France on a plate

Typical lunch

We always say the measure of a country is a visit to the supermarket.  France is no different.  The hypermarkets of  E. leclerc and Intermarche are a force to be reconned with.  The choice of produce is second to none.  France is not cheap though.  Food prices are up there with New Zealand (and that's saying something!) but the choice and quality makes one forgive this quite quickly.

We choose to eat mostly at home (well, someone else's home actually ;-) as we wouldn't be able to afford our lifestyle if we had the habit of eating out.  Eating local and fresh is important to us not only as a low cost option, but also as a way of experiencing the food the locals eat.  In France we only ate out once (per chance on Valentines Day), whilst on a visit to Limoges, where we had the plait du jour (plate of the day) topped off with the most amazing creme brulee EVA!

Happy girl

Every small village has a boulangerie (bakery) where they pride themselves on daily fresh bread and pastries.  In fact, instead of getting milk delivered to the door you can get the bread van to deliver your daily bread.  You hang your bread bag on the front fence and voila!  In fact the bread lady in our area must have wondered where we came from as she was often the only other person we saw on our dog walks, usually miles from where she last saw us.  We became rather partial to the odd croissant and pain au chocolat for breakfast.  Not so good for the waistline but "when in Rome" .....

We learned to eat quail when we were in Italy and these were also available at the supermarket in France for just over a euro a bird.  James has perfected a recipe which has him using a white wine and cream based sauce with bacon, mushrooms and either cranberries or chestnuts.  Superb.

Clare made a couple of great French Onion soups with a splash of Pineau, an aperitif made in the local area of Charente.  Pineau did not impress on its own, but was a great addition to sauces and as a replacement to cognac in the aforementioned soup.

Another local delicacy we enjoyed was the goats cheese.   Soft and creamy and ever so subtle .....  you would be hard pressed to imagine a goat had been anywhere near it.

A vegetable that we became rather fond of here is fennel. We enjoy it equally either shaved raw into a salad or sauted with leaks.  Just depends on the weather and what we plan to have with it.

We also enjoyed a few cassoulet (casseroles) with a base of pork, merguez (spicy) sausages (local sausages are amazing - shame they're so full of fat), haricot beans and whatever vegetables happen to be hanging around in the fridge. Mmwah.

So  we go onto Spain where food will be cheaper and the climate and season will hopefully produce more fresh fruit, fish and salad foods.  Bring it on!