Not intermezzo - French for _________?

[paul o' vendange]

Seriously, I think that there is such a word and that it was one of those words used in certain places during a specific period of time. An American slang version that meant "palate cleanser" but yet was in French (so to speak) but not really *from* the French language. So it might *not* be recognized as a "real" word by Francophones. That would explain why my focus went to thinking of Cajun cooking when trying to remember the word - my memory stems from restaurants of North America rather than of France.

Sigh.

Really, this is alternately funny and terrible. 

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Good point, Carrot, very aptly said - yes, this was a word I saw in practice - the operative word being "practice," as in my experience in N. American restaurants. I wouldn't know whether it is used in France, but you keenly point out that it may be something used in the restaurants of the States, so my looking through LaRousse, or French language sources, for example, may be barking up the wrong tree. I have been searching the web for the former restaurants where I worked in L.A., but, alas, they have now all closed. (Anyone from Val's, Toluca Lake, Fama, Russell's, the Wave, - hello, and...what the heck is the word called????)

[Carrot Top]

Heh. Yeah. It seems like one of those words that would have been used in like. . .the first four issues of Food Arts Magazine.

................................

I do have a tip for you, though. Whenever you forget a word, just substitute "thingie". It's quite a pleasant way to live.

[paul o' vendange]

Heh. Yeah. It seems like one of those words that would have been used in like. . .the first four issues of Food Arts Magazine. 

................................

I do have a tip for you, though. Whenever you forget a word, just substitute "thingie". It's quite a pleasant way to live. 

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Hahah - I'm on it - there are a few issues on my shelves....

Edited to say, man, I'm batting a 1000 - not Food Arts, but Art Culinaire.

Edited November 3, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)

[Carrot Top]

Great minds think alike. I just logged back on to say that what I *meant* to say was Arts Culinaire.

Now, I am going out for a walk and hopefully I will remember where I am and how to get home.

[markk]

The frustration continues. I wrote to the chef/owner of Restaurant du Faude in France (who has become a friend and pen-pal over the years), in whose restaurant I am sure they use the term, and I explained our situation (that we're not looking for 'sorbet', but the name of the course for which that is served to cleanse the palate) and gave him a sentence with a blank to help him:

“Comme _______, le chef vous envoie ce sorbet”

... and replying to me in English, he wrote:

"The french name for this is Trou Normand "...

except that's not the phrase fighting to escape from the cobwebs of my mind, or stuck on the tip of my tongue...

[paul o' vendange]

The frustration continues.  I wrote to the chef/owner of Restaurant du Faude in France (who has become a friend and pen-pal over the years), in whose restaurant I am sure they use the term, and I explained our situation (that we're not looking for 'sorbet', but the name of the course for which that is served to cleanse the palate) and gave him a sentence with a blank to help him:

“Comme  _______, le chef vous envoie ce sorbet”

... and replying to me in English, he wrote:

"The french name for this is  Trou Normand "...

except that's not the phrase fighting to escape from the cobwebs of my mind, or stuck on the tip of my tongue...

←

Man, I want to find this so we can all sleep. Or cook. I wanted to recall the name for a private dinner I cooked last night - a couple, guy proposing to his girlfriend. They both hail from Chicago, though she is a local news anchor. He drove up from Fox & Obel with halibut in tow (we cannot get sources up our way - the one thing I've hated since our restaurant closure). He was really happy to go to F & O again, since when he produced for NBC he was a block away...

At any rate: Amuse, a mushroom veloute and accompanying ragout crostini, made with locally harvested and farmed mushrooms (along with a "chip" - thank you Thomas Keller):

"Halibut Provencale" - pommes anna, a trio of red pepper coulis, basil oil, balsamic glaze, with ratatouille:

And, as she loves figs, walnut crepes with port-poached black mission figs: (a bit of valhrona chocolate all over the plate):

Oh, and she said "Yes."

****

I had always thought Trou Normand was a liquer or liquor serving this purpose, and once sorbets came into vogue, the liquer or alcohol-laced sorbet was a bit of a historical bridge (I tend to prefer granités - the ice "shaves" the palate better, imho) - non?

Where is Restaurant Faude? My family and I are likely moving next year to Paris for 9 months, and after, we hope to comb the countryside for food, food, food...and wine, wine wine. The petit will have to be content with juice.

Edited November 3, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)

[Catriona]

Had long conversations about trous normande with the (french) inlaws last weekend after the wedding (and not in relation to the wedding meal, which was delicious and light, thankyouverymuch!)... Brother in law was a stranger to the concept, however I had ben introduced to the idea (if not the trou itself) on my first visit to Normandy when I was 10.

The True trou (giggle) is calvados...

[racheld]

All this brain-delving and senility sensation has been worth it---just for that dinner alone, Paul. But we'll all have a little cranium-tickle going on til someone unearths the elusive nom.

My favourite has always been at the end, anyway.

Mignardises

Edited November 3, 2006 by racheld (log)

[paul o' vendange]

All this brain-delving and senility sensation has been worth it---just for that dinner alone, Paul.  But we'll all have a little cranium-tickle going on til someone unearths the elusive nom.

My favourite has always been at the end, anyway.

Mignonises 

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We can only hope, Rachel.

Yep, this was a truly enjoyable evening. I have never been hired to do this before, a "pop the question meal." (though started cooking this way when I was but a kid - oddly enough, I was catering these intimate dinners as a teenager - so, in some ways, last night was a life-cycle circle).

Merci pour votre gentilité.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Where is Restaurant Faude?  

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markk's website with photos of Restaurant du Faude .. thought he might add his link ...

and, ahem, who first brought up trou normande in this tangled web .. thread? Moi ... ici, mes amis ...

Edited November 3, 2006 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Have you ever had the privilege of dining at a restaurant or someone's home who offered a trou normande? mentioned in this thread

In Normandy, it is tradition to drink a glass of Calvados in the middle of a meal to help digestion. This 200 century-old ritual is called Trou Normand. Nowadays, a Trou Normand is still served in the middle of a meal, but as an apple sorbet soaked with Calvados.

source for information

It sounds delightful and one need not live in Normandy, nor even France, to experience it ...

Would you like to make this as an intermezzo in one of your more formal meals? recipe in French ...recipe in English, from Calvadosonline.com

We were getting full so we ordered a trou Normande. I'd heard of the trou before but didn't really know what it was. The waiter arrived with two snifters of vieux calvados. The calvados (a 15 year-old apple brandy) supposedly expands the stomach so one can eat more. Thanks goodness it worked,

the source with photos Edited November 3, 2006 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[Carrot Top]

Man, I want to find this so we can all sleep.  Or cook.  I wanted to recall the name for a private dinner I cooked last night  - a couple, guy proposing to his girlfriend.

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It's true that to say "And now, for your palate-cleanser, we will serve. . ." is *not* terribly romantic. But your dinner was lovely even without this mysterious word we seek, and proof of the worth of the romantic pudding was shown by the lady's acceptance of proposal at the end of it.

Sooner or later, the word will pop into someone's mind, and I *do* hope they will post it here when that happens.

Sigh.

[racheld]

I have now corrected my little misspell of those too-dainty little sweets; it occurred to me over my Waldorf salad while we were out at lunch that I had mixed two courses in a very un-delectable melange.

I also thank all the powers-that-be and the eyes-that-have seen for refraining from pointing out my error---that is the sign of a gracious and forgiving friend, if as yet unmet. I can only use the excuse of my years and fraying brain.

I think of Dick Cavett when I am tempted to chime in with a correction of another's spelling or grammar, and I hold my sassy tongue. On one of his talk shows of the Seventies, two guests were having a discussion, and when the first one said "tabula rosa" I saw Cavett wince---probably on LIVE TV. When the second guest carried on his train of thought, repeating the erroneous pronunciation, the IQ-Proud host could restrain himself no longer, and corrected them both. His fear that others would think he shared their ignorant faux pas got the better of his manners, and I never thought the same of him since.

Y'all are made of better stuff.

[paul o' vendange]

Where is Restaurant Faude?  

←

markk's website with photos of Restaurant du Faude .. thought he might add his link ...

and, ahem, who first brought up trou normande in this tangled web .. thread? Moi ... ici, mes amis ...

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Thank you, Melissa.

[markk]

Where is Restaurant Faude? 

←

markk's website with photos of Restaurant du Faude .. thought he might add his link ...

and, ahem, who first brought up trou normande in this tangled web .. thread? Moi ... ici, mes amis ...

←

Thank you, Melissa.

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Thanks, too!

There are actually lots more photos of the Faude food here, on the website that I maintain more carefully:

more Faude photos from Markk's Eating in France Extravaganza

Faude is in the Vosges Mountains in Southern Alsace, not far from Colmar, and it is an enchanted place - the hote/restaurant, and the area. I've sent other gulletteers there with an introduction to the chef and his wife, and they reported back that they had a fabulous time.

[K_A_S]

The recipe sounds interesting and the dish would probably be tasty, but I would still prefer my trou normand the old-fashioned way. I've never had any form of a trou normand in a restaurant, but I have certainly had a little Calvados (or eau de vie or somesuch) in friends' houses. Maybe I'm just a cranky traditionalists here, but I like my Calvados in a glass, with nothing else. Now I'm getting thirsty...

[markk]

If you're taking the Trou Normande to mean a glass of Calvados in the middle of the meal, then no, I've never had that. I have been in lots of restaurants that serve a sorbet laced with an eau-de-vie:

(this is a lemon sorbet laced with marc de gewürztraminer, prevalent in Alsace)

But I have had the famous Trou Gascon, which is of course a similar thing, only native to Gascony in the southwest. I've had it at the restaurant D'Artagnan in New York (there's a current thread about this too) before it closed. It is a glass of white, or unaged, Armagnac, here served in special glasses that have a round ball at the end rather than a flat base, which means the contents must be consumed, as you cannot set the glass down until it is empty. (And after their 7-course foie gras dinner, it does the trick!)

[paul o' vendange]

Where is Restaurant Faude?  

←

markk's website with photos of Restaurant du Faude .. thought he might add his link ...

and, ahem, who first brought up trou normande in this tangled web .. thread? Moi ... ici, mes amis ...

←

Thank you, Melissa.

←

Thanks, too!

There are actually lots more photos of the Faude food here, on the website that I maintain more carefully:

more Faude photos from Markk's Eating in France Extravaganza

Faude is in the Vosges Mountains in Southern Alsace, not far from Colmar, and it is an enchanted place - the hote/restaurant, and the area. I've sent other gulletteers there with an introduction to the chef and his wife, and they reported back that they had a fabulous time.

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Great, Mark, thanks. We have some friends that just paid a visit to Alsace, and I wish we would have know about this prior to their leaving. I'll tuck it away for future use.

[Daniel Rogov]

The tradition of the trou is indeed an old and highly esteemed one, that followed largely by the favored eau-de-vie of region in which it originated. While the true trou Normande is indeed a small glass of Calvados, that of Gascony is of Armagnac, and that in Bordeaux almost invariably of Cognac. Such beverages served in the midst of a meal are indeed not meant so much as palate refreshers but in order to "clear the digestive tract" so that one continue with the meal, many French men and women beleving (and I agree with them) that a small dosage will indeed re-stimulate the appetite.

Mexicans, of course, have known about this for far longer than Europeans, and at least since the time of Cortez have sipped a bit of tequila in between courses of a heavy meal. Somewhat later on the famous (or, if we prefer, infamous) Rasputin credited his ability to consume huge quantities of food to the fact that he drank as much as half a bottle of vodka between courses. While one does credit the Mexicans with good sense, one has no choice but to wonder about dear old Rasputin.

The concept of serving a liqueur or eau-de-vie flavored sorbet or a fruit sorbet in a bit of a particular eau-de-vie originated probably with Fernand Point (the teacher of Paul Bocuse and the true founder of what we today consider the best of Nouvelle Cuisine) and has become popular not only in France but in the USA and the UK as well.

Edited November 4, 2006 by Daniel Rogov (log)

[godito]

I don't have the book with me right now, but I read it yesterday and thought about coming in today and replying here.

There's a chart in Culinary Artistry that talks about menu progression (I think)... In there it says that Escoffier (or maybe Careme) calls the in-between plate:

Relevés

I know it's been shut down before, but that's what Dornenburg and Page say about the subject

[paul o' vendange]

I don't have the book with me right now, but I read it yesterday and thought about coming in today and replying here.

There's a chart in Culinary Artistry that talks about menu progression (I think)... In there it says that Escoffier (or maybe Careme) calls the in-between plate:

Relevés

I know it's been shut down before, but that's what Dornenburg and Page say about the subject

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Godito - THANK YOU! Page 228, Culinary Artistry. This, I believe, is where I most recently saw it. And RachelD, apologies, as I do think this was the word, and you mentioned in on page 2 of this thread. Although it sounded exceedingly familiar, it didn't 100% leap out as The One. But I believe this is the word I am thinking of - thank you both.

Collosal brain drop-off, everyone - embarrassing, to say the least - esp. given I use the word a good deal. Much like forgetting the name of a lifelong friend.

Edited November 8, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Well, Paul, I am glad the mystery is resolved and that you can get off your Ambien to sleep through the night!

The word is not one I would have ever come up with and I apologize for confusing it with a ballet term but, even now, when I googled relevés, nothing pertains to food whatsoever ...

see for yourself ...

[paul o' vendange]

   Well, Paul, I am glad the mystery is resolved and that you can get off your Ambien to sleep through the night!

The word is not one I would have ever come up with and I apologize for confusing it with a ballet term but, even now, when I googled relevés, nothing pertains to food whatsoever ... 

see for yourself ...

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Undoubtedly, not in common usage (except, apparently, in my peculiar circle). However,

Relevé food course.

Edited November 8, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Undoubtedly, not in common usage

and, to be quite picky (you think you are the only picky person here?? ), even with your Google results, it was still something which had to be scrounged up to get the meaning ... most of the Google results even under food were not about food ...

It is a highly esoteric term known best only to those who are in circles which interact ... such as in a Venn diagram ... my circle here (educators) ... so there ...

Picky, persnickity Paul ...

[paul o' vendange]

Undoubtedly, not in common usage

and, to be quite picky (you think you are the only picky person here?? ), even with your Google results, it was still something which had to be scrounged up to get the meaning ... most of the Google results even under food were not about food ...

It is a highly esoteric term known best only to those who are in circles which interact ... such as in a Venn diagram ... my circle here (educators) ... so there ...

Picky, persnickity Paul ...

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Well, I don't know if I was picky, as much as going insane - as I used it all the time, as did the many restaurants I worked in L.A. and Chicago. There, the word was quite common, in practice.

Edited November 8, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)