Francophiles

Yesterday when my dad told me that he and my mom were thinking about buying a condo in France as an investment/vacation place, I looked down at my plate and realized I was eating a crepes that I had made for breakfast. (Hint: just water down your pancake mix with milk and voila, you have crepes you can top with strawberries). Now I know where I got my francophilia.

Growing up, my parents would also listen to French music (which I didn't care much for that, but I didn't care much for Vietnamese music either.) We had a pictures of French kitchens on the wall. I took French in high school, wanting to study abroad there. And we always heard stories of how my dad worked in a restaurant in Paris.

Alex's friend Idriss and I even bond over French food. Idriss is from Camaroon, another French colony, and somehow ended up in Minnesota like me. Before you get me wrong, I am definitely not for colonizing other countries. However, if there's anything good that came out of French colonization of Vietnam, it would be culinary influences that my parents grew up with and were passed down to my brother and I. As kids, we would eat croissants, baguettes with jambon (ham), and even pâté. Yes, I know how they make foie gras, a type of pâté. Yes I know I am a horrible person.

It is funny how I did not even realize how omnipresent Parisian influences were in my life. I am less of a francophile now because the snobbery thing kind of got old, but what I would do for a fresh banana and nutella crepe right now.