December 12, 2008
"There's gold in those hills!"
At least we hope so as we climb into the neighboring Aveyron, a hardscrabble landscape of barley fields, vineyards, deep valleys and cliff-hanging villages.
We meet Jean-Pierre in Laguiole, home of the eponymous cutlery. He is a slight, sinewy man with a rugged face masked in scruffy beard and mustache. He wears a blue stripe mariner's pullover and Wellingtons. A trained architect, painter, antiques restorer, graphic artist, and an accomplished outdoorsman, Jean-Pierre is a cross between Renaissance man and inveterate collector.
He lives in the town of Crozillac, about as elusive as Brigadoon.
We speed along narrow roads across a high meadow (900 meters) before veering off onto a little country lane that snakes through his property. I park the car next to two Celtic headstones. We cross his wife's meticulous garden to the main house filled with treasures: old pocket lamps, knives, snuff boxes, toys, decoys, perfume bottles, gun powders, Auvergne pottery, copper pots, pipes, prints, paintings, ancient tomes, etc.
We buy twenty early 19th century salt shakers made of ash, beech and boxwood, a pair of truffle bottles, old apothecary jars with copper and chrome lids, and a wine bottle from the Tour d'Argent.
A lunch of garden salad with edible flowers, home-grown tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil; air-cured beef with cornichons, mountain sausage, and sautéed girolles, wild forest mushrooms that Jean-Pierre foraged this morning is laid out on a long, walnut table.
Marie-Josèphe, who bears a distinct resemblance to Edith Piaf, pours rosé from an unmarked bottle.
For dessert, Marie-Josèphe brings out a bowl of whipped fromage blanc and wildflower syrup. Jean-Pierre regales us with stories of famous chefs, notably Paul Bocuse with whom he once shared a six-hour meal.
What's your personal record at the dinner table?
still thinking about today...
Sorry, we are Opinel people here. ;)
But seriously, the unmarked bottle of rosé got me. I am in my 7th month of pregnancy and cannot handle much in the way of wine just now. By the time baby boy is born, summer will be on its way and thus rosé weather... I seriously cannot wait for either!
M. Peterman, c'est pas juste, je dois protester contre la description approfondie d'un tel sondage délicieux déjeuner. La prochaine fois prendre des photographies, si nous ne pouvons manger qu'il nous pouvons au moins voir.
We've got heavy thick clouds that are closing in the valley and trying their hardest to snow. This is the kind of day where I wich I could go home to pot au feu or boeuf bourgignon bubbling away on the stove and a fresh crusty loaf of rustic bread coming out of the oven and a fresh pear tart going into the oven with a bowl of creme fraiche chilling in the fridge.
Longest time at a dinner table, according to my parents, was when I was two and told I could not leave until my vegetable was eaten. Quite a marathon, apparently. Made them brace themselves for the years to come.
But now I love just about everything, especially as described above. So I linger for other reasons. One thing that has not changed, is my love of eating with my fingers.
Often when I travel with my sisters, we spend an evening doing a progressive dinner through a city. Appetizers at one spot, soup at another. . .and on. Good fun.
Missive I knew I liked you for a reason! I did the same thing. My mom is much more obstinate than I am, she would serve me the leftover vegetables for breakfast the next morning...and so on and so forth, until I actually got hungry enough to eat them.
My little sister Holly trumped me, she learned she could will herself to throw up if she didn't like a particular food. My mom couldn't handle that so the twerp got out of eating all the healthy stuff.
Progressive dinners are fun. We planned one for a friend's 30th birthday party. She was NOT looking forward to that particular birthday so we of course went WAY overboard just to prove to her its not as bad as she thought. We gave her a little handmade book of riddles and clues and she had to figure out what restaurant we were all waiting at by the clues and she had to chase us around town. We did a global food theme because we'd all pitched in to buy her a really beautiful globe inlaid with minerals and semi-precious stones on a big brass floor stand, she'd always wanted one but could never spend the money on herself. So each restaurant on the chase represented a different country (Japan, Mexico, Thailand, France, Germany) and the last clue took her to her apartment where we'd snuck in while she was at work and left the globe in the middle of her living room.
The chase started at 5pm after work and went until about 9pm.
Oh, Laguiole . . . absolutly on my list of places to visit in this life, if only to get a corkscrew . . .
And the joys of the unmarked bottle. Always a gamble, often a reward. It could be the homebrew of a man with a wooden plank for a palate or the special reserve they just couldn't bear to sell . . .
I think I need a slow lunch.
Miss Ive ~ Ever had to have that dinner as your Breakfast ala Mommy Dearest? Been there also....
We do these Girls Night Out, its a bunch of women that get together & you really only know 1 or 2 of the people, the rest are friends of friends of friends. I have met so many inspiring & wonderful women through these dinners. Because everyone has a story, & loves to eat, it really is a long lingering dinner, but it is more than just eating & talking its more about being yourself & sharing yourself with the others.
I try not to linger at restaurants, being a former waitress I now that the servers in this state for for $2.15 an hour and rely on turning tables and getting as many tips as possible. But if it is a dinner party at my house or a friends...we usually sit around the table until past our bedtimes.
Hey Missive, you're a Detroit girl, ever been to a chicken dinner at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth?
Chista and Rings,
I too have been served uneaten dinner for breakfast and have done it to my sons. The best news is, it usually only has to be done once! Now my sons both ask for seconds on salad and my girlfriends think they were 'born that way.'
Chista,
I too worry about the table turns for servers, but will still linger. I just tell them we'll be tipping accordingly, then they chill and stop pacing. I imagine this does not happen in France?
And YES to Frankenmuth. Christmas ritual. How cool that you know it. Have you been? So hungry for that now.
CoyoteMike,
Let us know how the slow lunch goes.
Couscous and parm?
We always do it on a Monday or Wed nite becuase those seem to be the slowest nights in this area for eating out. (Unless theres a Packers Game.) and of course because there are SO many of us the tip seems to always be very nice, so I don't think the when the waitstaff sees all of us coming theyget too upset.
Loving the around the world idea for eating, maybe I will have to try that fo rmy B-day in Feb... Hmmm will have to wrk on the establishment lsit myself though, some of my friends may think it funny to take me to the local super market & buy thier Sushi instead of going to the actual Sushi bar.....
Missive, my brother was employed by a company based in Florida that sent him all over the country to their other offices to put out fires and do IT installs. He needed an extra set of hands and he asked me to go with him on a trip to Detroit (his company paid for my trip) and someone in their office told us we HAD TO go to Frankenmuth. So we did.
Chista,
What did you think of the uniforms?
Love German beer and fried chicken. Good coleslaw, too. Must stop.
Brought a cup-o-noodle for lunch. Want to cry.
Missive I dont' have anything for lunch. I've got to dig around my purse and find enough change to get a jr. baconcheeseburger at the Wendy's down the street. The diet be damned I need fake cheese and limp bacon today.
Oh and the uniforms? Luff trachten clothing, I want a dirndl for myself someday.
LUNCH ~ you got a LUNCH? what the H*LL?! I've been entering shipping labels since 7:30 this AM with no end in sight. I hate Christmas Shipping...
Greetings: I'm in the restaurant business. I don't think I'll ever be finished with dinner.
It was tasty, but not up to the standards Mr. P. has been making me jealous of.
Cream of Asparagus soup in a freshly baked breadbowl.
About the best I can do around here.
Rings I just got from my lunch break, I spent it hunched over a light table picking through very old negatives. Found a great one of my father as a baby being pulled around in a wagon by his grandfather, and one of him in his Army Air Corps uniform with his mother, I'm going to have those printed and put in frames for his desk. I want have all of them printed but I'm guessing there are close to 300. I'm going to order some glycene sheets and archive boxes to keep these negatives in good condition.
My project for next christmas is to get all my family's 8mm reel to reel and camcorder cassettes converted to DVD. If that goes well I'm going to have all the VHS converted as well but its going to be pricey.
Cpt. Neptune, I sympathise. When I worked in the food industry I just got used to always smelling like food and having my weekends be Sunday and Monday.
CoyoteMike do you make your own breadbowls?
nachista: No, I went to a little bakery/cafe that has good soup :)
Ahhh. I have one of those that I go to when I want to spurge. The Pastry chef makes good crusty bread and delicate french pastries, his pear florentines are amazing and his dessert napoleans are almost orgasmic.
This place isn't quite up to that. But I do remember a little Italian Bakery I found in Vegas when I was stuck in an apartment there for 2 weeks. Every morning I'd take a walk, and the bakery was where I turned around :D
Oh, the memories . . . brings a tear to my eye and a rumble to my tummy.