France Food Highlights Guest Post
Due to popular demand among Ian’s blog followers (well Zoe at least), I’ve agreed to post a guest blog with the food highlights from our France trip. Here’s the top 6 meals, in chronological order since it’s to hard to rank them, as well as a few honourable mentions.
Top 6 Meals
1. Rotheneuf lunch (http://lerocher-rotheneuf.fr)
This lunch was special not only because the food was excellent but because we stumbled upon this restaurant while on a walk and managed to get in on a Sunday afternoon without a reservation. Our timing was also perfect because it started pouring rain as soon as we sat down and then the sun came out again when we were ready to leave.
We found this restaurant through a business card that was left at our house exchange. After the amuse bouche we both had the traditional fish soup which is served with croutons, a spiced mayo and grated cheese. We had the bavette de boeuf and merlu (hake fish) for our mains.
3. Erquy, la Table de Jeanne, unch (https://www.la-table-de-jeanne.fr/)
Before heading out for a hike on Cap Erquy, we found a restaurant for lunch along the shore in the scallop capital of France, Erquy. The restaurant was very close to the pier where the fishing boats unloaded their catch of scallops (or St. Jacques as they are known in France. For lunch, Ian had the fish soup and then fish for his main course. He thought the fish soup here was better than in Dinan partly because it was spicier. I had the scallops served with honey and diced applies along with veggies (fennel, potatoes, brussel sprouts and pureed something.) It was delicious in particular the honey and apples.
4. Reims, Brasserie le Boulingrin, lunch (https://www.boulingrin.fr/)
After a self-guided art deco walking tour of Reims, we headed back to the market area to a brasserie that I had spotted at the start of our tour. We were seated upstairs with a view over the park and beautiful red leather banquets. For lunch, I had the plat de jour which was veal tongue and delicious pureed potatoes. (potatoes are somehow so much better in France!). Ian had the entrecote roti very much inspired by Inspector Dupin's favourite meal. It was a lovely meal with excellent and very professional service. A good way to end our visit to Reims.
5. Nogent-sur-Marne, Le Nougentais, dinner lenogentais.fr
6. Nogent-sur-Marne, La Salamandre, lunch (restaurant-lasalamandre-94.
For our dinner out in Nogent-sur-Marne where our house exchange was located, we walked into town to the restaurant, Le Nougentais. We had a bottle of Bourgogne pinot noir and split the razor clams as an entree. The razor clams were served in the shell with a sauce and were delicious. I had the roasted veal fillet and Ian had the beef tataki. We had the baba ganoush for dessert that came with a side shot of rum. It was very moist and boozy!
We splurged for our final lunch in Nogent at a lovely restaurant about a 10 minute walk from the apartment along the Marne river, La Salamandre. I had the 3 course Menu du moment and a glass of Sancerre. The meal started with an amuse bûche which was a very creamy potato/hollandaise/olive oil dish served in a very small bowl. The entree was a decadent mushroom soup with proscuitto or in french - VELOUTÉ DE CHAMPIGNONS, magret de canard fumé et noix, The main course was beef confit or PALERON CONFIT, purée de pommes de terre truffées. And for dessert was a tray of 3 small treats: choux craquelin vanille, brownie chocolat, baba limoncello. Ian had fish for his main and pavlova citron for dessert. A perfect final meal for our stay in Paris!
Honourable Mentions
Best Seafood - Cancale. Both the seafood platter lunch that we had as well as the 2 dozen oysters that we bought from a stall on the pier were excellent!
Best Galettes - St. Malo. We ate a lot of galettes (savoury buckwheat "crepes") while we were in Bretagne, but the best were from Le Corps de Garde Creperie which was located on the wall in old St. Malo and had a beautiful view out into the bay. https://le-corps-de-garde.restranslate.com/
Best charcuterie plate - Chartres (Gabin, Marcel et Ferdinand). We stopped at the wine bar for their charcuterie plate and a glass of wine. It was very charming and delicious jamon cut fresh from the 2 jamon legs hanging from the bar.
Best Market Purchase- Parame market rotisserie chicken. We bought a large one along with the roasted potatoes. It was so good and lasted us a couple meals. We tried the rotisserie chicken at the Sunday market across the street from where we were staying in Paris. It was also very good but not quite as delicious.
Best Market - Rennes - It was huge and sprawled out across the streets surrounding the two very large market buildings. My favourite part, of course, was the half block dedicated to flowers! I bought a beautiful bouquet to bring back to St. Malo and give to our hosts when we left.
Bretagne Butter - Yes, Larissa, the butter is better in France!
Best surprise - oysters for sale Sunday morning in the Parame town square from the back of a van. 5 euros for a dozen!
(This became our Thanksgiving appie.)
(Ed note - for most our meals we were well into the feast before we remembered that we had to take pictures! Hence missing photos of a lot of our meals (or portions of our meals)).
