Dave Hatfield

Some of them are very good indeed, but several years' experience as a judge for the World Cheese Awards has revealed that this number is padded out with a large number of processed cheeses with a multitude of artificial and incompatible flavors. The simple arithmetic can be as misleading as, say, the number of TV channels you can pick up with a satelite dish. ← John I agree. I don't know how the number of "edible" cheeses might compare. Roughly equal. perhaps. Very subjective in any case. English cheese makers seem to have a penchant for sticking all kinds of IMHO inappropriate ingredients into perfectly good cheeses. Can't figure out why. Too bad Patrick Rance is no longer around. My point really was that the journalism in the article was pretty sloppy.

The photo is creepy! I would hate to lose the cheeses produced in the traditional way. IMHO any side by side taste comparison of 'industrial' cheese and its raw milk small producer counterpart ends with the small guy winning. I'd like to see the independent producers get together for marketing campaigns. The young public, I think, needs to be made aware of the differences. I don't think it would be too hard to make raw milk cheese the cool in thing. We do have a local ray of hope. What started as a commune making goats cheese has now expanded to a sizable operation still making goats cheese most unpasteurized and mostly by traditional methods. They're called Le Pic. By the way another bit of sloppy research in the article. The Uk now has more varieties of cheese than France, some 600+ at last count.

Looks like a great first attempt. What a treat to be able to find the right cheese. When I made aligot (a bastardized version of course - not having the right cheese), I found that after I added the cheese (I used a very young white cheddar cheese curd) that it didn't start to get stringy until I heated it a little more. And heaven forbid I beat it with a bamboo spoon instead of a wooden spoon. ← Still NOT the right cheese. Plus stirring the Aligot is man's work & I'm not being chauvinistic; its the tradition because of the hard work.

I would think that around Villefranche sur Mer your best bet would be the wine merchants. You could go up in the hills or along the coast to Bandol as well, but I'm not sure what you'd find as I haven't been to these areas for some time.[ If you were going to Villefranche de Rourgue I could help as its only 20 minutes from where we live. Good luck! quote=thecuriousone,Oct 11 2008, 09:55 PM] Dave- Thanks so much for the detailed response. Yes, Iwould like any suggestions for specific locations from where ever you are. I plan to visit Villefranche-sur-Mer and would be thrilled if you had some references there. But this will not be the last trip to France and I will keep your suggestions for my return. there are two reasons I'm looking to go as high up the quality ladder as I can from a box. one is post 911 carrying bottles back is just a fond memory and two, boxes can be packed with little concern that they will break leaking shards of glass and wine in my luggage. Do you find may AOC wines in boxes? Thanks for all of your info, I appreciate it. ←

While I can't give you specific places to go unless you want to visit our local region I can offer a few tips on buying boxed wine. - In most cases at the winery the wine in the box is the same as the wine in the bottle so long as the label is the same. For example, I buy an AOC Minervois in the box which is identical to the bottled version or at the same winery I can buy a Vin du Pays Minervois for a lower price in both box & bottle. - Taste it. Most wineries will offer tasting of their various wines. Taste the one that's in the box & bottle & you'll know what the boxed wine is like. - Don't be tempted to bring your own container UNLESS you are buying for immediate consumption. Even if you decant from the 'bidon' and re-cork the wine tends to go off quite quickly. - Boxes on the other hand seem to keep for at least a month (maybe more, but none has ever lasted longer than that in our house). - I would avoid buying in Supermarkets if possible. There's no way to taste & in many cases the Supermarket is buying more on price than quality. - Wine merchants on the other hand are a good place to buy boxes. They can usually offer you a taste of what's in the box. Also, obviously, they'll have a wider selection than any individual winery. Overall I now buy more wine in boxes than I do in bottles. Most of my favorite local wineries sell by the box and the price per liter works out to be quite a bit less. An example is a Chardonnay which sells for 3.60 Euro per bottle is 11 Euros for a 5 liter box. And its not a bad wine either.

Diluted some with about 1/3rd mayonnaise last night & used it as a dip for crudities. Not bad at all! Other Ideas?

Saw just about the first cepes of the season at market this morning. They were beauties priced at 18 Euro/ kilo. Its been very dry in our part of the country so we haven't seen many cepes so far. I'm wondering what you've been seeing in your markets?

Ah, I can see it now. You and your sweetie are at a romantic restaurant, soft lighting, subtle music, then your first course arrives. Its beautiful. Amazingly so. You whisper; "Darling, shall we?" "Oh! Yes she/he says. Let s do it!" You whip out your iphones. She/he leans over the table a phone in each hand. Does the Flashlight application. You, meanwhile, take you camera out and carefully focus upon the food. Snap. Snap. Snap! Excitedly you lean together to view the results on the camera's LCD. They're perfect. You gaze into each other's eyes and smile. Meanwhile the rest of the restaurant patrons breakout into applause/ laughter/ boos/ cheers. Take your choice. What a great performance! What a wonderful experience! Oh & by the way your food is now cold. Yes, a true breakthrough!

If its wrong then I'm a terrible sinner and should be drummed out of the foodie corps. I love pork pies especially those from a really good Yorkshire butcher. Hot out of the oven with the juices running down & I'm in heaven. I'm seriously contemplating trying to make my own since you can't get an English style pork pie in France that I know of. There are pork pies here and they're good, but just not the same.

Couple of comments. First remember the 'Big Mac' index currently shows that that the Euro is about 20-25% overvalued against the dollar. Do the conversion & the price of that McDonald's meal get closer to reality. Secondly, in our area of France I can go to any of 8-10 restaurants and get a 3 course lunch for between 10 & 12 Euros including 25cl of wine. Coffee may or may not be included. Haute cusine it is not, but you will get a good satisfying meal with a starter, a main course and dessert. Some places even throw in a small cheese course. These prices are not unique to our area they exist all over France except in the big cities. Anybody who is planning to trip to the SW of France can send me a PM & I'll e-mail you my local restaurant list. Finally, & I've posted on this before, but we went to our favorite Michelin one star restaurant for lunch last Thursday. 27 Euros for the three course lunch. (It turns out to be 7 courses in all because they throw in the amuses & pre & posr dessarts.)

Cooked the capon last night. Things got a bit hectic what with house guests, golf & general mayhem so I didn't take any pictures. I followed the roasting suggestions given in the posts above. Slower roast for about 2 hours. Butter, lots of basting & turning. Worked well the white meat was still tender & moist & the dark meat delicious. I had stuffed the capon with a mixture of minced garlic and chopped lightly sauteed ceps. When the bird came out of the oven to rest I pulled all of the stuffing out of the cavity and put it in the roasting pan (having drained off almost all of the accumulated fat) with a good quantity of regular mushrooms which I'd sliced up. Fried these for just a minute then added full cream and a bit of chopped fresh tarragon. Let this reduce a bit while I carved the capon. I'll certainly do this again as the bird was very good. It served 8 people generously. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Here's a link to a quiz that's sort of fun even though some of the questions are a bit silly. Have a go, you've nothing to lose. Edit: Sorry multiple post by mistake & don't know how to delete.

A quick Thank you to both of you. You've given me some good ideas beyond simple roasting. O knew I could count on you! I'm going to ponder a bit & cook this guy next week probably next Wednesday. I'll try to actually take pictures as well as report on how & what I end up with. Thanks again. PS: Still open to furthersuggestions.

So, I a moment of foolishness I bought a frozen capon today. He weighs about 3.5 kilos. We have cooking friends coming next week & I though it would be something different to try. Only later did I realize that I've never cooked a capon in my life. Plenty of other birds & I'm sure I can just roast it successfully. But In honor of our friends first visit to the French countryside I'd like to do something local with the capon. Any suggestions? Yes, I have Googled it & there are plenty of recipes, but none seem French. Help!

In our area the blackberries are at their peak. This year is a good one so the crop is heavy & we have picked at lot. Initially we freeze them whole after cleaning; that is those that don't end up with ice cream or in a blackberry & apple pie. Later we'll make jam & jelly as well as blackberry puree. We're looking for other ideas on how to use/preserve them. What do you do?

You might try Green Beans Provincial. Steam beans, Gently fry up garlic, onions with S&P, plus herbs de Province in a bit of butter or EVOO. When onions soft & translucent add fresh tomatoes (peeled & de - seeded) simmer for 5 minutes then add the cooked green beans. Stir all well & let rest serve at room temperature or cold. Duh! Canned beans. Cooked right? Ignore steaming instruction. Brain only slowly in gear in the morning.

Dave Hatfield was so kind to send me information on how to save some of my precious dollars. He also has a list of restaurants in his part of the Lot (?) on his website. Actually his site has posts that are more insightful than just lists of places and are entertaining and fun to read. He also seems to come, originally, from my part of the world, SF bay area. ← Thanks for the kind words. We're actually just over the Southern border of the Lot in Tarn et Garonne. Sort of the panhandle bordered by the Aveyron & the Tarn as well as the Lot. Biased as I am I do strongly suggest coming that bit further South into Quercy and the Rouergue. Do not go through this area without dining at Le Vieux Pont in Belcastel; its our absolute favorite. See my blog below for more than one write up including one from just last week. GO! And, yes I am from the bay area. Grew up in Santa Rosa.

I heartily agree with your advice to head South, but why stop in the Dordogne? You will be better off to keep going just a bit South into Quercy. Truly the country of truffles & foie gras. Visit Lalbenque for the truffle market or better yet go to Limogne on Friday morning (after October when the season 'officially' starts.) There you can watch the small truffle collectors having their finds weighed, then hear the day's price set. After which you can approach a collector who has only a modest find & usually buy it at the wholesaler's price. Great fun and a bargain. You can also near both Limogne & Caussade go on a truffle hunt. There are couple of farms that offer this. Foie gras is available all over the place as are many other local specialties. Cahors had some good restaurants as well as super wines. Nothing wrong with the Dordogne mind you, but it is a bit overcrowded with Brits which has upset many locals. Try the Quercy its only another hour down the A20. If you decide to try PM me for more detailed advice.

John - Nice to see you back. I wouldn't argue with the suggested price levels for meals. They are somewhat arbitrary to be sure. Prior to the great Regional Reorganization which sort of buried the many useful Index's I had started an interactive map showing as many of the inexpensive restaurants as possible in both Paris & the hinterlands. The Link is here. If there's interest and a way to keep the link visible I can update it from when I gave up and try to keep it current. As of now there's quite a lot of Paris and most of our local haunts.

Try using duck or goose fat instead of lard when making refried beans. Delicious. For many other uses try to get a copy of Strang's cook book "Goose Fat & Garlic" Wonderful recipes from the South West of France along with quite a lot of interesting cultural history. For a real treat try the recipe for Alliade de Toulouse and serve it with duck breast (magret)

Was it the obtrusiveness of food photographers that prompted it? It seems not. Was it a general dismay over the fact that people in restaurants aren't always properly appreciating the food? As mentioned upthread, this is not new. Is it an anti-technology-enablement thing? I'm just asking... +++ ← Robyn who started the thread can I'm sure answer for herself. For me its the snapping of food pictures in restaurants that annoys me. Think I've made that very clear. Its intrusive, gauche and rude so far as I'm concerned. Other food photography is fine with me; click and post to your hearts content on your blog or on the Dinner thread or elsewhere when you can take the pictures in private.. I enjoy seeing those pictures. Clear enough?

Had lunch this week at our favorite Michelin starred restaurant. Excellent as always contrary to some views. Not a food photographer in sight - with one exception! This was the 65 year old son of the 90 year old lady who was celebrating her birthday. He did get up & take a picture of her with the special cake (one candle) that the restaurant had prepared. Contrary to not looking at your fellow diners in this case the whole restaurant applauded. Much to the pleased embarrassment of Madame I might add. By the way; talk about value. We had the three course set menu at 27 Euros. Delicious and worth every penny, but they also served us both of the amuses, a free cheese course, the pre-dessert dessert and the after dessert dessert. The dessert itself was the best 'fruit salad' I've ever tasted.

The easiest to find is; Baliene Gros in the Red box . This has the right grain size. You should find it in most Super Markets. The issue with it is that it does have iodine. 10-15mg/Kg. For cooking/ salting/brining purposes I've found that it works well; just as well as kosher salt in the states.

Still. though, its one of the most influential cookbooks of all time - at least in the United States. Given the time it was written I don't think the processes are over complicated. They are the techniques used by top French chefs then and to a large extent now. I still refer to it from time to time when I want to be reasonably authentic when cooking a French classic. Don't hate it, just ignore it. There are plenty of alternatives these days, but do remember that there weren't back then. ← I don't think any professional would make, for example, a hollandaise sauce in such an incredibly fussy way. It attempts to make supposedly difficult techniques simple, but always misses the important point, for example in this case describing the look and feel of the correctly cooked yolks. Such examples occur all over the book. ← Ok, I guess, but having just read the recipe again I don't see your problem. Remembering that the book was written for those who are very basic cooks I don't think its over the top. Far more detailed than would be necessary if writing for experienced home cooks, but nothing fundamentally wrong with either the basic technique or the "blender' version. Not complicated either just very detailed. Maybe I'm too easy & nostalgic on Julia. I remember doing her recipe for daub in our apartment in Madrid sometime in the early 60's. At that time there just were not many French cook books in English so her book was a revelation. I'd go to France, eat some of the classic dishes and come back home & try to cook them with my wife using "Mastering the Art.." We had a lots of fun and the dishes were successful. Or at least we thought so at the time.

Still. though, its one of the most influential cookbooks of all time - at least in the United States. Given the time it was written I don't think the processes are over complicated. They are the techniques used by top French chefs then and to a large extent now. I still refer to it from time to time when I want to be reasonably authentic when cooking a French classic. Don't hate it, just ignore it. There are plenty of alternatives these days, but do remember that there weren't back then.