My big announcement for this month is that - yup - I survived getting a new computer. My first was a Mac SE, bought way back when if you want to use software, such as Word, you have to put a disc into the machine and wait a few minutes while it whirred to life. The black-and-white screen was about the size of a standard postcard and to use this newfangled thing called the “internet”, you had to dial in and listen to a bunch of goofy, boingy sounds before you finally got connected, and a male voice told you, “You’ve Got Mail.”

When I moved to France about ten years ago, people were shocked I wanted internet access at home. Nowadays France is one of the most connected places and even though prices of things in France are often higher than elsewhere, internet access is cheap and nearly universal in most homes and comes packaged as a “bouquet”, along with television and phone service, and generally costs between €35-50/month.

For those who are Mac users, you know that to migrate information, you simply hook up a cord between the new and the old computer, then sit back and let everything transfer. That’s the beauty of Apple. However my new computer didn’t want to take more than 11.9% of the information off my old dying iMac, and after three days of trying with computer-savvy pals, several calls to service clients didn’t seem to help. The last call I got a woman who was so snippy with me, and I was so frustrated, that I finally asked to be connected to the Returns desk as I wanted to send my new computer back.

The flip side of the coin was I took one last stab at it, as well as a cab ride (€30, but I didn't care anymore because I was spending close to that on Prozac) to the Genius Bar, where, after six hours with the terrific young guys there who spend their time recoding the entire back end of the new machine – got everything working. (Meanwhile, I spent another €60 shopping at Galeries Lafayette nearby on two new scarves!)

There's a lot of chat about whether the French are rude or not, and I've learned to aim for the younger folks at checkout counters, customer service, and elsewhere (although I had lunch at a Left Bank restaurant today and couldn't decide what was worse - the fries, or the service from the young staff.) I was going to write how the young 'uns were the future of France, then I remembered we were at Le Baron Rouge wine bar this morning (er...it was almost noon, folks) and the cheerfully grumpy gents there are what makes places like that in Paris a treasure.

So I guess the moral of the story is to avoid irksome restaurants - the French reviews on Yelp called the servers "extrêment désagréables", "incroyablement impolis", "exécrable", and even my friend said about the dreadful frites, "How do they get the French fries so...dense?" - and stick with the tried-and-true. Or do your research beforehand.

-David

I have some pretty curious interview questions this past year. One interviewer asked me why I had some non-French recipes in a book about Paris (Um, I guess they don’t realize that French people eat non-French food, just like Americans don't always eat American food). Another person sent me what she promised was a “short” interview, which was over twenty in-depth questions (I could feel my wrists seizing into carpal-tunnel talons just thinking about answering them), and then added about twenty subsets of questions to each question. So if you do the math, you might wonder why some people think I’m cranky. Nevertheless, I like being asked interesting questions and here are a couple of fun interviews I did recently:

A few favorite posts from last month were...

Labneh: How to make this amazing Lebanese dip. Super easy, and really great with a drizzle of olive oil.

Dave and Kate's Chocolate Brownies: My famous neighbor made these brownies and although she never made a batch for me, here's the recipe so you can make them yourself.

Artichoke Freekeh Risotto: This amazing grains - smoked green wheat - pairs marvelously with seasonal artichokes. And there's a tutorial on how to prepare the artichokes as well.

Change: I just had some vistiors in Paris, and many chastised for not having exact change (one friend said a supermarket cashier asked him three times if he had any bills smaller than a €20 - kind of odd that a major supermarket does not have change of a €20...?!) They didn't get it...and neither do I!

Have a good month of June! And remember - change is good ; )