Culture faire

To be honest last week was quite stressful for me because of the presentation and I think it was the case for the majority of the English SUK students. I am glad that it is behind me.  I really enjoyed listenning to others though.In general all the presentation I watched were really well presented and interesting. Concerning Irish culture I had the pleasure to hear the presentation of Sowanny Em about the renewal of Dublin Docklands, Julia Seesmann about the symbolism of the Harp, Willie Daly by Natalie Riedl, the Dublin horse Show by Birgit Spalt and last but not least Alexandra Perfler about the GAA. I had a preference for the presentations about Dublin Docklands and the symbolism of the harp which reminded of my trip to Dublin few years ago. As for the US culture I saw the presentation of Orsolya Csizmmar about American Aviation heroines, Tiana Jerkovic about Racial segragation, Harald Pasch about Scientology, Claudia Schwaiger about Hurricane preparedness and Louis Nguyen about Harlem. I really liked Harald's presentation which I found very informative and the presentation of Orsolya which was very inspiring.
Congratulation everyone. We made it.  

Psidium cattleyanum

Psidium cattleyanum or "Goyavier" is an invasive plants from China or Brasil which has been introduced in Reunion Island in 1818 as a decorativ plant for the garden. But because this plant grows fast it quickly invaded the island. Today it is very common to find this bush on the side of hicking paths. And usually when it is the season (between June and september) people go hicking and come back with big bags full of those little red fruits and make tones of marmalade and jelly. I would discribe the taste of it as sour and sweet.

    

Extinct species

The Dodo was an endemic bird species of the Mascarene  archipelago. The species was extinct after the settlement of Reunion and Mauritius. The Dodo could not fly and as lot of species that evolve in isolation they were not afraid of humans. Moreover it represented a great supply of meat and became an easy prey. The hunting of the Dodo quickly lead the species to extinction. The last record of a sighting fo a Dodo is in 1662 on a small islet of Mauritius called Amber Island.  

Street food

As a snack or pre-dinner people from Reunion love those little fritters. There are different kind of them with different origines. For instance samoussas come from north of India. they are shaped in triangles and made of weet dough. They are either stuffed with vegetables or cheese chiken or porc meet. An other type of those snacks are "bonbons piments" or chili candies. They are made of mashed lima beans, a lot of chili and some cumin an tumeric. It looks a lot like falafel but ten times more spicy. One appetizer from china called "bouchons" consists of riz dough stuffed with porc meet and steamed. It is eaten diped in soja sauce or chili. There are generally sold on little stands on the streets or in markets. Some restaurants made their speciality of those appetizers that I could really recommand. 

Other places where you can find those appetizers are food trucks which invaded the island. For instance when I started high school there was one food truck in front of the school but after three years there were four, one bheind an other and not simple food trucks but kind of settled with terrace, tables and chairs. In few years it became a real business. And what do we eat there? The best seller is "pain bouchons" or "pain américain" (american bread) because it is a huge sandwich. It is a third of a baguette with four "bouchons" I told you about. You add some french fries. Then you get to chose your sauce (kethup, mayonnaise, chili or soja sauce). Don't forget the cheese on top and put it to grill few minutes. Trust me we are talking about a real calorie bomb. And because you will feel thirsty after eating all of this. You will drink one of our local limonade quite sickly and about three times more sugary than the national average. Enjoy!

 

Vanilla

Vanilla is an orchid which was discovered in the 16th century in South America by the Spanish conquerors. It was brought in Europe in the 17th where it became very popular to flavour cakes recipes, hot chocolate or even tobaco. During the 18th century a lot of scientists studied the plant to be able to produce vanilla pods in  large quantities but very few plants gave the precious pods. Some scientists had then the idea to cultivate the orchid in a tropical climate close to its original environment. That is why in the early 19th century vanilla was introduced on the Bourbon Island (Réunion Island).

In 1841 a young slave, Edmond Albius, whose master thought botany invent a method which revolutionized vanilla pods production. Reunion became the first exporter in the world. The 1930s were the golden age for Bourbon vanilla. The production of vanilla pods developed in every islands of the Mascareignes archipelago and Madagascar. Today the porduction of vanilla is a traditional know-how.

Paul and Virginia

Paul and Virginia is a novel written by Paul Bernadin de Saint Pierre in 1787. The story takes place on the lost paradise of the "Isle de France" future Mauritius. This is the story of two children born from different families but raised together. At the adolescence they started having feelings for eachother. Virginia's mother didn't want her daughter to fall in love with Paul and decided to send her study in France. Left behind Paul was desperate and waited for his love to come back. Several years later Virginia came back on the Isle de France but on her way back the boat crushed on the reefs because of a storm. Virginia died before she could come back home.

A sweet Island

When you go to school in Reunion Island there is one school outing that everybody does. The school outing to Stella Matuntia. This place used to be the biggest sugar factory on the island and is now a museum. There we learn about the production of the sugar cane and slavery a part of Reunion inhabitants heritage. 

Stella Matutina

Sugar cane has been cultivated in Reunion Island since the beginning of the 19^th century. After the coffee growing, the sugar cane growing has made the wealth of the Island. There use to be 13 sugar factories but after several crises only 2 of them remain which can crush one million ton sugar cane each.  Today the production of sugar is supported by the European Union. Sugar cane fields are usually located in the east part of the island, a region which is more humid. 

cane cuters working in a field

    

one of the two sugar factories remaining

The production of the sugar cane does not only mean sugar production but also production of rum    and even renewable energy.

First of all let’s see how sugar is produced. The first step is the crop and the transportation which starts in July in Reunion. The crop is usually handmade and the 2 tons of sugar cane produced every year is then delivered to the sugar factories. Then the sugar cane is grinded to extract a jus which is purified and filtrated. This jus goes to the next step when the rest of the grinded sugar cane is used to produce renewable energy. This energy makes the sugar factories work. Then there the evaporation step after which the jus will become concentrated syrup. Finally this syrup is crystallized to obtain sugar crystals and then dried. It is at the step of the crystallization that a part of the syrup is used to produce rum but this is an other story. 

HOT

In Reunion Island it is traditional to eat what we call “rougail”. It is a mixture of chili, onions, garlic, found in south ginger, salt and pepper. If you want you can add lemon or green mango or tomatoes or even peanut butter depending on the taste. We put a small amount of this mixture on the side of the plate and we eat it with the rice etc.

                                     

          Rougail with mangos                                                                  Rougail with tomatoes

The type of chili that we use is called Bird’s eye chili, green or red this chili is about 3cm long. It is commonly found in south East Asia. Quite hot it is far from being the hottest chili in the world.

Bird's eye chili

To measure how hot a chili pepper the Scoville scale is needed. The scale was created by an American pharmacist in 1912. The bird’s eye is between 100.000 and 225.000 Scoville units on the scale which goes from 0 to 16.000.000.

Chili was first brought in Europe by Christopher Columbus. It is nowadays a staple in tropical countries. It is not only used as a flavor enhancer but also for its vertues. Indeed it brings vitamins but it is an antibacterian and an antiseptic as well. Those vertues may be a reason why chili peppers were used in tropical countries. At the time when it was difficult to conserv food espacially meat using chili peppers was a way to prevent possible deseases or indigestions.   

Food, blogging and America!

Here is the perfect movie for our class or for foodies!

This is the story of Julie Powell (Amy Adams) a young American woman who starts blogging about the cookbook of Julia Child (Maryl Streep) which revolutionised American cooking. Julie Powel  takes up the challenge to cook each 524 recipes of the book in 365 days and blogs about her experiences. The movie tells the story of two women who were looking for achievment in their lifes. Meryl Streep is once again brilliant in her part and the movie is an other occasion to flatter French food (what can I say?) 

 

Easter Break!

Hi everybody!

I hope that you had nice holiday and a great family time celebrating Easter. I had the pleasur to be invited by an Austrian family so I could have a closer look at Austrian traditions concerning Easter. We had Easter ham, boiled eggs and of course a lot of choclate.   

After the feast I was walking in Getreidegasse in Salzburg when I saw a quite interesting shop with tones of Easter decorations. Only one word came to my mind "Eggstrodinary!", as someone we know would say. I think we can talk about a real Easter fever.

J'irai dormir à Hollywood

While I was reading Bill Bryson's books I couldn't stop thinking about this documentary "J'irai dormir à Hollywood" (I will sleep in Hollywood). I saw it in 2008 and this movie is about the roadtrip of a man (Antoin de Maximi) who wanted to travel in the US from East to West and meet Amreican people. He traveled hitchhicking, by car, by bus, by train and even by hearse. He went through New York, Miami, Las Vegas ... with only one target: Hollywood where he hoped beeing invited by a star to spend the night. During his journey he met a lot of people who told a part of their story. This movie  draws a nice portrait of America from the point of view of a French with a nice accent. Enjoy!

Don't touch my Carambar

A French caramel brand made the buzz by tricking the media.

CARAMBAR is a sweets brand well known in France for the jokes you can read on the wrapping of their caramels. French have been eating Carambars since 1954 and those famous jokes almost belong to the french heritage. That is why when they announced that it would be soon the end of carambar's jokes every French media talked about it over the weekend. They all explained how unexpected this announcement was and how disappointed they were. It is sure that Carambars will never taste the same without their jokes said some politicians expressing their sorrow. This brand just offered itself a great free advertising campaign making people talking about for few days. It is sad to observe that news are so depressing that media fall on this story to talk about other things than unemployment, precariousness and austerity.   

Tropical fruits

As I was trying to do my best to describe what was a typical meal on my island I forgot to mention a great part of our diet: fruits. It is probably the thing I miss the most when I am away. I miss mangoes, litchis, pineapples, passion fruits, guavas ... but Reunion Island would be nothing without this:

 

Let's talk about food

What do we eat on Reunion Island?
First of all you have to know that just like Reunion Island population the cuisine of Reunion has many origins.

To define the cuisine of  the island take a background of French tradition add a pinch of Malagasy habits, a zest of Chinese know-how and a touch of Indian taste. You will obtain a traditional and authentic meal.

Enjoy!

Here is a video to make you want to come to Reunion Island.

Hi everyone. My name is Lucie. I come from Reunion Island, a small piece of France lost in the Indian Ocean  between Mauritius and Madagascar. It is a tropical Island of  2500 square kilometers where 800000 thousand people enjoy a tropical whether the all year.

 

There are two volcanos on the island. One volcano is a dormant one and is the highest summit of the island (3000 meters high). The active volcano is 2600 meters high and its last eruption took place in Septembre 9th 2010.   

Reunion Island has also an extraordinary endemic fauna and flora.