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| dining room |
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| amuse bouches |
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| magret sechee, quail egg and mayo |
First, the correction...I am not certain whether the Infanta who married Louis XIV (the Sun King) in St. Jean-de-Luz's cathedral in 1660 was Spanish or Austrian. I have in the past couple of days read both. It probably doesn't matter, though; I think all European royalty spoke something that we wouldn't quite recognize as French back in the 17th century, and they all married other royalty, what with alliances between countries cemented by marriage seem to have been more important that just about anything else.
So P and I haven't exactly had a riveting time this summer over here in Couze, what with not socializing with any of the English ex-pats around here, there being no night markets at Cadouin (Marche Nocturne they call them around here, you go there to EAT, and they are a great deal of fun); the only one we've sort of been to was last Monday in Couze. It was hotter than Hades; the vendors were all in the shade; the tables were all in the sun; and it was supposed to start at 1900 (7:00 p.m.) but nothing much had happened until about 8:00 by which time we were hot, hungry, and disenchanted. We bought some paella to take back to our house where we could at least eat in the shade, and left. Could eventually hear the Basque band (sounded pretty much um-pah-pah to me) from our patio. I didn't manage to get up early enough to go to the LeBugue market yesterday, and decided that if we aren't going to do anything tourist-y or social, we should at least EAT.
Today we went for lunch to a Michelin one-star restaurant in Tremoulat, walked in and asked if we could eat. I expected them to say no as we had no reservation (back-up plan was the Bistrot d'en Face, owned by the same folks, much, MUCH cheaper, across the road), but they said okay.
At lunch during the week, there's no menu. You can only do the "tapas menu" which is basically a "tasting menu" where you get lots of small dishes ("tapas" are Spanish and mean basically "small plates", and a "tasting menu" is not unusual on a French restaurant menu, but there being no other option is indeed unusual). Sooooo, that's what we did. Had aperitifs, Kir au vin blanc, which is a glass of dry white wine with a bit of Creme de Cassis (black currant liqueur) in it, and then we ordered a bottle of their house Bergerac Rose.
They brought the "amuse bouches": sorry about that; they are up at top. First is a view across the dining room, then a photo of the amuse bouches platter, and finally, the magret sechee (dried duck breast) wrapped around a quail egg with homemade mayonnaise on top. Lovely. The other ones were basically guacamole, very plain, with lemon juice instead of lime (limes are hard to find over here), tomato on top, and a LOVELY pate brisee (pie crust pastry made with butter) wrapped around a mixture of chopped filet mignon, chorizo and red peppercorns. One mouthful, but to die for...
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| green gazpacho |
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vichysoisse
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| langoustines |
Next we had (and the photos may or may not be down here) green tomato gazpacho. Wonderful stuff. Suspect that it's a combination of what Americans mean by "green tomatoes" and the heirloom tomatoes that are green when they are ripe, but not sure. It was lovely stuff. The Vichysoisse seemed to be finely diced, cooked potatoes, with finely diced skinny (French) green beans, with a cream sauce poured over it, with leeks in it, some prosciutto, couple of other things, some sort of pastry and a strip of shaved Parmesan. Lovely stuff; I ate it all, worrying all the time about all that cream making me sick. The langoustine dish was interesting, with langoustines and some sort of sweet bell peppers on top of puff pastry. The gazpacho and the vichysoisse were both a "ten".
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| marinated duck |
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| foie gras in broth |
The marinated duck (above) was lovely; the foie gras in broth was nice, but not wonderful. Next came the "main dishes":
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| fish with mushrooms |
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lamb tenderloin
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So on the left was the fish; Sandre or something like that, with mushrooms, on some lovely, lovely sauce. It was great, and then the lamb filet, e.g., lamb tenderloin (think the big piece on a lamb chop or cutting off that big piece on a rack of lamb...what do they do with all the bones?). It too was perfect. Perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, with a bit of potato, sauce, etc. Lovely all around. And then, for the cheese course:
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| Brie Truffee |
Okay, this stuff appeared to be whipped brie (perfectly ripe, of course) in this little glass with a couple of slices of truffle on it. Amazing stuff. Sort of exploded in your mouth.
But then, one must have dessert...
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| fruit and sorbet |
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peach poached in mint
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| vanilla cream with apricot |
The fruit and sorbet were lovely; the fresh peach was poached in hibiscus juice or something and mint with frothy minty cream on top; and the creme caramel was made with a vanilla bean, with apricot jam/compote/something on top. All were seriously good, and the portions were all modest.
Coffee afterward. The meal took two and a half hours, and was a lovely experience. Stay tuned for the grounds of the place.
Cheers, Lillie
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