Another Food Blog

I’d seen magret de canard on their specials blackboard as we passed Le Saleya earlier in the day.  Now as dinner time approached I was tempted.  Three of us popped in for a glass of wine first to Resto, Wine, Notes, then went on to La Saleya.  I had the duck and though it good, but the unusual thing was the chips – unlike any other I’ve had.  They were soft potato inside a crunchy shell.  I tried to guess how I would make them, and thought of stiff potato mash rolled in cornmeal then shallow fried. Nice.

One of my companions chose the seafood tagliatelli, which was declared pretty good.

But the star of the evening was the mixed seafood chosen by my other companion.  It came with at least half a lobster, as well as crab, langoustines, prawns, mussels, squid and octopus.  I tasted some, and agreed that it was very good indeed.

The royal wedding of William and Kate took place while I was in the South of France.  This did not, however, prevent it being celebrated.  I invited a couple of friends who were also visiting Nice to join me for a balcony ‘street party.’  I draped union jack bunting around the balcony, together with a metallized union jack balloon, and between us we assembled a suitable cake.  We finally opted for a panettone, a sweet Italian loaf with nuts and raisins.  One of us made icing from icing sugar and butter with a little Grand Marnier.  After icing the top, another friend carefully applied colouring to give it the union jack look.  The final touch was a cut-out of the happy couple affixed to the top of the cake by cocktail sticks.  From far away we toasted the royal couple’s success, health and happiness with Blanquette de Limoux sparkling methode traditionelle, and a very patriotic cake.

I went to Villefranche with two friends.  We tried for a table at Les Corsaires, but there were none left under sunshades, so we went to Achill’s instead, overlooking the harbour instead of being next to it.  I ordered the calamari, which was very nice indeed and which came with an excellent freshly made tartare sauce.  I had a small piece of one of my companions’ La Reine pizza (excellent), while the other one ate octopus salad.

In the Rue Saleya we ate at Chez Freddy.  My two friends had 3-course meals from the day’s ‘menu,’ but I settled for a single plate of fritto misto.  It was enormous.  I ploughed steadily through it, but suppose I managed somewhat less than half of it.  Fortunately it was not wasted, because my friends willingly helped out, despite their 3-course meals…

Frittatas are notorious for sticking to the pan and involving much cleaning and scouring afterwards.  This is why I always use baking parchment to line the pan – no cleaning, no scouring.  This frittata had three large eggs, two dessert spoons of ‘thick’ cream (crème epaisse), one of yoghurt, and about half a cup of goat’s milk.  Into it went some ‘poelee paysanne,’ with onions, potatoes, mushrooms, ham, etc.  I added chopped haricot beans and some thawed out carrots.  I seasoned it with garlic, black pepper, Provence herbs, and Tabasco sauce.  It had 35 minutes in the oven, then an extra unplanned 10 minutes with the heat turned off while I had a video chat about cigars with a manufacturer in Nicaragua.  I ate half the frittata with peas, and thought it pretty good.

It’s not something I would have thought of buying for myself, but quite often friends who stay in my flat leave interesting stuff in the fridge or freezer.  I found this Casino crème glacee a la pistache, or pistachio ice-cream. Crucially it has “morceaux de pistaches,” or pieces of chopped up nuts in it to give it more texture and taste.  It is bright green, but nonetheless manages to taste very nice indeed.  I rather think I might buy it myself occasionally, now that chance has brought it my way.