For my first post, I dedicate this to my buddies R and O, who I recently traveled with to Provence and Paris with!
R and I spent the first leg of our trip in Provence (Avignon, Marseille, Nice) where we fell in love with French pastries and bread. We had some very memorable meals there. I will now attempt to make you insanely hungry and jealous :).
French coffee is delicious, and I almost prefer it to Italian coffee...my elixir of choice was "cafe creme" mainly because I knew how to order it in French ha!
In Marseille, we had the first of many paninis of our trip - it was grilled to perfection, with just a simple pesto, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.
As we were walking around in Marseille, we stumbled upon a dessert shop where R bought some yummy macaroons. These were in the window display - I'm not sure if there are meringues (first guess) or macaroon mistakes :). The colors were what attracted me though - I have this fascination with unnaturally colored foods. There were also these pretty little parfaits on display - so cute!
One of the stops during our Avignon wine tour was a chocolate factory called Bernard Castelain. Upon entry, we were greeted by this scrumptious tray of chocolates. Being the inquisitive tourist that I am, I asked the lady to tell me what flavor each of the chocolates were :) (unfortunately I cannot repeat them all for you as I don't remember). I picked a hazelnut truffle which was AMAZING. So of course, I bought a whole bag to take home with me.
The food scene is great in Avignon - since we stayed there as our home base, we got to try several of their excellent restaurants during dinner.
One of them was the La Mirande restaurant which is located in the hotel by the same name. Neither R or I were super hungry as it was only our second night there and we were pretty jetlagged. French dinners are long compared to American sit-down meals - at least 2 - 3 hours long. So we were struggling to stay awake over dinner :). I ordered a starter, which was a chicken roulade. The star of the dish was actually the veggies, which were crisp and flavorful and served on top of a jellied stock which was both rich and refreshing at the same time.
We also dined at a tiny little establishment run by the chef/owner and one other employee - unfortunately the name of the restaurant completely escapes me. It was very affordable and the food was great - all prepared in one of the tiniest kitchens I have ever seen!
Appetizer - Baked Camembert cheese with caramelized onions - soooooo yummy. I wish I could eat Camembert cheese everyday and not get fat.
My entree - Cassoulet! After watching an episode of Tony Bourdain where he went on and on about the wonders of a good French cassoulet, I decided I couldn't leave France without trying one. This was a twist on the classic version - chicken and corn and more veggies, served bubbly and creamy in this cute little skillet.
R's entree was the beef carpaccio - I being the raw meat weenie that I am, I did not try this but fully trust that it was delish. It was served with a foie gras mousse.
My dessert - Baked apples and raisins with a banana flavored ice cream. Loved the ice cream, the baked fruit was ok.
R and I passed by our final restaurant when we were exploring our hotel neighborhood, but didn't realize what it was. We were able to get a reservation at Christian Etienne which is one of the top tables in Avignon for our last night there and were very excited :). We both ordered the "Menu du Palais" prix fixe menu which included an appetizer, entree, cheese course and dessert.
But first, the amuse bouche!
Madeline with a red pepper sauce:
My appetizer - Scallops with a buttery, crispy "mushroom cap" crust and sauteed root veggies.
Closeup:
My entree - Saint-pierre John Dory fillet served with a parsley puree and accompanied by pearl barley topped with a sea urchin sauce and fried leeks.
After our main entree, we were served a palate cleanser! This was a first for me and it was a very pleasant and clean tasting milk foam.
Next, dessert! The mini cake tower you see in the center is a green tea (Matcha) and lemon cake. To the right of that is a kumquat sorbet with a sugar wafer, and finally an Earl Grey mousse inside a sugar cookie cone. The Early Grey mousse was very subtle and quite nice. My fav was the kumquat sorbet - so refreshing and yummy!
Then, as if that wasn't enough, we were served another little plate of desserts. The macaroons were green tea flavored which was reminiscent of our dessert, and the marshmallows were very interesting - covered with a tart zingy sugar which reminded me of pop rocks.
And last but not least, our cheese course! They carried over a whole table of cheeses - there were the wonderfully stinky raw milk cheeses, dry sheep's milk cheeses and these lovely chutneys. I had a pepper crusted goat cheese as well as a very dry and tangy sheep's milk cheese served with a cherry jam/chutney. The goat cheese and cherry jam were delicious together.
After Avignon and Marseille, we were off to Nice and the Cote de Azur! After all the fine dining in Avignon, we ate a lot simpler in Nice and feasted on gelato, socca and more pastries.
I fell in love with socca, which is a speciality of Nice. Socca is a savory crepe made of chickpea flour and cooked/baked on a circular copper griddle. It's thick and slightly creamy and served with lots of freshly cracked black pepper. It's served hot and is simply delicious! Here are a couple pictures:
When I came home, I experimented with a couple recipes I found online and was able to produce a decent Socca of my own. This was my first attempt using a crepe pan over the stovetop:
I found however that using a cast iron skillet and baking the socca in the oven produced a much thicker and creamier socca. I will post a picture of my second version soon.
Here is a link to Mark Bittman's socca recipe which I adapted to suit my tastes. I omitted the onion and rosemary as those are not native to the version I had in Nice. You can also add a little more water if the batter is too thick. It is very important to heat the skillet in the oven as it's preheating as it creates the lovely crust that is so key to a good socca.
A few other food pics from Nice:
Gelato - our daily indulgence!! We went to Fennochio's in old town Nice and they had a crazy array of flavors. Sooooo good :).
Apricot and pistachio tart:
Creamy pesto pasta:
After enjoying the beautiful French Riviera, it was off to Paris to meet up with O - but I'll save that for the next post :).
