I haven’t taken a lot of pictures of food here, because I’m not 100% ok with pulling out a phone and taking pictures in a nice restaurant. But I’ve been talked into posting the food pix I have so here they are. You’ll notice that they lean to the dessert side…
(In 2015 I posted about buying food on a day-to-day basis here. If you’re interested, it’s at Buying Food Here . About the only thing that has changed is we have found great produce and fruit [and inexpensive wine] at a fairly new grocery store near us, so we don’t hit the street markets as often as we did that year.)
Produce
Here are some pix taken in the stores at which we shop. We think that fruit and produce here is fresher and tastier than at home.
Leeks. Big leeks.
Really fresh green beans, and lots of them.
Mushrooms – a tiny selection of the mushrooms available here.
Part of the produce section at our local store. Look at the size of that lettuce. The origin of each item is listed, so you know where it came from.
Laurie had to fight this head of lettuce for ten minutes to get it into a bag.
Desserts
Chocolate, four ways. All of them great.
We ordered this after we realized that “tarte de prune” isn’t exactly what we thought. “Prune” translates to “plum.” It was, of course, excellent.
Chocolate moelleux. This is cooked so that the chocolate on the outsides forms a cake, but the chocolate inside stays melted. It is another favorite.
On the menu (in Montreuil-sur-Mer) these were listed as “profiteroles authentiques.” Good thing, because I would not want faux profiteroles. The “authentique” means everything in them was made at the restaurant.
A rhubarb tarte.
Probably the most beautiful patisserie cakes we’ve ever seen. Also the most expensive: for a cake serving four people, $35 – $45; for a six-person cake, $40 – $70!
Miscellaneous Food Pix
France has taken to the hamburger in a big way, but not like American hamburgers. We have not seen one that we could pick up and eat; a hamburger here is a knife-and-fork endeavor. This one is probably the shortest we have seen, and I couldn’t have gotten a bite of it.
Lunch in Montreuil-sur-Mer. The bowl at bottom-right is not soup; it’s rarebit: melted cheese over toast. Next to it: a salad. Above the salad, beef stew. Next to the beef stew, frites (of course). Post-lunch naps required.
That’s nougat. A lot of nougat. I didn’t buy it, though I was tempted.
Not exactly a typical at-home lunch for us, but not far off. I suspect the French would castigate us for this, but we’ve had more than a few lunches of cheese and bread, fruit and a glass of wine. This is three cheeses and a slice of paté.
The cheese course at a dinner chez Charrier.
We had a fabulous salad at this restaurant in Amboise three years ago. We found the restaurant again this year and had the same salad. If we return to Amboise, we’ll have it then, too!
That’s my food post; not a lot of pictures for ten weeks, I admit, but if I took a picture of every good lunch and dinner we’ve had, this blog would be nothing but food pictures!
THANK YOU! Oh goodness, all of that food looks amazing. I love your obsession with cheese, you two are great! And I truly appreciate all of the dessert pictures….drool. Even the vegetables look fantastic.
Oh Wow! What an art – to cook and make it look great all at the same time! Does a bag of Oreos come with a meal?
John, you could travel the world presenting each culture’s contribution, in the kitchen and on the road!
Can’t wait to see your hard-cover book!
what strikes me is what works of art the desserts are!
I love the “presentations”. They are so creative; I would want to try everything. Great photos! Thanks for sharing.