Date of CHâTEAU SPîCE! - Sat April 14!

What is CHâTEAU SPîCE! ?

It's our first ever Château Nîce 'Curryin' War' ie a curry-eating and -appreciating event, inspired by exotic Indian and Caribb traditions, and suggested by a French friend of ours. (Possibly capped with a return of a longtime favourite: Who's Waffle, Who's Awful?) Prizes for top curry will be awarded. Vegetarian curries welcome as long as they're delicious.

Methinks this is an afternoon event. Between 1-4pm.

We just need a date: [Update} AND THAT DATE IS SAT APRIL 14


List of possible competitors:
Angry Brown Man (gotta represent)
Voula
Marissa T
M. Bonhomme (only makes waffles)
Jean-Michel
Ming (strictly non competitive)
Kat (the most competitive of us all?)

CHâTEAU SPîCE - Who else is Nâan enough??

Now I know how Martha Stewart feels

You may be wondering why I haven't been posting about my Parisian adventures. Perhaps thinking I was having too much fun to be bothered with blogging? Truth is, I haven't seen much of Paris at all. Nope. Instead, since Monday, I've been nursing a sinus infection and instead of partaking in an array of French cheeses, I've been feasting on a buffet of French pharmaceuticals. Antibiotics, pain killers (cause I constantly feel like I've been punched in the face by Mike Tyson) and nasal sprays, oh my. Each time I try to go out, just for a little while, I come down with a fever the moment I get past a certain perimeter from the apartment. I feel like I'm wearing those electronic shackles that Martha had to wear when under house arrest. Whenever I get anywhere close to seeing the city, the invisible alarm goes off and my body starts to shut down. Ilias has been quite supportive. In fact, just to make sure I don't miss my own mother, he's been doing a GREAT impression of a greek mama, feeding me (because I "don't eat properly"), making sure I'm wearing an excessive amount of clothing at all times, etc, etc, etc, etc. Here's a photo with a great view of the Eiffel Tower. It's hanging on the wall of Ilias' apartment and is the closest I've come to actually seeing the damn thing.

French humour

i think we miss you?

Who feels like going for Ethiopian this week? Wednesday or Thursday, perhaps? We can bring a life-size cardboard cut-out of M, so that it will feel like she's there with us :)

wed, hmm... perhaps i could meet you later(the likelihood of that increasing, if you pick an ethnic cuisine other than ethiopian... no offense to ethiopia of course)

i've got this Sudan craving for worldly cuisine... Kenya suggest anything else? perhaps a different continent? howzabout... Costa Rican?

ethiopian food does make me in-continent, so I would suggest european(though if european AND pooin then the costa rican will be rican a toll on my social life) but it tends to be expensive and I refuse to pick up the czech. i'm game for costa rica

I already have dinner plans with my friend R. But if you two don't mind that she comes along, then I'm sure she would love to come along too. You guys can vote and let me know! ;) I like all food. Except for hairy pig feet. That is the only thing I won't eat. Let me know!

yay! wednesday it is... don't worry, if they do serve pig knuckles, i'll make sure they're plucked and boiled.

yes, bring your friend R!

OJ! I decided that saying OJ is way more fun than saying OK. Where do we meet? I will pass along the word to Karen. She will be pleased. She likes food too. We have so much in common. It is why we are friends. If you miss M we can always bring along a brown wig for K to wear and get her to speak in a greek accent. Although M has no accent it is more fun to pretend that she does. :)

Pura Vida. 685 Lansdowne, north of Bloor on the east side. 8PM. Who else wants to come for a Hump Day Feast? You?

La vie boheme

Ilias lives in the 18th arrondissement in a little building with no elevator and a staircase with old hardwood floors. Thing is, none of the floors or apartments are labelled. At all. All the doors are the same blue and all the floors look exactly the same. The only thing distinguishing his apartment (which I think is on the 3rd floor) from the others is his door mat, which apparently tends to wander when the cleaners are doing the stairs.

The neighbourhood is lined with little shops. Cheese, seafood, butchers, flower shops, grocery stores, bakeries, etc. My French accent is beyond bad. I really do think that people have an easier time understanding me when I just say the words in an American accent. Sad, I know. But thanks to the power of hand signals and smiling enthusiastically, buying food (duck sausage, duck pate with figs and stinky cheese!) has thankfully not been a problem. Oh, and JM, Saint Marcellin is EVERYWHERE and you're right, it's SO GOOD.

Dragonette lives!

Read about Martina in the Star!

funny accents, funny keyboards

Je suis arrivée [i would use regular paretheses but on this french keyboard, who can figure out how to type them and insert exclamation mark here, once again, can't find hyphen or bracket-oh, there's the hyphen, but where's the close square bracket thingy?

having the ability to change to english helps, but god help you if you look down. why did they rearrange the letters?? just to be different, i'm sure.

i didn't intend on complaining. there are just so many frustrations! oh, there's the exclamation mark!

yes, ilias and i are reunited. (ilias showed me where the bracket was) so far, the weather is nice and we are going out to find some cheese or something. photos and more coherent posts to come.

a bientôt