baguettes

I will start this post with the definition of the French word "baguette," from my "All-New Edition Larousse's French-English English-French Dictionary" (copyright 1996 - I've probably had it since about then - it's certainly not all-new now!).

baguette [bagεt] nf [pain (bread)] French stick. || [petit bâton] stick; ~ magique magic wand; ~ de tambour drumstick; mener qqn à la ~ to rule sb with a rod of iron. || [pour manger (for eating)] chopstick. || [chef d'orchestre (conductor)] baton

I have long been familiar with the bread definition, as are, I presume, most people in Western countries.  It is such a classic French thing - like croissants and berets and the Eiffel tower.

I became familiar with the last definition at the Berlioz Museum when we visited it as an orchestra in 2003 (the conductor of our university symphony was a Berlioz expert, so of course we had to visit the Berlioz museum).  I remember reading the little signs on various displays, and trying to figure out why several of them made reference to bread.  I eventually figured out that it meant the conductor's baton.

The chopsticks definition came to my attention several years ago, while visiting G, probably while cooking.  I consider chopsticks to be one of the two (or possibly two of the three?) most useful kitchen implements, along with a knife.  There is very little that one cannot cook with chopsticks and a knife.  You can pick up noodles out of boiling water, beat eggs, stir something on a saute pan, flip crepes (carefully), serve vegetables, and, of course, eat with them.

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Earlier this week, I decided to try my hand at making the bread version of baguettes.  There is a lovely bakery within easy walking distance of our apartment, and every week when we go to the market, we buy bread from an even better bakery there, but I like making bread, don't do it very often, and thought I'd give it a try.

I spent some time with the internet to find recipes.  I chose this one because it didn't require an overnight starter, and I didn't plan the time for an overnight starter.  I put the yeast and sugar in some warm water, let it bubble up (possibly one of my favourite parts of making bread is going away and coming back and seeing it all poofy), added the flour, started kneading it, realized I'd forgotten the salt, added the salt, kneaded some more, actually *felt* the moment when the dough went to the "smooth and elastic" part that all bread recipes talk about (usually I notice that it's happened, but not exactly when), put it in an oiled bowl to rise, punched it down, shaped the loaves, let them rise, put a large bowl of water in the oven and let it preheat (for a really really long time - G was late home from work, and I waited til he called to say he was coming home to put the bread in the oven so they were a little over-risen and fatter than they should have been), forgot the slash-the-top-and-brush-with-water step, and baked them.

Once G got home, we ate them.  Not the same texture as actual baguettes, but really quite tasty (I have had similar experiences making bagels and croissants - not the same texture as what you buy, but very tasty and recognizably what they are supposed to be).

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Last weekend, G and I went to visit a friend of his that I'd met a few years before.  When you put five fast-talking French people in the same room together with a person who more or less can understand most of what's said to her, though possibly not contribute a lot to a conversation, the non-French person will eventually stop listening closely to everything that's said (this effect is exaggerated once two or three people are talking at once, there are two or three conversations happening at the same time, and/or the conversation goes in a direction that the listener wouldn't've understood even if it were in a language they spoke).

Out of (it seemed to me) nowhere, a question was directed at me.  "Do you still cook with baguettes?"

It took me a few moments to process this.  I was extremely confused - do I cook with baguettes?  I eat baguettes.  I have been known to make bread.  I can cut baguettes up and put them in food.  I looked to G for help - what on earth was this question actually asking me?  In my mind, this is what I thought of.

We had meant to take this picture using the bread I made, but well, we wanted to eat the bread more than we remembered to take the picture, so we bought two baguettes at the market this morning.

Then it dawned on me.  On my previous visit to this friend, I had cooked, and been dismayed at the lack of chopsticks in her kitchen.

Yes, I still cook with chopsticks.