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

The Pinnacle

Left Sarlat and headed for Carcassone today. But first, we stopped along the way to have our picnic lunch on a barge while meandering on the Canal du Midi.

All Aboard

The couple who ran the barge were great characters – he was German, she was from the Netherlands. He was a lot like Captain Ron and accepted many glasses of wine from Ted.

We ate mega-sandwich that we made yesterday and generally had a great time meandering down the canal. Beautiful trip...

Our Hot Bus Driver - Olivier. All the ladies want to take him home, oh yes.

Opening the canal lock

 

France is beautiful.

Ted, our Cruise Director, keeping the wine flowing as usual.

Boneless Rabbit got a little sea sick on the barge cruise and had to be carried off by Ted.

Back on bus and we headed into Medieval Carcassone – a really cool 13th century walled fortress which is unfortunately wall-to-wall tourists and the tacky tourist traps to match. This is where they filmed Robin Hood Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner. I looked but didn't find him. Drat.

The group took a walk, more like ran the gauntlet, of the inner old city. Personnaly, I felt the need to make lots of Monty Python references and Boneless Rabbit played the part of the Killer Bunny of Caerbannog. She should get an oscar. If only we'd had some fake blood.

Bring out your dead!

Cool Basilica St. Nazaire - I love gargoyles. Wonder if we can get some on our house...

We split up and scouted out a restaurant for dinner. I had done some prep-work to find some good eats and made my case for Auberge des Lices, a little place hidden down a quiet lane. It was away from the tourist traps and had that awesome Basilica as a backdrop to the peaceful courtyard.

That evening Marolyn, Bob, Betsy, Ted, and I had a fantastic classical Languedoc (this region) French meal. Entrees included this fresh asparagus mousse which all the others had and I tasted. I shouldn’t have been so afraid of asparagus which I usually hate – because the flavor was nothing like I’ve ever tasted before. I had a salad that was ok but nothing like theirs.

For the main course we all ordered classic Cassoulet de Languedoc. It was thick and rich, with complex meaty flavors, lots of beans and delicious fat. I pushed aside the big hunks of pork fat but mopped up every other morsel with fresh rolls. Ah…

I added an extra cheese course of fresh goat cheese with honey. This is a treat not to be missed. Such a great combination of flavors. Have I told you how much I love fromage de chèvre? I have to figure out how to bring some home.

Finally for dessert we got different things – several of us had a strawberry construction – fresh framboise on top of a flaky crown of phyllo surrounded by a heavenly strawberry syrup concoction and accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I wanted to roll in it, absorb it, lick the plate. Ted and Bob had chocolate cappuccino with sponge cake and ice cream. All this was accompanied by some local Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

The whole meal – an over 3 hour affair – for all 5 of us including extra tip and taxes came to 150€. What a great deal.

We missed the evening tour with the group but were very happy with our meal so we just meandered out through the old city and back to the hotel and bed.

Bonne nuit.

Caroline