Mastering The Art Of French Eating by Ann Mah

I read a review that kind of summed up my feelings--there is nothing ground breaking here, but it is endearing and enjoyable--and best of all, it launched me further down the road towards planning my next trip to France. Like the author, I am thoroughly charmed by the whole country's priority on food, how to prepare it, when to eat it, how to eat it, and to be reverent of the process along the way. The book starts off with she and her husband getting a dream diplomatic posting in France, and then he gets deployed to Iraq for a year, so she essentially lives alone in Paris, mostly feeling sorry for herself at the outset, but then settling in on writing about the quintessential dish from various regions around France. The story of pistou, a traditional Provencal summer soup is hilariously accurate when it comes to how when in France you must do it the way it has always been done, no veering off on your own variation. She doesn't go to the Perigord, but we witnessed that adherence to tradition when it came to fois gras. The other is about crepes in Brittany, a region I have not been to, but am now very much looking forward to visiting. If you are a Francophile and especially if you like to both cook and eat, this will be an enjoyable read.