06-18-2023OK,
So I pay 3 euro at the hotel for a one liter bottle of evian (roughly 4.50 US at the time) and then see a one and a half liter for .60 euro at the grocery.....
Then I get a cup of coffee in the lounge...for 4 euro (roughly 6 bucks US). I'm thinking I won't complain about the 1.40 medium at Starbucks anymore....
So just when I am thinking that the ol' US of A ain't so bad........I walk past the little village Pastry and Bread shop...........and then I remember .......oh yeah.... This is why I like this place. This is why I bid SIBA. The town is small, the pastry shop small as well, but the villagers are there and that is a good sign. The smell as you enter, makes you giddy, bends you to its will, it is outright provocative. Real men don't eat quiche huh? Well, let me tell you.....I get the best damn piece of quiche I have eaten in a long time. I had three to choose from......so I point to one and make a feeble, guttural sounding "Je voudrais un quiche Sil Vous Plait".....and they smile and say something in French and a little in English to show that they may be from a small village, but we know our stuff round here. So OK, I get a quarter chunk of quiche..and one freshly baked croissant....and I am like a junkie who cannot wait to shoot up. I walk fast...maybe too fast out of the store, trying not to draw too much attention....but I need this bad.....so I hurry to the park, sit on the bench, unwrap the warm paper that has slight butter stains on it now.........and sniff and ..................bite!
Let me tell you folks.....say what you want about the French, but this is one reason why the French are great.....(the other is the common sense not to get invol- .....oh never mind, better not go there)....this was divine, awesome stuff, I'm talking to-die-for here. It was the perfect crust (and listen up you prefab crust users, the crust is a very important thing...this isn't just a container to hold the goodies on the inside, but a carefully crafted, flaky, buttery, baked to perfection.....well.......cradle! Yep, a cradle for the all important ingredients, like a mothers arms holding her child). So the one I pick...I don't know it's name, but I identified some of the stuff in it....Bacon....thick cut chunks, kind of like Italian pancetta, but not too thick, perfect. Potato's, cubed and perfectly caramelized...(yes folks, caramelized, and yes, this is vastly different than sweating or frying) and oh did I mention the cheese?...I don't know what kind it was, I don't care, ........have you ever questioned an orgasm? Probably not. Like I said, I am not sure what it was, but whatever it was, it seemed to even have the cheese's soft rind mixed within, in an almost decorative, swirly, seductive way....and the cream ......oh the cream...........If I had a cow that could make such cream, I would suck it right from it's teat out of shear respect and admiration. (Southerners in the US do this all the time I am told).
So when I get back to the hotel, I skype my better half and as soon as she picks up the phone, the first words out of her mouth, before I can say anything...."Ok" she says....."give me the food report". What can I say, the woman knows me.
So anyway, work is a *****..........they should pay me more........but for today.....I have not only survived, I have lived well.
I will tell you about the croissant later.
AIRLINEPILOT CENTRAL
