French puffs of pastry for the breakfast averse.

When it comes to food, we have a bit of a French obsession. Is there anything better than a cafe au lait and a pain aux raisins on a Sunday morning? Not a lot, but this recipe for choquettes from French Revolution just might give that menu a run for its money. So bring a little joie de vivre to your kitchen table this weekend and enjoy.

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I still remember my first chouquette.

I’m not big on breakfast. While it’s most people’s favorite meal, it’s something I usually resolve to eat around this time every year. Mostly, I fail. But one fine morning, I was in Paris and on my way to cooking school. Cooking school is not for the faint of heart or the empty of stomach. You need calories to burn. So as I passed by the bakery around the corner from Le Cordon Bleu, I gazed into the window for some inspiration.

In a little cloth-lined basket, I saw a stack of something I’d never noticed before. Puffs of crisp dough, covered in a crust of pearl sugar. I asked what they were. That baker was never friendly and replied with a terse, “chouquettes.” I realized I was on my own, so I ordered a handful. With my first bite it hit me: profiterole shells. They are profiterole shells, without all the sweetness of cream and chocolate. Just the simple, air-filled, balloon of a shell, crisp on the outside, airy pocket inside, and covered in sugar. A little bit eggy, just a little bit rich. But light enough for a girl who hates breakfast.

They’re so easy to make at home, and so charming to serve in a little basket at brunch. I add a slight American twist by serving them, and sometimes even injecting them, with an assortment of jams.

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup water
• ½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• A pinch of fine sea salt
• ½ cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons pearl sugar, or more to taste
• Assorted jams and preserves

PROCEDURE

Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a medium sauce pot, bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil in a covered pot over medium heat. Take the pot off the heat, and dump in the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until completely incorporated. Return the pot to medium-low heat and stir for 60 seconds, until the dough comes away from the sides of the pot and forms a ball.

Turn the dough out into a bowl, and add 1 egg at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon until the egg is completely incorporated. The dough will be thick and sticky. Use a tablespoon measure to place balls of dough on a parchment- or Silpat-lined baking sheet, spacing out the chouquettes. Dip your finger in a bowl of water, and pat down any spikes in the dough that might burn. Sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Bake 10 minutes at 400°F, then reduce the heat to 350°F for 30 additional minutes. Take the chouquettes out of the oven, pierce the bottom of each pastry with a skewer, and cool on a wire rack. The hole in the bottom allows the steam to escape without making the chouquette soggy. Serve in a cloth-lined basket.

Sunday Brunch is an ongoing series featuring brunch recipes from some of our favorite food blogs around the web. New recipes every Sunday, so that you’re ensured a gourmet weekend. Bon appetit!

Image: French Revolution

The Grand Tour and beyond.

We’re all familiar with the rolling hills of Tuscany, the cliffs of Santorini, the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But Europe is so much more than classic postcard images. As the continent’s Eastern half becomes more accessible, spots like the ports of Dubrovnik, the caves of Slovenia, and the Renaissance towns of the Czech Republic are becoming more popular as travelers venture off the traditional backpacker’s route. As everywhere, sustainable tourism practices are needed to protect this region’s intense natural beauty.

(above) Appenzell Innerrhoden, Switzerland

Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK

Telc, Czech Republic

Cyprus

Bua, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Istanbul, Turkey

Mariazell, Austria

Kiev, Ukraine

Crete, Greece

St. Petersburg, Russia

The Pyrenees, Aquitaine, France

Wick, Scotland

Aalesund, Norway

Berlin, Germany

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland

Capri, Italy 

Karkonosze, Poland

Postojna Cave, Slovenia

Paris, France

Margam Park, Wales, UK

Dresden, Germany

Barbarin, Spain

Berg, Austria

Florence, Italy

Copenhagen, Denmark

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Luster Kommune, Norway

Porto, Portugal

Boka Kotorska, Montenegro

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Lanzada, Spain

Castelluccio di Norcia, Italy

Moscow, Russia

Skradinski Buk, Croatia

London, England, UK

Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Santorini, Greece

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A discreet eco-luxe hideout in the city of love – ideal for a clandestine romance with a French lover.

One normally associates French design with Louis XIV furniture or Provençal-country style, but the Hidden Hotel in Paris is minimalist chic that is also très planet friendly. The French are well-known for their love affairs, so where better for a secret rendezvous with your amoureux(se) than a hotel that is virtually invisible, tucked away down a tiny alley?

Everything is exquisitely natural – not a hint of plastic or metal – and the textures are super-tactile. Even the facade of the building is clad in recycled floorboards. In the 23 wood-paneled guest rooms and suites on six floors, you can swathe yourself in organic linens after showering in the earthy ceramic, stone and slate bathroom. Rather than hard doors, there are floaty curtains dividing sleeping from bathing space. Handy for a spot of suggestive dancing.

The beds have mattresses made from organic coconut fibers and private terraces are wood-decked (naturally).

Want to invite your amis round for a cosy dinner chez toi? You can book the private kitchen and 12-seater dining room to whip up moules marinières and citron soufflé (or splash out on your own chef); if that all sounds too complicated, the bar has cocktails and amuse-bouches.

Take home the low-key rustic-chic with some furniture and clothes from their shop. What do stylish French people wear over the weekend? Linen shirts and simple knitwear that scream effortless elegance.

Rates from $181 including tax, organic breakfast and an innate sense of Parisian eco-chic.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

EcoSalon’s weekly playlist pick from 8tracks.

After a week of hanging out with a Swedish friend and talking about various adventures on the other side of the Atlantic, I was having serious Europe withdrawal. Solution? I have officially deemed Sundays “Pretend You’re in Europe Day.” This consists of listening to only European music for the entire day – well, except for your morning dose of NPR of course – making some type of European dish for dinner and then topping it all off with a foreign language film, full of serendipitously galivanting in European metropolises. You know exactly what kind of film I am talking about.

My first official Pretend You’re In Europe Day was fueled by French music. Imagining myself drinking a cafe au lait in a French cafe makes any dreary Sunday about eleven times better. But since sometimes you just need a little escape, your Pretend You’re in Europe Day can be any day of the week, and what better day then Monday? To get you started, here are three of the French inspired mixes that we just can’t get enough of today: French, The French Playlist and Cafe de la Paix.

On Music Monday we bring you a featured playlist from one of our favorite music sites 8tracks. From indie rock to electro pop we hope it’s a playlist that kicks your week off right. 

Image: boliston

ColumnWhat exactly is the French Paradox? Turns out it’s just a different attitude towards food.

Mes amis, let us take a moment and go francophile. But first let me preface this by acknowledging that there was in fact a time when my love affair with France hit a dark spot.

A longtime francophile – “Anna, do you really have to always pronounce croissant with a French accent?” – I did what any person in love would do: I moved. But somewhere along the line, France stopped being the romantic place it once had been. My newfound relationship with the place, once seductive and alluring, turned commonplace, and in the midst of dealing with French bureaucracy, I was no longer intrigued by the je ne sais quoi.

But like any good relationship, distance did it some good, and now France and I are back to where we once were, with me constantly craving a taste of French culture. Which brings me back to food.

As a culture, we have long been intrigued by the idea that French women don’t get fat. But that concept stretches across an entire nation, giving us the French paradox. How does one consume cream, butter and ample amounts of cheese and still manage to be perfectly in shape? Our Anglo minds have a hard time grappling with this question, but really it all comes down to how we think about food, and in France it’s all about having a respect for what’s on the plate in front of you. A way of life instead of a lifestyle choice.

Ultimately the French Paradox isn’t a paradox at all, it’s just about a few simple values that we could easily start incorporating into our own lives, no matter where we live.

Food Is Culture

Although local love for the national cuisine may be failing, an appreciation for good food in France has never diminished, and the commitment to keeping the tie between eating and feeling good is alive and strong. Take Le Fooding for example. Deemed “A taste of the times,” it’s a restaurant guide/food festival/food news site, and one that’s committed more to putting the “feeling” back into food.

“We are about having food with fun, and with a smile,” Le Fooding’s founder Alexandre Cammas told the Los Angeles Times. And herein lies the French paradox: food is directly tied to emotional well being. French people don’t eat because they have to, they eat because it’s a valued part of their day and their culture.

Food Is Food

As Maurice Edmond Sailland (pen-name Curnonsky) once said, “Fine cooking is when the things you have cooked taste as they are.” A roasted chicken with a rich sauce may sound decadent to our American-trained stomachs, but as it turns out, real food is not only healthier, it’s also cheaper than the fast food, high caloric alternatives.

Real food isn’t processed, and it certainly doesn’t come vacuum packed and wrapped in styrofoam, and hitting up the market every day for a basket of vegetables instead of potato chips quickly leads to a healthier society.

Food Is Quality

When kids aren’t allowed to eat ketchup in the cafeteria anymore – unless it’s for the once a week burger – you know a country is doing something right. Meanwhile we’re sitting back and only barely touching the surface of the issue, with all kinds of ridiculous backlash, including the likes of Sarah Palin touting the benefits of sweets.

But the French know that when it comes to children, they have to set an example. “France must be an example to the world in the quality of its food, starting with its children,” said Bruno Le Maire, French Minister for Agriculture and Food.

Food is Tradition

Although you’ll certainly find a few cupcakes in France, food fads don’t hit like they do on our side of the Atlantic. Deep down, the French know what they are supposed to eat: whole grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy and protein. Sure, the supermarket has over 100 kinds of yogurt, but 100 kinds of yogurt is much better than 100 kinds of sugary breakfast cereal.

Because food is tradition, there are certain classic staples that remain part of the culture. You’d be hard pressed to find a French person who doesn’t know a thing or two about cheese, and wherever you are in the country, if you just take time to ask, it won’t take long to learn what the regional specialty is and who in town makes it.

Food Isn’t Treated as Unlimited

Most of us, even broke 20-somethings, have the ability to buy way more food than we need. Compare this to places where almost entire household incomes go to sustaining a family, and you begin to see the disparity. Unfortunately because it’s hard to resist a good thing, even though we don’t need everything that we’re able to purchase, we still have a tendency to consume it and that means larger portions and more of them. French people eat until they are full, and then stop. Those French women consuming all that heavy cream and butter? They do it in moderation, knowing their personal limits.

Food is Joie de Vivre

Everyone has to eat, so why not enjoy the moment, preferably with friends? Eating with others has not only emotional benefits but also means you’re not sitting in front of the television alone, mindlessly moving your hand from chip bag to mouth. Food is meant to be enjoyed; given the time it took to get from the earth to your plate, it deserves to be enjoyed.

Want to be more French? Don’t just whip up a coq au vin or grab a croissant with your coffee for breakfast tomorrow. Eating French isn’t about the specific dishes, it’s about the entire process. Think about what you eat, where it comes from and enjoy the process of consuming it and who you’re eating it with. In fact, c’est simple.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: carolus124, pdbreen, Mike Towber

Instants d’Absolu in Auvergne, France was designed as an escape for those who want to get away from it all.

Perched high on a 3,760 foot plateau is Instants d’Absolu, an eco-lodge in a preserved sanctuary in Auvergne, France. Nestled in the heart of the Natural Reserve of the Auvergne Volcanoes, it’s wedged between Lac du Pêcher (a lake), the Puy Muy volcano, and the edge of the Pinatelle Forest. In other words, Instants d’Absolu is an “escape” in the truest sense of the word.

Instants d’Absolu (meaning timeless and rare moments), is located on a renovated, eco-friendly lava stone farm. What we like about it is that it can be visited year-round with no shortage of activities. In warmer months, there is fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking, and even a hot air balloon ride to explore the beautiful landscape from above. In the winter, guests can experience dog-sled rides, snowshoe excursions, cross country skiing, and even skiing on the slopes of volcanoes. But the activity most enjoy is the art of doing nothing. The Nordic inspired spa helps with that, an outdoor hot tub that looks out onto the raw French nature.

Restored with love and care, the land that Instants d’Absolu sits on is considered “sensitive natural space,” which means the owners have gone to great lengths to keep the property as natural as possible. Instants d’Absolu is a world in itself, to relax and get away from it all.

If you go: Expect to fall asleep listening to an evening concert of frogs and stag belling. Rates start at $180USD per night.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

Guests at the Hotel Sezz in St. Tropez can indulge guilt-free while taking in warm, ocean breezes.

Known for its glamor, St. Tropez is a destination where the rich and famous play. And while luxurious yachts and private jets are many times the main transportation to and from this resort town in the French Riviera, the Hotel Sezz is one hotel that is making a difference.

Hotel Sezz was built with a mission of being an elegant structure while incorporating international ecological building practices. Incorporating the hotel into its natural surroundings was an important goal of its builders, and they saved nearly every tree on the site. The restaurant and bar (that’s, the Dom Pérignon bar), are constructed from local sandstone in pale grey, embossed cement and panels of aged, stained wood. The spa at Hotel Sezz incorporates materials that are typical of Provençal style and spa products are all derived from plants so guests can indulge guilt-free.

Built of “light and air,” the Hotel Sezz is said to be a unique yet most luxurious addition to St. Tropez, where guests can “smell and feel salt water and warm breezes from their beds and baths.”

If you go: St. Tropez is an amazing city so guests are encouraged to borrow bikes from the hotel to pedal to the beach and around town. Rates start at approximately $650.00 per night USD.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

ColumnWhy is it that America is only known for hamburgers and hot dogs when we have a burgeoning foodie culture?

A surprising discovery when I lived in France was L’Americain. In the land of gourmet cheeses and perfected baguettes, food is more than something that you just consume for nourishment; it’s art. Which is why I was a little shell-shocked the first time I came across L’Americain, a late night favorite, post-pop music dance party, made up of a baguette stuffed with hamburger meat, french fries and ketchup.

If the French vision of American food had been unclear before, after this particular sandwich run in, it was very clear. For the French, there was no point in glorifying this version of junk street food, when they could just call it what they thought it represented: America.

As a nation, we have often been at the bottom of the list of culinary tradition. Sure, at home we’ve created a foodie culture and mastered combining dishes from around the world, but abroad, there remains a view that we’re all about pizza, hot dogs and chips. Our global foodie reputation is defined more by sugar and fat than by local ingredients with a cosmopolitan twist.

In fact, enter any “American” food store in another country and you’ll get a handful of classic ingredients. I’ve seen everything from swirled jars of peanut butter and jelly to marshmallow cream (things my American counterparts would never dream of buying at home), and much less abroad. But the international crowd loves this stuff. One of my best Swedish friends has specifically requested that next time I come visit she wants Reese’s Miniatures and several bags of Sour Patch Kids.

What is it that has made the rest of the world crave some of our most terrible exports and glaze over our more respectable creations? You don’t see Alice Waters shrines or bookshelves stocked with Mark Bittman translations abroad, but you’ll most certainly come across a sampling of the following.

Hamburgers

McDonald’s has swept the world like a virus, but it’s not just Big Macs that have made their way around the world. Grab an “American” menu in Southeast Asia and you’re sure to find some version of a meat patty wrapped in a bun. For some reason this American classic has other people hooked, albeit poor spellings on menus and misconceptions of what a bun should look like.

Pringles

It’s not just chips in general, but there’s something about “once you pop you can’t stop,” that has seduced the international consumer. Turns out they’re marketed in at least a hundred countries and bring in $1 billion in sales. Sure, in other countries the packaging is often smaller,  because other places know better than to serve up ten servings in one container that we’re sure to down in a single sitting — but those brightly colored canisters with the goofy, mustached man are all over the place.

Mediocre – yet complicated – coffee drinks

Leave it to the global coffee chain Starbucks to make it perfectly acceptable to order a caramel machiatto in countries where coffee consumption is holy. The result is, well, abhorrent. Thanks to the chain it’s trendy to cruise the streets of Paris with a disposable cup and you can now buy Frappacinos in Guatemala. The company’s new instant product alone was responsible for $100 million in global sales last year.

Peanut Butter

It seems like such a staple product and yet for many it’s a luxury. Some love it and some hate it, but peanut butter to Europeans is just as exotic as caviar and foie gras are to many Americans. Try tracking it down outside of the U.S. and you’ll have a difficult time, and yet somehow, everyone knows about it. A former, very typical French roommate of mine (he wouldn’t dream of keeping his smelly cheeses in the refrigerator), thought there was nothing better on his weekend brioche than some good old Jiffy, imported by friends of course.

But forget our foodie reputation for a second.

Although it would be great to be known for all the fantastic, organic and healthy items that many American chefs whip up on a daily basis, wanting to be respected for our food culture is almost a little vain. What we should be more concerned with is how we’re physically impacting the rest of the world.

With obesity rates skyrocketing around the world, and often attributed to imported food, maybe it’s time we took a step back and asked ourselves what we want our global food influence to be.

Hot dogs and high fructose corn syrup? Changing what’s on our plates at home has a larger influence than we may think.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, taking a conscious look at what’s bubbling in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: USDA China, permanently scatterbrained, Brett L., Like_the_Grand_Canyon, Alaivani, egarc2

Parlez-Vous Français? Me neither, but for an encounter with this graceful hotel, I would be rolling the romance of France off my tongue in a heartbeat. All five guest rooms nestled in this stone haven (once a winery) are screaming my name. La Maison Pujol is quite possibly the most swoon-inducing and tempting vacation I have ever met. You can find this lovely hotel at the crossroads of vintage modern and intricately simple in southern France.

The interiors of La Maison Pujol transcend the standard style genres. Owner and architect/designer Philippe Phi combines vintage typography, authentic ancient stone walls, modern lighting, and classic design. There is something innately satisfying about the sole intention of a designer – the homes and designs of creative minds without the inhibitions of client constraints just seem to sing with personality and artistic abandon. (For more spaces that belong to designers, visit Gold Chairs and Bond Girls, Auction House Awe, and Blissfully Arranged Chaos.)

This property is more than just a luxurious and beautiful bed; it also comes with a heaping side of delicious breakfast. That’s right, this gorgeous property in France is a boutique bed and breakfast on a vintage silver platter.

The talented lens of Manolo Yllera captured this charismatic place of slumber. For more glimpses of Manolo’s polished photography, click over to Sex in a Convent.

The poor French. There they were, with their low-rent bistros slinging brie-filled crepes, soupe a l’oignon and coq au vin when all the populace really wanted was rectangular food-like objects that taste vaguely of chicken, and a side of corn syrup dipping sauce.

But then the good ol’ U S of A came to the rescue! The American government graciously provided a struggling business called McDonald’s with $465,000 to promote Chicken McNuggets abroad.

That’s right, your tax dollars brought the culinary masterpiece that is Chicken McNuggets to Europe through the Market Access Program, which uses public funding to help U.S. industries promote their products overseas. McDonald’s qualified to receive nearly half a million dollars through the Poultry and Egg Council to promote a product that has no less than 40 ingredients, only one of which is chicken (even in the new, less filler-packed recipe).

The fast food giant only made $985.5 million in profits last year. How can we possibly expect them to continue their quest for world domination without some government funding?

The $465,000 figure comes from a book by Jonathan Rauch called Government’s End: Why Washington Stopped Working, which details the vice grip that special interest groups have on the American government. The book is 10 years old, and it’s tough to discern whether McDonald’s has received any more taxpayer funds, though the program does put a five-year limit (not necessarily consecutive) on promotional assistance for branded products.

What could that $465,000 done if it hadn’t gone to McDonald’s? Built a playground in an underprivileged neighborhood, or injected some healthier foods into school lunches? It’s not as if Europeans are any better off for the U.S. factory-farmed chicken, modified food starch and Dimethylpolysiloxane added to their diets.

Photo: basykes