Provence, Part 1 - Aix to Orange

After two days reminiscing of the times spent in Cannes so long ago, we embarked for 5 days in Provence, to see some familiar sights from years past as well as some new ones! Complete with our trusty but almost to detailed map of provence and a list of the most beautiful villages in the region, courtesy of the official website, we were set, taking off on a one tank of gas, six day journey. One tank of gas courtesy to the Renault Megane, which gets 68 mpg; most impressive. 

Our journey began at the towns of Cotignac and Villecroze, where we picked up a picnic and wandered around the narrow lanes and popped into antique shops. One of the best picnic snacks were the sausage sticks in the market. Not quite your average beef jerkey stick, this is the real deal! It washed down well with an Orangina. 

After the towns, we made our way to Aix en Provence. I had been to Aix during my stint abroad, but it was literally for 2 hours and we didn't get to see much. Aix is a great town with LOTS of little shops to keep you occupied for a day. Lots of fountains too!

After going into the church in the old town, Saint Sauveur, we walked around for a couple hours, grabbing a couple beers at Brasserie les Deux Garcon, where Cezanne and Matisse used to mix it up.

We had dinner that night at a thai restaurant - it was decent but not worth recommending, so I won't include the name. Most of all, it was to change it up after French and Italian meals for so many consecutive nights. We stayed at Hotel du Globe, which is moderately price and very central. They even have a small parking lot that you can stash your rental in for the night. A good option for EUR80 a night. 

The following morning we were up at the crack of dawn to explore some more villages before our wine tour and tasting scheduled at Beaucastel in Chateauneuf du Pape. We went to Ansouis, Lourmourin, Roussillon and finally Gordes, before getting to Chateauneuf.

All of these villages are on the Plus Beaux listing that is linked to above. Our favorite was Gordes, mostly because of the stunning situation of the town, hanging on the side of a cliff. All were nice, but if you time to do only one, go for Gordes.

Following Gordes, we treked to where we thought was Beaucastel, incorrectly directed by a google map search. We showed up right on time for the tasting, but it was just the wrong estate! If you are on google maps, there is a point on the map called Beaucastel, just follow to that point, not trusting other suggestions! As we finally made it to the estate 30 minutes late, one of the Perrin brothers allowed us to re-book for the following day, joining a couple who owns a vineyard in Paso Robles, California.

This freed up the rest of our afternoon so naturally we crammed in a trop to Pont du Gard, perhaps the best and most in-tact roman aqueduct in the world. I visited this in 2001 with my CSB/SJU group, canoeing from a couple miles away for 30 minutes before concluding at the aqueduct. The weather was nice enough to splash into the water a little. I always had such a great impression of this UNESCO site, and returning just reinforced that impression as one of the coolest sites I have ever seen. It is a must see if you are around Provence. 

We then ventured to our accommodation for the next four nights, Domaine de Rhodes. The Domaine is situated on Ile de Barthelasse, a surprisingly undeveloped island between Avignon and Villeneuve-les-Avignon that made a great base for exploring Provence. We got a gite so we could cook a couple meals ourselves. Our gite was EUR400 for five nights, which is pretty good for that area.

The main house on the property is extremely beautiful, dating back to the 16th century. It is a nice tranquil oasis to return to after a long day of touring the region and we recommend to all. We made dinner three of the four nights we stayed, highlighted by a mussel and prawn pasta.

The following morning we went to Orange, to check out the Thursday market and the Roman amphitheater. Orange is a nice city to wander around for an hour or two in addition to checking out the roman sights. One doesn't need more than an hour or two to do this however.

The amphitheater itself is fabulous and worth the EUR8 admission. Your ticket includes an audio guide which is helpful to explain the significance of the site and its place in history. After the tour, we had a nice lunch before heading to the second attempt at a tour of Beaucastel!!

Valentines Day #9

As our closest friends and family know, each valentines day, we forgo the marked up set menus and other painful date "stuff" and instead make something unique that we have never cooked before. Traditionally, it has involved some type of exotic seafood not available in land-locked (though lake plenty) Minnesota. This was was a slight exception. On the menu was crab cakes as a starter, followed by rack of lamb with stuffed tomatoes and a olive-prune sauce. 

Let's just say it was a definite crowd pleaser. The crab cakes were set upon a salad of thinly sliced radishes and a granny smith apple, combined with a ruby red grapefruit and juicy orange. The citrus was a great compliment to the crab cakes. 

For the rack of lamb, its just about as easy as it gets, we made a sauce of sea salt, fresh rosemary and good olive oil and rubbed it on the lamb, browned it on a skillet, then cooked at about 175C (I think) for 15 minutes. It turned out to be the best piece of meat we've ever cooked, perfectly done.

We stuffed the tomatoes with couscous, feta, spring onions and cilantro, using the inside of the tomatoes combined with some tomato paste as the filling, which was also magnificent!

The sauce of olives and prunes, with a healthy dose of red wine, was very unusual by itself, but ended up complimenting the rest of the meal beautifully!

Bon appetite!

Mr. Octopus

Rather than a nice dinner out, our Valentine's Day tradition is to stay in.  And more than just cooking up a nice, easy meal for two, we set out to try something new and unusual.  This always involves an intensive day of planning, trekking around wherever we are living at the moment, to find the right ingredients - which more often than not are alive.  In the past, we have challenged our culinary acumen by boiling live lobsters, shucking oysters and cooking some killer homemade pasta.  This year, we chose an octopus.

We found him on ice at a local fishmonger, who did all the dirty work for us cutting out the ink sack as well as other unsightly bits.  At first, we were squeamish about touching the slippery sea creature but memories of our last meal of 'pulpo' in Santiago de Compostella, Spain, kept us hungry.  The octopus served at O Dezaseis was smothered in smoked paprika with the tentacles grilled until crispy.  It is as far from rubbery, bland calamari as can be.

After fifteen minutes on the bbq, our octopus was perfectly cooked and accompanied with a salad and champagne.  I sadly can't say the same thing about the chocolate covered strawberries I made.   Octopus isn't exactly something you would pack up and bring to work the next day. I can only imagine the looks I would get after throwing it in the office microwave, but it was comical and tasty for a once-off evening. Any recommendations for next year?

An English Thanksgiving

We spent our first Thankgiving abroad in Dublin in 2007.  It was just the two of us and I managed to find a turkey breast at a local butcher.  The lone turkey breast and my make-shift stuffing mildly resembled the traditional meal, but didn't seem to have the most important element - people - which made this year's Saturday celebration so special and true to the holiday's nature and spirit.  Why celebrate on a Saturday? London and everywhere else in the world treats the third Thursday in November as just another day in the cubicle.  Thus, everyone was working.

In addition to reminiscing about each other's traditions - eating, napping, card playing and football - we were also really excited to share Thanksgiving with a newcomer.  It was really funny to see her curiosity towards some of the items we presented...squash with marshmellows? A weird concept to those unfamiliar with the gooey, goodness of my favorite dish.  Overall, she tried everything, dove into the pumpkin pie and seemed to embrace the joy de vivre that represents Thanksgiving.

 

European kitchens, especially the refridgerators, are small.....really small.  Thus, it was definitely a challenge to host Thanksgiving, roast the turkey (we don't even have an oven, seriously, which presented a very peculiar situation) and find storage for all of the leftovers.  I have the utmost adoration for mothers and grandmothers that always seem to have everything warm and served on the table at the same time.

Across much of Europe, turkey is considered the grand dame at Christmas.  Thus, most stores don't start carrying turkeys until the middle of December.  To my delight, London's strong expat community makes it much easier to source American style products including a free-range turkey, chestnuts, cranberries and even pumpkin pie filling. However, we did import Kraft marshmellows via care package.  I can recall small tantrums thrown on camping trips when my mom decided to purchase the grocery store generic marshmellows for smores.  They just aren't the same!

Several London department stores have a special American section in their food halls that carry everything from  Lucky Charms and Marshmellow Fluff to Dr. Pepper and JIF.  I find that Partridge's in Sloan Square has the best selection and variety of products.  I find these really interesting and also comical as the people walking by seem to have the impression that American's only eat Kellogg's pop tarts, A&W Root Beer and Betty Crocker cake mix.  Thus, an imaginary line is drawn right from the grocery aisle straight to America's obesity problem.  I'll admit, I'm tempted.....especially for graham crackers....but at $9.95!!  Luckily, we have amazing farmers markets to patronize instead, buying up amazing raw cheeses, meaty olives and Spanish charcuterie.