Brittany

[Margaret Pilgrim]

What is definitely a must in the Cancale region is the seafood, butter and vegetables (pré-salé vegetables are more reliable than lamb, so it seems).

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When you are at the source, simple prep of the freshest ingredients will most often trump fancy kitchen antics. My husband compares all scallops to those that seemingly danced through the saute pan enroute from ocean to plate at a non-descript hole in the wall in St. Malo on a bitterly cold winter evening.

[Ptipois]

but the dish "Omelette a la Mère Poularde" is nothing to have been tasted. I didn't like it and after the first bit I've sent it back to the kitchen.

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Would you care to explain more precisely why you didn't like it and why, in your opinion, the dish was not good? This is a real question, I have never been there.

[legourmet]

Would you care to explain more precisely why you didn't like it and why, in your opinion, the dish was not good? This is a real question, I have never been there.

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The omelette is a salted mixture of beaten eggwhites and eggyolks fried in a pan and folded up. The bottom and top part is some sort of solid whereas the middle is still soft and starts to become liquid again when served. Did you ever had beaten raw eggwhites seasoned with salt? Somethig like that tastes this omelette. That's not my cup of tea.

[PhilD]

but the dish "Omelette a la Mère Poularde" is nothing to have been tasted. I didn't like it and after the first bit I've sent it back to the kitchen.

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Would you care to explain more precisely why you didn't like it and why, in your opinion, the dish was not good? This is a real question, I have never been there.

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Ptipois - I noted your love of old recipes. Here is a copy of a letter from Annette Poulard to M. Robert Viel from 1922 (it is from my 1960 edition of Elizabet David's French Provincial Cooking - still in print), it explains the secret of the Omelette a la Mere Poularde:

Monsieur Viel,

Voici la recette de l'omelettte: je case bons oeufs dans une terrine, je les bats bien, je mets un bon morceau de beurre dans la poele, j'y jette les oeufs et je remue constamment . Je suis heureuse, monsieur, si cette recette vous fait plaisir.

Annette Poulard

[Margaret Pilgrim]

....Here is a copy of a letter from Annette Poulard...it explains the secret of the Omelette a la Mere Poularde....

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That's rather like having Michael Phelps explain the secret of his butterfly.

[Ptipois]

Legourmet: you confirm what I had figured. So you don't like omelette baveuse, which is the French way of making omelette. It has nothing to do with la mère Poulard's recipe and unless the kitchen was having a meltdown, there is nothing wrong with this omelette in se. In the same way, I always have to "overcook" my omelettes when preparing breakfast for American friends.

PhilD: thanks a lot, I already knew the principle of that omelette but Mme Poulard wrote that letter in a typical chef manner, making sure she was not including any essential information. Omelette made in the way she describes is just like any omelette. The truth has to be sought elsewhere.

And it will be delivered elsewhere too, since we're on the Brittany thread and Le Mont is in Normandy. Therefore we'll resume this conversation in the Normandy thread.

Edited August 17, 2008 by Ptipois (log)

[PhilD]

PhilD: thanks a lot, I already knew the principle of that omelette but Mme Poulard wrote that letter in a typical chef manner, making sure she was not including any essential information. Omelette made in the way she describes is just like any omelette. The truth has to be sought elsewhere.

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I read it slightly differently. My read was that the secret of the omlette is that there is no secret. Simple, fresh, high quality ingredients cooked well.

[kermie]

calvados

is Norman...

something that is quite famous and entertaining is to go to La Mere poulard at Mont St. Michel - it is a restaurant right on the mont

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which is in Normandy.

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yes true but we did it all in one trip driving down from amsterdam and when i read this thread i was trying to answer quickly and the whole thing got lumped together. I actually have kept all the cards to the restaurants etc but have been to busy to get them out - sorry.

the 'secret' to the omlette is actually in the beating - a lot. No its not everyone's cup of tea but it is famous for the region - even if it is normandy. haha.

[Ptipois]

I read it slightly differently. My read was that the secret of the omlette is that there is no secret. Simple, fresh, high quality ingredients cooked well.

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Answer to this will be at its right place, in the Normandy thread.

Edited August 17, 2008 by Ptipois (log)

[Ptipois]

yes true but we did it all in one trip driving down from amsterdam and when i read this thread i was trying to answer quickly and  the whole thing got lumped together.  I actually have kept all the cards to the restaurants etc but have been to busy to get them out - sorry.

the 'secret' to the omlette is actually in the beating - a lot.  No its not everyone's cup of tea but it is famous for the region - even if it is normandy. haha.

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Nothing to be sorry about, there is a notorious cultural vagueness in this very area. Officially the Couesnon river separates Normandy from Brittany but a careful examination of the local architecture, accents, cooking, etc., tend to show that the whole area between Le Mont Saint-Michel and Cancale is actually more Norman than Breton, even if Cancale claims to be in Brittany. To me, Cancale and Le Mont are clearly in the same cultural region and I should say Brittany starts West of Cancale. Of course not everybody would agree with me.

[kermie]

It's not about cultural vagueness actually - I'm just busy and sometimes a bit scattered.

Also - for the people against the Poulard omlette - (aside from its location) sometimes it's nice to try something that is interesting and local and famous for its particular thing, even if you don't end up liking it. The omlette happens to be unlike any other i've tried and as someone who is interested in cooking I was therefore interested to try it and experience it. Just like when I ate sheeps head in Morroco, licked an ant's bum in Australia, or had yak lung in Tibet (just to name a mere drop of bizarre things I've eaten because it was the local thing to try where I'd travelled).

[Abra]

If you're in Perros-Guirec, I can't recommend Le Levant highly enough. A 19 euro menu (nineteen!) at dinner brought me a house-made soupe de poisson, a plate of fresh cod with andouille in a red wine sauce, and a lovely dessert. More details and pictures are here. The restaurant is in a hotel on the port, and looks quite funky as you enter. Just ignore that, someone really talented is in the kitchen.