[Chocolate Pillow from Lyon]

Like many French kids, I practically learned how to read with bande dessinées, the Belgian/French take on comic books, and a large chunk of my general culture comes directly from them. Although I had too many favorites to name just one, the classic Astérix was certainly among them. It is one of those incredibly multi-layered bande dessinées that you can read at any age, filled as they are with puns, references and witty anachronisms. Some of them may escape you as a child, but they’ll suddenly click when you’re older and all of a sudden you understand why secret agent Acidechloridrix goes by the code name of HCl.

In a 1965 album called Le Tour de Gaule (“Asterix and the Banquet” in the English version), Astérix and Obélix take a trip around Gaul to show Julius Caesar that they are quite free to go as they please despite the palisade that the Romans have just built around their village. And to prove how far they’ve managed to travel, they bring back a food specialty from each of the cities they visit, and share the bounty with the Romans at the end of the story, adding their own local treat: the chestnut — châtaigne is also French slang for a punch in the face.

This was one of my favorite Astérix adventures, and I am determined to retrace his steps one day — tour operators of the world, there’s an idea for you. But once in Lugdunum (i.e. the city of Lyon) I wouldn’t stop at just sausages and quenelles like he did: I would also purchase a sizeable amount of Coussins Lyonnais, as pictured above.

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I cultivate a relationship of deep trust and mutual appreciation with the Fruit Crumble Family. We send each other holiday cards and such, we remember our respective birthdays, and I often turn to them when I’m looking for a simple dessert that won’t keep me busy for half the day, one that will be comforting and reliably tasty. And if it can suffuse the kitchen and living-room with warm golden smells, so much the better.

It’s not the kind of dessert that makes your friends go, “Wow!”; it is the kind of dessert that makes your friend go, “Mmmm!“, and that’s really all that matters to me.

My mother makes a killer apple crumble, she really does. Often dolled up with blackberries, hand-picked and frozen in the early fall, it is always served with home-made crème anglaise in an ageless glass jug, which we unabashedly lick to the last drop once all traces of the crumble have disappeared.

I like to play around with my mother’s recipe, substituting and twisting until the crumble’s head turns.

Her recipe — one of the first I copied in my recipe book years ago — is incredibly simple, calling for equal weights of butter, sugar, flour and breadcrumbs, plus a dash of milk. But try as I might to follow it with exactitude and punctilious precision (and no, I won’t allow you to doubt this assertion), it never comes out quite the same.

So instead of trying to replicate my mother’s crumbles, I just keep my fingers crossed when I go to my parents’ for dinner, hoping that’s what she’ll make. (Then again if it’s a charlotte or a tart or a crème renversée I certainly don’t complain.)

And in my own kitchen, I like to play around with her recipe, substituting and twisting until the crumble’s head turns. In this version I used salted butter and unrefined sugar (as in all my baking), oatmeal in place of breadcrumbs for a crunchier topping, almond powder instead of flour for a subtle nutty taste, and a couple of ripe mangoes, teasing the apples with their smooth flamboyant flesh and suave exoticism.

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As the year draws to a close (remember that they’re adding an extra second for free! What are you going to do with it?), here are a few of my favorite food things from 2005.

Favorite recipe for a first course: Warm Leek Salad with Fresh Walnuts. Contender: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Mille-Feuille.

Favorite recipe for a main course: Asparagus and Strawberry Tart.

Favorite recipe for dessert: Blueberry Yogurt Cake. Contender: Peach and Apricot Compote with Poppyseed Cream.

Favorite Paris meal: a sparkling lunch at Les Ambassadeurs in the Crillon palace, where Jean-François Piège officiates. (Weekday lunch menu at 70€.) Contender: Gaya, Pierre Gagnaire’s new seafood restaurant (44 rue du Bac in the 7th).

Favorite meal elsewhere in France: Chez Gianni in the Luberon. Contender: Manechenea in the Pays Basque.

Favorite meal abroad: Blue hill in NYC. Contender: a tapas bar in San Sebastián.

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[Scallop Mango Tartlet]

What do you mean, you’re still trying to recover from the Christmas celebrations? Come on, New Year’s Eve is just around the corner, time to hit the ground running and plan for it!

If you intend to host a little dinner party but are still scratching your head about the menu, stop it: it’s bad for your scalp, and my latest piece on NPR’s website has a first course suggestion for you, offering a recipe for these delicate and delectable scallop tartlets.