Saturday, June 25, 2011

Some memorable meals in Spain and France


We stayed at the Colours of Pays Cathare B&B in the village of Verzeille, just south of Carcassonne for two nights. Our host recommended a wonderful restaurant, Auberge de Pommayrac, for dinner. This was the "entree" of tarte de champignon or mushroom tart. (Another interesting point of language is that the French use the word "entree" where we would use "appetizer" or "starter".) There was a lovely delicate sauce probably made from Rose wine which complimented the mushrooms nicely.


I persuaded Lloyd (not too difficult a job) to have dessert at this restaurant in Carcassonne. It was billed as "Creme Catalan" and is very similar to Creme Brulee. It was delicious! And a very dramatic entry.



Lloyd and I often enjoyed a meal of tapas, small dishes served in most bars in Barcelona. The Spanish don't eat their last meal of the day until quite late--most restaurants didn't open until at least 8 PM and some even later than that. Fortunately for us, the bars are open all day and most serve tapas. Here we were enjoying a meal of Patatas Bravas (deep fried chunks of potato with a spicy mayonnaise), wild mushroom fritters, tomato bread, and a cheese tortilla (what we call an omelet). Tomato bread quickly became a favourite of ours for both lunch and dinner--simple to prepare, it's usually fresh bread spread with fresh garlic and a squeeze of fresh tomato and olive oil. At one restaurant, I was served all the fixings to do it myself...a slice of bread, a garlic clove, and a whole tomato.




2 comments:

  1. You wrote "French use the word "entree" where we would use "appetizer" or "starter"." That makes sense as "entree" means "enter" as in enter a meal. Makes sense to me. French Canada uses the term and "le plat principal" is "main course" in French. Another direct translation.

    Food looks wonderful. Good thing you like to walk a lot.

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  2. Yes, it's a darn good thing that we walked a lot!

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