LA FOLLE EPOQUE, MARSEILLE - RESTAURANT REVIEW

We hadn't planned to visit Marseille for another couple of weeks but we needed the notary services available at the US consulate there. So off we went. I didn't investigate possible sites for lunch because I had no idea how long it would take to get there, find the consulate, then find a specific restaurant. Since the US consulate was right next to the prefecture, the government offices of the region, I figured that there would have to be restaurants nearby to handle the hordes of government workers who would descend on the area once the noon bells rang. I was right.

Running up to the prefecture is a pedestrian shopping mall about a kilometer long. The side streets that intersect the mall are littered with restaurants and, at the very top of the mall up against the fountain in front of the prefecture, a handful of restaurants with outdoor spaces, both covered and uncovered, line the sidewalk. We checked out the posted menus, decided to pass on the joint that advertised an Italian hamburger, and settled on La Folle Epoque.

The wait staff was friendly and energetic. They actually seemed to be having a good time. And they had passable English. The menu was comprehensive and diverse. All in all, it was an enjoyable meal. Highlights included house-made gravlox for Cathey, steak tartare with a touch of sweet - perhaps pickle - for me, and a slow-roasted lamb shank for Connie. Well dressed plates, well prepared food, timely service. With soups and salads and wine and coffee and desserts, the tab for three came to a touch over 60 euros. For a blind, shot in the dark meal, very nice.

Read more of my reviews HERE.

Slow cooked and hearty.

Under all that green is a generous serving of gravlax.

LE PETIT BOUZIGUES - RESTAURANT REVIEW

It sits looking out over the Etang de Thau on Bouzigues' restaurant row, a relatively tiny place seating about 18 people when it's full. So reservations are a really good idea. (We must have witnessed 15 or so people being turned away for a mid week lunch.) Tiny kitchen for the chef/owner. One waitress...owner's partner? And while it's true that there is a menu, let's face it. The reason that you are there is for the assiette. 

It's an amazingly beautiful dish just to look at - colorful and exotic. Octopus and squid and shrimp and more. (As is sometimes the case, oysters and mussels were restricted due to a bacterial infection in the etang. But no matter.) Add roasted red pepper, a slice of melon, spiced chick peas in endive boats, and several rounds of orange, and the presentation was awesome. As was the taste - or so I'm told. I'm not a lover of seafood. In fact, I ordered the one item on the menu that wasn't fishy, the duck breast. (And it was perfect, by the way.) Add two bottles of picpoul for the five of us, a few cute desserts (Not made in house, as we were told up front.) and coffee at the finish, and it's a complete seafood lover's delight. The tab exceeded 150 euros for the five of us, but that's the price that you pay.

There are fancier restaurants with more comprehensive menus along the etang. And if that's your thing, I have no argument. But you really should try Le Petit Bouzigues once if you're going to be in the neighborhood.

Read more of my reviews HERE.

#24 - #FreeSpeechMatters, PUTIN, FAMILY LEAVE

#FreeSpeechMatters
If you don't know what came down at Wesleyan University, look it up. Simply stated, a student wrote a respectful, thoughtful, but politically conservative op-ed in the student newspaper of a notoriously liberal institution. All hell broke loose. He's been castigated for voicing an opinion that differed from the norm, made a pariah.

He hurt peoples' feelings.

We are learning that we have raised a generation of easily bruised youth, protected in their homes and their schools from uncomfortable thoughts and speech. A generation that grew up being praised for simply playing the game rather than for winning. A generation that is having a difficult time in a world that has demands, that punishes failure, that is full of folks in authority who don't give a damn about hurt feelings.

Look up what happened at Wesleyan. Decide who was in the right. Discuss among yourselves.


PUTIN
"My son is 22 years old. If he had not become a Communist at 22, I would have disowned him. If he is still a Communist at 30, I will do it then."

The above quote is generally attributed to Georges Clemenceau upon being 'confronted' with the accusation that his son was a Communist. Whoever the originator, the meaning is clear. In youth, we seek the different, the exotic, the ideal. Age brings wisdom.

There was a time when it was fashionable for American intellectuals to flirt with Soviet-style Communism, a time when the Brits were having trouble keeping their secrets secret because of their intelligentsia's fascination with the East. That dalliance ended for my generation a while back. But Russia has a new pinup boy in Vladimir Putin. My young Progressive friends from around the world are fascinated with the guy.

Folks my age just roll our eyes. Clearly, history teaches us nothing.

FAMILY LEAVE
Congress is scheduled to be in session all of 132 days this year.

Paul Ryan will only accept election as Speaker of the House if he can spend time with his family.

Just 13% of American families have access to paid family leave.

Paul Ryan voted against paid leave for federal employees.

Fuck Paul Ryan.

#23 - ANOTHER GUN RANT

CHRISTIAN SELF DEFENSE
A guy walks into a church and threatens the pastor with a brick. The pastor pulls out his Glock and shoots the guy multiple times, killing him.


That's all. Isn't that enough?


 

TODDLER MURDERERS
Over 40 murders have been committed by toddlers this year.


 Call me out, if you will. Insist that the deaths at the hands of the toddlers who find guns and shoot people with them are are not murders but are accidental deaths. Then you will say that accidental deaths and suicides should not count when discussing gun violence. Then you will say that when you take out what doesn't count, what's left are people with mental illness and drug-related murders. And therefore what is needed is more guns in the hands of good people to protect us from the sickos and the druggies. 

Pfui!


Let's be clear. The deaths of children, murders at the hands of children, by accident or murderous intent, are less important to you than your guns. Just admit it.

BAN KNIVES
An internet meme recently popular with the gun-loving crowd is that five times as many people are murdered with knives as are murdered with rifles. So why not ban knives?

This is simply shameless cherry picking. Yeah, it's true. But it's also true that five times as many people are murdered with handguns as with knives. And that's not taking into account the accidental deaths and suicides by handguns. (Toddlers have 'murdered' at least 43 people this year while playing with handguns.)

In fact, about 70% of all murders are committed with firearms.

Hillary recently said that we should look into mandatory buybacks of the type that Australia conducted after their worst mass killing. Imagine that. One of the squirreliest politicians on the national scene actually talking about not just regulating, but reducing the number of guns in the hands of Americans.

Could it be true? Will we start going after the guns? Wouldn't that be interesting?

HANDICAPPING THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - OCTOBER 2015

DEMOCRATS

That's Lincoln Chaffee pictured on the left. Nice guy. Smart guy. Not going to happen. But he takes a nice picture.

Last month, I gave Hillary one more month at the head of the field. After the first debate, she stays there. Not that Bernie didn't do well. But he still has that accent from the Northeast. He's still a Socialist. And he's still Jewish. In a country that has just elected a black Muslim from Kenya twice, Bernie's electability has to be considered, whether that word makes you gag or not.

Last month's new wildcard, Joe Biden, remains in place but he's fading fast. Clinton avoided a major stumble in the debate. Joe's window is closing.

October, 2015
Favorite: Hillary Clinton
Long Shot: Bernie Sanders
Wild Card: Joe Biden
Prediction: Hillary Clinton

July, 2015
Favorite: Hillary Clinton
Long Shot: Bernie Sanders
Wild Card: Elizabeth Warren
Prediction: Hillary Clinton

REPUBLICANS
Scott Walker is gone. Flamed out. I'm not sure why. It happened a bit too quickly. I'll put on my tinfoil hat and see if I can't pick up some vibes. It's hard for me to believe that, like Boehner, his party found Walker wanting as a conservative. But even fervent followers of the predictions of Nostradamus would have difficulty finding meaning in the Republican maelstrom this cycle. And Rubio is now one of the reasonable ones?

One other change from last month. Dr. Ben has donned the Christian mantle that I thought would belong to Santorum and has instead devolved to Huckabee. I'm throwing him into the mix. Reluctantly, but he polls well. Trump? His 20% - 25% is solid but won't increase and ain't enough. Bush? He's all upside and still...STILL...has the name and the money.

October, 2015
Favorite: Jeb Bush
Long Shot: Mike Huckabee / Ben Carson
Wild Card: Kasich and Rubio Lead the Pack 
Prediction: Jeb Bush

July, 2015
Favorite: Jeb Bush
Long Shot: Rick Santorum / Mike Huckabee
Wild Card: Any Current/Former Republican Governor/Senator Not Named Christie or Perry
Prediction: Jeb Bush

RESTAURANT DE LA TOUR - RESTAURANT REVIEW

When your restaurant is the go-to choice in a small town in a popular tourist and expat region near the Canal du Midi in the south of France, when the view from the patio of the restaurant is just this side of breathtaking, you can get away with doing less and charging more. It's a sad commentary but it happens. One place where that definitely does not happen is at the Restaurant de la Tour in Montady.

 We stopped by the Restaurant de la Tour after a long ride and a bit of shopping out in the country. We've lived within 15 minutes or so from the place for 18 months but for some reason we just haven't stopped by. Mistake...

You climb to the very top of the village. Make certain that your hand brake works. The view is of the Etang de Montady - vineyards and farmland stretching for miles. We sat on the patio in the shade on a warm, early October afternoon and enjoyed the view all the while that we dined.

We never saw a menu. The daily specials were sufficient. The two girls started with a hearty salad - mixed greens, cheese, and chunks of nut-encrusted chicken. A very satisfying start. I had gnocchi in a heavy cream sauce with bits of smoked salmon incorporated. A great idea. One that Cathey will replicate. The girls followed with a fish filet (grouper?) in a light cream sauce. I had roast pork, a chunk sort of like a short rib that had been roasted with an Oriental/soy glaze. Sides were potatoes roasted with red and green peppers and bits of eggplant. All well prepared and well presented. For dessert, a berry medley in a small dish, topped with chantilly. Olives at the start, good bread with, and a demi of rose. We paid with a 50 euro note for the three meals and left the few coins that came back on the table.

Very satisfactory in all respects. We'll return.

Read more of my reviews HERE, including an update on this one.

LA BRASSERIE BARBA - RESTAURANT REVIEW

I've been wanting to stop into the poissonnerie (fish market) that is attached to La Brasserie Barba for quite some time but I always seem to miss the turnoff. On this trip, I discovered that the problem was that the exit on the roundabout is not marked as I expected. Problem solved if you come at it from the opposite direction. So this time we found it and, although we missed the market because it didn't open until some time after we'd finished our lunch, now that we know how to get there, and now that we know that the restaurant is worth a repeat visit, we'll be back.


The exterior of the building has an industrial modern flavor but the brasserie is of the white tablecloth and sparkling crystal variety. Our waitress was attentive without being intrusive and had enough English to answer the question or two that we couldn't answer for ourselves from the extensive menu.


Our meal began with a small tray with three amuse-bouches - olives, tiny crisp-roasted shrimp, and a snail-like little shelled creature that required some digging to get out. All very proper.

The girls picked from the menu of the day. Connie started with mussels en croustade, juicy mussels with a tomato-based (but not Italian) veggie medley in a ring of pastry. Cathey chose the smoked mackerel pressed in a vegetable terrine. Both were inventive, tasty starters. Connie then had the bonita, Cathey the sole meuniere. Both properly done. Both with a nicely prepared, cheesy cauliflower side.

I'm not a big seafood guy. Steak/frites for me. The beef was above the average for the region and I enjoyed it.

I was the only one with room for dessert, chocolate ice cream. The waitress asked, almost with a wink, if I'd like a bit of chantilly. Of course. The French really do know how to do chocolate, ice cream, and chantilly.

With a bottle of regional rose from Domaine La Croix Belle, a favorite winery, and coffee at the finish, the total tab was 94.10 euros. That's a bit more than we usually pay but this was an exceptional meal in genteel surroundings, worth the price. Our new, special local seafood place.

Read more of my reviews HERE.

#22 - HOW DID WE GET SO STUPID?

It's no longer funny. We're stupid. Americans are stupid. That's not to say that idiocy is an exclusively American trait. But we're damn close to qualifying for a patent.

Stay with me. If you don't like what I say at first, I'm certain to really piss you off later.

LINDSEY GRAHAM AND FLOOD AID
The man is running for President, voted against increased federal funding for the Northeast in the wake of SuperStorm Sandy, and is asking for federal aid after flooding in his state from Hurricane Joaquin. Huh? Does he think that nobody notices this kind of shit?

Does he think that we are that stupid? Or is he that stupid?

Probably both.



GUNS 
Tell me truthfully. You like guns, don't you? That's really what it's about with you. You like the noise they make, the way that they shred targets at the range, the feel of the steel in your hand when your dick isn't in it.

How many deaths will it take 'til we know that too many people have died? The answer to the latest mass shooting is more guns? Seriously? 350,000,000 guns is not enough guns? They've managed to warp your intellect to the point that you do not understand or care that having a gun in your house is many times more likely to kill you, a family member, or an innocent stranger than an intruder.

In fact, he statistical reality is that for every justifiable homicide in the United States - for every lethal shooting in defense of life or property - guns are used to commit 34 murders, 78 suicides, and are the cause of two accidental deaths. (FBI data quoted by the Washington Post.)

If you are a responsible gun owner and keep your guns locked in a safe, how useful will it really be when the zombies break the glass? And if it's in your bedside table, how much would you be willing to bet me that your kid hasn't already pulled it out and played with it? Let's ask him.

Or maybe your answer is that guns don't kill people. People kill people.

PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE WITH GUNS!

And I'm sorry, but the majority of mass murderers are not mentally ill and a majority of mass murderers obtained their guns legally. So don't deflect by bringing up mental illness. And don't deflect by bringing up the futility of gun laws. Make it hard work to become a mass murderer with guns and I agree that folks will find different ways to demonstrate that they are antisocial, maybe by putting on body armor and entering a school building with the intention of tickling a bunch of people until they laugh themselves to death.

Owning a gun is a Constitutional right, you argue? According to the Constitution, you could drink liquor...until the Constitution said that you couldn't...until the Constitution said that you could again. Sane people can change their minds.

So I'm sorry. If you think that the answer is more guns, you are simply no longer rational. You've been bent by the propaganda.

FIORINA
Hewlett-Packard missed a majority of its earnings projections at the end of Fiorina's tenure. It's stock tanked by a greater percentage than its closest competitors when the tech bubble burst. It's acquisition of Compaq was the only thing that kept its corporate head above water. But you tell me, how many HP/Compaq products do you own today? Fiorina says that HP's Board made a mistake when it fired her. But the day after Fiorina was fired, the markets were so happy that the value of the company increased by $3 billion!

Fiorina is therefore a highly qualified candidate for President?

Or try this. When discussing Planned Parenthood during the recent televised debate, Fiorina urged the Obama to view a video of an aborted fetus. But the video wasn't the one created by the folks attempting to trash Planned Parenthood. In fact, the fetus in the video had nothing to do with Planned Parenthood. In fact, the fetus had nothing to do with abortion. The fetus was the product of a miscarriage. "Technicality," claims Fiorina.

THAT'S what qualifies Fiorina for the Presidency, the ability to inflate her resume and lie with a straight face.

And by the way, the number of states that have investigated Planned Parenthood since this business began is up around twelve. Not one investigation has turned up any wrongdoing. If Missouri can't make a case, nobody can. 

AMINE TILIOUA - CONCERT REVIEW

Imagine the music on this video without the electronics - all acoustic including violin. oud,  rebab (ancient Arabic bowed string instrument), qanoun (sort of a lap zither) and a percussionist. That's what we heard in Capestang on a recent fall evening as a slight chill heralding autumn hung in the air.

We haven't yet learned the rhythms of our new home in France but we believe that October marks the start of the indoor concert season. As is typical, the doors of Capestang's Maison de Peuple (community hall) opened at about 7:00 PM for folks with reservations. You could choose little round tables suitable for three of four dotted around the room or the longer rectangular tables that lined the perimeter. For about $5.00 each, we were entitled to a plate with a slice of bread smeared with tapenade, another slice of bread with a hunk of a cheddary cheese, a scoop of cold rice with spring onions, and a chunk of one of three types of loafy somethings - one featuring smoked trout, one with nuts and bleu cheese, and one with bacon and dried tomato. For $12.00, we grabbed a bottle of sauvignon blanc. And for two hours, while we ate and drank, we were serenaded by two local artists - accordion, uke, and vocals. Occasionally, a dude walked up to the front, put on an apron, and harangued the crowd with a sort of poetry slam in French.

Amine Tilioua appeared with three fellow musicians a little after 9:00 PM. Only once did he tell us anything about the songs that we heard. From what I understood given my still limited French, he simply said that we were listening to Arab-Andalusian songs old and new with origins primarily from the Maghreb of North Africa. Most of the tunes began with a quiet bit of noodling on the rebab or violin. All songs were in Arabic. Some obviously happy and upbeat, some quieter, a bit sad. And toward the end, a women in what I presume was a take-off of traditional North African garb moved sinuously to the music in front of the musicians.

The musicianship was excellent, the singing soulful. Amine's voice is captivating. The players often smiled and nodded to each other. And the audience was enthralled. If this is a preview of the type of concert season that's in store, it will be an enjoyable, enlightening winter here in the south of France.

CHEZ DAVID - RESTAURANT REVIEW

This was our third visit to Castelnaudary and Cathey had already given a hearty thumbs up to our previous two choices for cassoulet. Chez David, however, outstripped them both. Were it not for the darn techno-pop music in the background, perfection was in sight.

Chez David is on a side street with an unassuming exterior sporting a posted menu that is brief, less comprehensive than a tonier place a few doors down. The interior is a study in contrasts. On the one hand you'll see natural stone walls, comfy and well-spaced tables and chairs, and standard issue plates and utensils that don't appear to have been designed by Dali. On the other hand, the art on display is mostly non-representational, the music is techno-pop (though not overly loud), and the back dining room appears to feature purple lighting.

But it's all about the food. Well, mostly...

The girls opted for the Menu Cassoulet. They started with a green salad with a balsamic dressing and a dash of carrot. The feature, of course, was the cassoulet. Served for two piping hot in the traditional earthenware dish, the cassoulet had a fine crust; plenty of sausage, pork, and duck; and the creamiest, best seasoned beans that Cathey had yet encountered. Just heavenly.

I opted for the special of the day. I began with a plate of small, plump mussels with a sauce of olive oil, much garlic, chives, and white wine. Very tasty. My guinea fowl came with a red wine and onion reduction to which a bit of liver was introduced, making the sauce thicker and heftier than the average fowl sauce, suitable for guinea fowl.

Desserts included a shallow dish of Creme Catalan, a hot apple crumble, and my two scoops of chocolate ice cream. All just fine.

Our waiter had better than passing English and was able to help us with questions about the proper beans for a cassoulet and the reduction on the guinea fowl. And the chef (David?) came out to greet each diner. Very nice. With a liter of house rose and coffee for two at the finish, the tab came to just under 90 euros. 

When we are obliged to demonstrate the art of Castelnaudary cassoulet to the next set of visitors, we'll visit Chez David.

Read more of my reviews HERE.