The Eiffel Tower says 'Peekaboo!'

I didn't have class today, so a very boring day. I took a trip by myself to Paris' Chinatown in the 13eme (Metro Porte d'Ivry on line 3). It was...not that exciting especially having lived 20 min away from the 626. However, it WAS fascinating to communicate with the people cuz it was like, "Cynthia, pick a language!" I was debating whether to use Mandarin, French or English to ask where the grass jelly drinks are haha. I went to a marche chinoise called Freres Tang to buy some fruits for snacking, and it was just bizarre to hear an 80 yr old Chinese grandma speaking French. There were also a lot of Vietnamese people, which wasn't so surprising... until they busted out in Canto!

After that, I headed home and had dinner. The father, Paul, recently took a trip out to the country to meet with a farmer friend. There, they shot down a black pig (kurobuta meat!) and brought some back, so we had a pork meat-loaf thing with bread as an appetizer, some pork chops and lentils for the main course, and then some chestnut pudding thing with yogurt called Mont Blanc (the way it's presented in a restaurant is supposed to look like the French mtn). I took photos tonight, voila!


We had a long discussion today on the fear of aging/dying (the son, Aurelienne, who works in a retirement home, told us that a 98-yr-old man jumped out of a window today), the French and Chinese language, and the bizarre things both cultures eat. I've noticed many similarities in French and Chinese cuisine; they both eat every single part of a pig-- the blood, ears, face, and feet. They have desserts that have mushed mung beans (lu do in Chinese). And, they eat a smorgasbord of weird stuff as well like lapin (rabbit), veal, and grenouille (frogs).

Did you know?

Mandarin is the #1 language of the world, and French is 12th? Here are the rankings:
1) Mandarin
2) Hindustani
3) Spanish
4) English
5) Arabic
6) Portuguese
7) Bengali
8) Russian
9) Japanese
10) German
11) Punjabi
12) French

(We got to talking about this during dinner)

To burn off some energy, I took a walk around Montparnasse and ran across at least eight Chinese restaurants! There's a big Chinese community around here, mostly mainlanders.

As I walked around from block to block, the Eiffel Tower, bright, yellow and glowing, would just peek out of nowhere (hence the name of this entry). I'll take a pic of it tomorrow. Bon soir!

Comments

  1. nutkinFebruary 3, 2009 at 6:29 PM

    There seems to be a disconnect between your 98 year old suicide guy story and your French/Chinese cuisine comparison.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CWCFebruary 4, 2009 at 9:20 AM

    They are separate stories/topics!

    ReplyDelete

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