Sparky's Blog
12-27-12
Booze and Food in Rodez and Le Puy en Velay
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| A night-time view of Rodez's grand cathedral |
Rodez
village and Cathedral tour
With our tummies full of cheese and potatoes and
yes, more wine we ventured into Rodez for a guided tour of Vieux Rodez the
village and its cathedral. On our way
back to our hotel and upcoming tour, we are driving through France as we always
do but I can’t help but wonder to myself that this is an experience that can
never be duplicated due to its beautiful nature. It seems like every other minute we drive by
another “post-card” moment. The
country-side is just magnificent and the towns are quaint and idyllic with
old-world styles and architecture flooding the eye with historical insight,
charm and dreamy-like romanticism. I’m
in love with this land and its people.
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| The church/monastery on top of the hill in Rodez |
I have to admit that I haven’t found the stereotype
in the people here that most Americans speak of….I’m sure it has to do with the
fact that most Americans tend to be “ugly” and I have extensive travel
experience. Too bad that Aaron chose to
be our “ugly” American….okay I have to let this go.
First of all, this wasn’t our fist cathedral tour
(they are all fantastic) but unique in-and-of-itself. There were stained glass windows depicting,
the lunar landing, dinosaurs, the
crusades, heaven and hell, marine life and of course the requisite saints and
storybook bible scenes. I haven’t seen
anything like it. The modern mixed with
the traditional. It was quite
contemporary and contests were held to see who would make them. This wasn’t the only cathedral that had this
kind of fashion statement.
Tuesday, May 22
Le
Puy en Velay –
After breakfast we depart
for Le Puy en Velay – this would be our only one night stay and I must admit
that the highlight for me was the dinner but first I must mention our visit to
the distillery Pages-Verveine. Here we discovered the secrets for making Pages
Verveine du Velay, Green and Yellow Verveine liquors and Verveine du Velay
Extra. All this mumbo-jumbo meant was
that these cats made some serious liqueurs and aperitifs. I wasn’t expecting to be drinking anything
stronger than wine thus far but this stuff was starting at 80 proof and went up
to 120 proof which was just the perfect combination for the makings of a very
loose group of culinary students breaking into song and dance.
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| Brass containers where the magic happens! |
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| Pages makes many different types of Verveine booze! |
We had to be restrained
several times from showing our gratitude for being in this booze-soaked
establishment awash in tradition and upper-lip hoity-toityness. It really was their fault for filling us with
the fermented juice of sugar-laden fruit.
Several of us decided to buy copious amounts of this magical elixir to
share with their loved ones back home.
Trouble is, hardly none of it made it back home as we feasted on this
booze ourselves over the next few nights.
You gotta blame the good folks at the Pages distillery for making such a fine product.
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| That's a lot of booze! |
We were suppose to go to a trout farm after our boozy adventure but it
was raining so hard that this visit was cancelled and a good thing too because
we were in no state to plod along the muddy paths of any area filled with large
expanses of water. Our schedule was
rearranged to head on back to the hotel to change and “freshen-up” so-to-speak
before dinner.
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| Ryan and I feeling no pain after a "tasting" of Pages best stuff! |
Restaurant Vidal
Dinner was waiting for us
a fair ways outside the village of Le Puy en Velay in a regional area in
Saint-Julien-Chapteuil. We dined at
Restaurant "Vidal" and the chef Jean-Pierre Vidal Chef/proprietor is a French master
chef and Toques d’Auvergne which is fancy-schmancy for bad-ass chef. He prepared authentic cuisine with light and
creative touches that bordered on dinner theater.
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| Bad-ass Chef Vidal with a very willing pupil |
We first had an appetizer with popcorn that had pork fat and salt
absorbed into it, then there was cherry tomatoes with sesame seeds glued to
them that made for an interesting and fantastic taste adventure. Next on the plate was a cheese mousse canapé
that was light and airy with a hint of over-salted flavor that really
satisfied. How do these guys come up
with this kind of food?!!
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| Turbot with potato "scales" - a very classical dish |
Our next course was the
foie gras three-ways. First up was foie
gras stuffed cherries glazed with pork fat and red wine – really? This was divine, just lovely and perhaps the
best thing that I have tasted up to this point.
We then had a pan seared lobe of foie gras immersed in nothing but
butter, butter and more butter – wonderful.
Our third type of goose liver was ground up with pork fat, rolled into a
ball then breaded with herbs de Provence and deep-fried and served atop a small
bed of mushroom and red wine risotto.
I’m in heaven…..
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| Foie Gras three ways |
We then had turbot fillets
with shaved potato rounds placed on the filet to resemble scales of the
fish. These rounds of potato were
affixed to the fish with a thin layer of egg white-wash and seasoned simple
with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Quite simple but delivered maximum flavor. I will do this for my family very soon.
We indulged in pork
tenderloin fillet steaks stuffed with apple/sage sausage for our meat
course. This fillet was immersed with a
rhubarb type sauce that was toned down a bit with honey and pork
demi-glace. The side dish was
traditional pommes frites and white wine braised root vegetables.
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| A magnificent pork tenderloin! |
Our dessert blew my mind
as it looked like a plate with a chocolate dome straddling the edges. Chef Vidal himself came along with cognac and
set it ablaze and then poured it on top of this chocolate dome watching our
faces as we giggled like school children seeing it melt away revealing a peach
glace/ice cream and sponge cake smothered with Chantilly crème. As the chocolate melted it became a sauce
along with the cognac. I couldn’t
believe my eyes and the taste was out of this world good!
On
our way to Lyon – but first SNAILS!
We visited a snail farm (escargot) in the morning on
our way to Lyon today and I must admit that it wasn’t what I was expecting….I’m
not sure what I was expecting as I didn’t think snails grew on trees or
anything so much as how they are kept or harvested is what interested me. They are kept in screened-in, long
rectangular hutches with propped up boards every 4 inches or so. There is vegetation that grows under and
between the boards to allow for them to roam.
Now I know what you’re thinking, how much room does a snail need to
roam? Okay, not far; not far at all but
let’s just call them “Free-range” snails for this particular story.
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| The life of a snail is quite leisurely (until it gets eaten of course!) |
Did you know that snails have between 10,000 and
14,000 microscopic teeth? Also, they
mate only once a year but they’re mating rituals can last up to 12 hours? France has about 200 of these farms and each
one produces about 150,000 each year.
The demand is slowly but steadily rising necessitating a need to find
purveyors elsewhere including Poland and Hungary.
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| A snail farm complete with electrified fencing |
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| Our host explaining snail stuff |
We received instruction on different species (over
2,000) and the types to eat (only about 4).
We also were shown the process in which they are processed for human
consumption and that is by means of hot water to kill and sanitize them and
then through pressure cooking to raise the water temp. (saving time and energy)
as well as finish the cooking process.
This was very interesting and informative and of course the farmer had
product to sell as well.
Have a great day and never give up!
Mark (Sparky)
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