Category Archives: Africa
Belleville, Paris, France: I
Belleville, the site of my upcoming study in France, filled with other worlds and other tongues, other ways and other …
The Bibliothèque Nationale de France and Me, Etc.
Dear readers of Gherkins & Tomatoes /Cornichons & Tomates, Soon I will embark on a great adventure, doing research on …
Vivre en l’Outre-Mer, or, The Trials of Living in French Congo ca. 1923: Part III
Once settled into their bungalow overlooking Stanley Pool in Brazzaville, the Vassals faced the problem of hiring household help, especially …
Famine in Somalia: Why are Food Writers Not Talking about the Black Horse?
“When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before …
Vivre en l’Outre-Mer, or, The Trials of Living in French Congo ca. 1923: Part II
Like many writers of her era, Gabrielle M. Vassal tended not to be very complimentary of Africans in Life in …
Vivre en l’Outre-Mer, or, The Trials of Living in French Congo ca. 1923: Part I
When the French government appointed Dr. Joseph Vassal, Englishwoman’s Gabrielle Vassal’s French husband, Head of Health Services for Equatorial French …
RAMADAN KARIM — The Fast
(I wrote this several years ago and include it here as a tribute to the Moroccans I knew then and …
“Authentic” French Food: A Real Parvenu
Spend a weekend reading Graham Robb’s The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography (2007) and you’ll end up with quite a full …
Eating Around the Empire in a Day: The 1931 Paris International Colonial Exposition
To her sons who have extended the empire of her genius and made dear her name across the seas, France …
