Enjoying Parisian Brunches at Cafe de la Presse in San Francisco (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Enjoying Parisian Brunches at Cafe de la Presse in San Francisco (California) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

When Florence was young, my husband Laurent and I would take her to the Café de la Presse in San Francisco.

I would tell her that San Francisco is very Parisian for its literary scene like author talks at the City Lights Bookstore, museums, symphony, plays and musicals, and restaurants like Café de la Presse.

The Café de la Presse is jokingly called the “cantine” by French consulate employees.  (“Canteen”, meaning “lunchroom” in English).  The restaurant is famous for great daily specials that cost about $30 for a 3-course meal to fit the consulate employees’ per diem for food expenses.  On the weekend, the prices go up.

There is a huge parking garage by Café de la Presse, because it is located across the street from the main entrance to China Town.

You have to make reservations to eat in the lower level restaurant.  The upper level has a coffee bar, pastries, and magazines from the UK, US, France, and Italy.  You always arrive early to get some press to read.

We picked out our orders quickly and then looked like the Parisians that the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva describes in her poems as only having eyebrows and foreheads visible behind their newspapers.

I would always buy Corriere della Sera newspaper from Milan, Italy to read.  The Italians know all the dirt and publish it first.  I have been able to read Italian at a high level for a long time.  

I smirked as I read this newspaper, because I knew the copies had been ordered for the Consul General.  I guess he would have to go to San Francisco’s North Beach Italian neighborhood for newspapers and pre-press gossip.

My family follows the Mediterranean Diet; it is easy to do in California.  I used the plan set out by the Oldways Preservation Trust and checked it out with a doctor before we started following it.  We came to Café de la Presse to get a once-a-month meal of fine steak.

The Med Diet Oldways describes is traditional only for the last 500 years, because American foods such as tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and green beans have only been present in the Mediterranean diet since Columbus and subsequent explorers of the New World brought them back to Europe.

Every trip to Café de la Presse would come with a mini-nutrition lecture from mom, “Your main meal of the day should have a protein-carbohydrate-vegetable mix with the vegetable and carbohydrate forming an additional protein, if possible.  Calcium comes in the form of milk, cheese, and/or yogurt,” I said.

“What does protein do?” Florence would ask.

“It’s important for your hair.  If you want thick hair, you need to eat it,” I said.

“Why is calcium important?” Florence asked.

“Calcium builds strong bones,” I said.

I added, “Orange vegetables like carrots and butternut squash have vitamin A, which is important for vision.  Your generation really needs that for all the work you do on computers.  Spinach has iron for blood and muscles.  Cabbage and mushrooms both help with constipation.”

Laurent asked, “What are protein combinations?” with Gallic concern.

“Vegetarians combine the amino acids in plant items to get what you would in meat.  We eat these all the time – stuff like turmeric rice with peas, beans and rice, bean and vegetable soups with quinoa flour mixed in.  Sometimes I add chickpea flour, which has a lot of iron in it to soups and powdered milk for calcium as well,” I said.

“I know you make up menus for the week, but do you really have a plan for doing this?” Laurent asked.

“I do.  

Monday through Thursday, we eat things like omelets, pasta with Alfredo sauce, soup, and potato dishes and casseroles.

On Fridays, we eat fish and oven-baked potatoes.

On Saturdays, we eat chicken or pork.

On Sunday, we eat shrimp or scallops three times a month.  Once a month we eat red meat.

We’re not starving on this diet.  We’ve been eating this way for twenty years.  (Make that 30 years as of 2017),” I said.

After lunch, we would usually take a walk in China Town and buy Chinese music, postcards, and chopstick holders.

Walking is important to the Med Diet, too, I like to think.  

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Visiting the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

About every two or three months while Florence was growing up, my husband Laurent and I would go to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco to show Florence the artwork from Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia that was linked with the literature and oral storytelling she was learning in her charter Waldorf School.

Florence was studying mythology and philosophy from such works as the Shahmaneh from Iran, Zarathustra’s Zend-Avesta from Iran, the Bhagavad Gita from India, Buddhist Jataka Tales from India, and Panchantranta Tales from Kashmir at school.  The children heard these stories told in oral form and acted them out with classmates.  In this way, they learned to inhere motives, behaviors, and their lines easily.

Florence also studied Japanese and Spanish language and culture at school.  I thought her Japanese teacher was doing a wonderful job and just supplemented the work she did at school with some activities at home.  I knew her teacher had taught the children about the Japanese tea ceremony and had brought in the utensils for the children to handle.

The Asian Art Museum has a real teahouse on display, and Florence always peeked through both sides that are open as if it were a dollhouse.  (I will write another blog on how I taught Florence about Japanese culture.)

The permanent collection of the Asian Art Museum is designed so that you start at the top floor with Hindu art from India.  Then, you work your way down the floors to Buddhism, which is an offshoot of Hinduism.  Buddha was a prince from the Ksatriya caste before he became Buddha.

Guan Yin, the Chinese earth goddess made into a Buddhist bhoddisatva, leads one into the art of China and East Asia.  She is sometimes portrayed as a man.  The Mahayana Buddhist Art (called “greater vehicle”) of China, Japan, and Korea is displayed first followed by the Theravada Buddhist art of Southeast Asia.  (Theravada is the preferred name of Hinayana Buddhism, which means “lesser vehicle.”)

There is not as much Vajrayana Buddhist art of Tibet here, but they do have some scary-faced protective deities to growl back at with kids.

I would always make sure that Florence, Laurent, and I would look at a statue of an Earth Touching Buddha, an iconographical statue mostly associated with Thailand.  The Buddha in this pose is captured at the moment where he acknowledges his enlightenment.

Mara, the demon of illusion, tried to keep Buddha from achieving enlightenment, but Buddha meditated and overcame Mara. 

I would show Florence various parts of the Buddha in the Earth Touching pose and say, “The bun of hair on top of his head, his elongated ears from wearing heavy jewelry, and his lovely, yet simple clothing all show that he was from the Ksatriya caste of kings and soldiers.  His hand touching the ground is a mudra, or hand position, showing that Buddha has defeated Mara, representing the illusory world.”

We all loved admiring the jade-green porcelain ware from Korea.

In the Southeast Asian section, Florence was most interested in the Javanese puppets from the wayang kulit, Javanese puppet theatre.  Traders in Java knew a top-dollar novelty when they saw one and took this art form around the world.  I had studied puppets when I was studying early children’s education and French children’s culture in Wisconsin.

I learned from my readings and interviews that there were puppet shows performed for the aristocracy and the common people.  Aristocratic stories revolved around teaching royal etiquette, royal prerogative, and fashion.  Royals could communicate with the populace through puppet shows.

Blurted comments in response to the puppet show might alert a sovereign to a fomenting revolution.  Family members who paid for these performances might be wishing to show their new ranking in a family, for instance, or their admission into the ranks of the local elite (i.e. aristocratic and royal overseers).

Basically, puppets were a kind of interactive television of their time.  Children set up a fourth wall between them and performers very easily, especially when you hold conversations between puppets and change voices.  I have tested this with dolls, teddy bears, paper bag puppets, and Barbie dolls; children just watch the dialog and forget that the puppeteer is there.

While Florence was looking at the Javanese puppets, I told her, “Their big eyes make it easy to see them in the back of an audience.  Their eyes also seem to glow, because the Javanese puppet performances went on all night long.

Make-up for the theatre is also done, so people in the back rows can see you.  People with small features, especially need to know how to use make-up for the theatre.

“In some cultures like Japan, the bunraku puppet theatre plays were turned into kabuki theatre for adults,” I told Florence.  “So, remember, puppets really are not child’s play alone.”

One of the most interesting exhibits we went to at the Asian Art Museum was devoted to the royal art of Afghanistan.  The art on display was called Ghandaran, because it uses Graeco-Roman style to portray Buddhist figures and concepts.  Florence laughed about the Buddhas and figures with moustaches and bulging muscles.

Outside the exhibit, there was an example of an archaeological dig set up for children.  Strings divided a sandbox where “artifacts” were buried in the sand.  Florence spent about 45 minutes digging up urns, bowls, necklaces, and swords.

“Now you have to be a real archaeologists and write a story about the kinds of people who made these things,” I said to Florence.

We always leave this museum happy and enlightened.

I recommend the teacher resources website for activities and information:

Education.asianart.org

(120 Lessons and Activities, 302 Artworks, 514 videos, and 190 Background Information Sheets)

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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