French Food Haul

French Food Haul

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food, haul, holiday, lifestyle

I went on holiday to France... you may have noticed. I am writing a post about what it was like, my M.E. & how I coped so if you are the person who asked for that don't worry, it's coming soon. I just want it to be right. This is a french food haul & I kinda went crazy with food shopping.
Mind you I am watching that Directioners documentary right now, so crazy is feeling very subjective. I really want to give them all a hug, & maybe a little bit of a slap...

Anyway. This is my french food haul, & french drinks haul. If you'd seen my brother's haul you'd be awed by the amount that fits in my mum's tiny little Honda Jazz - those things are Tardis equivalent. Back to the point I am trying to make which is all about my haul. French food is iconic & really really good. I watch a lot of food network with being really really ill & having not that much to do with my life.... Food TV is insanely soothing. ANYWAY! Watching a lot of food network means I have seen a lot of barefoot contessa & so french food/ingredients subliminally become this big deal.
So when I got to France, french food was as exciting as french skincare which as a beauty nut is saying something.

The first thing I got was the Orangina Rouge. I actually got my first bottle of this on the drive down to where we were staying. I love blood orange juice but for some reason my M.E./CFS means that I struggle with acid anything & it drives me nuts because my favourite desserts are lemon. I end up craving even standard orange juice which I don't even really like that much. I never really liked it that much. But I crave it like crazy & I found that orangina is something I can actually cope with drinking. So when I found that France has blood orange juice I was so excited & it was perfect. It didn't hurt & it still tasted just as amazing as blood orange juice. Or at least as good as I remember it.

The French also have blood orange squash. Unfortunately it's really really really acid. I am hoping if I use it with lemonade it'll cut some of the acid but mixed with just water....lets just say I tried it 4 days ago & I am still hurting...

Calvados. This stuff is an apple spirit. Traditionally people call it an apple brandy but I don't buy that, I would call it an apple whisky. It's double distilled & then aged in oak barrels. Well not all of it but the posh stuff is & that's the stuff my brother likes. My brother is a real fan of apple alcohol so when we decided to go Normandy, which is THE calvados region of France, I started looking for distilleries he could go to. Turns out there's this whole 'route of cider' where they have open to the public distilleries where you can go on a tour & be taught loads about the process. I didn't actually get to go with them - my wheelchair was being a stress head & I was really tired - but I made my brother promise to get me some cider vinegar etc. He came back with some cider vinegar & cider mustard - which we have already used & has amazing flavour. He also got me a cheap bottle of calvados from the supermarket for cooking with. Not that I do cooking so much but I come up with ideas & I help with flavouring when my mum is cooking....

These are the last things I got. Some fleur de sel - french sea salt which is supposed to be really special - some dried shallots & some miniature vinaigrettes. The vinaigrettes just looked adorable & I thought the shallots looked really interesting, I wanted to see what cooking with them was like....

Anyway that's the last of what I bought in France. My next blog post should be the M.E. on holiday post, fingers crossed anyway :)

food, haul, holiday, lifestyle

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