Les Framboises

Why do raspberries so make me think of France? Simply and independently because I adore both? No, there is something more to it than that.

I've long adored raspberries. Biting into that faintly fuzzy skin, the fuzz gently tickling your lips, giving way to a soft and momentary gel-like sensation against your front teeth and then to your tongue, where its perfectly slight tartness overcomes your senses and taste and texture hover harmoniously.

My love of raspberries is inextricably linked to France somehow. I've always enjoyed raspberries but have only just visited France for the first time in 2006, where I spent but a week in Paris (not that it takes any longer to be fully enamored) and my only recollection of tasting raspberries was of a raspberry tartlette purchased from the bakery, Paul. I selected the raspberry tartlette because it called out to me (along with the café flavored macaron), a perfectly glazed little beauty with every conceivable inch of the top of the tartlette covered with glazed raspberries. I took it back to my hotel room at the end of what was the most beautifully sunny day during my week in Paris.

As I sat on the bed of my small hotel room, the veranda's French doors wide open before me, I bit into the tartlette and melted. It was so ridiculously delicious... perfectly and simultaneously sweet and tart. The texture was softly dense, the glazed raspberries delightfully slimy, and the crust buttery and delicately crumbly. I feebly attempted to capture the essence of that very tartlette I purchased from Paul in Paris. I suppose I was salivating so profusely, I gave up further attempts to capture its true essence. Thus, this photo falls quite short of the tartlette's true beauty but does remind me of that delightful moment of anticipation before first biting into it:
A couple of days ago, I saw a photograph of a raspberry dessert. It was not a tartlette and for the life of me, I cannot recall exactly what it was. But those raspberries in the photograph immediately stirred something within me. You know how you can bite into something and be taken back to a fond childhood memory (like that precious scene in Ratatouille where the bitterly harsh food critic bites into the ratatouille before him and is instantly taken back to that moment of childhood, in which his mother was preparing the simple stew for him) and all the sensations of that moment flash within you briefly but powerfully? Yes, seeing this image of the raspberries was something like that. But rather than being a past memory, it felt like a flash of sensations and memories I have yet to live. Do you know this feeling?

The same day I came across that photograph I read Function of Time's post, which included mention of the raspberry tartlette she purchased from Paul! This further stirred that sensation within me and hasn't left me since. How can this sweet little berry produce such a profound longing for France within me? Was it really just that one tartlette? I don't think so. The sensation seems yet to be fully realized. Isn't that exciting? To think that we can experience such profound sensations for memories yet to come?

*First photo from here. Second photo is mine.

Austin Adventures

I had such a great time in Austin. There was little sightseeing while there, but that was more than okay with me. LBR and I had a difficult time getting out of the house each day, as we found ourselves immersed in some incredible conversations. There was much insight, depth, and laughter that lead to hysterics. Here are some highlights of our adventures:

Jack Daniels, Cupcakes, and Queso. One truly can live off these "staples" for days on end.
I have always appreciated Jack and Cupcakes (not necessarily together) but I now also have a wicked love of "the queso," which I quickly deemed to simply be Velveeta cheese with jalepeno (and other?) peppers thrown in there and heated up. And boy did I feel all proud of myself upon such observation! :) Despite my new-found love of queso, I did have to turn my head when LBR was kind enough to stir the queso after it had been sitting for a few minutes, breaking that disturbing coagulated layer forming on the top.

Y'all and all y'all. Darlin and ma'am. The. I really do like hearing "y'all" and being called "darlin" and "ma'am" by Texans. There really is something so charming about it. The highlight of our dismal experience on Sixth Street was being called "darlin" by a bum playing a guitar. It was very touching. And LBR and I quickly took to overusing "the" before nouns. "The Tasty Freeze," "the queso," "the tex mex," "the Walmart," "the bar-b-q," "the blog." We even got into a serious analytical discussion over how people came to find "the" necessary when saying things like "the McDonald's." When distinguishing between "y'all" and "all y'all," it seems that "y'all" can be applied to one or more people and that "all y'all" seems appropriate for three or more people, particularly larger groups. Really, I loved it all, all y'all.

Austin is really green and really pleasant. I was genuinely surprised by how green Austin is and how many trees there are. It has a really great vibe as well. You know you are in Texas but it truly does feel like an Oasis there. Speaking of which, I loved The Oasis (pictured here). It is a restaurant/bar that is roughly seven stories high and overlooks Lake Travis. At the entrance are a myriad of statues, with no clear theme to the collection. It is a wacky hodgepodge of statues strewn about a pebbled pathway towards the restaurant entrance. As bizarre as it seems, I found myself really charmed by its seeming absurdity. The view of the lake was gorgeous and Austin has amazing sunsets:


Texan accents are really fun and easy to slide into, even with the "locals." It does help when they are really drunk. :) I think I have a few different Texan accents going on all at once, however! LBR and I would often find ourselves having serious conversations and then suddenly slide right into Texan accents, continuing the serious nature of the conversation. Disturbing? Likely.

Cowboy boots are bad ass and rather darlin. I was infatuated with these boots I tried on. I really am not a fan of animal print anything, but these were really well done in my opinion and the animal print added that little bit of sexy sass every respectable girl needs in a cowboy boot. When I saw that they were just about five bills, I had a sudden fear that I could not get the boots off. Yet, somehow, this fear turned into a strong desire not to take them off and I happily lingered, walking around in them and fantasizing about what fun things I would wear with them. LBR will concur that they were gorgeous boots. And just to reiterate, here's another glimpse of these little darlins. I hope to bring them home with me one day. Sniff, sniff.

I wish we had taken a photo of LBR in the green "Riverdance" boots she tried on... they were gorgeous as well. But we were soon distracted from the boot love when...

I got to play the idiot city girl for the boot salesman's entertainment. This involved baby rattlesnake eggs and some girly screamin and squealin on the part of LBR and I. Oh, did he have fun with us big city girls. And LBR had a premonition that "the snake" was upon us. After I had quickly found "my" boots, we rounded the corner of an aisle to find LBR some boots. When we did, I looked up in horror. The expression on my face must have been fierce, because LBR quickly darted, gasping in fear. She thought I had seen a snake. But really, what I saw rivaled a dangling snake. Before us was the most hideous pink leather jacket with studs and fringes. Moments later, in the same aisle, the salesman approached LBR with a little pouch claiming to have rattlesnake eggs in it. He asked her to open it. Sweet Lord... did LBR run for the hills. And so, I was faced with opening the dreaded pouch. I knew it was a gag and I knew that something would startle me. But despite knowing it was a gag, anxiety mounted within me and when I did open it (some kind of rubber band wound up with a paper clip or something, that made a buzzing sound when you opened the pouch), I threw that thing across the store. Yep, no doubt he is still having a good laugh over that.

Change of scenery and awakened taste. Any traveler knows what I speak of here. To be out of your element is such an awakening. We really do drift through our daily lives without fully experiencing all that is around us. The climate and landscape change is huge. And each time I visit a new place, I feel an emerging curiosity about what it might be like to have a life here. Travel stirs up a lot within me. It really challenges me to think about where I am and what I'm doing with my life.

Food is also such a poignant marker when traveling. To have Bar-b-q and Tex Mex restaurants all over is so alien to me that I feel really awake to the overall experience through food. One night we went into a bar-b-q joint that looked like a gas station market on the outside. And with our brisket, we were given a half loaf of white bread. I don't know why that was so neat to me but it was. And I find myself more adventurous with food when traveling. At Manuel's, LBR and I happily accepted the waiter's recommendation of the gordita pictured here. It was very good and a very keen reminder that trying something new is an awakening.

Having a 2am breakfast with LBR at Magnolia Cafe was so great. I love this little diner and how this particular cafe on Lake Austin Boulevard sits back off the road, up a little incline parking lot with a great big oak tree. As we pulled up, there were a couple young guys strumming guitars in the parking lot. It didn't feel dead outside but rather, at that hour it seemed that there was a quiet but palpable energy that evoked an exciting tranquility. Although, as LBR stated in her post, we were likely the only two non-stoned people in the diner, it was so much fun to be out like that, enjoying the experience with a great friend. I never go out at 2am here at home to have breakfast with a friend. Although such a simple experience, it was so poignantly delightful.

University of Texas. Great college campus and ENORMOUS football stadium. I love college campuses and derive such pleasure in walking amongst old buildings, aware of the knowledge buzzing all around me. The college lifestyle so appeals to me and I'm not talking about those early 20s of ridiculous boozing and hooking up. UT has a beautiful college campus and the architecture is so rich. The University of Texas Tower is truly magnificent. A woman on my flight home told me that UT has some 50,000 students. That is incredible to me, coming from a school much smaller. It was such a great experience, walking through the quiet campus on a Saturday evening with LBR.

Austin certainly was an adventure and opened me up to many possibilities with regard to life. I tend to draw inward so often and this trip reminded me, as that last scene of Into the Wild does... happiness is real when shared.