this post is filed under Cuisine - French, Location - France
I was hoping I'd be able to start this yesterday, but I ended up spending most of the day up in Santa Rosa. So without further ado, here is the beginning of my trip to France. We spent the first week of our trip in Provence. After being delayed by an hour and a half, my dad and I finally arrived to Paris to meet my aunt, grandma, great aunt, and 2 cousins. From there, we hopped on the TGV to Avignon. We actually missed our original train, but we were able to get on a later one. We were lucky, too - had we been delayed any more we would have missed all the trains and probably had to spend a night at the Paris airport.
Anyway, after arriving at Avignon, we picked up our rental (a Kia, of all brands) and made the drive to our base point, Maillane. Maillane is a tiny French village about 20 minutes from Avignon and 5 minutes from St. Rémy. It was the home of Frédéric Mistral, a Nobel Prize winner in literature during the very early 20th century who is credited for helping the revival of Provençal language and culture. You may not have heard of him, but Maillane sure is proud of him - everything in the area is named Mistral something or other, and his house in the village is now a museum about him. We stayed at a nice, big rental house with many bedrooms and a pool at the edge of the village called Bambou (Condé Nast talks about it here). Armed with our full-sized Korean van, we were ready to explore. On the night of our arrival, it was already 9:30 or 10PM (due to the delays) by the time we got to the house and dropped off all of our luggage. We'd planned to eat at the main restaurant of the little village, L'Oustalet Maianen, but we'd also planned to arrive much earlier. Luckily, L'Oustalet Maianen was still open and willing to take us for dinner. It was a good thing too - we ended up getting one of the best value meals of our trip. They have a set dinner that includes appetizer, main course, cheese and dessert for 36 euros.
olive tapenade on toast, bacon/cheese/tomato skewers, cheese puffs, olives
Moments after sitting down, we were brought this plate of appetizers. They were all quite good and very satisfying after the 3 hour train ride. The cheese puffs were my favorite - light and airy with just a bit of saltiness. The olives and tapenade were delicious too - I'd soon find out that Provence is a big olive-growing region. Imagine my initial surprise when my first serving of bread in France came with olive oil instead of butter!
terrine of duck foie gras from "Puntoun" farm, onion jam, fig bread
I thought it was kinda funny that of the first course choices, the foie gras WASN'T the one that cost extra (there was a lobster aspic that took that honor). The waiter told us they made the foie gras in house (I guess every place does in France) and this choice was a no-brainer for my first meal. It was absolutely delicious and just what I was looking for. The onion jam was surprisingly tasty, and added a nice sweet element to the liver.
sauteed filet of taureau (bull), Côtes du Rhône reduction
We were told that bull is a local specialty. That piqued my interest enough to try - I don't think I've ever had bull before. This choice incurred a 5 euro supplement, but it was worth it. The steak was great - extremely lean, with an even texture throughout, but at the same time very very tender. I usually don't like filets all that much (as you know, I prefer more fattiness in my meat) but I must say the taureau was very good. The side of potatoes, mushrooms, onions and other veggies sopped up the reduction sauce very well.
tasting of local cheeses
Another thing I'd get used to soon is a cheese course during every meal. I honestly don't know anything about cheese, but I definitely like it. My favorite of the bunch was the one in the middle with the olive oil, which we were told is a local Maillane fresh goat cheese. It had a very mild flavor and a wonderfully creamy, soft texture.
raspberry tartlette with vanilla ice cream
Beautiful desserts will be another common theme on this trip. You'll see a lot of raspberries and a lot of apricots, as they were the two fruits of choice while we were there. This tart was nice and tart, and the ice cream stopped it from ever being too sour.
At 41 euros, this was really one of the best deals of our trip. It was quite an eye-opener to find such quality food in the middle of such a tiny, middle of nowhere French village - I swear Maillane can't have more than a couple hundred people! I would soon discover that great food in the middle of nowhere is absolutely commonplace in this country.
What a perfect opening to your trip. I'm intrigued to try bull - you mentioned the texture, but is the taste different in any way? The cheese course is of definite interest, I am a bit of a novice as well, but I know what I like!
posted by tara on August 9, 2005 09:23 AM
Hi Arthur!
This is my first time posting on ur webpage and I just wanted you to know that I find your posts about Vancouver very interesting as I'm from Vancouver. I can't wait to read your posts about Paris (one of my favourite cities).
Keep up the good work!posted by Tammi on August 9, 2005 12:23 PM
Tara - to be honest, it really didn't taste much different than beef. If you'd asked me to blindly guess what kind of meat it was, I would have guessed beef for sure despite the shocking tenderness. And as for cheese - I don't know a damn thing either, but we can always learn right? :)
Tammi - thanks for visiting! I'm actually going to Vancouver today, so after my France posts and a few SF posts, Vancouver will make another appearance too.
posted by Arthur on August 10, 2005 02:50 PM