Dave Hatfield

OK, here we go on cabecou. (sorry for the misspelling on the original post.) A local label. six little fresh cabecous. These are the little goat's cheeses that you eat with jam or herbs or nothing or whatever. The name cabecou is relatively local and is for these small (a bit bigger around than a silver $ & about a finger thick) raw milk goat's cheeses. I'm not sure how far around France the name is used. In some cases a cabecou also has an appellation name as for this: The Rocamadour is a cabecou, but from a very well defined region and made using well defined ingredients and methods. (Vaylats is less than 20 miles from where we live. There seem to be several ways of making the little cheeses. Some just get dryer & crumblier as they age. Other go creamy & runny, like a brie, as they age. Still others are aged longer. These I bought from 'Madame' in Limogne market. She's not very communicative in fact I wrote her up in my blog some time ago. As you can see these guys are much older. The brown ones at the back are as hard as rocks. I break them with a cleaver! Delicious. When I eat them I always have this image of an old grizzly goatherd out in the middle of the wilds of France chewing & sucking on these as he protects & herds his goats. C'est moi! As to whether you can get a cabecou in Chicago I just don't know. Probably you can get the younger ones, but I'd doubt the older ones. They're not that common here, you have to really look for them. Perhaps one of the USA based cheese experts, who know a lot more than I anyway, can help when it comes to availability in the states. Good luck. edited to correct lousy spelling & typing.

I just scrape off most of the fat & slowly sautée the confit in a frying pan. Turn the heat up a bit at the end with the skin side down for crispy finish. Great served with lyonaisse potatoes. We have this 2-3 times a month. You can also do the same thing, but shred the meat and sprinkle it over a nice simple salad.

Tough topic. You'll probably get as many different answers as there are people posting. Here are some of my preferences & prejudices; strictly personal with no claim to being "right"! I prefer crusty French bread with most soft cheeses. The St Felicien mentioned in my last post for example or a good ripe brie. I eat most firm or hard cheeses on their own. The Cantal & raclette de brebis are examples as are cheddars Blue & other sharp cheeses are best with bread or dry crackers (plain, no flavoring & no salt). St Aguer, Roquefort & so on. With goat's cheeses it sort of depends upon age & time of day. A really soft fresh chevre on French bread with a good jam is great for breakfast. Later in the day (lunch or dinner) the same or a slightly firmer chevre with cumin or fennel seeds or a herb mixture is very nice. On the other hand I love the little cabecue's that have been aged until they are very hard, tangy & sharp. These need to be slowly sucked on. In general (exception above) I'm not a fan of chutneys, fruit jams or other sweet things with cheese. This is just my personal thing. A favorite combination is a round of French bread with a skim of Dijon mustard topped with slices of French garlic sausage and Cantal and a sprinkle of herbs de Provence. Toast this under a broiler until the cheese melts. Heaven! Finally, a marriage made in heaven is a glass of good vintage port with a chunk of ripe Stilton. Ok, I've bared my cheese 'soul'. Now how about everyone else?

I've been neglecting to post on this thread lately. Sorry about that. Its certainly not that I've stopped eating cheese. Its just that I haven't been trying a lot of new varieties. Yesterday for example I stocked up by buying: Cantal entre-doux - 6 month aged, raw milk. St Felicien - One of my very favorite soft cheeses. It comes in a little ceramic shallow tub. (these are great for doing tapas like gambas a la hijo.) St Augur - A great blue cheese and one that those just getting into blue cheeses might want to try. Very soft nutty flavor, not too sharp. Raclette de brebis - Nice raw milk sheep's cheese. This particular sheep's cheese is new to me and I found it to be very nice. Inexpensive too. This last cheese was bought on the recommendation of Madame at the cheese counter at the supermarket. (mind you the cheese section counter is about 30 feet long & in addition there are two serve yourself counters of equal length.) Madame knows me well, but is only now getting to the state where she'll give me advice and make recommendations. I think I'll be trying at least one new cheese a week on her advice. She knows what she's talking about. I'll try to take more pictures.

Just to make myself feel bad I've done small exercise below. The list is the one bluedeauvergne put up on this thread in January 2006. Here we are in January 2008. The Euro prices here in France haven't changed much, but look what the exchanges rate has done when the prices are converted to $ at the currnt rate of Euro 1 = $1.50. Frightening. €/kilo €/lb. $/lb. beef (chuck) Bacon unsliced 9.00 4.09 4.90 6.18 Chicken, whole (best price) 2.50 1.13 1.35 3.75 Chicken whole (free range) 6.59 2.99 3.58 4.48 Poulet de Bresse (from producer’s market)8.90 4.04 4.84 8.08 Salmon cesspit raised 13.90 6.31 7.57 9.46 salmon ocaean netted 19.90 13.5 16.2 20.75 Shrimp (count ?) --- cabbage 1.00 .45 .54 .67 carrots 0.80 .36 .43 .54 chiles --- Bell peppers 2.30 1.04 1.24 1.56 Corn each -- garlic --- Mushrooms (de paris) 6.60 3.00 3.60 4.50 Olives (picholine, high quality artisan brined) 9.00 4.09 4.90 Onions 1.00 .45 .54 .67 Potatoes, baking 1.06 . 48 .57 .72 Potatoes, ratte 2.75 1.25 1.50 1.87 - Squash Apples, cox Bananas 1.77 .80 .96 1.20 Coconuts. Ea. Lemons 1.70 .77 .92 1.16 Limes Oranges (6 kinds what kind do you want?) tomatoes BOB 1.59 .72 .86 1.08 tomatoes grappe 3.30 1.5 1.80 too gross to buy beans (dried) coco 4.85 2.20 2.64 3.30 beans (dried) Lingot label rouge 7.80 3.54 4.24 5.27 flour type 45 0.70 .31 .37 flour type 55 .60 .27 .32 .41 pasta BOB .56 .25 .30 pasta barilla spaget No 5 1.60 .72 .86 pasta barilla spaget No 7 1.78 .80 .96 1.20 pasta barilla linguini 1.92 .87 1.04 Pasta selection artesani 4.18 1.9 2.28 Rice lowest price .62 .28 .33 .44 Sugar granulated 1.24 .56 .67 cooking oil sunflower .93/L .42 .50 olive oil puget fruitee Evoo 5.99 7.18/L 10.78 sesame oil soy sauce vinegar red wine .74/L .88/L 1.32 butter (bretagne) 3.88 1.76 2.11 2.64 Butter (echire) 10.00 4.54 5.44 cream eggs 1.20/doz 1.45 2.17 Greek/turkish style yougert 4.30/kilo 1.95 2.34 cinnamon ground paprika ground pepper black corns 20.96/K 9.52 11.42 saffron 712.50/K 323.86 388.63 vanilla beans equitable commerce 1.10 ea. 1.32 ea. beer bread baguette 2.80/Kilo 1.27 1.52 coffee carte noire 10.80/Kilo 4.90 5.88 7.45 juice OJ litre tea premium teabags I didn't quite do all of them, but you get the message. Blue's exchange rate was Euro 1 = $1.20. The good old days I guess. Still wine is cheap as is cheese and yesterday our favorite supermarket was having a pork sale; most cuts were under $5.00 per pound and its superb pork.

My favorite Le Vieux Pont in Belcastel has a well balanced and moderately priced list with an emphasis's on regional wines. Their monthly 'coup de coeur' wines are amazingly good. Less than 20 Euros! In a starred restaurant! And totally delicious! (I know delicious is not a normal wine term,but you get my meaning.)

I found it interesting that Fatguy’s experience with French sommeliers has been that “you can actually talk to the sommelier and the sommelier will open and pour your wine and do all sorts of follow-up” whereas Mike Steinberger, the article’s author, writes that “condescension and humorlessness have long been defining features of French wine service” while American sommelier’s style is to “educate and enthuse” the customer. Again, I think, this can be explained as a cultural differences. France is a wine drinking country and everyone drinks wine, from the working class to the upper echelons of society. Wine is a part of the national education and it is very much a part of French life. Wine isn’t the latest fad in France and is drunk on a daily basis by a large portion of the country. Given this climate, it seems normal that a waiter in France wouldn’t try to “educate and enthuse” his customers unless they asked questions about the wine and indicated that they wanted to know more. Fatguy was interested and engaged the sommelier who then felt free to converse, but if Fatguy had just drank the wine and didn’t ask any questions, the sommelier would probably assume that this guy didn’t want to chat and would leave him alone to drink his wine. It has taken me a long time to realize that in France information is not as freely given as it is in the States and you need to ask questions. ← Spot on! I fully agree and second the comment about asking for information. (this applies to everything, not just wine) Whenever I ask a French sommelier for information, recommendations or whatever I get a full and knowledgeable answer in a pleasant manner. I've had more than one sommelier write up precise directions as to how to find a winery whose product had been recommended and enjoyed. (see the little write up on my blog, last Nov/Dec can't remember which in this regard.) I think as I said in my earlier post that the author either didn't know what he was talking about or was taking cheap shots or both.

French sommeliers look after wine lists that are predominately composed of French wines. American sommeliers look after lists that are a more worldly in focus. I would argue that no one knows more about French wines then the sommeliers at the top restaurant in France. It would be interesting to ask M. Hamon, Chef Sommelier at Le Cinq, what he knows about small producers in Napa. ← Yes, so? What's your point? Why not ask American sommeliers about small producers in Gaillac? I think the test is if the sommelier at a specific restaurant can give truly good advice as to the wines on that restaurant's wine list that best match the meal that the customer has chosen. A sommelier who can do that is worthy of the title no matter what their location, gender or nationality.

IMHO a pretty biased and ignorant article. I'm all for the fact that standards are improving in the states and that the profession is losing its gender bias. Equally, I'm sure that the top wine persons in the states are every bit as good as their European and Asian counterparts. Why, however, knock the French? Easy target perhaps? Cheap way to jazz up a mediocre article? Again, IMHO the French don't really need defending, but I do think that if one were to compare the standards across both the USA & France in all restaurants that actually have a wine list then my American countrymen would have to plead 'No contest'

A word of warning concerning Google maps. Although the maps are great and enable doing the interactive map of restaurants in France they don't seem to be very accurate when it comes to giving directions. On a recent trip from home to England and back we had two instances where the directions given by Google maps were wrong. Wrong enough that we had to find our way by other means. My advice would be that you stick with Michelin. (www.viamichelin.com) They may have taken away some features recently, but they still seem the best for route planning & directions in Europe.

Place marked this thread on the interactive map near Caen. Also see the post I have added up in the map thread concerning Google maps.

edited to eliminate double post. Blame it on the wine!

What a great post! Lots of 'food' for thoughtl in it. I promise to give a more complete and considered reply when: a) I' back in France. b) I'm not just trying to recover from a wonderful 7 hour Christmas lunch at my in laws next door neighbors house. Merry Christmas! If you haven't guessed by now that I've had more than my fair share of wine then you are in worse shaope than I am.

Sounds spot on to me. That's exactly how the fuddle I went to was organized. I was told that 'traditionally' fuddles are held around tjhe Christmas holiday season, but I don't know if that's right or not. I too would love to learn more.

Very glad to hear that fuddle is a real event. I did have a concern that my leg was being pulled. The fuddle I attended took place in Otley and was the holiday party at a charity shop that my sister-in-law mamaged until she retired at the end of November. We had drinks & snacks. Joan, one of the ladies who help in the shop, came up with fuddle. She's over 80 & comes from the area. Thanks for the reassurance.

I don't normally post on this forum as we live in France, but we're here for the holidays. Yesterday we were invited to a fuddle. This is a new word & was a new experience for us. Very pleasant it was too. My question to you, the UK Gulleteers, is? How many of you know what a fuddle is?

Thanks all. Its now added to the map.

Great review and a wonderful sounding restaurant. I'd love to add it to the interactive map, but ........ Where is it? I can't find a Lallement town, village or hamlet. Is it the Lallement street in Rheims? Please let me know so I can add it. Thanks

How much did they charge you for this disaster?

Looks good. Will give them a try when we get back home. Any other 'local' suggestions? Within one hour or so of Villefranche de rouergue?

Agree with Julot. Good call. I too am relieved to find that I'm not alone in my skepticism about Bra's. If you plan comes to fruition next year let me know and then please drop by our place for a drink or a meal. We're less than an hour from Le Vieux Pont. Send me a PM to set things up.

I agree with Judith about how to get reservations, but I'm afraid I can't agree about the restaurant. In our humble opinion Bra's is not by any means the top 3 star restaurant, in fact there are 2 star places we prefer. For example, not a million miles away from Bra's is Le vieux Pont in Belcastel. Only a 1 star, but the food, ambiance and location are at least equally good. We have found Bra's to be over priced (wine prices are criminal), the food unmemorable (yes, of course, good, but.... can't remember a single outstanding dish) and the service lacking (The local kids are willing enough, but not trained to 3 star standards) Make you own judgment, however or do as some friends did; Bra's one day, Le Vieux Pont the next. Need I say which they prefered?

Thanks for the link. A nice recipe, but over complicated I think. Not enough garlic by far and, I think, too much pork skin. But as we all know there are as many cassoulete recipes as there are cassoulete cooks. On my original 30 minute cassoulete post I promised pictures, then forgot. So here they are belatedly. Cooked in cassole. No bread crumb top as our guest was allergic to anything with flour in it. A pity as I love the crust. Here's a portion on the plate. Delicious. I'd love to hear from anybody who has tried either of my recipes. The quick or the full pop.

Terrific tantalizing tripe talk tempts typing tyro to type trite tripe - today. Taste terrific tantalizing tripe & trotters - please - terrific traditional tripe tasting trio - Tell tyro taste - tonight? Beware!! lest: Tripe & trotters triggers trots on trotters to toilette. Terrific tripe & trotters tasters take tyro's trite tripe typing trop - tenderement! Great blog! edited to add: The French isn't quite right, but I hope you get the sentiment. I was running out of T's, trotters & trite tripe.

Haven't read the Les Halles recipe, but it sounds like there may have been way too much pork skin put into the pot. I cut mine into small triangles (less than one cm per side) and use sparingly. They should just cook in adding to the texture & flavor but not being visible. Better yet is couenne, but probably hard to find outside of France. Paula Wolfert gives a good recipe on how to make it. Make sure to boil the pork rind for 20+ minutes before putting it in.