What do expats crave from home?

Vaison la Romaine, the Marché - click for bigger picFarang expats occasionally suffer sudden cravings for a taste of home, not always easy to find on the other side of the world. That might be Mom's apple pie for our American friends, steak and kidney pie or some such delicacy for the Brits, ratatouille for the French, who knows... each to his own.

In my case coming across some photos earlier tonight led to a sudden yearning for some simple fare - decent cheese... a soft freshly-made chèvre from a local farm, followed by a 'crottin' - goat's cheese too, pungent with age. And a hunk of warm baguette, all washed down by a few glasses of Gigondas red. Mmmm!



Vaison la Romaine, the Marché - click for big picChiang Mai isn't exactly the back of beyond, but cheese is exorbitantly expensive, and pretty average quality too. The bread's ok, but I've yet to come across any that compares to a nice baguette bought fresh from the boulangerie first thing ...

What do you crave - if anything??

Oh... and one last thing! The crystal clear, clean, humidity-free air of the Provençal hinterland.

at the foot of the Mont Ventoux, Provence - click for bigger picMind you, it's getting a bit chilly there right now... on second thoughts, maybe I'll hang on in here, just for a while!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh i definately miss cheese. Not that I would eat more.. the calories !!! haha

A True Friend to China said...

Well, you've said it exactly... red wine, cheese and fresh, cool air.

As an exile from France you must really miss these things.

Here in Surin there's only cheese in plastic slices or a two kilo brick you'd never touch in a million years if you were in Europe.

I don't eat farang food at all here as pale imitations just make the cravings worse. Better to stick with fried insects and crispy frog.

But than the French eat that too, don't they monsieur Frog-Blog?

Andrew Hicks

The Frogblogger said...

Frogs certainly, and even snails. Anything with wings plus feathers... even blue tits. But the French usually draw the line at anything with more than four legs (unless harvested from the sea). Perhaps we could start a new fad when I take my gf to France for the first time next year - the land around us in Provence is literally crawling with crickets, cicadas, stick insects etc. My other half will fall in love with it immediately!