For several weeks, Nate has complained about not having any more Speculoos: a gooey Nutella-like spread, but tastes like gingerbread cookies. Not kidding. Apparently he shared some with Rhea Mary (grandma) this summer and it mysteriously disappeared. That’s probably the reason she recently had half her colon removed..all that sugary, gingerbready goodness was too much for her frail body!
- Grandma’s fine, and recovering well
- Spekuloos is definitely delectable goodness but certainly won’t hospitalize anyone\
- Cora is the French version of the German Globus which compares somewhat to Super Target, only better if you can even imagine that. (I like Globus better, but they don’t have scads of cheap French wine. I’m talking $3 cheap for real.good.stuff.)
So, a free day from school, coinciding with another German holiday and we hit the road full of expectation. Just the two of us and dreams of shelves full of jars (or in my case, bottles of cheap French wine.) Our dreams came crashing down It turns out the French also observe All Saint’s Day. Parking choices were plentiful as the Cora was... <CLOSED>
Nate: “I told you it would be.”
Me: “I had hoped it wouldn’t!”
N: “Now what are we going to do--I’m starving.”
Me: “We’re only 45 minutes from home.”
N: “Can’t we grab something to eat in the car somewhere?”
Me: surveying the area, um....nothing open nearby.....”ok, let’s ask James (our dear GPS)
...several restaurant choices load......."Ok why don’t you pick one and if it doesn’t work out, we go home.”
N: “These choices are all in French!”
Me: <Well Duh!>
N: “Ok, I recognize this word --petite--let’s try it.”
So, we drive the kilometer to the “Petite” place and it looks open. The sign made us think perhaps they weren’t doing so well financially, but with cars in the lot, there must be something good there. Peeking inside we are greeted by rows of wine for sale --can’t be all that bad, right? The waitress/chef/owner shows us to a table and presents us with a menu. Ummm....my French is somewhat really not that great. Looking for key words, I figure we can’t go too wrong and other folks seem to be really enjoying their food.
Ordering in my seriously broken French-Gerlish (she understood some German and NO English) we decided to throw caution to the wind. About 90 minutes later we had finished a fantastic meal, including what started to be 1 dessert, but somehow I guess I ordered 2. Darn. Too bad we had to choke that down.
Nate is not a particularly voracious eater. As a matter of fact, he is super picky, which is nice sometimes when I want another honest opinion about my cooking. But this kid rarely eats more than half what he is served. This time, this chicken, these french fries.....A.MAZE.ING. I’d take a do-over on my meal, but the best part was time spent with our son. He’s 13 and in that complicated place. He’s often overshadowed by big and little brothers. But this day, this adventure, we sat and conversed. No iDevices! We talked about little stuff. We listened to the foreign conversations around us, the Irish music in the background (which just tickles us) and dreamed about some of the places we’d like to visit. We marveled at the interesting decor and couldn’t stop talking about the food. How can a french fry be both crunchy and fluffy at the same time? Dreams of “if I were class president” (the election had just taken place the previous day) and remember that time when....
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| Dessert! |
In the end, our Cora journey to find Speculoos was put off for a day (oh yes, we went back the very next day and bought several jars) but even better than Speculoos was our culinary delight and our priceless time together. Doesn’t get much better than that.
