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!