Big, big, BIG strawberries, all year round

Everyone told me I would love all the fruits and vegetables in California. But I don't. Everything is available all the time, from blueberries in January to apples in April, but it doesn't taste good.

But I've just discovered the farmers' markets. There you find things that are actually in season. They are only once a week, but it's better than nothing for someone nostalgic for France.

Don't get me started on the cheese.

Comments

[deb]

I'm sorry to see your blog turn into a kind of bitch fest. You had insightful and sometime humorous things to say. I really did enjoy it before. Now, not so much.

So sorry you don't like living in California. It is what it is, and it isn't France.

[Jadie]

My rule of thumb: don't buy any produce from outside California. All that out-of-season stuff is from Mexico, Chile, etc. Farmers markets are great and you should check around. Usually, there are markets in neighboring communities on different days. Look for Whole Foods markets, as they designate where their produce is from, and whether or not it's organically grown. Don't despair! You can find the same quality of produce you're used to in Paris...

[David]

After living for 20 years in California prior to moving to France, I was pretty disheartened at the quality of produce in Paris. Most of the markets have produce from Rungis ("vine-ripe" tomatoes from Holland and strawberries from Morocco) and I think the garriguettes are overrated when compared to Swanton berries from Santa Cruz or what you can get at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.

France does have amazing cheese, far better than the US, as well as the charcuterie and much of the poultry is more flavorful too. But unless you shop at one of the two organic, and outrageously-expensive bio markets, I find the produce here in Paris sadly lacking and surprised that in such an agriculturally-aware country, the produce isn't far better than what's available.

[LA Frog]

Deb has a point: forget about finding French "saveurs" here. The upsides of living in SoCal definitely lie elsewhere -- and there are many.

Your best food bet is to "stay in season," and to not buy fresh fruit/vegetables unless it's their time of the year. Farmer's markets are great, so are the little stalls by the fields in regions such as Ventura and Camarillo: they will sell you fresh fare, which may not be to (freakishly) perfect dimensions, but which will be picked up at the right time (rather than where they're green.) Try also stores like the Co-op, or smaller organic chains.

Comment to Deb: I don't think Sedulia's new SoCal blog has turned into a "bitch fest," and I certainly didn't get the feeling that she doesn't like living here -- au contraire. It's mainly her newcomer's remarks on life in L.A. She had some quite pointed remarks about living in Paris/France as an American. I guess it's the expat's legacy: you become critical, good and bad -- even with your own country.

[Sedulia]

Deb, thanks for your remarks. I didn't mean to be complaining...to tell you the truth, I love Los Angeles! It's been a big surprise to me. Also, of course whenever you start over in a new place, you pay "the dumb tax" of not knowing where to go for things.

I actually didn't want to keep up a blog when I came back to the U.S., as I don't feel I have much to contribute as an American writing in America. One of the few things I can do is focus on the differences I notice.

Of course I have to admit it is very French to "beetch, beetch, beetch" --as a wonderful French boss of mine once remarked about herself!

[llucas]

Not sure where in L.A. you are, but a great cheese resource is the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills (on Beverly Drive, just south of Santa Monica Blvd). (I have no affiliation with it--other than as a very satisfied and frequent customer.) Friends from Paris and other parts of France find it a must-stop when they visit, and I've never been disappointed.

I also do much of my fruit and vegetable shopping at the Hollywood and Santa Monica farmers' market for the best in-season and sustainably grown produce.

[Erin]

I love the cheese shop in the Farmer's Market at the Grove.

And there are so many farmer's markets (not capitalized like the one above because they're real farmer's markets, not tourist events like the one at the Grove) all over town that there's practically one everyday. They are mostly focused around the weekends, but that's when the vendors can be most assured of attendance, so it makes sense for them to not drive down from Oxnard and other growing sites everyday. They're too busy growing all that great stuff! Santa Monica's market is on Thursdays near the 3rd Street Promenade, there's another in Hollywood near Selma & Ivar Saturdays and Sundays, and tons throughout the Valley and east into San Gabriel and Pasadena.

One of my favorite things about living in LA is the food and the wonderful abundance of good fresh produce. Enjoy what's here! I know it's hard to leave a place you love, but LA isn't Paris, and continually comparing the two (even if it's not what you mean to be doing) will never make the place you're at now look better. It's cheesy, but bloom where you are planted.

[Neil]

Trader Joe's?

Hi Neil, Everyone is telling me to go to Trader Joe's (which I confused initially with Trader Vic's in New York City, which was at the Plaza Hotel when I lived there). There's not one near my house and I am sort of exploring in concentric circles from there, so I'll get there eventually.

[Ken B.]

Please don't stop bitching about L.A. with your Paris bias. For an American expat in France it is great fun and almost enough to make one homesick.

[Maktaaq]

I don't agree with Deb first of all. I think there is plenty to like about the US, but talking about the bad stuff rarely goes beyond health care or militarism.

Anyhow, about strawberries. I used to hate them. I grew up eating North American strawberries and couldn't figure out why people liked them.

I remember the day I began liking strawberries. I was driving in the mountains in Romania and bought a small cone of the tiniest strawberries I'd ever seen. About the size of a child's pinkie finger, their taste was strawberry multiplied by 200, but with a bit of zing more frequently encountered in the raspberry. This is a real strawberry, I was told, what strawberries used to taste like before they were bred into boring giants.

PS I have illegally imported and blind taste-tested vegetables from the West and from Eastern Europe. The Eastern European ones all do really taste better.