Today marks the Epiphany, the 12th night, which commemorates when the infant Jesus was visited by Zoroastrian astronomers.

In France, it is celebrated by eating La Galette des rois, or frangipane.  It is a diddly-licious almondy cake.

The ritual goes as follows: one person, usually the youngest at the table (though last year it was me, the oldest) assigns each piece to each person.
Here’s the kicker: hidden in the cake is one small ceramic angel figurine!  Whoever gets it in his or her piece is named King or Queen.  The responsibilities of office are marginal, and pretty much the only priviledge is wearing the coveted Burger-King-like crown, which you can do for the rest of the party.  After a few bowles of cidre, you might feel tempted to wear it on the way home on the metro, but you listen to your girlfriend’s better judgement instead.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Cookin' and a-foodin', France, Learn something every day, Those Damn Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.