Dave Hatfield

The recent thread on when too much is too much got me to thinking about exceptional meals. It was Julot who said that he thought exceptional meals should stay exceptional. I fully agree with him. It fits into my too much of a good thing theory. So, my question is what was YOUR most exceptional meal or your most memorable meal. The meal has to have taken place in France (otherwise we're in the wrong forum.) but can be anywhere you like; restaurant, private home, picnic, whatever so long as to you it was either exceptional or memorable or both. I'll get things started with a memorable meal where we had the most exceptional bouillabaisse I have ever encountered. This took place in the early 90's near Bandol. We were on vacation with 2 other couples. During the week we had a pot of money and used that to either buy meals or groceries (we were renting gites so could cook.), but each week one couple got to choose the restaurant and pay for the meal. For our turn I was determined to find a truly outstanding bouillabaisse since nobody else in the party had ever had one. One morning walking along the coast towards Cassis I spotted a modest beach cafe/restaurant which had a sign saying "bouillabaisse given 24 hours notice". This led me to believe they were serious about their bouillabaisse so we went in. The owner was reluctant to say yes as there had been tremendous thunderstorms the days previous & the fishermen hadn't been out much. Eventually he said Ok for bouillabaisse for two. No, I said, bouillabaisse for six! Oh la la! Much telephoning ensued by the owner & his son to the local fishermen. Finally the answer, yes they would do it, but they'd have to substitute one fish for another that wasn't available. The next evening the six of us arrived about half an hour before sunset. We watched the sun go down over the med as we drank our kir's. Heaven. Then came THE bouillabaisse. First, of course, the soup accompanied by toasted bread rounds, garlic cloves to rub onto them, rouille and grated cheese. Then the main fish & shell fish started coming; there was a huge platter from which the owner served up our individual portions. Small portions, but each succeeding one had a different combination of ingredients. The owner was peeling & deveining the shrimp one handed with two spoons; amazing. The flavors, the freshness of everything, the setting, the warm welcome all went to a truly memorable meal. Despite many attempts I have never quite had a bouillabaisse that good since. I have another memorable meal from the same three week trip which I'll write up on my blog as soon as I get a moment. Ok now lets see what your exceptional meals have been.

Again, thanks to all for their considered and considerate replies. You've got me thinking about another somewhat related topic, but one which I'll make into another thread.

Morbier shouldn't smell all that bad. Think it must have been the plastic wrap and no cool place. A find for me today. English Cheddar! I know this doesn't sound much, but its the first time in 6 years that I've found cheddar in a normal fromagerie. It not a bad cheddar either. Reasonably sharp if a bit crumbly. Hope they keep stocking it. I'm telling all of my English friends to go buy some so as to encourage the stocking.

HOLLY, what a terrific & well thought out response to my post. Well done! Other responses well thought out as well. I think I'm beginning to understand your motivations better. Thank You.

I've been following all of these recent posts about top, starred Paris restaurants and wondering to myself how people do it. Eat in one after the other of the top end places each night I mean. I did a little rant about it on my blog, but them got to thinking more about the subject. As a result I came up with some questions: ? How does one do it? Without indigestion, being bloated and just plain into overload. ? Why do it? Why not spread the pleasure over a longer time period? Multiple visits to Paris? ? Is it really enjoyable to eat that much fine food in such a short period of time? I really am interested in the answers. I'm not trying to be judgmental or anything. I just know from my own past experience that too many high end meals in a row turn me off. I look forward to the replies. edited for grammar.

Routiers are truck stops...there is a Les Routiers publication which is annual (I think) ← That's right. Truck Stops. Here is a link to the guide. This guide is by no means comprehensive as it only covers member of the 'official' association. It is, however, a good start. As I suggested asking around locally is your best bet, either that or watching out for lots of trucks & vans parked outside a road side place at lunch time. Normally on major routes, but not the places on the Autoroutes. For example, we have 4 places within 15 minutes. Ravel, Le Glebe, Bar du Lac & Segler. All between 11 & 13 Euros for the Entree de jour, the plat de jour, cheese & dessert. 1/4 litre of wine included. Depending upon the place there may or may not be a choice of items in each course. Normally, portions are reasonable to large. The food will be good. If not you won't see many vehicles outside. Have a go!

You should be able to eat well on 20 Euros/ day/person. Bread & butter for B'fast are cheap as are various kinds of jam & jellies (A large Apricot jam for 1.2E for example) Croissants run between .7 & .9E each, pain au raisin about 1.3E. Your bulk veggies from the Super Market make for cheap soups. Leeks should still be Ok in May. Lentils are both good & cheap here for soups. potato's run about 1E/lb. Salads are inexpensive although you will be a bit early for good & cheap tomatoes. Everyone is right about the price of veggies, they do jump all over the place especially at market. They also vary a lot week by week. Your braises, stews & other slow cooked dishes will serve you well. For me my luxury items are cheeses; good ones are not cheap, but I can't resist. For other people its the desserts from the shops, expensive, but worth it if you have a sweet tooth. I think you'll have fun & also have a bit of budget to splurge with. A final thought. You can eat lunch at a 'routier' for 11 -14E per person. This for a 4 course meal including wine. Definitely worth a try and very much a "French" experience for those who are new to the country. I'm sure that with a bit of looking & asking you will be able to find several within easy reach.

The merged thread is interesting. As for lamb shoulder I'm with Jackel10. Long & slow is the way to go. Don't bother to bone it. After 6-8 hours at 50-60 degrees C it just falls off the bone & all the fat has been rendered out. In fact we had a shoulder last night since Bernard, our local sheep farmer, had delivered our half lamb Friday evening. Truly great milk fed lamb. Not a scrap left over!

Poitiers in May. Not a million miles from us, just up the A20 in fact. First everything has gone up a lot in dollar terms over the past months. At around $1.60 per Euro its not much fun. In Euro terms I think there has been some inflation over the last year. Certainly the French are all complaining about it, but its not nearly 30% overall. More like 5% on average. A few average price examples: Beef - 8-14 Euro/kg for cheap cuts. Roasts & steaks run 20-35E/Kg. Not the meat of choice in France if you are on a budget. Veal is about the same. Pork - 5-8 E/kg for cheaper cuts. Best cuts are 11 15E/kg. Quality is excellent. Good fresh sausage (Toulouse) runs around 7-9E/kg. Lamb - 5-9E/kg for cheap cuts. Leg/shoulder about 18-23E/kg. Excellent quality. We just bought a half lamb from our local farmer for 11E/kg beautifully cut & packaged. Chicken - Battery raised about 4-6E/kg; free range 7-9E/kg & true farm chickens even more. Pieces tend to be cheap. Duck - varies a lot as do guinea fowl, quail, cannette all in the 6-10E/kg range. Magret runs about 9-12E/kg unless you can find a duck farmer at market. One of our local supermarkets has been selling Spanish raised Quail at 1E per bird. Eggs - about 2E per dozen at market. Butter - from 1E per 500g on up. Bread - standard baguette about 1E. Fruits & vegetables are all over the place depending upon seasonality. My tip. If the fruit or veg is either out of season or is not grown locally then buy at the supermarkets. (figure out which one in your area has the best quality) They have the buying power & also tend to sell in bulk. Since you are feeding 20 you can take advantage. Recent examples- 2kg bags of apples for 1.5E. Oranges about the same. 1kg bags of endive heads for 1E. 3kg of leeks for 2E. Asparagus is coming in now & I got a big bunch for 1.50E yesterday. Use the open air markets for local produce, eggs, cheeses, special breads, flowers, meat & sausage (both fresh & dry). Don't be afraid to do a bit of discreet haggling on price. (Quell est le prix per kilo? Ah, XX Euro par kilo! Et pour 5 kilo? Not great French, but they get the message.) You may or may not get a discount, but it doesn't hurt to try. The haggling works best near the end of the morning just before everybody closes. Wine- You should not have to pay more than 3E per a drinkable bottle of wine. The classic vin ordinaire should be this or less. In the reds look for wines from the SW, Corbiers, Minervois & so forth. Find a good wine shop & take their recommendations. With your number of people buying your everyday wine by the box makes sense. I buy 10 liter boxes of Chateau Pouljols for 19.60E. Decant it & everybody loves it. In general stay away from cheap Bordeaux; if you like that style of wine try Madiran's instead. Whites are harder, but there are some nice Loire wines and there are beginning to be some palatable chardonnays from the SW. Hope this helps. Another tip. Take your copy of Paula Wolfert's SW French cooking book. You can try out some of her recipes for the various kinds of offal that are both available & cheap in France. Enjoy your visit!

My solution to stinky cheeses is just to eat all of them before they ever make it to the fridge. I buy fresh & try to get 'just' enough although that's hard sometimes. If I have to keep them, overnight for instance, then they go in the cave with the wine. So far I haven't opened any cheese stink wine so I guess 'm doing Ok. Other cheeses just get wrapped in the special paper that all of the cheese sellers here seem to use. It seems to let the cheese get air without letting out all of the smell.

Suzi & Katie, you were both pretty close. He's the story: Last week Linda was a her Anglo- French meeting where both Nationalities try to help one another with their language skills. They were discussing the menu of a restaurant where they were proposing to go for a meal. The cheese course was; "Croustillant de crottin de Chavignol et son confit de figues". Linda pipes up & asks "what's a crottin"? Immediate peals of laughter from all of the French speakers, puzzlement from the English speakers. Once the laughter died down Annie & Bernadette explained the a 'crottin' is a dung dropping from a horse, a sheep, a rabbit. Thus (as you guessed) the name for the cheese from its shape & color. It turns out that a 'crote' is a dog dropping and that a 'bouse' is a cow pat. They don't teach you these things in language school do they? Crottin de Chavignol is from the Loire and is made from goats milk. It only ages 2-3 days in it's little pots then decanted and aged for at least another 10 day. At this point the flavor is mild. If allowed to age longer it it will pick up flavor and lose weight. So, think of this story and, hopefully, smile the next time you enjoy a crottin de Chavignol.

does it mean button? as in a small button of cheese? ← Sorry, Suzi, but actually the answer is somewhat rude.

e. I would cook shoulder slowly whether it's whole or as chops. It's nowhere near as tender as loin or leg. With your chops i would braise it Lancashire hotpot style. Whole shoulder is imo the best roasting joint there is. As long as you cook it low and slow for at least 3hrs it's absolutely foolproofly delicious. Ha, mint sauce with lamb. Definitely a British thing, the French laugh at us all they like, it just works. ← I'm with you. Slow roast with S&P plus a bit of rosemary. 3 hours minimum. Our favorite Tis a British thing. Linda loves mint sauce Brit that she is. I can't stand it Yank that I am. I think the expression is: "everybody to their own taste." For chops I'll go for simple most times. A very quick sautée, keep rare & enjoy. Now, when it comes to breast of lamb I like a nice Stew with green lentils. Same for shanks. I do love lamb!

I've got a great French cheese story for you, but first lets see if we have any real French speakers/ culture fiends out there. The story concerns a cheese called: crottin de Chavignol. Not such a rare cheese, but the question is as follows: What does "crottin" mean? Or to put it another way what is a 'crottin'? No prizes other than fame on eGullet.

Margret Its on the map now. Sounds a great place; we'll check it out as its not that far from us. Do you know if Phillipe will do dinner for 'outside' guests?

Just providentially Bernard, our local sheep farmer, called today. He's going to deliver a spring lamb next week. He farms just West of us, about 1/2 a mile away. He's passionate about his sheep & even drives a lot further to a special abattoir which is more humane. His lambs are truly milk fed and absolutely delicious. Can't wait!

Thanks everybody! You've given me some great ideas. I'll be trying them over the coming weeks. Don't stop though. The more ideas the better as far as I'm concerned. Thanks again.

Endive is something I hadn't paid a lot of attention to until recently. Lately, however, I've tried a few things with it and found that its pretty good as well as being both cheap & available. But; I haven't found many recipes for it. There are two nice ones in Recipe Gullet and a few repetitive ones come up on a Google search, but there must be more out there. So- eGulleteers what are your favorite ways with endive? I have posted a endive & smoked salmon salad recipe I made up the other night on my blog. Link below. I'm sure everyone can do better.

Amen! Delicious ----If you can find it!

I rarely, if ever, tip at starred places. Likewise I never leave more than the odd change at the lowest level places. 12 Euro lunch, normally family owned & run. I don't believe in tipping the owner(s). In the mid category I do tip IF I've had excellent service. I'll do anywhere from 2 Euro per person at table to 5 Euro per head for extraordinary service.

LindseyAnn Congratulations! Hope the wedding & all the attendant events go well. If those rats in our government would only let me I'd love to send you a cheese platter to end all cheese platters for the reception. Unfortunately they won't allow it. I'll think of you & your husband as I polish off the last of my little 'brebis' later today.

I don't know why lamb in the mid-West is so difficult either, but it certainly seems to be an ongoing problem. When we lived in Chicago we were finally forced into having a friend in Spokane have a lamb butchered for us, flash frozen and Fedex'ed to Chicago. Expensive, but not that much more per pound than we had to pay in Chicago. The quality was much better as well. A lot of what we could buy in Chicago was closer to mutton than lamb. Next we lived in Rhode Island where lamb was not an issue. Plentiful, good quality & the prices weren't bad. Here in France the quality is superb. We mostly buy half a lamb at a time from Bernard who raises them just up the hill from us. The price is around $7.00 per pound. In the butcher shops & supermarkets leg of lamb is about $9.00 per pound. Being great lamb eaters the French prize shoulder as much as leg so it costs the same. Recently we've been able to get frozen New Zealand shoulders & legs for about $3.50 per pound. Its of excellent quality. And, yes, we're having slow roasted de-boned leg with anchovies & rosemary for our Easter dinner. Can't wait!

I use blogspot from Google. here's a link, hopefully. Its free, easy to set up & has a number of templates. For pictures I use Picassa, also free & also from Google. Just go to google & click on about Google and you will see Picassa on the list of available programs. Have a go, its fun.

Two weeks with no posts! I think all the cheeseheads must have retired to their caves to age for a while. Just to get you going a bit here's a picture of the cheeses I bought today. These are all from a stand at Villefranche market. He makes nothing but cheeses from ewe's milk. All raw milk of course. Today I concentrated upon the older, stronger varieties even though he sells much fresher (younger) types like Rouelle as well. The little bite sized guys at the back were 2.4 Euros for a little basket full, probably about 20 of them. They're fairly hard & have a sharp taste. The round shaped one in the middle (I broke it apart so you could see the texture) is stronger yet. Delicious. The one in the front is the strongest of all. A whole one is dough nut shaped, but I just bought a small piece so I could taste it. This is a very powerful cheese. I didn't really succeed in getting names; at least in getting names I could understand. According to the vendor they don't really have names in French. They're just called "Country cheeses" or sometimes "Fromage de Vendage". Their real names are only in Occitan, the local language. All I know is that I really like them. Let's hear what everyone else is eating & discovering.

It means thick cream. When I buy it here it is normally about 35% butterfat. About the same as double cream in England or whipping cream in the states I think.