QUE du beurre???

*translation* Nothing but butter?
I'll explain in a sec.
Today, I got to go visit my host family for the 49th birthday of my host father. Since it was his birthday, he got to choose to eat whatever he wanted, and he even made most of the food.
For starters, we had foie gras on toast. For those of you who don't know, foie gras is fattened duck liver, a specialty in France that sounds pretty disgusting but tastes quite good. Just don't google the process of foie gras if you ever want to try it... it will turn you off.
Next, we had... frog legs!!! I guess my host family makes them every year for the Canadians and we usually like them. I was no exception, they were quite good!

Ribbit!

I honestly had to just forget about what I was eating and enjoy the cultural experience. Turns out, frog legs taste a lot like chicken, though the texture is different.
Then, we had a delicious fish dish with beurre blanche sauce-- this is where my title comes from. The sauce is a specialty of Nantes and it is literally a whole load of butter. You cook shallots, pepper, and vinegar in a small pot and let it all boil down, then you start added butter, stirring constantly. I guess the chemical reaction between the butter and the vinegar, while you stir it over the heat, causes it to not melt like butter normally does. So in the end, about 1 1/2 sticks of butter are put into the sauce... and the result is something rather magical that I am never allowed to eat again... on account of, you know, my arteries.

Fish and beurre blanche

Yum!!

Some of their friends came over later and we shared in the famous galette des rois (my fifth so far!) and I was the queen this time!
Overall it was quite a lovely Sunday. Good food and good times! Now to run off all that butter ... ;)