All About the Food

I’m a Foodie.

I’m not a gourmet with refined tastes or a professional in the food industry who wants to eat only the best food. Foodies are amateurs. We simply love everything about food. We like to eat it (and drink with it :) But we also love to study it, talk about it, prepare it, and hear about it – both the best and the ordinary – oh and about the science, industry, personalities, everything, absolutely everything surrounding food.

For this reason, foodies are sometimes viewed as obsessively interested in all things culinary. Oh yes, I’m a foodie in France! A country that’s obsessed with food. So when I was preparing for our trip I researched for hours about restaurants, on food blogs, message boards, etc. For this dinner, I picked the best I could find (and afford) in Arles – the heart of Provence. And so we came to Le Cilantro…

Three of our new friends – also Foodie’s themselves – accompanied Ted and I on this gastronomic event – Bob, Marolyn, and Betsy. We were able to get reservations with the help of our kind French-speaking hotel clerk and arrived for the early seating. Are you ready? Here comes the food…

They started us off with an amuse-bouche which literally translates to "mouth amuser". These are different from appetizers in that you don’t order them from a menu. When served, they are done so according to the chef's selection alone. My foodie sense kicked in to high alert. They brought us a platter of Tapenade – a quintessential Provençal dish consisting of puréed olives, capers, anchovies, and olive oil. This was accompanied by home-made veggie and potato chips and toasted slices of French bread.

We all ordered from the Prix Fixe menu so that we each received a complete meal of several courses, each with several options, offered at a fixed price. It was a much better deal than ordering à la carte. I went for the full deal to include the cheese course (huh, hello? Foodie, remember?). Ok so first up was the entrée (appetizer to us heathens). Several of my friends enjoyed Gambas à la pancha & asperges au gingembre confit (shrimp and asparagus in a pickled ginger flavored sauce)

And Betsy got this vegetable delight - Petits farcis de ma Provence, jus tomates rôties (stuffed veggies of Provence with roasted tomato juice). She was delighted with a surprise inside every bite.

And for me...I lapped up every morsel of Morilles de printemps au foie chaud, parfum réglisse (spring morels with pan seared liquorice flavoured foie gras). Oh yes I did.

For the main course several got the Aiguillette de quasi de veau, gratin de macaronis & blettes (roasted veal, macaroni gratin and swiss chard). It was the best looking, and tasting, macaroni and cheese with succulent slices of veal anyone has ever tried.

And of course, I got the lamb (JP, you are not surprised I’m sure…) In short, this is Selle d'agneau tomato crispy, quelques légumes braisés, jus aux olives coquillos (tomato with crispy saddle of lamb, braised veggies, and coquillos olives juice). It was perfect.

I think they brought my cheese course next (although it could have been after the desserts, I can’t really remember) which included several types of fromage de chèvre – my new absolute favorite kind of cheese – with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of cracked black pepper. I’ve never had it that way before but it was fantastic as the olive oil was fresh and flowery, complimenting the cheese perfectly.

And finally, we come to dessert. That course in a full meal at which the French excel. Some of my table-mates got this lovely concoction of Sablé breton "pépit-choc" une crème vanille & framboise, sorbet yaourt (Britain biscuit "pépit-choc" raspberry & vanilla creme, yogurt sorbet).

And I was so happy to try this delight... Fraises & framboises sur un biscuit Basque, émulsion fruit de la passion à l'huile d'olive (red berries on Basque biscuit with olive oil flavoured passion fruit emulsion). What a combination! Who would think to put olive oil with berries? It totally worked.

Then to top off the evening, the chef sent out trays with a little finale for each of us – a serving of delicate chocolate mousse, a piece of hazelnut fudge, and a little puff of something strawberry. At this point, the Foodie in me was crying uncontrollably from sheer joy.

It was a perfect meal with wonderful new friends … and … Ted’s WOW moment of the tour … our table sat under this picture – The Matador avec Package!

On the way out we got a peak into the kitchen – and the chef signed a menu for me – too cool.

How am I going to top this birthday ever?

One happy Foodie,
Caroline

Joyeux Anniversaire

After the excitement of the Trébuchet, we headed down out of the medieval castle ruins into the second part of our visit to Les Baux de Provence – shopping and eating – two of my favorite things. The cobblestoned streets and alleyways echo hundreds of years of history as they lead from shop to restaurant to more shops. We found the classic touristy boutique like this one where we got matching “I heart Provence” t-shirts and post-cards describing how to take a castle with a battering ram (always fun to send to the family back home).


And enticing shops filled with goodies like this one. Cookies, Candy, Chocolate – the Three C’s. I did not, and I repeat, DID NOT cross the threshold of this place. Stop the madness.


But then we came upon the pottery, linens, olive oil, scarves, and French condiments. Oh, no. You can never have too many condiments. My head was whipping around like a cobra.

I indulged greatly and was trying to figure out how to get more bubble wrap to get my treasures home when it was finally time to eat. So we dashed to La Reine Jeanne restaurant in the heart of the village for a group lunch. With the warm weather, we made the most of the beautiful terrace shaded by large mulberry trees.


Here we had one of my favorite meals of the trip – the classic Salade Niçoise – which I will spend my life trying to replicate just like this one. It had fresh greens with light vinaigrette, tuna, tomatoes, boiled eggs, potatoes, olives, sardines…and a wedge of vegetable tart of some kind that was so very delicious. I’m thinking tomato or something like that (mostly because it was red) but not sure. I tried to get the waitress to explain what it was or get the recipe but my French was as bad as her English. Oh well. I’ll figure it out somehow.

Our table-mates, Marolyn and Bob

And Kathleen and Betsy…

And the rest of the gang…

As if the salad wasn’t good enough, they surprised me with an ambrosial dessert that I think was a Napoleon-type construction of ricotta cheese swimming in a heavenly berry sauce. It was accompanied by flaming sparklers. Cool way to celebrate your birthday, huh? Provence, good friends, great food, and sparklers. They even gave me a La Reine Jeanne polo shirt of my very own (hope that doesn’t mean I have to do dishes!)

Ok everyone, back on the bus. Next up – touring around Arles.

Once back in Arles, we met up with a lively character (don’t remember her name, sorry) who gave us a heart-felt tour of her home town.

We started with a view of the quay on the east side of the Rhone, looking into the bend of the river towards the western shore. Coming from the North, the Rhone turns to the right at this point to surround the rocks on which Arles is built. This town has a deep connection with the Dutch post-Impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, who moved here in 1888. It was here, in the south of France, that van Gogh came to love the strong sunlight and vibrant colors that would influence his art. Here in Arles his work grew into the unique and highly recognizable style that heavily influence 20th century art.

One of my favorite van Gogh paintings was made right here where we were standing. He painted this bend in the river at night – the sky and effects of the gas lights on the river – into the magnificent Starry Night Over the Rhone.

Our tour continued into the center of town – only a few minutes’ walk from the quay to the Place du Forum.


Here was the yellow house that van Gogh rented. It’s now a café named for the famous artist which our guide was not too keen on. Take your picture, eat elsewhere was the recommendation…But still, it was pretty cool to stand there and think about van Gogh’s Café Terrace at Night.

 

I love the architecture, windows, doors, flower boxes of Europe and especially Provence. It’s so beautiful.

My mom had a little dream she would tell me and my sisters about. I can’t exactly remember when she started cutting advertisements out of the travel section of the Post, but it was probably just after my dad passed away.

She would show us these little clippings of villas, apartments, homes that you could rent in Provence. “Let’s rent a house in Provence and stay for a month” she would say. “I’ll paint and we can sit in cafés and drink chilled wine.” It sounded wonderful. We never got to do that with her, which I regret. So throughout this day as I’ve wandered along the paths she so wanted to take I’ve thought of her often, raised a glass of rosé, and thanked my mom for bringing me into the world oh so many years ago today.

Joyeux anniversaire à moi,
Caroline

Rocks, Ruins, et Trébuchet

Today we awoke in Arles, our home base for exploring the Provence region. I began the day feeling a little older. Sigh... But then I gazed out the window of our hotel and beheld a Roman Arena. Gladiators fought wild animals right down there over 2,000 years ago and here it still stands. That's old...I'm not old, I'm just getting started...:)

We headed off pretty early for the town of Les Baux which sits on a peak of the Alpilles Mountains. I love hilltop towns - we saw some cool ones in Italy and this one was pretty spectacular too.

It's really two visits in one...you have a medieval town with narrow streets to meander through. These are packed with shops, cafés, and tourist traps. I focused on the shopping part of "shops" a little later. Then floating on the mountain peak is the castle ruins made sun-bleached walls - a city carved out of rock. The group headed there straight away.

First up - grap an audio guide and get oriented...I did this with my new friend Betsy and my old friend Boneless Rabbit.

I think Jane just wanted to go right to drinking wine

 and shooting something with a Trebuchet...:)

It has spectacular views from what's left of the castle walls. Long, long, ago (in the time of yore) fierce warriors ruled the land all around from this fortress.

These warriors were not very nice guys - making prisoners jump from the walls when their family wouldn't pay the ransom (which often happened to some nephews...not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Nearly 600 years ago, Les Baux was "annexed" by France which I don't think the fierce warriors were too thrilled about. They picked a fight with the King and he responded by pretty much annihilating the fortress. They rebuilt and came back some with the help of the Protestants. But a couple of hundred years later the Catholics said "ain't having none of that", brought down the final blow, and smashed the castle to bits. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, King Louis with a bunch of Roman letters got real uppity and billed the town for his demolition expenses. Gotta love royalty, huh? They play by different rules.

Boneless Rabbit sunning on the ruins...

Ted - before the trouble started

Ted - after the trouble ended...

Finally getting down to business, we got to shoot the Trebuchet. The guys who did the demonstration were total hams, cracked me up. My buddy Kathleen was one of the group of brave women who volunteered to pull the trigger. Get out of the WAY!

Kathleen - far right position - looks ready to RocknRoll!

Let her rip ladies!

Ok, enough funny business and old rocks.

I'm thirsty and hungry.

Next up, Salade Niçoise!

Later,

Caroline