Abra

Tons of good ideas here, but also, how about little sweet potato tartlets maybe in a nut crust or cranberry pecan turtle bars or molasses something, like shoo fly pie or molasses bread pudding minis?

Just reading about it I wish the roasted red peppers weren't in there. What sort of fruit? I'm thinking something like a Beaumes de Venise gelée might bring it together.

Margaret, we haven't yet been to Durfort, but Mamette is the furthest thing from commercial that I can imagine and the people, he from Marseilles, she Belgian, are as nice as one would hope for in hosts. However, it's the only thing happening in Euzet, so unless you want total peace and quiet you might want to stay elsewhere and just go there for a meal.

I like being on the map! Here's a link to some photos of our lunch at La Bastide de Mamette French Letters

Also, the curve on the top surface of the KO fits perfectly if you want to lean into the rock a little. And the handle feels better in my hand than any knife ever has, and yes, I do pinch it all the way down. I don't use the tip much, I'll give you that, but I think that's more a lack of knife skills on my part than anything specific to the knife itself.

I really never thought anything would inspire me to try haggis, but those towers of yours would be the thing. Haggis is probably one of those misunderstood foods, but it sounds revolting. However, all the rest of your tastes in food seem right up my alley, so I'd probably like haggis too. That synagogue does have stunning architecture. Is it Finnish-influenced, or typically Estonian?

If you happen to be near Euzet les Bains, try La Bastide de Mamette . It's a tiny restaurant with only 12 seats, and one must reserve for either lunch or dinner. Not knowing this, we arrived unannounced, and as we were the only ones asking for lunch, the owners made us feel as if we were eating in their home. Which, technically, we were since this is also a chambre d'hote. We had a delicious meal of a house made aperitif infused with figs and orange blossoms and some great olives, followed by a pâte feuilleté with warm pelardon, honey, thyme and fresh grapes, then duck breast cooked on lavender and served with a cream that included lavender and a violette liqueur plus really lovely beignets of courgettes with a little cinnamon and some excellent thyme-sautéed mushrooms, an assortment of cheeses including one sheep whose name I've forgotted, Banon, and Roquefort, then a dessert of a caramelized banana cream. This was accompanied by a full bottle of Feuille de Garance red and an espresso each. A screaming deal at 30 Euros a person, and a very cute little town.

No, it's in Villejuif, which I guess is more a suburb than an arondissement. We'll see on Monday.

Can someone explain - do the mites and maggots and worms actually do something for the flavor or texture, or is it more the shock value?

Haggis towers! Now that has to be a first for an eG blog. Haggis towers. I've never heard of sea buckthorn berries and can't imagine whether we have anything like that in the US. Do they grow by the sea? I'm really struck by the home-prepared mushrooms available for sale in the market. That's something you'd never see in the US, as home-prepared foods are considered to be potentially hazardous, and home-foraged mushrooms are too, and the combination offered for sale would have the Food Police all over that vendor in a nanosecond!

Jamie, that's awesomely kind of you to offer! We are in fact going to a suburb of Paris next week for a medical appointment. It's reputed to be the Chinese area of Paris, so we're hoping there will be some good groceries there. But I might just take you up on your offer if not.

The KO is made for rocking and that's just what I do...oops, sorry. It's a rocker's dream knife.

Personally I think salade de museau is pretty out there. Cow nose salad, why? I mean, it's nice not to waste things, but cow nose salad?

Dave, we're proud of you, buddy. Snap away. You go to a lot of cool events and it's very interesting to see them.

When you get a crock for your vinegar, be sure to get one with a spigot at the bottom so you can remove the vinegar without disturbing the mother. For the past 8 years I've had a mother that someone brought to the US from France about 40 years ago. Recently I moved to France and brought some of it with me, repatriating it, as it were. I'm curious to see if it will like French wine better than the international mix I've been feeding it all these years.

That's a gorgeous phyllo shot up top, Chefcrash. Phyllo is one of my least favorite things to work with, so I often make layers of 5-6 sheets which are inevitably stuck together anyway. So I think a compromise is possible, although I'm definitely going to try your way the next time I make baklava. Too funny that Sparrowsfall, who in real life is aka Mr. Do Everything As Simply As Possible, is the one to defend the hard technique this time around!

When I was in Tampere to see the Moomin museum, which was about 15 years ago (yikes!) I also went to hear an Estonian opera performance at the beautiful Tampere opera house. It was in Estonian, with Finnish supertitles, so of course I couldn't understand a word, but I was surprised at how the Finns seemed to understand much more than the supertitles translated. Now I understand why. Now that it's getting to be mushroom season, do mushrooms figure in Estonian cuisine? We were posting at the same time - wow, those yogurts look fantastic! I want all of those flavors, and apple yogurt with apple cake sounds like a dream breakfast to me. Now the cheese curd bars....that's really...unusual. I think I need to try one to find out if it's an acquired taste.

Forgive me if this question is a bit left-fieldish, but when you see the word gibier with no further information, what do you think it is? In this case, alas, I'm talking about cat food, which claims to be gibier but doesn'tsay more than that. What sort of game scraps might go into cat food?

Wow, Pille, so nice to see you blogging! You've already made me homesick, with your mannapuder which sounds just like what I think of as Christmas Porridge, because when I was briefly an au pair in Sweden it was what we left out for Santa, and your Moomin cups. When I went to Finland almost the first thing I did was visit the Moomintroll museum. We've just moved to France for a while, which you can read about at French Letters where there's no bread like your sour rye, so I'll certainly be following along with you making a loaf of my own. I'm really looking forward to your blog!

We've recently relocated from the Pacific Northwest, home of Asian foods everywhere you look, to a small town in France. We were dying for Thai food yesterday and set out hopefully. There is actually a Thai restaurant in town, but the menu was so discouraging I couldn't even go in. No noodle dish except an "appetizer" pad thai for 13 Euros, which is about $17 dollars, seemingly no salads, and no Thai names for any dish. Until I can get up to Paris in search of Asian ingredients I'll be hanging out on this thread drooling.

Oops, sorry, it's actually Elle et Vire beurre de Normande doux that we have now. We have some other Reflets de France stuff and I was confused. It's still not special-tasting, though, and it was pretty cheap, so I'll be looking for an upgrade.

That's really interesting about the aspic. I had no idea they'd require that. And I'd love to have the recipes, whether by PM or via RecipeGullet - thanks so much for the offer!

We have Reflets de France in the fridge right now, and it does taste pretty generic, although not at all bad. I really like cultured butter best. Are any of those listed above cultured?

Thanks for the pointer to the butter post, Dave. I hadn't yet discovered the English version of her blog. And I too would love to know if any of the butters at Carrefour, Intermarché, or Utile is really something excellent.

Lovely! Being in the land where rabbit is cheaper than pork, I'd love to make that pie. Plus, the ginger fig tart looks irresistable. Any chance you'd tell us a bit more about how to make those two treats?