Teppanyaki and the Passé Simple

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’m currently reading Christine Arnothy’s J’ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir as my foreign language book of the month. One of the things I’ve learnt from reading this is the passé simple. This may sound odd but I wasn’t aware of this form until I started reading J’ai quinze ans. I certainly don’t remember learning it at school and this is the first time I’ve come across it in a French-language novel, though having said that, I’ve only read four French-language books in recent memory.

I won’t go into too much detail about the passé simple as my knowledge of French grammar is quite patchy. All I know is that it’s the literary equivalent of the passé composé and it can be identified quite easily (nous and vous forms end in âmes/îmes and âtes/îtes respectively). A quick introduction to this verb form can be found here and here.

My partner and I treated ourselves to an all-you-can-eat teppanyaki (鉄板焼き) buffet this evening, which included a lot of sushi and tempura, even though neither of these are cooked on the teppan (鉄板) itself. I wonder if this would be the correct way to say what we did this evening..

Ce soir, nous allâmes au restaurant japonais et nous mangeâmes des sushi et du tempura.

Well, folks, that’s all for the time being. I’m still feeling very full so I’m going to do what the Dutch do when they’ve eaten way too much : uitbuiken*.

* uitbuiken - the best way to describe this is “unbuttoning or loosening your trousers or jeans to make yourself more comfortable after a heavy meal”. Or more simply, “to let your belly hang out” (buik is the Dutch word for “stomach” or “belly”).