Rungis Market

As much as the front-of-house, customer facing life engages and energises me, there is a whole world behind the scenes that offers a foodie so much to appreciate and to be in awe of.  Early enough in my fulltime food career I took the opportunity of a week in France to detour one morning to Rungis Market on the outskirts of Paris.  Rungis is one of the central hubs for food distribution in Europe and  is really more of a town than a market.  When we arrived at 6.30 a.m. for a tour of the cheese sheds,  the lanes...highways... were jammed with artic lorries driving like maniacs from lott to lott collecting pallets of produce.

Goat's cheese set and ready to leave the country!

You really need your wits about you as most of the workers have been up since very early morning.  This became all the more obvious when we went to the Cafe in the centre of the 'town'.  I dared to ask for a cappuccino.....and nearly got laughed out of the place.  A quick scan of the bar explained why.... brandy and espresso was the drink of the moment...not a nice milky coffee.  Sure what else would you be doing at 7 in the morning?  Graciously however the barman did mock up a couple of frothy cappuccinos.

Provencal Sweetness; Understanding Regionality

It was on a trip to Provence that I started to really appreciate regionality of food and drink on the continent.  This is a topic which I think I will be coming back to time and again.  For example, Provence has its Chateau-neuf, Gingondas and Bandol wines with distinctive features influenced by the infamous mistral winds and gravelly soils.  What particularly caught my eye (no surprise) however, was the proliferation of sweet and chocolate shops.  On a visit to Aix-en-Provence we found not just amazing olives but also chocolate olives.  No no, don't worry, there was no olive in the chocolate.  The prolific La Cure Gourmande provide some of the best examples and their merchandising is very impressive.  Neighbouring shops sold Calisson by the truckload - little oblong sweets based on almond and candied fruit pastes.  You will find these sweets elsewhere in France, but their origin and traditions are very much focussed in Provence. 

Baskets of olives!

Dolceacqua for Pizza, '07

We discovered it more by accident than anything. Driving from Menton on the french side of the France-Italy border we wound our way over the mountainous border to the quirky town of Dolceacqua.  Apart from its quirky shape and architecture, there is a wonderful pizzeria Il Borgo's, which claims to be 200 years old.  With prime seats by the hatch to the kitchen we had full view of the pizza-making and the open oven they are cooked in.  The pizzas matched our expectations.  We arrived at the restaurant starving and easily demolished everything put in front of us.

This was Claire's - bresaola, parmigiano and rocket.

Burgundy 2007, a great vintage!

This is one of my favourite pictures in my collection. I had the opportunity to continue my love affair with France and its food in early '07 with a trip to visit my good friend Donal.  He chose to do an MBA for a year and we chose to join him for the best part of one of the weeks. We ate and drank our way through southern Ile-de-france and northern Burgundy - much fun!

The town of Chablis ended up as the target for one of our day trips.  Fortunately we got side tracked by a much smaller pretty town just over the hill.  Chablis may always remain famed for its wine, but town of great beauty and interest it is not!  However, can I remember the name of that little town over the hill? Not a chance but when I find it, I'll post it.

The little old lady at the very back of the above picture hosted an impromptu wine tasting of her product.  The whites - all Aligote - were just perfect for the heat of our late April tour.  The 6 or 7 bottles we bought did not last very long.

Tips

- The reds we tried from the area.......were not recommendable.

- Although not from Chablis proper, the wines matched anything I have tried since from the area.

This is the church in 'the-little-town-over-the-hill'

In line with current volcanic goings on!

It was a near life-long desire to travel to Iceland. The Brendan Voyage was an odd inspiration!  To celebrate my 30th, Claire and I attempted a surprise visit to Haukur and his family in July '08.  Although our arrival turned out to be not so surprising, we spent an incredible week in Rejkavik and its surrounds.  We were welcomed by the Stefansson family with freshly caught wild salmon and two legs of Icelandic lamb spitted on the BBQ.  I have always taken great pride in extoling the virtues of Irish lamb, but in fairness to the Icelanders they raise fierce sheep meat.

Later into our trip we rented a car for a day to tour the sights just beyond Rejkavik. After a morning of driving we settled on finding Fjorubordid restaurant in the little fishing village of Stokkseyri, south of the Capital.  Fjorubordid turns up in many locals tourist lists and rightly so.  Although quite the trek out of the city, the lobster soup fulfilled all my expectations.  The views, the peace and quiet and the friendliness of the staff all helped too.

Tips

- Do not be upset by the small size of the lobster.  The much colder northern water keep the lobster shorter and arguably sweeter!

- If you have no inclination to travel from Rejkavik (although that would be wrong) Saegreifinn down on the quays make an excellent lobster soup too. We didn't try the whale skewers.

Don't worry, I won this battle!

When it comes to seafood the general rule is eat it as fresh as you can get it.  I have been travelling to Mayo with family since age zero.  This is where I notched up my earliest seafood experiences including mussel picking, mackerel fishing and trying to encourage fishermen to take more cash for their catch.  October just gone, Claire and I were down in Belmullet getting some deserved rest and relaxation.  Just at the end of the crab season (the weather generally does not allow for any fishing from late October) we spotted a small boat coming into the pier, so we hopped in the car and spun down to see if we could lighten their load. A bit of chat and €14 later, we walked away with 5 kilos of crab claws and a live crayfish! Bargain. 

One boiled-alive crayfish later and many claws we still had a stockpile to dole out to the family the following day. They were absolutely delicious.

Tips

- Dressing does not need to be complicated - Maryrose sauce.....half mayo, half ketchup.....more or less!

- Any blunt object will do to crack the claws open.

Dinner in Umbria

Not that I live in history but I am just trying to catch up on updates from the last 12 months that cannot be overlooked.  As part of the first Italy trip last summer Claire and I spent nearly a week celebrating our good friends Gro and Haukur's marriage with friends and family.  We ate our way through the little town of Citta della Pieve, and worked our way through some of the local vineyards too.  Zafferano restaurant's slow whole roast pork legs with the crispiest crackling, thinly sliced rare beef with oranges and olives, and creamy saffron risotto were the highlights of the wedding dinner.  This was contrasted the following night with the best antipasto, pizza and beers in a local pizzeria!

Mercado de San Miguel

Last May we discovered the Mercade de San Miguel while on a two day gettaway to Madrid.  Although it does not match the sheer scale and size of the La Boqueria in Barcelona, the displays, atmosphere and colours were no less impressive.  The lumps of caramel being shaped into sweets, the fishmonger slicing and dicing with the bigget fish-knife ever, the oyster bar and the fruit sellers all make for a meal for the eyes.

Lunch that day however was just next door to the market in a tourist trap....but you can go wrong with a bagutte filled simply with a slice of Spanish omelette.

Trattoria Corrieri, Parma

This is undoubtedly one of the best restaurants in which I have eaten in the last couple of years. Sooo good was this tip off from Clotilde, my Italian side-kick in work, that within a month I had brought firstly my girlfriend Claire and then my sister Jennifer to the Trattoria Corrieri.

Torta Fritta......pillows of deep-fried dough were the highlight.  They arrive warm to the table.  With a platter of the local prosciutto sliced fresh off the leg in the next room, the two make for a tasty anti-pasto. The tortelli di zucca (tortelli stuffed with pumpkin) are freshly made on-site and their sweetness requires no dressing other than a little (again local) parmesan.

If you are within 200km of Parma make the journey!  Parma is a very good spot for food hunting for obvious gastronomical reasons and is well worth a wander.

They sell themselves...Bra, 2009

Bra, Italy....funny by name and nature!

Better late than never, eh? I thought I had better get posting a little more regularly.

So here's one short and sweet post.

The Cheese Festival in the little town of Bra in northern Italy last September was an eye opener. With a nice little chunk of cheese experience under my belt, I decided that I couldn't wait another two years for this fantastic fare of the worlds cheese. I dragged my sister along.... fortunately not kicking and screaming for a weekend of cheese, cheese, wine, breadsticks, and more cheese! I did get some strange looks from even the foodies in work who thought a cheese festival was more than a little odd sort of concept. After trying at least 50 cheeses in one day, I proved at least to myself that I could not disagree more. I will be heading back in 2011 with more people in tow.

Tips - Try and stay in the town. Commuting even a from local towns whether by public or private transport keeps you away from the social scene in the evenings.