Category Archives: Travel

Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh – January 2011

Posted on January 10, 2012 | 4 Comments

Here we are, almost landing in Ho Chi Minh City (still widely called Saigon by most of the population). We have to go through a thick cloud of pollution to start seeing the city from above, it’s quite impressive!

We get a taxi to our hotel, the An An I Hotel, ideally located at the heart of the backpacking district on Bui Vien, and which was perfectly pleasant, with a huge air-conditioned room and an unbeatable view on the all the action down below. The staff were also very friendly and helpful.

We took a first walk in the crazy traffic to get ourselves a nice Banh Mi, a great sandwich roll made using a pretty soft and airy, but still a bit crunchy baguette, pork sausage, pork liver pâté, or cheese (the “Laughing Cow” type), lots of fresh herbs like coriander, and julienned cucumber, carrots… it really hit the spot!

Banh Mi vendor

Another one of our great pleasures was to drink Vietnamese iced coffee whenever we could, it was so refreshing, strong and sweet, yum! I loved the ritual of having to wait for the thick coffee liquid to slowly go through the filter placed on top of a cup. Once that was done, we poured the coffee into a glass filled with ice cubes and condensed milk, stirred it and enjoyed. We bought two of these coffee filtering devices to make our own at home, but alas, didn’t taste anything like the real thing!

Vietnamese coffee ritual

I also was on my great Pho mission, and one morning I thought I had found it in an dark and run down alley near our hotel, where a lonely stall was minded by a gruff man. I couldn’t see any tourists… nor could I see many locals for that matter, which should have given me a hint. But noooo! Despite his misgivings, I dragged the boyfriend in the alley for him to sit and wait while I was finally having my real Pho experience.

It didn’t look bad, but now I understand why the man added so much pepper on the soup. The broth was really tasteless, and the beef strips were not too inspiring either. It actually put me off and I couldn’t eat half of it! Maybe I wasn’t quite ready for some Pho first thing in the morning either…

That meant the quest for Pho was still on!

We continued our walk on Pham Ngu Lao towards the Thai Binh markets, a labyrinth of stalls packed together with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, animals dead or alive… it was pretty hectic!

Frogs available…

… in all kinds of state

Huge slabs of tofu

After all that market fun, we decided to have a more relaxing activity and made our way to the Vietnamese Institute for Traditional Massage, run by HCMC Blind Association. I’ve often heard of how blind people give better massages as they are more attuned to their sense of touch and could find more easily the sore spots of the patient.

Once our very cheap tickets were paid at the school reception, the boyfriend got invited by a man to follow him into a room, while I was led to another room by a young woman, who instructed me to lie on the massage table. She then proceeded to pummel me with a rhythmic precision! To this day I still have the “massage” pattern in my head: seven pummels, three times in a row, punctuated by three harder hits “Bam Bam Bam!”. It went on like this for the whole hour, with a particular insistence on my cranium (that girl clearly didn’t like me!), all the while she was talking and laughing with her friend on the other side of the partition. It hurt… not relaxing at all! M. was luckier and was pretty happy with his masseur.

Ho Chi Minh Blind Association
185 Cong Quynh St. D. 1

We then walked around in the Cathedral area and had lunch at a quite well-known place, the Ngon Restaurant, which was recreating a street food vending market, with lots of stalls selling different kinds of dishes inside the restaurant.

Bánh Xèo

M. chose a yummy vegetarian Banh Xeo, the renowned savoury crêpe filled with fresh herbs, tofu, carrots, bean sprouts (and usually pork and prawns).

Sugar cane prawns sticks to roll 

I chose the Sugarcane prawns sticks, which you then roll in wetted rice paper with herbs and rice noodles. They were pretty nice, but I was deceived as I thought I ordered whole prawns! I make the same mistake all the time! I always forget that sugarcane prawns are a kind of prawn paste, tss tss…

Ngon Restaurant
138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street
District 1

We spent the rest of the day walking around the Cathedral, the Post Office and drinking more iced-coffee…

The Post Office

The following day we found it!!! That’s right, we found the Perfect Pho!
We were walking around Pasteur Street and decided to try a Pho shop recommended by our guide book: Pho Hoa Pasteur.

We were comforted to see many locals eating there and the house was full! We were led to a room at the back and the efficient waiter handed us a menu with all the Pho combinations. M. was prepared for the possibility that once again he would have to wait and watch me eat, but they did have a vegetarian soup, which was a relief for both of us!

I ordered a simple Pho Tai (same as Pho Bo?), with raw beef slices (no tendons or tripes for me… I’m not that adventurous), and soon after, the soups arrived with a basket of Chinese fried bread sticks (“Youtiao”), which, after watching how the other customers used it, we broke into pieces in the soup.

Youtiao – Chinese fried bread sticks

It was simply the best Pho I’ve had in my short Pho experience. The broth was delicious, flavoursome and light, the beef strips tender, the rice noodles not too cooked, the herbs garnish fresh, and that bread! Looooooved the fried bread!!

M. loved his soup too, so much so that he managed to squeeze another one just before his flight… without me!!! Very jealous….

We were in a state of Pho bliss after that, and so full… we just dragged ourselves to walk a bit more in the area, managed to fit in another iced-coffee and made it back to the hotel to have a bit of a rest before dinner.

Pho Hoa Pasteur
260C Pasteur Street
Ho Chi Minh City

In hindsight, we should have just gone back there for our last dinner. But instead, still basking in the memory of my superb dinner at Hanoi’s Green Tangerine, I decided to try a French bistro located in the Institute for French Cultural Studies, “Le Jardin”, hidden in the side of the building, not visible from the street and not easy to find.

We had Goats cheese salad, Pasta with a creamy cheesy sauce, Veal schnitzel with mushrooms and potatoes, and of course for dessert, Chocolate Profiterolles! It wasn’t the final cherry on my holiday cake I was hoping for: the food was alright, but nothing to write home about… We left not that impressed and took a taxi back to our hotel… or so we thought!

Our taxi driver had decided to take us for a ride, figuratively, choosing on purpose longer routes and making big loops… we aren’t the confronting type, so we didn’t say anything until the driver clearly turned right instead of left to our hotel, and then we protested! The driver, caught in act, stopped the car and just giggled at us. We didn’t give him any tip… so there!

This average evening didn’t end there for me: I woke up in the middle of the night completely sick from both ends, and it didn’t seem to want to stop! I had to go to the airport a couple of hours after and I’m still not sure how I made it, maybe the sheer willpower not to inflict anything bad on this poor taxi driver, who hadn’t done anything to me, him!

And on this charming note my Vietnam holiday came to an end… I certainly do want to go back there and visit all the beautiful areas I missed out on: more of Hanoi and HCM, the old royal citadel in Hue, the eery and beautiful Halong Bay, visit the Mekong Delta… So this is only an “Au revoir Vietnam!”

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Vietnam Part 2 – Phu Quoc Island – Jan 2011

Posted on December 30, 2011 | 6 Comments

Phu Quoc Island – Long Beach

After our very brief stay in Hanoi, we flew to Ho Chi Minh, then took another small plane to Phu Quoc Island for our much anticipated beach holiday…

It was funny to see the island from the sky and try to picture our plane landing on that tiny landing strip, but we did it! We were then driven to our resort which was on the West Coast (Long Beach / Duong Dong Town). The resort was pretty nice, the Vietnamese/French food was ok, but we tried to go to different places every day.

The day would invariably start with a breakfast of pineapple pancakes and fruit platter.

After lazying on the beach and reading, we would take walks along the coast and swim some more, then think about food… We got used to doing nothing much very quickly!

I tried to make the most of the fish and seafood available and often had grilled fish for dinner, simply barcecued on the beach, yum!

Grilled Pork skewers

I also gave in to my obsession with vietnamese rolls: those grilled pork skewers I had at the markets went down very nicely!

Coconut juice was a great way to stay hydrated, nothing like it to quench a not well-earned thirst!

Profiterolles with Vanilla ice-cream and chocolate were a pretty common sight on French/Vietnamese restaurant menus and we also made the most of it, ordering them every night!

They also served humongous doses of Cognac, which was quite exciting. One night people from a neighbouring table noticed our generous glasses and enthusiastically decided to order some Cognac too. They ended up not being able to finish it, and more often than not, neither could we! We found out there’s a reason why bartenders usually serve Cognac using tiny little measuring glasses.

We also visited the Night Markets, where we could admire all the fish, seafood and other unusual molluscs.

Fish aplenty

Calamari

Cat Food at the markets!

If anyone knows what it really means, please do tell!

Beautiful sea snails and other yummy sea creatures…

Striking Melo Melo sea snails (or Zebra or Bailer snails)

As we walked past a fancy resort one day (La Veranda from the Mercure Group), we saw that they had organized for the same evening a torch-lit BBQ  / buffet on the beach. It wasn’t cheap, compared to the meals we’ve had so far on the island, but what the hell, we were on holiday, and it was my birthday just a few days before… good enough an excuse!

We first took an aperitif on the hotel veranda, then were invited to make our way to the beach, where immaculate white-clothed tables were awaiting us.

Everything was lit with candles and torches, which conferred to the night a very romantic atmosphere… that is to say, until a diner at the table next to ours started farting loudly, without even an ounce of embarrassment ever showing on his face. He actually looked pretty content, and kept at it all evening… That sure gave us a good chuckle!

It didn’t put me off my mission though and I soon headed to the buffet, which displayed such a vast array of fish and seafood, that I didn’t know where to start! I had my eyes on the scallops with butter and herbs, the prawns, the crabs…. argh! Too much to bear.

Seafood smorgasbord

It was a very selfless act from my vegetarian boyfriend to take me there for dinner, when I think of it!

An example of how not to use your flash

Luckily for him there were a few salads, as well as a huge dessert buffet, with a lot of little verrines containing crème brûlées, chocolate mousses, crèmes caramel… Too bad I was so full already, I only got to have two serves!

And so a week passed like this, of good food, swims, reading, sunsets, and it was already time to pack up and take the little plane back to Ho Chi Minh City, where we were to spend the last two days of our Vietnam holiday…

I was sad, but at the same time pretty excited, as I felt I didn’t experience nearly enough of Hanoi and I was dead set on making the most of Ho Chi Minh City and at last, looking for some really good Pho!

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Vietnam Part 1 – Hanoi – Jan 2011

Posted on December 28, 2011 | 3 Comments

St. Joseph’s Cathedral

I know I know, it’s been almost a year since my trip to France and Vietnam, but I only just got around to start looking through and sorting out all my Vietnam pictures!

Every time I plan for a holiday, I am torn between visiting my family and friends in the homeland, and travelling to new exotic places, where I can just sit on my “derrière” and drink cocktails on the beach.

That is why last year I decided to do both! Two weeks in France and two weeks in Vietnam: perfect! Yeees, not that perfect in the end, both were too short! Tough life…

So the plan was to spend a few days in Hanoi, then fly to Phu Quoc Island, stay there for a week and fly back to Ho Chi Minh City to visit for a couple more days.

My boyfriend, who had been travelling in the country for a few weeks already, picked me up at the airport from my Paris flight and showed me around the main sights, like the French Quarter and the Saint Joseph Cathedral, reminiscent of the city’s now distant French colonial past.

I was a bit annoyed I had to carry around all my winter clothes I had packed for France, but in the end I was very grateful for my coat, it was pretty cold in Hanoi!


Ly Thai To (founder of Hanoi) monument, near Hồ Hoàn Kiếm Lake

I had read about how crossing the streets could be a real mission in Vietnam, as there are basically no rules, no lights, no pedestrian crossings… it’s every man for himself! You just have to go for it like a blind person and pray for the thousands of scooters coming right at you to know what they’re doing! (There are even a few videos on YouTube that will give you an idea)

I was a bit nervous about it at first, but later on in Ho Chi Minh I even crossed the street by myself without getting killed: for a distracted and clumsy person like myself, it’s quite a feat!

We then walked around the Hồ Hoàn Kiếm Lake, in the cultural and historical area, which has a very romantic atmosphere, with its littles bridges, flowers and old trees.


For our only evening in Hanoi, M. decided to take me to a nice restaurant he had spotted earlier in the Old Quarter, Green Tangerine, which had also been strongly recommended by a fellow blogger Noodlies. The restaurant was set in a most charming old building, and offered a French cuisine with a Vietnamese twist, which makes sense as French Chef Stéphane Yvin runs the kitchen together with his Vietnamese wife Tin.

Green Tangerine courtyard (Photo Credit: Green Tangerine’s website)

As soon as we stepped in the cute courtyard and entrance, we were transported into another era. I almost felt like Catherine Deneuve in “Indochine“, a movie set in French colonial Indochina in the 1930′s.

Inside, the decorations, lamps, pictures on the walls reinforced the colonial feel, and the peaceful atmosphere offered a welcome reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the Hanoi streets.

Fig tempura stuffed with goat cheese, bacon, nuts and grape presented on Vietnamese spices bread.

Some of the dishes I don’t remember quite well, such as this Fig Tempura stuffed with Goat’s cheese…

Profiterolles stuffed with iced parmesan yoghurt on a layer of onion mixed with galangal root cooked in red wine

…. as well as those savoury Profiterolles….

Duck breast crusted with Vietnamese herbs, slices of fried lotus roots stuffed with mashed water spinach and bruschetta, “Ca Bung” sauce (aubergine in saffron and 5 Vietnamese spices)

However I do remember the Duck dish very well: it was delicious!!! It was superbly cooked and had such interesting and new flavour combinations, with the Vietnamese herbs and the “Ca Bung” sauce… pretty unusual and very pleasant!

Nem vegetarian raviolis served with a pistou and parmesan mousse

M. was equally impressed with his vegetarian ravioli and the whole meal in general. All the dishes were very nicely plated and decorated, and the food was fantastic, probably very expensive by Vietnamese standards, but quite cheap compared to Sydney’s French restaurants in Sydney.

Unfortunately, that’s all we had time to do in Hanoi, we had to get up the next day at stupid o’clock to go to the airport and take a plane to Phu Quoc, an postcard-like island located in the far South-Western side of the country (off the Cambodian coast), where hopefully warmer temperatures would welcome us!

Green Tangerine
Address: 48 Hang Be Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Tel: (04) 3825 1286 – Fax: (04) 38289167.

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Autumn Farm Tour with Food Connect

Posted on August 8, 2011 | 4 Comments

Earlier this year I noticed a new supplier had moved just across the road from our office, into the same building as Martin Seafoods and Feather & Bone. It turns out it was a food cooperative aptly named Food Connect, linking regional growers directly with city people wanding fresh, organic and chemical-free fruit and vegetables.

Laura Dalrymple from Feather & Bone suggested to the Food Connect team to set up their operation there, as they shared the same vision, and hoped that together they would form a sustainable food hub. (A biodynamic wine supplier has recently moved in as well.)

Food Connect is based on the principle of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), by sourcing fresh produce from local farmers only and distributing it directly to the consumer, in various city locations run by their “city cousins” (often their own houses). Then once a week or fortnight, coop members come to pick up their box which contains an assortment of seasonal fruits, vegetables, sometimes with eggs and bread.

When I saw a few weeks back on their website that they were organising a Farm Tour the following day, I decided to join, thinking it would be a good occasion to see for myself what it was all about, as well as a great opportunity to  get out of town and breathe some fresh country air!

The lovely Amber from Food Connect had arranged a ride for me and that is how I found myself the following morning in Summer Hill, freshly debarked from a CityRail bus/train, and therefore late (thank you week-end track works!), to meet with my ride and her friend.

The first stop of our journey is a 5-acre organic farm, Lin’s Organic Produce, located in Londonberry. Our group of about 35 is greeted by Belinda, who runs the farm together with her husband, and May, who handles all the communication side of the business, as Malaysia-born Belinda is not confident with her English. They produce all sorts of vegetable like lettuce, kale, fennel, sprouts and citrus fruits such as the huge pomelo oranges hanging from the trees at the front of the farm.

Farmers Belinda & May with Food Connect Coordinator Julian

May explains how organic farming is a difficult business as the organic fertilisers and pesticides used for it are very expensive and the yield is much less than in a regular farm. For instance, one pesticide they use is about $700 for 120g and she says that it is why organic is so expensive.

“I told my son to find another job!” she says, as she doesn’t want him to know the uncertainty and unsteady incomes they experience on the farm. He is now a truck driver, she says.

However she says for all the hardships of this lifestyle, Belinda still much prefers organic farming in order to produce better food, as well as for environmental reasons.

Pumpkin Fritters, yum!

After a chat around a cup of tea and snacks of fried battered pumpkin and fresh pieces of fruit, it is time for the group of members and non-members to get back in their car the second part of the tour, Swallow Rocks Organics, an organic potato and free-range pig farm located in Ebenezer ever 48 acres, a bit further north in the Hawkesbury region.

Ian, Julian and Sue

Ian MacGregor, newly arrived at the farm by Matt and Sue, used to work on the African Refugee Farming Project at Mamre Farm in Sydney West, as well as for Food Connect as a produce coordinator.


Doggie & Kiddie 


Organic Garlic

We sort out the garlic and choose the smallest cloves to replant them, then Ian takes us through the field to show us how to plant garlic, and put us all to work, under the watchful eyes of Lucie the labrador.


Garlic planting

We are all give a little bag of garlic cloves to plant and it’s quite fun! (Wouldn’t like to do it all day though!)

Sue Simmons, whose husband Matt is at the Eveleigh Markets for the day, takes us to the second part of their farm, producing free-range pork.

Five piglets are roaming free in the paddock, as their mothers are snuffling the ground and scratching their massive bodies against slabs of concrete, provoking a cloud of dust dancing in the afternoon sunlight. One of the piglets tries to join its mother, its little ears flapping away as it toddles along, but she wants none of it and kicks it away. The rejected piglet lets out a shriek and runs towards the fence, from where we are all watching the scene.

Pigs can easily catch human colds, so we are invited to stand a bit further back. To protect the pigs against another threat, foxes, Matt and Sue have found a really simple but efficient solution: lights which turn themselves on automatically at night time, an Australian invention. There is nothing they can do during day time though, and some young foxes still manage to sneak in the paddock… to play with the piglets!

Sue points out to the next paddock, a potato field. After harvest, pigs will be let loose to clean out the leftover potatoes, an organic way to get rid of the pest like nut grass, which the pigs are crazy for. Sue says that they have a huge demand for organic potatoes and that they wish they could grow more.

The group then goes to a beautiful natural picnic area, with a view on the cliffs and the river, where a few months ago two Masterchef contestants were watching chef Colin Fassnidge demonstrate various ways of using Matt and Sue’s organic potatoes (episode here). While the visitors unwind with their picnic, Teale, one of Matt and Sue’s four children, does the rounds with packs of fresh garlic and organic macadamia nuts, a few of which he had previously cracked for everyone to taste.

Macadamia Nuts

The talk around the table revolves around food: subscribers of the food boxes explain the not-yet members how they enjoy the challenge of thinking about how they will use the fruit and vegetables they receive. A young Spanish man talks about the various recipes he’s had to come up with using spinach, which his French girlfriend usually hates, but has come around to like as a result!

That’s another advantage according to Julian Lee, Food Connect’s Enterprise Coordinator, as subscribers tend to increase substantially their fruit and vegetable intake once they start receiving their boxes.

Julian Lee used to be an organic farmer a few years back in Singleton, as he wanted to see for himself how to make an organic farm viable. He saw that not many farmers believed in organic farming: “Most farmers were saying that organics was either a lie or impossible to achieve.” He was inspired by what he learned at a Slow Food conference in Italy and when he returned, he saw in Food Connect in Brisbane run by Robert Pekin a new opportunity “based on respect and fairness” and decided to apply this idea to Sydney.

He describes the cooperative as a Social Enterprise, “a new way of doing business”, which combines the best of a non-profit organisation and the best of a business: it allows the enterprise to be self-supporting and not to depend on grants or fundings. The difference with a regular business is that the profit made goes towards a social outcome: pay the farmers a fair price, support local agriculture and provide good food. Julian says that the current system is extremely hard on the farmers, as the big supermarkets can pay the farmers as little as 5 cents for $1 worth of food bought by the end consumer: “We give them 40 cents in every dollar.”

Julian Lee sees the future of the cooperative as “big and rosy”. They already count 350 members, but “the more people come to us, the more they support local farmers, and the more they support sustainable and healthy food and help build the communities.”

Farm Tour was $10 for adults, $5 for children.

Food Connect Sydney
3/2-8 Parsons Street, Rozelle, NSW 2039
Ph: (02) 8094 1882
http://sydney.foodconnect.com.au/

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Le 7, par Anne-Sophie Pic – Valence

Posted on April 29, 2011 | 6 Comments

My French holiday back in December was the occasion to catch up with some very good friends from my uni years, who were also in town to see their families. We decided to have lunch at “Le 7″, the bistro version of the world renowned 3-star restaurant La Maison Pic, Valence, in the Rhône-Alpes region.

The number “7″ refers to the famous Route Nationale 7, also named  ”La Route bleue” (The Blue Road) or “La Route des vacances” (The Holiday Road).

At the height of its glory, the RN7 ran over 1004km, starting from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the “Zero point” for all French roads, down to Menton near the Italian border, via Lyon, Nice and Cannes. Even though it has now been replaced with much more efficient highways and motorways, RN7 still evokes a certain nostalgia: the first paid holidays (1936), the first individual cars (50′s), visions of endless traffic jams as the whole French population seemed to be driving down to the Côte d’Azur every summer… happy times!

Many RN7 nostalgics have created associations and clubs to keep intact its memory by organising memorabilia fairs, vintage cars events, even re-enactments of the traffic jams in the fifties and sixties! There are also board games, touristic tours, photography books, all dedicated to the Route nationale.

“Nationale 7″ by Charles Trenet – 1959

“Le 7″ Bistrot was opened in 2006 as an homage to the famous restaurants that could be found along the RN7, such as “La Côte d’Or” in Bourgogne, “Les Trois Gros” in Roanne, “La Mère Brazier” and “Bocuse” in Lyon and “La Pyramide” in Vienne and among them of course “La Maison Pic” in Valence.

“Le 7″ and “La Maison Pic” are both run by Anne-Sophie Pic, recently named the World’s Best Female Chef by San Pellegrino in its 2011 World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards. She is also the first female chef to obtain the coveted 3 Michelin stars in 2007, thus perpetuating the family tradition, as the accolade was won by her father and her grandfather before her.

“La Maison Pic” was founded in 1936 by André Pic, but the restaurant already existed as “L’Auberge du Pin” as far back as 1891,when it was run by his mother Sophie. He got the restaurant its first 3 Michelin stars in 1934, and his son Jacques repeated the exploit in 1973.

Anne-Sophie, Jacques’ daughter, first chose to study business management, then travelled the world and worked for luxury brands like Cartier and Moët & Chandon. At age 22, she decided her life was in the restaurant kitchen and started an apprenticeship with her father. Unfortunately he died of an aneurysm shortly after, in 1992. She soon left the kitchen for the administrative side of the business, not feeling at ease in the awkward position of “boss/apprentice”. Her brother Alain moved on to another venture a few years later, leaving Anne-Sophie the sole manager. In 1995 she married David Sinapian and together, David at the management and Anne-Sophie back in the kitchen, they worked tirelessly to infuse a new life into the restaurant and bring its 3rd Michelin star lost in 1995.

In 2007, she finally regained the 3rd Michelin star, thus becoming the 4th woman in France to obtain 3 stars.

The Bistrot 7 adds yet another stone to the Pic empire, comprising of the Pic hotel & restaurant, Pic consulting, the e-store, the cookbook, Pic cooking classes, seminars and the Pic foundation..!

Le 7, Bistrot chic

We arrived at “Le 7″ for lunch in a reasonably packed dining room, after walking past the original restaurant next door and marvelling at the 8-course 330€ (AU$450) degustation menu, including a Sea Bass covered in caviar (Jacques Pic’s signature dish, kept on the menu ever since its creation in 1971).

After considering our options, my friend and her partner both chose the set lunch menu at 29€ and my other friend and I chose from the A-la-Carte menu, as we both found the Confit Rabbit Ravioli entree and the Duck main too appealing to refuse. We were then offered complimentary Beetroot dips with bread, which were pretty pleasant.

We all agreed on ordering a 2008 Saint-Joseph, made out of shiraz (“syrah”) grapes and produced a bit further north in the Rhône Valley.  On the Gault & Millau‘s website, it is described as powerful, tannic, fruity, spicy, tasting of blackcurrant, blueberry and violet… which sounds about right!

Game “Caillette” with quince poached in red wine and onion pickle

My friends seemed to enjoy the game terrine from the set menu very much (pictured above).

Ravioles of Rabbit confit with tarragon carrots and mustard jus

The Rabbit Ravioles didn’t taste quite as I had fantasized when I read the menu description, but they were nonetheless very good, the raviole dough was nice and ferm and… there was enough butter!

Fine farce of fish and squid with melted leek and lemongrass emulsion

The above dish was also part of the set menu and my friend enjoyed it immensely, saying it was fresh, light and subtil… I was a bit jealous.

Free-range chicken leg, buttered in cabbage, chestnut & lardon and jus court

Her man seemed also pretty happy with his chicken dish.

Duck breast with home-made tagliatelle and apples

Duck breast with home-made tagliatelle and apples

Both my friend and I were impressed with the generous portion of Duck breast on our plate, it was going to be a mouthful! Not surprisingly I did struggle a bit to finish, but it was very good, the duck breast was cooked to perfection, although I would have appreciated a bit more “jus”, or sauce, to go with it. The caramelised apple quarters brought a nice sweet touch, but I think I still prefer the classic duck and orange combination… (yep, I have very conservative tastes!)

Paris-Brest, with caramelised apple puree and green apple sorbet

I know I said I could barely finish my plate, but I still decided I would have some dessert… so there! I didn’t choose the lightest dessert either, the Paris-Brest being a choux pastry filled with a praline flavoured pastry cream, it’s pretty heavy! But that one went down a treat, the choux pastry was light and airy and the apple puree cream was just delicious… I didn’t regret this little indulgence.

Caraïbes chocolate & praline with orange sorbet

My friend’s partner decides to accompany me so that I don’t feel too lonely eating my dessert… looks like it wasn’t such a sacrifice for him, that chocolate and praline dessert also looked pretty good!

Little gourmandises to eat with the coffee

On the whole, a very pleasant meal and an affordable way to discover Anne-Sophie Pic’s world. Well worth straying from the motorway for a gastronomic drive along the RN7!


Anne Sophie Pic portrait

Le 7 Bistrot
MAISON PIC
285 avenue Victor Hugo
26000 VALENCE – DRÔME
Ph. +33 4 75 44 15 32 – Fax +33 4 75 40 96 03

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Christmas in Romans

Posted on April 4, 2011 | 9 Comments

Romans-sur-Isère, Drôme

In between several “Bûches de Noël” evoked in my previous post, many delicious dishes were shared during the week of feasting at my parents’ place in the Rhône-Alpes region of France.


Some frog legs we spotted when we picked up our oyster platter…

We started with some fresh oysters on Christmas Eve, which is usually more important in France than Christmas Day lunch (this one was low-key though, as there were still only a few of us). The oysters were accompanied with a few drops of lemon juice, which for me is the best way to eat them, except maybe with an eschalot vinaigrette. We also had scallops, which I omitted to photograph, cooked in a creamy sauce, then a lot of cheese and of course the Chocolate Bûche my mother had made (see previous post).

Oyster platter

On Christmas Day we had a bit of a drama as we had to wait for what seemed like an eternity at Valence TGV train station, a huge windy freezing place in the middle of nowhere, while my sister and her two tired and hungry kids were blocked for an extra 3 hours in the train due to the weather conditions (snow, freeze…). It actually wasn’t too bad, compared to other parts of France: a few days later, hundreds of travellers got stuck for 26 hours (!!!) in a train from Strasbourg to Nice… Aaaaaaaah, the joys of train travel!

Meanwhile at home, some guests (I won’t say who ;-) had started on the “apéro” to pass the time and as a result were starting to be a bit tipsy by the time we came back! It was well past 5pm when we finally sat down to lunch, everyone was starving and we just demolished the food!

Duck Foie Gras

We started with a bit of Foie Gras, eaten with slightly toasted bread, followed by the traditional “Dinde aux marrons” (Turkey with chestnuts).

My mum was a bit worried that the turkey would end up being too dry, having stayed in the oven much longer than planned and then out on the kitchen table for a while longer, but it was just perfectly cooked! A little Christmas miracle  ;-)  It was stuffed with chestnuts and accompanied with a stew of chestnuts & apricots, an unusual but pleasant combination, and green beans and potatoes… and gravy, lots of it! Simply delicious.

Dinde aux marrons – Turkey with chestnuts

We then moved on to the cheeses… My cousin had set herself the mission to bring me the smelliest cheeses she could find, assuming Australian cheeses must be pretty bland and that I would crave a good authentic French stinker! She brought the two babies below, probably the smelliest cheeses I have ever encountered! There actually was a third cheese she had bought that we had to throw away, even she couldn’t eat it… and she has a very high smelly cheese threshold!


Crumbed camembert marinated in Calvados

The Camembert marinated in Calvados and covered in bread crumbs sounded really interesting, but at the risk of being branded a wuss, I have to admit it was too strong for me… But I’m half Australian after all, so that can explain! ;-)

Époisses

This one was a pretty far gone Époisses, though I found that if I stayed clear of the crust, it was still quite enjoyable with a robust glass of wine!


Saint Félicien

The above cheese was my favourite of them all: Saint Félicien, which is of the same family as Saint Marcellin. They are from the same region, the Dauphiné, both made from raw cow milk, but the Saint-Félicien is fattier and creamier, mmmmmh……

Vacherin du Haut Doubs

We were also spoilt with some Vacherin du Haut-Doubs (where I was born), very nice and smelly but not overly so. That is the kind of cheese in which you dig a hole, pour some white wine into it, leave in the oven and eat later with a spoon… but we didn’t do that this time, we were quite content to just spread it on some nice Campaillette, an artisan baguette from one of the most popular bakeries in town, la Boulangerie Bédouin. My mother used to send me there to get the bread when I was a kid, and my big pleasure was to tear a big chunk from the still warm baguette and eat it on the way home. By the time I was coming back, half of it would have been eaten…  my mother was not impressed!


Campaillette baguette

I took a few snaps of nice cheeses when we were out buying our baguettes…


More Saint-Félicien cheeses (we bought the one on the right)

The Saint-Félicien cheese on the left is called “Tentation” (Temptation), because it contains even more cream than the regular one (70% fat)! Ouch, my cholesterol… At the back, a beautiful Brie de Meaux, still young and a bit crumbly in the centre and runny on the edges, which is how I like it…

Morteau Sausage with lentils

I also got to eat some nice Morteau Sausage for my birthday lunch. “Saucisse de Morteau” is a pretty strong flavoured sausage from the Jura Mountain (my birth place). It is really delicious, served hot with a mixture of lentils, carrots and a bit of speck… I had to restrain myself to not help myself a third time!

Fresh ravioles

Another item on my list were my beloved Ravioles de Romans, a type of small ravioli filled with Comté, fromage blanc, eggs, parsley, butter and salt. They are delicious just quickly boiled and sprinkled with grated cheese, or “au gratin”, as I could have shown you, had my camera reflex been quicker than that of my stomach!

However, I am determined, one day, to make some at home myself, thanks to a cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas entirely dedicated to Ravioles. So stay tuned, because as soon as I receive my little mould from France, I will go wild on the ravioles!

Fresh quenelles

Also on the list were Quenelles, oval-shaped dumplings made out of fish (mostly pike) or chicken paste and bound with egg.  The ones made out of pike, “Quenelles de Brochet“, are a specialty of Lyon and Nantua. You can also find vegetarian plain ones, as pictured above, which were cooked in a creamy tomato sauce.

They really expand during cooking, which makes them quite light and airy.

Quenelles baked in tomato sauce

Like the ravioles, I will explore the subject further in a future post and try to make them myself… I’m gonna be a busy bee!

Chocolate Quenelle

Here is another type of Quenelle, sweet this time, and a specialty from Lyon Chocolate maker, Voisin Chocolatier. It consists of a soft hazelnut praliné covered with a fine layer of white chocolate.

Coussin de Lyon

The fine piece of confectionery above is called Coussin de Lyon, in English, Pillow of Lyon. As the name suggests, they are another Lyon specialty  and are made exclusively by Voisin Chocolatier. It is made out of a soft dark chocolate ganache centre flavoured with Curacao coated in an emerald green almond paste/marzipan layer. It was shaped like a pillow to evoke a silk cushion, as Lyon was very renowned for its silk industry.

Batna lollies

Kréma’s Batna is a soft and creamy lolly tasting like a mix of caramel and liquorice, another one of my all time childhood favourites. Our parents used to like them too, as they used to keep us quiet at the back of the car on the long hard road to summer holidays. I could eat a lot of them in a row… and I still do!

(Yes, that is glittery polish you can see on my nails, I was fully immersed in the Christmas spirit).

Calissons de Provence

Calissons d’Aix are made from an almond & candied melon/orange paste, shaped like an almond and coated with white icing, they are a specialty from Provence region. These ones were sprinkled with gold and silver powder for the festive season. Apparently the word “Calisson” would come from the Provencal dialect “câlin’, meaning “hug”… pretty cute!

Bugnes

These were made by my friend’s mum, Solange, and we call them Bugnes. They are more commonly known in Australia by their Italian name, Crostoli. Ideal with afternoon tea!

Valrhona dark chocolate

We will finish with a bit of Valrhona chocolate, one of the best, if not the best chocolate in the world. I like the shape of the chocolate “squares”, you can choose whether you feel like a small or bigger piece. I recently watched a documentary called “Les Toqués du chocolat”, where you could follow the life of several chocolate specialists, including Vanessa Lemoine, a “nose”, or Sensorial Analysis Manager at Valrhona, who works with chocolate as an oenologist would with wine, it was quite fascinating. You can see this documentary (unfortunately in French only) on Christophe Michalak’s website.

Voilà! I hope I didn’t try to squeeze too much into the one post and that you enjoyed this glimpse into my French Christmas, à bientôt!

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La Bûche de Noël (Christmas Log)

Posted on March 18, 2011 | 10 Comments

Bonjour tout le monde!

Sorry for neglecting the blog so long, so much to do since I came back from my French & Vietnamese holiday, including moving houses, which is never fun and leaves you internet-less for several weeks!

I am aware that we are fast approaching Easter now, but it would be a pity not to mention my French Christmas and our very own Christmas puddings: the Christmas Log or Yule Log, as I have also seen it written many times. A French Christmas without a Bûche de Noël is not a real Christmas!


Bûches de Noël in the window display of Pâtisserie Guillet, Romans-sur-Isère

The log refers to the wood log burning in the hearth of the homes in Europe during the winter pagan festivities and was later fully included in the Christmas tradition. It was a celebration of the fire, so vital during those cold winter months. On Christmas Eve, a big log of hard wood would be brought back to the home with ceremony, would be placed into the fireplace and sprinkled with oil, salt and mulled wine while prayers were said. The log was then lit with firebrands from the previous year’s log. The log’s ashes were said to protect the home from the evil and thunderbolt. This tradition goes back the 12th century and could be found in most European countries, including France and Italy, up to the end of the 19th.  The tradition died out when fireplaces were replaced with cast iron stoves, and smaller logs were then placed on the tables at Christmas as decorations.


Bûches de Noël from Pâtisserie Guillet, Romans-sur-Isère

These days the logs are edible, mostly consisting of a sponge cake coated with chocolate butter then rolled and coated again with more chocolate butter, streaked with a fork to give it the appearance of the tree bark groves and decorated with kitsch little gnomes, mushrooms and axes!


Bûche glacée au chocolat (store-bought)

You can however find numerous different versions of the bûche: iced or not, chocolate or fruit-based, with as many flavours as you can think of!


Bûche glacée “Vercors”, Pâtisserie Guillet

The above bûche was bought from my parents’ local pâtisserie, Guillet, Maître Chocolatier, considered the best in town. They are particularly renowned for their “Vercors” ice-cream, a decadent combination of caramel, dark chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, named after the region’s beautiful mountain range. This ice-cream was on the top of the list I gave my mum of the things I really wanted to eat for Christmas, utterly delicious!


Bûche glacée “Vercors”, Pâtisserie Guillet

The day after I came home, my mother started on her own bûche, a fairly traditional one with a sponge cake and chocolater butter. She retrieved her favourite recipe that she has been using for years, cut out from an old ELLE magazine.

The initial recipe for the “Gâteau roulé” / Rolled cake calls for 5 eggs, 125g caster sugar, 75g corn flour, 25g flour, 30g almond powder, but we reduce the quantities a bit.

You first mix vigorously the egg yolks with the sugar until the colour becomes very pale.

Mix in the flour, the incorporate the whipped egg whites into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into a frame and put in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, turn it upside down with the baking paper on top and let cool down  a dry kitchen towel for a few minutes.

In the meantime prepare your chocolate butter cream, the “Crème au Beurre”.

 

Melt the sugar with a bit of water, just enough so that it becomes less runny and before it caramelizes and get some colour.


Beat the egg yolks while whisking through the melted sugar, as you would to make mayonnaise.

Add the egg-sugar mixture progressively to the softened butter.

Add some dark chocolate powder.


Yum!

Place in the fridge to let it set.

After carefully removing the baking paper from the cake, use some of that mixture to spread on the sponge cake, and the rest to decorate the cake once rolled.

Roll carefully the cake using the towel and leave it with the towel around it in the fridge to set. Once it is a bit cooler, take it out of the fridge and apply the rest of the chocolate butter cream on the cake, and decorate to your taste.


Home-made Bûche de Noël

This bûche was served on Christmas Eve, and as usual it was bloody delicious. You can’t beat a cake made with love by your mum on Christmas, can you!    ;-)

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Chez Maurice, Restaurant de Bourgogne – Paris 10è

Posted on February 13, 2011 | 5 Comments


“Close the door, it’s freezing”. Brrrr, ça caille indeed!

Before going to Paris-Gare de Lyon to catch my train, my friends and I still had time to squeeze in a nice lunch in a neighbourhood bistro, the well-liked Chez Maurice, Restaurant de Bourgogne, located in Rue des Vinaigriers, a still quite rough area a few years back (there was even a taxi driver/killer who used to live there!).

I had been craving snails for days now and my friends thought this restaurant would be ideal for me, rather than the overpriced touristic places of Rue Montorgueil I spotted earlier.

The decor was very typical of a French bistro. The tables were covered in red checked cloths, the menus were written with chalk on black boards, the place was still not packed but in a matter of minutes it was buzzing with all types of patrons, workers, families, regulars, old & young.

Everything on the menu looked appetizing and rich enough to get you through a freezing winter day.

But first and foremost, it was time for the sacrosanct “apéro” :-)

I chose my beloved Picon-bière, beer flavoured with Picon, a sort of alcoholic orange bitter, very old-school but utterly delicious!


Fried Camembert

Here are a sample of the dishes that my table companions chose, including the decadent Fried Camembert and the heart warming Fish Soup.


Fish Soup


Escargots de Bourgogne

Of course I had the snails, one of the specialties of this restaurant whose owner came from Burgundy. I was surprised to see them served without their shell, but it didn’t matter one bit. All the essential ingredients were there: garlic, herbs, butter and some bread to mop it all up. The snails themselves were tender and chewy at the same time, very satisfying.

It was then time for the mains:


Hand-cut Steak Tartare with chips


Grilled Andouillette with Mustard sauce and chips


Bread-crumbed chicken breast with chips


Sirloin steak with peppercorn sauce and chips

When I was asked how I wanted my steak (pictured above), I said “à point”, because I didn’t want it totally “saignant” (bloody = rare), but couldn’t quite find the correct term to designate the in-between stage of “medium”. What they brought to me was definitely well done! As a result it was chewy and quite tough. I also had the impression that they used some powder to make the peppercorn sauce… I couldn’t eat more than half unfortunately…

Luckily my companions seemed to fare better with their mains, especially with the steak tartare, very nicely seasoned and the andouillette, a tripe sausage, which had a nice and crispy grilled skin and was accompanied with a grain mustard sauce.

For dessert I ordered the Crème Brûlée, which was more of a flan in fact. The texture was more eggy than creamy, so I was a bit disappointed, even though the caramel crust cracked nicely under my spoon. My companions seemed satisfied with their desserts: fromage blanc with caramel sauce, profiterolles with chocolate sauce and almond & apricot tarte.


Scruffy haired & stubby bearded locals enjoying their escargots.

As a whole, a nice little unpretentious “bistro de quartier”, which serves tasty snails and many other traditional dishes at very reasonable prices, in comfortable settings and a warm atmosphere.

We finished with a little coffee and my friends sent me off to Gare de Lyon!
It was quite an adventure to drag my suitcase in the metro including one line change, lucky my friend was there to help me carry it through the numerous stairs and corridors…

Gare de Lyon was insane, there were people everywhere going back to their families in “province” for Christmas and getting pretty pissed off from not being able to get around, yelling and shoving through the crowds… Not a pretty sight!
But I ended up reaching my carriage a couple of minutes before the train departed, pfeew! I was finally en route to my hometown :-)

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2 days in Paris

Posted on January 30, 2011 | 17 Comments


Paris, Les Invalides in the background

It has been now almost 7 years now since I left France for Australia and last time I spent Christmas with my family was in 2003! Though I have always been surrounded by great people in Australia at that time of year, my Aussie family in Brisbane and Melbourne or my partner’s family here in Sydney, I always have a little knot in my stomach from being so far away from my parents and sister…

That is why I decided to fly to France last December and have myself a traditional cold and white Christmas “à la française”!

After a pretty smooth going 24-hour flight, I arrived a few days before Christmas at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport. The whole ground was covered in snow,  which, combined with that very peculiar winter dawn light, gave the atmosphere a very eerie feel. Add to that the already well installed jet-lag and it all felt a bit like a dream…

I was soon brought back to reality as I had to buy a RER train ticket to the city. I was certain, now that my credit card was adorned with a beautiful chip, that I would finally be able to use the vending machines and avoid waiting in line at the counters… to no avail! I ended up joining the queue, together with a few British refugees stuck in Paris due to the snow blocking Heathrow Airport… I stopped complaining to myself and thanked my good luck!

My childhood friend and her husband were there to meet me at Gare du Nord, and we walked to their home a few blocks from there in the 10th Arrondissement, not far from the notorious Rue Saint-Denis. The snow made it quite difficult to negotiate the slippery pavements, and we witnessed several near-falls from other pedestrians on our way!

A basket full of pastries, chocolate croissants, raisin snails and fresh baguettes was displayed on the table for my arrival… what a nice welcome! It was good to be home :-)


Ice-skating action at Hotel de Ville

We didn’t linger too long, as I was starting to doze off and hear the sweet call of the couch! My friends were hosting Christmas at their place this year with a dozen guests and they still had a lot of shopping to do! They chose me as their guinea pig to test the dishes they had planned for Christmas eve, including Duck breast cooked in salt crust and a “Bûche glacée” (ice-cream Christmas log) from the famous Parisian ice-cream maker Berthillon… I was only too happy to oblige. That’s just the type of friend I am ;-)

We first went to Berthillon, where even in the heart of winter, tourists queue in order to taste the famous ice-cream! However most people were locals ordering their “bûche glacée” and there wasn’t much left to choose from already! We therefore left with an Apricot & Gingerbread Bûche.


Saw some nice Laguiole Knives on the way back…

Back at the flat, my hosts left me sinking into the couch while they were cooking the duck. I could hear faraway in my dreams some dramatic exclamations and shouts from the kitchen, which made me fear something bad happened to the duck, but it came out perfectly cooked, see the little video below!

We had the bûche for dessert, which was really delicious! I would probably never go for Apricot & Gingerbread if other flavours like Chocolate or Vanilla had been available… and that would have been wrong, because it really was a great match!


Apricot & Gingerbread Bûche

The following day was dedicated to more food shopping, including a trip to the shop of famous Macaron master Pierre Hermé.

The picture policy of the shop was quite strict, as I was only allowed to take 2 pictures unless I contacted Pierre Hermé’s PR department… We saw Hermé’s best-known macaron, the Ispahan, but didn’t buy it, which I now regret! It was difficult to chose from all the lovely flavours, but finally set our choice on a box of 12 macarons.

The flavours we chose were: Rose, White Truffle & Hazelnut (very fragrant!), Quince & Rose, Milk Chocolate & Passionfruit, Chestnut & Green Tea, Chocolate, Salted Butter Caramel, Crème Brûlée… I couldn’t recommend one in particular, they were all delicious!


Some of them were a bit damaged on the way back unfortunately,
fragile little things!

We then walked to La Grande Epicerie de Paris, located in the same building as Le Bon Marché, which was buzzing with BCBG (“Bon chic, bon genre”) people doing their last Christmas shopping. There was an opulence of fine food all over the shop (poultry, foie gras, truffles, caviar, smoked salmon, all kinds of seafood, chocolate… you name it), and hundreds of customers trying to make their way between the shelves… it was a bit oppressive!


Poulets de Bresse, Pintades, Dindes…

We finally made our way out and walked along the windows to admire the Christmas displays and lights.

The hues in the windows were changing every few seconds and all the streets were illuminated… Paris at that time of year is really beautiful, there is a sort of magic about it!

Some friends and their little girl were expected for dinner that night, and a nice raclette was planned for the occasion. The raclette set means each guests fries their own cheese under the grilling machine at the centre of the table, and pours it on boiled potatoes, accompanied with ham, smoked ham, salami, cornichons… it is very convivial and perfect for that type of freezing weather!

A bit of melted cheese action below…

I think the pictures speak for themselves!

Once more jet-lag got the better of me and I was soon unable to keep my eyes open and string a sentence together. I dug deep down to find the strength for a glass of “digestif” though, a delicious Armagnac, which finished the job of putting me to sleep!

And thus unfolded my last evening in Paris… Another trip, albeit shorter, was awaiting me the following day: I was taking the T.G.V to return to my hometown, yay!

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