Hi,
My husband and I went to see the movie the other day (he loves to cook too) and we really enjoyed it - especially the lobster scene.
It was interesting to see someone else's comments about the Beef Bourguignon because that was the only one I've cooked, and I have to agree it took ages. When I've made it before it always turned out too salty, so it was great to read her tip about boiling??? the bacon first to remove the salt.
I was really lucky because a couple of years ago I managed to buy two of Julia Child's "Mastering the art of French Cooking" - one with the red/white cover shown in the film and another which I think was blue/white.
The good thing about that was I bought them from the Library in The Villages (on the other side of the main road from Crispers) for $1 each!!!! What a bargain!
According to Google Lardons are a French term for small matchstick-cut pieces of bacon or larding fat cut from the belly of pork but I've just cut pieces of thick bacon and used them as I don't have belly pork.
Unfortunately we haven't found thick slices of bacon in the States - it's usually all thin slices that crisp up far too quickly. Having said that we may now get some in the UK food shop that is opening up at Market of Marion sometime in November (and she has an online website). I've checked out some of her prices and they are much cheaper than Publix and she also has a far greater selection of goods than Publix has.
I believe the lady who is opening this shop posted a thread on Talk of the Villages a while back but if it's of any help in her newsletter she gave her website address as:
www.theukshoppe.com. The website is opening officially on the 27th October and she's offering free deliveries to zipcodes 32159 and 32162. You can email her on
info@theukshoppe.com.