Sunday, May 29, 2011

May 22, 2011 France Adventure

Bonjour à nos amis du vin et de cuisine, et d’adieu à la belle France.  Hello to our wine and food friends and farewell, beautiful France.  Welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  We’re completing our wonderful wine, food, and cultural vacation in France.  We’ve been posting daily blogs about our experiences, which you can read by scrolling down the page and by clicking on earlier dates on the right side of the blog page.

May 22 was our last day in France before returning home.  My morning jog along the Seine took me across the Pont Alexandre III to see more of the Rive Droite, the Right Bank.  As I crossed the bridge, familiar landmarks abounded.  We both returned later on our tourist stroll.

After the jog, we walked to the end of our street to the boulangerie where Mary selected this delicate lemon pastry.  She said it was delicious but the boulangerie experience in Paris is very “big city,” busy and rushed, much like a New York City deli, in contrast to the relaxed, friendlier, small town experiences of Villers-la-Faye and Le Puy Notre Dame.

We walked one block to Rue de l’Universitè and started our search for Julia’s apartment and a lunch spot.  There are lots of brasseries, cafés, pubs, and restaurants in our area.  On the basis of a carté with choices we both like and reasonable prices, we chose Crêperie Evangelista.  In the photo, you can see the awning, a couple of sidewalk tables, and a walk-up window.  That is the total width of the place.  The inside is about 15 feet deep with two rows of those tiny tables and a sliver of a kitchen, everybody jammed in together.  As cramped as it was, I liked it.  It seemed very … Paris.

We were greeted quickly with “Bonjour, monsieur ‘dame.  Que vous désirez?”  We’ve learned this translates essentially to “What would you like?” or “What can I get for you?”  Mary had the house salad, the Salade Evangelista, which turned out to be a symphony of shrimp, hard boiled eggs, olives, artichokes, cheese, and salad vegetables with a creamy dressing.  I had the Salade Niçoise with tuna and anchovies.  We shared a small carafe of vin de Provence rosé, which seemingly everyone enjoys with lunch.

A macaron shop was open just a few doors down the street.  A real French treat, especially in Paris, these are not the toasted coconut confections that I remember.  They are little meringue cookies with a ganache filling.  I don’t partake, but Mary assures me they are wonderful.

I bought a raspberry and a chocolate macaron for her.  For our Bay Area readers, Miette in the Ferry Building Marketplace makes the authentic version of these, so says Mary.

Julia and Paul Child lived at 81 Rue de l’Universitè, which Julia called the Roo de Loo or simply 81, on the second and third floors, from 1948-1953.  It was in the kitchen of the Roo de Loo that she found her passion for cooking and launched her cooking school, L’Ecole des Gourmettes, with her colleagues and later co-authors, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle.

After we left Julia’s apartment, we walked the route I jogged earlier.  At the Pont Alexandre III, with its grand columns and gilded figures, the Eiffel Tower came into full view.


On the other side of the Seine is the Grand Palais.   To once again indicate the historical bonds between France and the U.S., the address of the Grand Palais is 1 Avenue Géneral Eisenhower.

Just beyond, intersecting with Avenue Eisenhower, is the famed Champs-Élysées, and the Arc de Triomphe.  Mary, and a small cluster of several tourists with the same idea, stopped smack in the middle of the Champs to take this photo while the traffic light was red.  I went on to the other side of the avenue.

Then the light changed to green while she was still out there!  She had to wait, so there was nothing to do but keep taking pictures with traffic whizzing by.  They basically lined up behind the signal light pole to stay out of the way of traffic.

We moseyed back to the apartment via the Right Bank.  Here’s my cute wife on the Seine.

Before dinner we walked back to Les Pont des Arts a few blocks from us, nowadays a pedestrian bridge over the Seine, where couples attach padlocks to symbolically seal their love.  Mary had a little luggage lock which we used for the occasion.


In this photo you can barely see our little lock between us and the Louvre beyond us on the Rive Droite.

We chose A La Petite Chaise from our list of recommended restaurants for dinner because it is just a short walk.  The building has been a restaurant since 1680 and is designated as a historic monument.


The first order of business was an apéritif of Bollinger Champagne rosé.

I started with an entrée, which in France means an appetizer, of oeufs pochés et poitrine fumée, poached eggs with smoked bacon on a bed of leeks in a wine reduction sauce.  The dish was spectacular, unforgettable!  The flavors of the egg yolk oozing into the leeks, the texture and flavor of the bacon, tender and not crisp, and the richness and tanginess of the sauce combined for a dish like I’ve never had.  I had oeufs en meurette in Chablis, which was delicious, but this was amazing.  This is another example of classic cuisine taken to a level that shows an understanding of how flavors, textures, food, and wine interact to produce something greater than the sum of its parts.

Mary’s plat, the main course, was a seafood choucroute, choucroute de la mer, in a lemon butter sauce.  We’ve had the typical Alsace-style choucroute of sauerkraut, sausage, and potatoes many times, but had never heard of a seafood version.  Baked salmon and Atlantic cod rested on a bed of sauerkraut in the beurre blanc.

I had duck breast with roasted apple, magret de canard et pomme rôtie, in a red wine and ginger reduction.  It was delicious.  The acidity of the apple made the whole dish livelier.  The sauce was rich and smooth, great for swirling bites of the duck.  I admit I was still thinking about the oeufs pochés, though.

Mary had a vanilla pudding with dark chocolate topping for dessert.

I had a cheese course of Camembert, Montbriac, and Reblochon.  By the time we finished dessert, it was nearly 10:00 p.m., a dinner of two and a half hours.  Tomorrow is a travel day, so we declined coffee.

About the wine, I wanted something that would work well with both of our main courses, plus the appetizer.  Riesling might have been the ideal pairing for the seafood choucroute, but a Pinot Noir would do fine and would be perfect for my dinner.  I chose a 2006 Chorey-lès-Beaune by Domaine Michel Gay.  I’m familiar with this producer from a Beaune Grèves Premier Cru we’ve had at home and have been impressed with the quality of the wines, but I had not tried this particular wine from Domaine Gay.  It was an excellent choice, full, seductive, aromatic, had great structure, balance, and flavor.

We sniffed it, sipped it, and tried to make it last through a long, delicious, lingering dinner at A La Petite Chaise, sitting next to the open window, gazing out onto Rue de Grenelle, on our last evening in Paris, our last evening in France … for this trip.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Domaine Michel Gay et Fils Chorey-lés-Beaune 2006.  This was another absolutely delicious Pinot Noir from Burgundy, round and full in the mouth with great aromas of earth, cherry, and plum.  It had an unmistakable Pinot aroma profile, especially the earthy notes.  The palate showed a lovely medium to full-bodied velvety smooth texture, coating the mouth with what I’ve heard others call the "glory of Pinot Noir."  I think the textural elements of Pinot Noir are actually more important to the sensuousness, the seductiveness of the wine than the flavor elements.  Earth notes and rich fruit, cherries, berries, and plums highlighted the flavor profile.  The acidity was medium and balanced the fruit nicely.  The wine was moderately complex with a nice, long finish, a delicious wine on our last night in Paris.  13.0% alcohol.

That’s our post for today, our last before returning home tomorrow.  We hope you enjoyed it and think it is interesting.  We’ll post another article of reflections soon after we get home, so keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine.  Until then,

Cheers!
Mary♥Brian

Saturday, May 28, 2011

May 21, 2011 France Adventure

Bonjour les amis!  Hello, friends, and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  May 21 was our travel day to Paris for the final part of our adventure in France.  After a final walk to the boulangerie in Le Puy Notre Dame for un pain au chocolat we returned the rental car to Avis in Angers where we were to take a train to Paris.  The TGV was delayed slightly because a hot air balloon had crashed on the tracks between Angers and Paris!  When we got to Paris we tried to transfer from La Gare Montparnasse to the Paris Metro, supposedly nearby, to get closer to our apartment and walk the rest of the way.  After walking in large circles a couple of times, looking for the Metro, luggage in tow on a warm day, and grabbing a quick lunch, which is still about an hour in France, we gave up and took a taxi.  Note #1 to future Paris travelers who take a taxi:  A 1€ per bag charge is added to the fare.  Mary knew from reading travel guides that this is expected and normal.

The apartment is in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district of the Rive Gauche, the Left Bank, known historically as the more Bohemian or artsy side of the city.
In fact, the apartment was above an art gallery. The district borders the Seine and, to my delight, is where Julia Child lived during her Paris years
A two block stroll put us on the river walk, smack in front of the Musée d’Orsay and across the Seine from the Musée du Louvre.
While we were walking around, I asked Mary, “What’s that big building over there?”  “I don’t know,” said she.  She later researched it online to put our lack of knowledge about Paris into sharp focus when she learned it is the Louvre.
We researched nearby restaurants in advance of our trip and decided on La Rotonde for the evening, partly because it is nearly a straight shot on the Metro from the Rue du Bac station near the apartment.  Note #2 to future Paris travelers who take the Metro:  The doors of the subway cars do not open automatically at each stop!  We missed our stop!  There’s a switch you have to push.  We got off at the next stop by following another passenger, exited to street level and found ourselves on Boulevard Montparnasse, the street on which La Rotonde is located.  We started walking and finally found it, right on time for our reservation.
Having absolutely no experience with Paris, La Rotonde is what I imagine when I think of the style of a traditional Paris restaurant…polished brass, dark wood, oil paintings, formal waiters wearing suits, and there I was in my blue jeans and knit shirt. No matter, they were friendly and welcoming.  We were seated next to a waiter station where they performed some of the plating service of meat and fish after they came from the kitchen, such as carving and deboning.  It was fascinating, like watching someone at a skilled craft, which it is.

I started with escargots dans la coquille, snails in the shell, once again with butter, olive oil, garlic, and parsley.  Delicious!  If you haven’t had them before and don’t think you would like them, give them a try.  I was pleasantly surprised the first time I had them a year ago.



Mary had filets de bar, sea bass in a sauce of lemon confit and wild rice.  I love the French language expression for wild rice, riz sauvage.  She said the dish was delicious and especially loved the sauce.  She has had a similar sauce with several fish dinners.   The fish was cooked to a perfect turn, moist, flaky, and flavorful.

I had a dish the menu described simply as suprême de poulet fermier, chicken supreme with mushroom risotto.  The chicken was fine, tender, moist, and flavored with a reduction of wine and mushrooms, I think.  What was amazing, though, was the risotto.  Mary makes a fine risotto at home, but this is the first time I have had risotto aux champignons, or risotto with mushrooms.  It was rich, creamy, combined the flavors of the rice, the cheese, the stock, the mushrooms…wow!  I’m still thinking about that risotto.

Mary had lime and grapefruit sorbet for dessert.  The red boule in this photo is actually a red or pink grapefruit sorbet.

La carte offered foie gras de canard, duck liver pâté, with a glass of Sauternes, which is described as a match made in heaven.  I’ve had foie gras a few times and Sauternes many times, but I’ve never tried the combination.  It was, in fact, delicious and Mary also liked it, but to my palate, the pairing of Sauternes with a good Roquefort cheese is more compelling.

About the wine, the carte du vin offered excellent choices at what I thought were reasonable prices for a famous Paris restaurant that undoubtedly attracts many international travelers and tourists.  With the assistance of one of the servers, I selected a Pouilly-Fuissé by Domaine Laurent Gerra.  Pouilly-Fuissé is in the Mâconnais region, considered part of Burgundy, but south of the Côte d’Or.  The wines are often excellent and at lower prices than their famous northern counterparts.  The Chardonnay was perfect with both dishes, especially the fish.  It had fresh citrus aromas and flavors and was refreshing on a warm evening.  It did what a good pairing and a balanced wine is supposed to do.  The flavors of the wine enhance the flavors of the food.  The balanced acidity of the wine refreshes the palate and leaves you ready for the next bite.  The chicken with the mushroom risotto would also have been excellent with a Pinot Noir. 

Mary looks slightly stressed in this photo after the travel events of the day, negotiating the Paris subway, and the temperature.  Like most residences and businesses in France, La Rotonde is not air conditioned.  It wasn’t terribly uncomfortable, but we drained at least three water carafes after all the walking.  We felt sorry for those busy servers in their dark suits, ties, and long sleeves.  Here are my notes on the wine.
Domaine Laurent Gerra Pouilly-Fuissé 2009.  This was a delightful wine, clean and refreshing, with lots of citrus character and minerality.  The aroma was mostly fresh lemon with a nice, stony minerality.  The palate showed crisp acidity, medium body, almost a light, creamy texture, and bright lemon flavor.  It was very nicely balanced, not very complex, but delicious, and with medium length.  A perfectly good dinner wine in Paris.  13.0% alcohol.  We paid 35€, which is a good restaurant price.
That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  We welcome your comments and emails.  We have one more day in Paris before we return home.  Keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine for more of our culinary and wine adventures in France.  Until then,
Cheers!
Mary♥Brian

Thursday, May 26, 2011

May 20, 2011 France Adventure

Bonjour les amis du vin et la cuisine de la Vallée de la Loire!  Hello to wine and food friends from the Loire Valley and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  May 20 is our last day in the Loire before our transfer to Paris.  We focused today on some of the regional culture and history, along with a wine tasting and fine dining.
We drove to Montreuil-Bellay, about 5 kilometers from Le Puy Notre Dame, to get a closer look at the chateau there and pick up picnic supplies.  Chateau de Montreuil-Bellay was built between the 13th and 15th centuries, almost 800 years ago.  We’ve seen so many structures of that age on our trip that it’s easy to become desensitized to them, but the history and culture is fascinating to us as Americans when our country is so relatively young.  The chateau has served as a medieval fortress with moats, towers, and ramparts, a prison, a residence, even a hospital during World War I.

We stopped for a picnic lunch (just fruit and cheese) in St. Georges sur Layon where there was this beautiful rose-covered arbor.  The Saumur region is especially known for its roses.  They grow everywhere, seemingly effortlessly and in the worst soil.  We have seen them growing in an inch of soil between the sidewalk and the wall of a building, climbing walls and fences, various sizes, varieties, and colors, fragrant and gorgeous.  They remind me of the roses of Sonoma County in Dry Creek Valley and Alexander Valley, which are also prolific.
Not far from St. Georges sur Layon we visited a small wine region called Bonnezeaux and Chateau de Fesles.  Bonnezeaux is a sub-appellation of the larger Coteaux du Layon which I described in a previous post when we visited Domaine des Baumard.  The principal grape of the appellation is Chenin Blanc, which is sensitive to the “noble rot,” Botrytis cinerea, because of the humidity during the autumn.  The wines are luscious, honeyed, with citrus and apricot, but with excellent balancing acidity to prevent them from being cloying.  They are absolutely delicious as an aperitif or dessert wine, especially with Roquefort or another good bleu cheese.  They last for decades and really need at least a few years before opening them to fully appreciate them.  We tasted a 2009, 2007, and 2000.  They were all wonderful, but with age the flavor character moved from a fresher fruit and honeyed character to a more dried fruit profile, like dried apricots and the candied lemon peel flavor or citron confit.
The grounds of Chateau de Fesles are grand with elaborate gardens and landscaping.  Once again, the roses are beautiful.
The nearby town of Brissac-Quincé is home to Chateau de Brissac, described as the tallest castle in France and a partially completed castle inside a partially destroyed castle.  The castle has been in the hands of the same family since 1502.  The third generation of the family to own the chateau started a rebuilding project which tore down parts of the castle while at the same time building new parts.  His idea was to build a higher, symmetrical central section and tear down the medieval towers.  He died before the project was completed and his son stopped the work.  It has remained in the same unfinished condition for almost 400 years.  All that remains of the original castle are the two large towers.  It is open to the public, but the family still lives inside the private residence portion of the structure.  The current occupants are the eldest son of the 13th Duke de Brissac, the Marquis de Brissac, his wife, and their children.  I don’t know how, but they managed to hang onto the property after the Revolution in 1789.

Many of the furnishings of the chateau are original.  The china in the photo on the left dates to the 1700s.
One of the towers contains the chapel where weddings of the dukes and duchesses are held.
Dinner was at La Grange a Dime in Montreuil-Bellay.  It is quite an interesting place with a single prix fixe menu of a Coteaux du Layon aperitif, mushrooms stuffed with Chèvre, cassoulet with duck confit, café, and dessert.  There is no wine list.  The wines include the aperitif and a bottle of local, unlabeled Saumur rouge.  You go in, you sit down, they bring food and wine, you eat and drink.  That’s it.  It was fascinating and delicious.

When Jean-Pierre, apparently the owner, discovered we are American, he rushed away and returned with a framed article from the Wall Street Journal which described the restaurant and food as “French soul food.”  He was rightly proud of that article and eager to share it with Americans visiting his restaurant.
The building that houses the restaurant was originally a barn or an agricultural building where taxed goods were kept, hence the name, La Grange.  Serving a single prix fixe menu is pretty specialized, but they are particularly known for an open brick oven and les fouées -- small, hollow breads cooked in the oven, served immediately while piping hot, then stuffed with local Chèvre, butter, and minced pork from ramekins on the table.

I tasted the pork spread, which reminded me of a spreadable, canned product from my growing up years called potted meat.  In fact, the French menu actually describes it as a paté.  Mary was a little too timid about stuffing the fouée to suit Jean-Pierre, so he came over to offer some enthusiastic encouragement and assistance.  “Plus! Plus!”  More! More!
The champignons, the mushrooms, were amazing, stuffed with Chèvre, sprinkled with herbs and pepper, then broiled in the brick oven.  They had complex flavors that were savory from the mushrooms, spicy from the pepper, and tangy from the cheese all at once with a texture that was tender on the inside with a little crispness on the outside, just delicious.  We want to try this on our grill.  Even Mary, who is not a lover of mushrooms, loved these.

Here’s the main course, the cassoulet, which had the haricots blanc, the white beans, and pulled duck confit, baked to a crusty top with stock and seasonings.  A bowl of salad was served alongside, which could accompany the cassoulet or be a separate course.

Once again, Jean-Pierre approached to instruct Mary on stuffing a fouée with the cassoulet.


Dessert was strawberries and coffee.

The evening at La Grange a Dime was a unique culinary adventure, delicious, and great fun.

Here’s my pretty wife at La Grange a Dime in Montreuil-Bellay.
The Coteaux du Layon aperitif had the golden, honeyed, apricot and citrus sweetness with balancing acidity I described previously.  I was interested in how well it paired with the Chèvre, reminding us again that what grows together goes together.

The bottle of red Saumur did not indicate the producer and I imagine they have a bulk supply and just refill the bottles from night to night.  It was not what I would describe as compelling, but it was definitely a Cabernet Franc and reflected the typical structure and style of Saumur.  It did just fine with the dinner.  I think I might even prefer something like this in a restaurant like this.  The focus is on the whole experience with wine as only one part and not the most important part.  Here are my notes on the wine.
Lagrange a Dime Saumur unlabeled 2009.  This wine is what is served with the prix fixe menu of cassoulet and stuffed mushrooms.  It is local but unlabeled other than the name of the restaurant.  It was ordinary but quite pleasant.  It had dark fruit aromas, currant, nice minerality, smooth texture, medium acidity with nice fruit flavors, smooth tannins.  It had nice balance, medium complexity and medium length.  Very decent.  Alcohol not labeled.
That’s our post for today.  We hope you found it interesting and enjoyable.  Tomorrow we move to Paris for a couple of days before going home.  Keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine for more of our culinary and wine adventures in France.  Until then,
Cheers!
Mary♥Brian