Today we were invited to a fortieth birthday lunch. I always worry (quite needlessly) about social events like this!
Firstly aperitifs, kir for everyone, and lots of savory cakes, very thin slices of cakes with bacon and tomato, cakes with tuna, cakes with lardons and emmental and cakes with beef and onion. They were all delicious. Still the kir flowed, and now quiche was served with radish and cherry tomatoes and after the quiche came thin slices of pizza.
At 2.00pm we were then asked to take our seats for the meal. How anyone could have been hungry after eating all that I have no idea! ….but huge bowls of salads, green, rice, cucumber, tomato and taboulé were passed up and down the long tables.
After the salads came thick barbequed pork chops with new potatoes all washed down with cider, then the cheese course and finally desert.
We finished eating at about 4.00pm and when we left at just after 5.00, I was thinking, not for the first time, how much the French really do enjoy ‘le repas’. The food was so deliciously simple, yet somehow it is not JUST about the food, yes the food is always good, but it is about the socialability of it all. The aperitifs are so important and they are never hurried, and this sets the scene for the rest of the afternoon.
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