24th June 2012

Last week was the Journee du Patrimoine, its 2012 theme being food. I'd invited five new friends round to chez-nous. As usual, I panicked. It all started when we'd been invited round to lunch in Toulouse one Saturday a few weeks ago. We had a great time, walking through the beautiful Jardin des Plantes near the Esquirol metro, and meeting all these lovely new people. But now it was my turn. First worry: the menu. Our French guests had roots in five different countries, and our veggie son also had to be accommodated, so I didn't want to disappoint. Watching the culinary horrors of  'Come Dine with Me' on TV, I realised the best way was to cook everything in advance, so I prepared chilled fresh tomato soup, slow-cooked goulash (for our friend from Russia) with potato latkes and red onion pie (for our son), followed by fruit compote with cherries and other fruits from our garden. A minor disaster: one fruit compote dish fell over in the fridge directly onto a soup dish below! Fortunately, the tinfoil cover took the damage.  How did it go? T.G.: a resounding success, so much so that our Russian friend wants to buy my cookbook! But, Him indoors nearly ruined everything when they arrived by saying he was on a seafood diet: 'when I see food, I eat it'.....

30th May 2010

What have Jamie Oliver and a walk in the French backwoods got in common? It all started last Tuesday. Our visiting Canadian friends wanted to go for a gentle walk somewhere flat. We located the perfect spot in a tiny village called Bach (pronounced Bash in France). The walk was excellent and even had marked trees as signposts for those of limited walking experience. But of course we cut it short. 1k one way and 1k back was all we could manage - but it was good. And, we were able to let Bruno and Tina off the lead because there were no cattle, railway lines anywhere. Excellent.
Then we looked for a place to eat in Bach...well it is the land of bien manger. By some lucky chance we hit upon the wonderful Auberge Lou Bourdie run by la charmante Monique Valette. The food was advertised as 'cuisine traditionnelle'. It was superb. Great bowls of cresson soup served in giant 'gesunders' (goes under the bed!) and giant earthenware pots of 'tian courgette' - a sort of veggie kugel, platters of rare beef and duck for the meat-eaters, plus home-made roast potatoes. Servez-vous. With wonderful desserts, good wine and coffee, the total cost for 4 was 77 euros. Excellent value. And Jamie Oliver? We missed him by 2 days. He had been cooking there just 2 days previously, complete with camera crew. Mme Valette showed us the pictures to prove it!
Ah, this is the life.