Mouna Easter loaf
RECIPE DEBORA ROBERTSON PHOTOGR APH TOM SHINGLER FOOD STYLING EMILY GUSSIN
This Easter, émigré Debora Robertson will be negotiating the trick y etiquette of French gatherings. She’ll never adjust to the habit of waiting until everyone’s there before the bottle is opened – and she’ll always insist on bringing a gift, such as her homemade Easter loaf
Ik now the rest of the world thinks the British are, shall we say, exuberant drinkers but I never really thought of myself that way. I can nurse a drink for hours – or at least, that ’s what I tell myself to ease the thirst.
The first few times I went to local French friends’ homes for dinner, I thought there had been a terrible oversig ht, some sort of error, that we were all pretending not to notice. If you come to my house, I have a rule that guests must have their coats off, been introduced to a nyone they don’t k now and have a drink in their hands within five minutes. Except I kept noticing that while the first two of these things happened in French houses, the third seemed to take a bit longer.
VIVE LA DIFFERENCE!