Not always Champagne and Caviar

Le P'tit Bouchon, Argentat

In a previous post I wrote about the local drink, "Salers-Gentiane".  Here, we are actually tasting it.

Do I have to drink it in one shot?  Oh good, just a little sip at a time.

It smells a little bit like medicine, or cigarette ash...

Oh my goodness, let's not order THAT again!

Come on, it can't be that bad.  The smell IS a bit odd.

How can something SMELL bitter...

 



I see what you mean.  Definitely not nectar of the gods.  I'm sure it's an acquired taste!

So, if we have a taste test between Salers-Gentiane, Kir Royale and Muscat, I know which one I'd pick.

Kir every time!

When we paid our "note", the owners told us they had never acquired a taste for Salers-Gentiane either. 

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Hôtel Fouillade, Argentat

We wandered to this excellent restaurant right after our taste test of various apéritifs.

Smooth autumn soup with a strong asparagus flavour over-riding all else.

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How I loved my salad!  It was quite simple in terms of salad greens and a light vinaigrette, but it was topped with toasted rye bread with some warm goat cheese and a drizzle of honey. (See the little jar on the rim of my plate?)  Oh my stars in heaven!  Delicious!

Karl had a slice of smoked ham, so large it almost took up all the plate!  No skimping here.  They always serve a pat of butter with smoked ham and I'm not sure if it's for the ham or to butter some bread to accompany the ham.  A few olives, a couple of leaves of butter lettuce, and some fried onions.  Karl loves this sort of entrée.

I had a duck leg and thigh in a rich brown gravy and a baked tomato.

Karl had 3 little lamb chops in a different gravy and a baked tomato as well.

We shared a very generous portion of crispy fried potatoes, a local version of French fries, with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.  They  arrived in a copper pot that kept those potatoes hot throughout the entire meal.  SO yummy!

For dessert we both ordered the same thing: a "chocolat moëlleux" with an orange sauce that had a definite hint of Grand Marnier, a rolled cookie, and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.  The chocolat was decorated with a half slice of orange, a raspberry and a mint leaf.

Pretty awesome dinner! 

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Le Tacot, Espagnac

We've eaten here before and it's a wonderful restaurant with a great reputation.  For déjeuner (lunch) it's a "Menu du Jour" which means you eat what is offered.  You can't order "À la carte".

We started off with a beautiful creamy soup with puréed autumn veggies.

 

 

As for the entrée, this is where we were exploring new territory: gastronomy meets anatomy.  But you have to try everything at least once, right?  Maybe not...  I know my cousin Tom would have absolutely loved this dish; he has such an adventurous spirit.

We were served "tête de veau" (calf's head) with a hard-boiled egg, mustard and horse-radish sauce.  Let's allow "The Greasy Spoon" to tell you what this dish is all about:

"If you've never tried it; it's the face of a baby calf, ripped off the bone, wrapped around a tongue, prepared in a bouillon; and then served with the brains on one side of the plate, and a vinaigrette sauce and capers on the other. Appetising, eh?"

I think we were served Sauce Gribiche on the side, although it might have been Sauce Ravigote.  They're both foreign to my taste buds, but I suspect it was the Sauce Gribiche.

"Sauce Gribiche is a mayonnaise-style cold egg sauce in French cuisine, made by emulsifying hard-boiled egg yolks and mustard with a neutral oil like canola or grapeseed. The sauce is finished with chopped pickled cucumbers, capers, parsley, chervil and tarragon. It also includes hard-boiled egg whites cut in a julienne.

Classically, sauce gribiche may be served with boiled chicken, fish (hot or cold), calf's head, tripe,or cold terrine."

I have to re-iterate, this is a pretty schnazzy restaurant, and I suspect the chef put in a lot of hours to prepare this dish.  The boiled "meat", including the tongue, was assembled, topped with small potatoes, and encased in phylo dough, then baked. There were no brains served on top.

I looked at it and remembered our "food misadventure" a few years ago when we had ordered "ris de veau", which turned out to be the sweetbreads, or thymus glands of calves.  What's with these poor little calves that every single part of them is edible!  Well, when MacDonald's says that its burger is 100% beef, maybe one has to interpret that as 100% of the cow is used...

 

When I opened up the little package, I took a long look at the "matter at hand" and felt I was doing a dissection in an anatomy class.  Karl's piece had a definite lateral slice of tongue.

I managed to eat the potatoes, most of the egg sauce, and a tiny bite of the "meat".  I don't think I was mentally prepared for this because the taste revisited me for an entire day.

The guests at other tables, mostly workers who had dropped in for lunch, were absolutely thrilled with this dish!  They figured they had hit the jackpot since, given the time-consuming preparation, this dish is not served every day.  Every single plate went back sparkly clean, big chunks of bread having absorbed every little bit of calf head and sauce.  I think we could have easily passed on our unfinished plates to these guests and they would have been very appreciative.

On to the rest of the meal.

This was chicken, not duck, in a curcumin sauce.  (Think turmeric or curry.)  It was awesome!  Served with potatoes and zucchini.

Some of our favourite cheese:  Cantal and Salers.  Don't care too much for the blue cheese, but two out of three isn't bad!

The most amazing fig pie.  The figs were set in a small custard on top of a flaky crust with powdered sugar on top and a scoop of ice-cream on the side.

 

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Karl thinks this year's blog may be too upbeat overall and give a false impression that everything is always peachy.  I hope this posting will indicate that although we taste and try everything that comes our way, we don't always give it our stamp of approval.  Despite France's reputation for having some of the best gastronomy, there are certain dishes that just fall short, at least to our uninitiated palate.

 

 

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