Last Minute X-mas Tips: Hot Dogs and Christmas Trees

The are three days left of the Christmas fair at Place Carnot (Perrache).  They have plenty of good things to eat as well as tons of crafts.  The sausage stand is to die for, particularly the Chantrelle mushroom saucisson.  I sent a few back to the states for my family.  As far as american food goes, I was surprised to see a baked potatoe stand.  They were made with a french touch and clever names, like the patatouille, a potatoe with ratatouille on top.  What I was pleasantly surprised by though were the German sausages, served hot dog style.  A man with a heavy german accent behind me was very happy when he saw the sign, then when he saw them started complaining in German... ?!"...americana... ?!"HOT DOG!  Then he turned around in total disgust.  Those skinny hot dogs from the grocery store is a common complaint from a good friend of mine, so I had to try them.  They were awesome hot dogs!  They even had foot long hot dogs!!   I few days later I tried their plain sausage, and it tasted a lot like our breakfast sausage.  We definitely have more german influences than french in our cuisine.

This was the first year that I've looked seriously at getting a Christmas Tree.  Being from Oregon, the biggest Christmas tree producer in the United States, having anything other than a real tree is like sacrilege.  What I cherish the most about it is it's wonderful smell.  So now I know that there are two main types of trees here.  The Epicéa, which has a wonderful fragrance but it looks like a pine shrub and is famous for loosing all it's needles before you can get it out of the house. (People here still haven't figured out that you should put them in water.) Then there is the beautiful Nordmann, which has no smell whatsoever.  There is the smaller stand at the Christmas fair that also has a Fraseris tree which is slightly less pretty than a Nordmann, but has a wonderful smell.  I also found some Noble Firs, not quite as pretty as the ones from Oregon, but still decent with a lovely fragrance.  Those, I found at Botanic.  As of yesterday they still had some at the Ecully and St Priest stores.

Post by Dori 22 Dec 2013

Best Hamburger in Lyon: Guy & Sons

They have not only the best hamburger in Lyon, but they're the best hamburgers I've had in a long time.  A friend of mine and I decided on the spur of the moment to get a burger.  I had seen this new place not far from where we were, so we tried it.  They make everything from scratch, including their own buns. The hamburger meat is a local French beef with 5% fat, and very juicy.  They favor seasonal condiments.  The fries are to die for, made from fresh potatoes.  Their website explains that they are done in the Pont Neuf style, thicker than shoestring fries, double dipped in the fryer, and seasoned with fine table salt and fleur de sel.  Pont Neuf alludes to the first fries sold in France on the bridges (ponts) of Paris in the eighteenth century.

A few days later my friend confessed that she had been so haunted by the burger that she'd had two since then.  So I had to confess that I ordered them again for delivery that very same day!

Guy is not pronounced like the English word, rather it's pronounced like "ghee".  If you don't speak French you should know that you are supposed to pick out your drink from the cooler and order at the counter.

The Vintage Burger
Multi-grain Bun
180g Burger Steak
"Melting" Cheddar
Young Lettuce sSprouts
Tomato Slices
Red Onion
Homemade Charroux Mustard Cream Sauce (what we call a Dijon Sauce)

The Bacon Burger
Multi-grain Bun
180g Burger Steak
Bacon
"Melting" Cheddar
Young Lettuce Sprouts
Tomato Slices
Chopped Red Onion
Ketchup and Mustard "Fins Gourmets"

(I got mine without the veggies on it, because that's the way I like it.)



Handy Instructions for the French:

We Eat with Our Fingers and We share Tables

Post by Dori, 19 Dec 2013

Corned Beef and Spam....

I went to my corner Casino the other day and almost got whiplash when I saw this out of the corner of my eye.  Corned Beef and some Danish version of Spam!  What!?  It's not that I want to eat these things, but really what a trip to see this in some random Casino store. 

Post by Dori

Dec 13, 2013