Cultural Awkwardness: La Coque

Before coming to Paris, I stumbled onto a blog belonging to the patron of a quaint looking salon de thé in the 13th called L'Oisivethé. Shortly after our arrival, Tom and I decided to try it out for lunch. This place is adorable, but not the cheapest place to have lunch. We both decided to order the cheapest thing on the menu: la coque. I wasn't sure what this was, but I mistakenly thought it might be some sort of grilled cheese sandwich. Now I know that I was thinking of Croque Monsieur. Not the same thing.

We were each presented with 2 eggs and mouillettes (strips of bread).

Here is an outline of my thought process as we attempted to deal with this strange new meal.

Oooook. So le coque is not a sandwich. So it's hardboiled eggs.

Let's see how to eat this. That lady over there took the top part of the shell off.

Ooooh, not hard boiled! Runny! Soft boiled. I guess this is why we have these tiny spoons.

Doesn't taste bad. But not great either.

Are those old ladies staring at us?! Are we doing it wrong?!

At least my tea- thé noir aux quatre fruits- is delicious.

We returned to L'Oisivethé on Tuesday, but not for another round of la coque. There is a French/English conversation group organized by Tempo Time on Tuesdays. We spoke in French for 45 minutes, played Taboo in both languages, then had 45 minutes of English conversation. That will definately keep us coming back! It was a great way to practice French and meet Parisians.