Bonjour à tous et bienvenue. Hello, everybody and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine
and food blog. We’re on our annual wine,
food, and cultural tour of France. The
first week or so is here in Burgundy, then we’ll spend a couple of days
moseying over to Bordeaux. The photo here on the left is le chien, Marie's and Yves' dog who is curious about us and goings on the gite. He comes to the kitchen door several times each day to say hello.
Today is
market day in Beaune! It’s always a
highlight of our visit. The Beaune
market is one of the largest in Europe and draws a big crowd. All manner of flowers, crafts, fruits, olives, vegetables,
meats, cheeses … you name it … and some things we Americans probably find a
little surprising. Just take a scrolling
stroll through these photos. The weather
is really nice here, much greener than in Detroit. Il fait
beau!
The
container on the left in this photo contains foies de
lapin, rabbit livers. I asked Marie
about them and she talked fondly of how delicious they are, how to prepare
them, and so on.
And right
next to them are the bunnies themselves.
We don’t see rabbits and rabbit livers very often in the grocer’s fresh
meat display in the U.S.
The Bresse
chickens, not to be confused with breast of chickens, are displayed with the
heads, feet, and some feathers still on. Bresse is an area of France south of here in the Rhone-Alpes region where these chickens are raised. Known in the rest of the world simply as "blue foot" chickens, they are prized for the quality of their flesh, much in the same way we might differentiate among breeds of cattle such as Angus or Charolais. They're pricey, though. Maybe you can think of them as the Wagyu of chickens.
We picked
up chicken, vegetables, fruits, cheese, and eggs and lardon de paysanne. Mary later discovered the skin on the chicken
pieces still had pieces of quill or pins or whatever they’re called, so she
just took off the skin for cooking. It's as if they're plucked and brought right to market.
After dropping off our Beaune market goods, we went to Nuits-Saint-Georges to one of Mary's favorite lunch spots, Bar de L’Etoile.
It’s a corner place we discovered on our first trip years ago and we go
back every year.
This year we enjoyed
sitting on the patio with a half-bottle of Bourgogne rosé.
Mary had
her favorite, salade Montagnarde, with cheese, ham, warm potatoes, and a
mustard sauce.
I had œufs en meurette avec frites, eggs
poached in red wine with bacon and fries.
It’s one of my favorite appetizer dishes.
It’s very
common in France to allow dogs into restaurants.
A short drive through the countryside took us to Concœur, a pretty little village in the hills of the Hautes Cotes west of Nuits-Saint-Georges. The shop in this photo, festooned with roses, is called Fruirouges. They offer a variety of country crafts, including jams, fruit butters, and preserves, which they make on site. By the way, the œ in Concœur is a ligature character of the o and e and, according to what we read and how Marie says it, has a different vowel sound than one might expect if the o and e are not tied, more like a "Con-coor" sound.
Dinner
that evening was at another favorite venue, La Ciboulette, just inside the castle gate in Beaune.
As usual,
we were the first to arrive. The French typically have restaurant meals later than we do in the U.S., but the place always fills. If you don't have a reservation, forget it. And they don't have a website. I called Mme. Isabelle a month ago to make our reservations.
Here I’m
studying the wine list while Mary contemplates the Crémant de Bourgogne.
Madame Isabelle offered suggestions on the
best pairing with the dishes we ordered. Almost invariably, you can safely place yourself in the hands of restaurant owners when it comes to wine and food pairings. They know their wine lists and their cuisine, what goes best with various dishes. Just give them an idea of what you're willing to spend and they will take good care of you.
An
introductory nibble included olives, radishes, and a tuna spread.
The wine
was this Domaine Parigot Pommard Les Vignots 2010. It is a village-level wine, not as
prestigious as a premier cru, but we’ve enjoyed wine before from the same
vineyard. For hearty dishes such as duck
and beef, it has the structure to stand up to the food. That's one of many fascinating things about Burgundy. The red grape is all Pinot Noir, but how it expresses itself differs from site to site. The wines of Pommard are typically highly structured and do well with powerful protein dishes such as beef, pork, or lamb. Volnay, the village adjacent to Pommard and less than a mile from Pommard, produces wines with more elegance, finesse and delicacy, which would pair better with other dishes, perhaps roast or sauteed fowl with a cream sauce. On the other hand, drink what you like to drink with food you like to eat. In the vast majority of cases, you'll be fine.
Here’s
Brian handling the wine service. It had lovely floral and earth aromas. Despite its youth, it was smooth on the palate with fresh minerality and flavors of red fruit and savory herbs. It was beautifully balanced, complex, and had wonderful length.
Brian’s first course,
called an entrée in France, was velouté d’asperges, a creamy
soup of white asparagus with shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Mary enjoyed a salad with
asparagus and speck, a lean pork shaving, similar to prosciutto.
Here are the happy
Crabtrees, enjoying dinner at La Ciboulette.
Mary's main course, called
the plat, was a pavé de Charolais, similar to a beef tenderloin, with sauce Époisses, vegetables and potatoes.
Mine was magret de canard rôti, roasted duck
breast.
Mary’s dessert was a
spectacular pear poached in red wine with cassis sorbet.
We walked out into the
Beaune evening, still light after 9:00, and returned to the gite to plan the next day.
Thanks for reading
us. I’ll try to post a note whenever I
can. Keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine for
more. In the meantime,
Cheers!
Mary♥Brian
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