How to Make French Vinaigrette
One assumption that I'm going to make about the French is that they're not afraid to make things au pif, or "by the nose". I don't know if a precise recipe for sauce vinaigrette actually exists. But if there is, I bet few people follow it very closely. And Romain is no different from his compatriots

French Sugars
Many people who tackle French recipes get stumped by the sugars, which don't necessarily correspond to the sugars available elsewhere. All supermarkets in France carry white granulated sugar and there's often unrefined sugars, such as cassonade, which grocers stock and are widely-available. In America and elsewhere, bakers often have to do a bit of hunting around to find the corresponding sugar. French b

Community Supported Agriculture, in Paris
About a year ago, I was having supper in a friend's apartment and everything we ate was simple, and tasted really good. He'd lived on a farm near Toulouse for many years, where he worked for one of France's agricultural organizations. Now he lives in Paris and I was surprised when he told me that the onions we were eating on the tart he'd made were from a panier, or a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box.

Israeli Couscous with Butternut Squash & Preserved Lemons
When I started this site, I had forums, where people could chat and post messages. Before we took it down (because my brain was about to implode), one of the burning questions on there was this: Is couscous pasta? My contention was that it wasn't, since it wasn't a 'paste' (or as the French would say, un pâte), which is what I believe—in my limited intelligence—that pasta

Saint Marcellin
If you go to Lyon, you'll find Saint Marcellin pretty much everywhere. It's the best-known cheese from that region, and the user friendly-sized disks are inevitably piled high at each and every cheese shop you step in to. Lo