Monday, October 28, 2013

Paris: Holy Crêpe!

crêpe:  thin like a tortilla but closer to the consistency of a pancake, the French crepe is used for both sweet and savory street dishes.  Be aware that the French pronunciation is closer to the English word crap than to the English pronunciation for crepe.  It is a bit unsettling.

Tonight I took a 10 mile walk in the wonderful 65 F evening along the Promenade des Plantes, a former railroad viaduct now turned into a 3 mile raised garden/walkway.  The other night I'd tried to buy a crepe from a street vendor and was told that it was forbidden to sell carryout food after 1am -but that I could eat in the restaurant.  I find this and other French laws sometimes surprising.  You can buy booze and topless soft porn magazines in the checkout lane of the grocery store.  Prostitution is legal.  Any couple -friends, roommates, gay couples- can form legal partnerships akin to marriage....but you cannot buy a carryout crepe after 1am?!  Perhaps there is some heretofore unknown hazard to late night crepes that I'm unaware of?

Anyhow, tonight I went back and despite my fretting over my poor French, I ordered a ham and cheese crepe with seeming success.  The creperies make a stake of crepes and then grill on the crepe maker whatever filling you want.  It was really good.

But the crepe guy realized I spoke English -he is the one who told me "carryout is forbidden" the other night.  He asked where I was from in English.  I told him.  I then asked if he was a native of Paris.  He looked like a number of people here who are of mixed French and Asian ancestry.  Then he says:  "I'm from Afghanistan."  Awkward moment.  So, I say "Our countries are kind of involved now."  ("Involved" covers so many things ranging from affairs to wars.)  And then he graciously says things are better now in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion.  His father and brother disappeared into a prison there under the Taliban, and he doesn't know whatever happened to them.  He moved here 15 years ago.  He was really nice.   


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