamps came. I met interesting people who know so much and are so generous with their time. Having made my rounds, checking in on all the countries I wanted to learn about, I was heading for the exit. But before I left, Bhutan caught my eye. I'm planning to travel to Bhutan this fall. True to its reputation as a country which measures its national happiness output, the couple at Bhutan's booth smiled broadly as they proudly told me that they had traveled across the world to represent their country at this international showcase. 

Chinese Bicycles Seen in Boston: Work of activist artist Ai Weiwei

Think of China; Think of Bicycles. Tangles of bicycles are everywhere in China's congested urban areas. When I visited Shanghai in 2013, on the way in to the upscale restaurant called Mr. and Mrs. Bund, I passed by a clever sculpture and snapped a photo. This sculpture hangs from ceiling to floor in the stairwell atrium inside an office building in Shanghai, just off the Bund, the city's equivalent to the Champs Elysees.

The sculpture was a lacy web of intertwined bicycles dangling on their sides, suspended from the ceiling many floors above, with no end in sight. I snapped this photo and tucked it into my hard drive without giving it another thought.
Fast forward to April 2016, when I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' exhibit on MegaCities Asia. The interior courtyard to the exhibit's entrance is filled with a circle of bicycles latched together.

Not a coincidence. The similarity between the two sculptures caught me. They were so alike, but not the same. The Shanghai bicycles were densely packed and hanging, while the Boston bikes are daisy-chained in a circle and each one is missing components, making every Boston bike unrideable. Both sculptures have the same tell-tale identification....the word "Forever". Here is a close-up of the Boston version.

The artist, Ai Weiwei is best known for his lifetime of work as a human rights activist in China. He has a long resume of documentary film work. He is also an accomplished visual artist, having studied briefly at Parsons School of Design in New York. His work has been critical of the Chinese government. He was jailed for purported tax evasion of the equivalent of $1.8 million US dollars and his Shanghai studio was destroyed by the government.  His work is exhibited all over the world and he has been granted many honors.

According to Wikipedia, on May 21, 2015, Ai, along with the folk singer Joan Baez, received Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award, in Berlin, for showing exceptional leadership in the fight for human rights, through his life and work. The artist, who was at the time under surveillance and forbidden from leaving China, could not take part in the ceremony.

But you can see his work in Boston, at the Museum of Fine Arts through July 17, 2016.
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/megacities-asia

Multigenerational Travel

This guy has already used his passport in Italy and Turks and Caicos

Three Generations of our Family on Safari in Tanzania, in a Maasai Village

 My mom was a major cause of my wanderlust.  The exotic intensity of our family vacations kept ramping up as she got older and the kids matured into international travelers. When she was in her 80s, Mom traveled with my husband, 3 sons and me to Japan, Hawaii, Africa and Dubai.  My friend Nancy Kirsch, who is a freelance writer, asked me to talk with her about multigenerational travel for an assignment. She was hired by the Newport Daily News in Newport, Rhode Island, to write a story on that angle. She asked me for photos to accompany the story. I dug out some great pictures of my mom, husband, boys and me on our travels. The story got published (copied below) but the photos got axed.  Here are the photos offered to illustrate the story (instead of the smiling face of a travel agent).

A winning recipe for successful family vacations: Plan, communicate, relax and enjoy

Posted: Monday, August 17, 2015 8:17 pm

By Nancy Kirsch | 0 comments

It might seem counterintuitive to leave Rhode Island for vacation. After all, millions of tourists visit South County and Newport County every year to enjoy our sparkling shorelines, great restaurants, wineries, music venues, museums and more.

Sooner or later, most of us do leave “little Rhody” for a vacation or two — whether a high-end African safari or a more modest weeklong camping trip. Thanks to some tips and techniques our travel experts shared, traveling for a family wedding or a reunion or vacationing with a group of relatives of different generations will all be easier, thanks to their wisdom.

With families living further apart and Baby Boomers having more disposable income, multigenerational travel is becoming more popular, says Robin Paul, a travel professional with Donovan Travel in East Greenwich. Donovan Travel also has offices in Cranston and Woonsocket.

Traveling together, says Kathy Creaney, owner of Creaney Cruise & Travel in Middletown, “is a good way to keep the family together … on vacation, people forget about (childhood disputes or old resentments).”

Americans travel more than any other citizens in the world, Peter Greenberg, “The Travel Detective,” reports on his website, which quotes Dave Austin, AARP’s vice president of marketing services: “One of the most significant trends is multi-gen family travel.”

Keep all ages and energy levels happy

At an all-inclusive resort or an ocean cruise, Paul says, “Put the kids in Kids’ Club and go to a lecture or the gym, spa … (or) classes. You can also hit the casino or just sit by the pool.”

At an all-inclusive, appealing resort in Jamaica, for example, grandparents can relax and enjoy onsite low-key activities, while more energetic individuals might hike, kayak or select other high-energy pleasures, says Creaney, who asks, “You’ve paid a lot of money for the spot, so why leave?”

Barbara Schoenfeld, a part-time Newport resident who has three adult sons and one young grandson, knows travel: She’s visited 64 countries, often with her mother and other family members, and has a travel blog at worldgrazer.blogspot.com.

Although cruises aren’t her preferred method of travel, she says they do offer plenty of options for meals and activities. “If you want to see the world… cruising is not the way to go; you travel in a bubble,” she says. “But, for a multigenerational group, it’s a great solution.”

Schoenfeld laughs as she recalls the trip the family planned around 2005 to visit the middle son, then studying in Japan on a semester abroad college program. Before they left, Schoenfeld’s mother, Virginia Sand, then 82, asked, “Why can’t I come, too?” Spoiler alert: Sand, who has also taken the family on many adventures, including a Tanzanian safari, went to Japan!

Junior Year Abroad was a great excuse for the whole family to travel to Japan

Energetic as she may be, Sand remained at the hotel when Schoenfeld and other family members “snowboarded” down sand dunes and rode camels in the Dubai Mall, a 13-million-square foot venue that includes the Middle East’s first indoor ski resort.

Doing Dubai (with the Burj al Arab Jumeirah in the background)

Neither too much nor too little togetherness

Family members should talk about their expectations and plan some separate activities every day, whether they are cruising, touring or traveling independently. By gathering together each day — for a meal, drinks or dessert — family members can compare the day’s highlights and reconnect, Creaney says.

Paul concurs, acknowledging that not everyone has the same interests, so balance time together with private time. “Shared memories are wonderful, but we all need space.”

Finding the right tour company

If you opt for a tour, seek out companies experienced in working with multigenerational groups.

For tours in Ireland, Creaney recommends CIE Tours (cietours.com) and Celtic Tours (celtictours.com), which both tour in additional European countries; both Globus Tours (globusvacation.com) and Trafalgar Tours (trafalgar.com) offer family focused tours in the United States and around the world. Tour companies may create a customized tour for large family groups, says Creaney, who notes that Pawtucket-based Collette (gocollette.com) is a great resource for multigenerational family trips.

Want to combine traveling the world and volunteering? Paul recommends Globe Aware (globeaware.com) for philanthropic families. A fan of many river cruise programs, which offer kid-friendly menus, special on-board activities, cultural experiences geared to younger travelers and workshops, Paul especially likes Uniworld (uniworld.com), named the “best river cruise line for families” award from by several travel entities.

“For some people, (Disney World) truly is the happiest place on earth,” says Creaney, who adds that she believes Disney’s marketing is the best in the world. Like many other cruise lines, Disney cruises have something for everybody. As Disney’s tours are pricier than competitors’ tours, Creaney says she believes other family oriented tour companies are a better deal financially.

To plan her trips, Schoenfeld reads and researches voraciously. “I look at tour companies that I respect and (evaluate) how they map out their itineraries. Where do they think are the best spots? How long do they allocate for each spot? Where do they stay? I rely informally on that (information).”

Learn from others’ mistakes

Good travel agents are knowledgeable, and frequently possess contacts and resources not available through online travel companies, so value their wisdom.

A “let’s wing it” attitude is, Paul says, is a recipe for trouble; if families traveling independently haven’t made concrete plans, disagreements and disappointments may arise. “Imagine wanting to go to the Vatican and (learning) you cannot because it’s sold out that particular day,” Paul says, warning that such a dilemma happens too often.

Some clients simply don’t take Creaney’s advice, including one she’d warned about pickpockets in Rome. Upon returning home, the client told Creaney, “Oh, I guess we should have listened to you!”

Before you pack up your passports or track down Grand Canyon hiking trail maps, plan and plan some more. For a big vacation, Paul encourages people to begin planning at least a year in advance, and consider budgets, determine who pays for what, diverse vacation styles, different ages and varied abilities and skills. At a travel planning meeting, get input from each family to identify interests, activities, favorite sports and preferred destinations, Paul says. “Look over your lists and then come up with options …”

Be careful about booking reservations online, as companies don’t always disclose upfront all tour or cruise costs, Creaney says, adding: Don’t leave home without travel insurance. It offers worldwide coverage for trip and flight delays or cancellations, accident protection, medical and evacuation coverage.

This article originally appeared in the special

"Family" section in The Newport Daily News and the Independent Newspapers in August 2015.

Link to the Newport Daily News story: http://www.newportri.com/newportdailynews/special_sections/a-winning-recipe-for-successful-family-vacations-plan-communicate-relax/article_16ebbbd4-b1a9-51e5-97f2-964aa3bba63a.html