France snapshots – Romans – May 2012

Soooo…. bonjour guys!

It’s been a while indeed! Please forgive my snail pace with regards to writing this blog: this year has been a busy one. But hopefully it will be rewarding with exciting stuff, so stay tuned!

To resume on my French adventures a few months back, after a perfect few days in Marseille, we took the TGV back to my parents’, who live in a little town in the Drôme department. We were pampered and fed lots of good stuff, so much so that I couldn’t face any cheese for a while after that!

We were greeted with a Raclette, for a light start:

The essential ingredients…

Watching the magic happen…

Mmmmhhhh….

Raclette sure hits the spot every time!

The St-Genix brioche… (what’s left of it)

In the morning, I would be treated to my favourite breakfast, a specialty from the area, the Saint Genix: a brioche filled with red sugar-coated pralines, which have melted during the baking: whether dunked in coffee, hot chocolate or on its own, it really is delectable. Despite my best efforts to replicate it at home in Sydney, it never came close to tasting like this!

Quenelles “nature” with creamy tomato sauce

We had the pleasure of eating some Quenelles (kind of big puffy dumplings, specialty from Lyon). They are traditionally seasoned with pike fish, with a sauce made with bisque, but I actually prefer the plain ones, with a simple tomato sauce, miam!

Cheese platter

A stay at my parents’ wouldn’t be complete without a generous cheese platter: Comté, St Marcellin (local cow’s milk), Lou Perac (in the centre, Pyrenees sheep milk), St Bardoux (local goat’s cheese), and a little blue cheese (of which I can’t recall the name), without forgetting the delicious St Félicien pictured below… it’s good to be home!

St Félicien, a little local treasure

Wines from the Rhône Vallée: Croze Hermitage, and Châteauneuf du Pape

My dad made sure we didn’t die of thirst, with these beautiful wines from the Rhône Vallée, which went down a treat.

Tartiflette

Another day, another cheesy dish, which I have described in a more detailed fashion in this post a few months back, the Tartiflette: the perfect association of potatoes, onions and Reblochon cheese.

My mother’s collection of cool pots and dishes from Alsace, mainly

I don’t know if you had the opportunity to watch the BBC series “Raymond Blanc: the Very Hungry Frenchman” on SBS a few weeks back… I LOVED IT!! If you’ve seen the Alsace episode, you will remember a few dishes that were made in the same kind of traditional pots, like the Baeckheoffe, and the Kugelhopf. Well my mother can make these with her eyes closed… just sayin’  

Before leaving Sydney, we were entrusted by my partner’s parents with the mission of treating my parents to a nice restaurant, so we decided on the “Romance des Saisons“, owned by a lovely French-Japanese couple, chef Christophe Beucher and his wife Yuko, in the old part of town. Christophe, who had lived in Japan for a few years, is passionate about fish and bringing a light Japanese touch to traditional French cooking, which he seems to be doing successfully! He even made his own tofu that night especially for my vegetarian partner, which was really thoughtful. Below are a few highlights of the meal.

Starter

Lightly seared Bonito fish

Lamb

Turbot

Green tea brûlée, with sesame tuile and red bean ice-cream: the winner!

Place Puits du Cheval

Thus finished our stay in Romans. It was time to take the TGV again, direction: the gastronomic town by reputation, namely Lyon!

La Romance des Saisons
Place Puits du Cheval
26100 Romans-sur-Isère
Tel: 04 75 05 01 29