Glorious Gastronomic Trip to Burgundy

Back in June we went to Burgundy for a long weekend of delicious food and wine. We were treated fantastically by the weather Gods as the sun shone down like a reliable angle poise - almost changing direction when it started to make you squint.

I don't want to write a long post - I simple wanted to share a few shots These are from Avallon market. The produce on display was stunning...















With such fantastic produce we all got very excited about cooking in our respective teams. Cowie and David teamed up to cook a blindingly good cote de bouef...





with David doing a scarily good impression of Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York



Whilst Tamsyn and I created a showstopping slow roasted guinea fowl with a girole and garlic sauce...





...followed by an absolutely classic medium rare apricot tart.



The whole holiday was idyliic. Sheer bliss. I wish I could snap my fingers and be back there right now sipping a nice glass of Puligny Montrachet having just gone for a swim in the river.

Restaurant des 2 Ours

On our last day we decided it was a good idea to all meet up in a nice restaurant for lunch and indudlge ourselves. Not that we hadn't been doing so before this point. Cowie and I arrived first eager to secure a seat and not break any bones on the last day. It didn't take long for me to demand onion soup which turend out to be fantastic. I love the way the cheese becomes all stingy and gloopy.



A great deal better than the boeuf bourgoignon taglatelle that I foolishly chose to follow it up. The sauce and the pasta just don't go together. You need some serious potato starch to absorb the juice whereas the pasta just acts like a wet suit and resists the water. Tasty. But not right.

The others filled their boots with omelettes, lasagne, goulash, steak, rustic salads, tarteflets and all manner of calorific fodder. All of the dishes apart from my rather odd choice were tremendous. The service was excellent. The view was even better. And the banter amongst the group was huge fun. Except for Adam who landed up with 3 sachets of ketchup, 2 tubes of mayonaise and a handful of breadcrumbs in his skiing jacket hood!

Fondue to die for?

On Wednesday Gwen and Sophie had the day off and we all pottered over the road to a super alpine restaurant to cause chaos elsewhere. Edwin and Anna had been here previously and heartily recommended it although I have now forgotten the name. But don't worry the story isn't about the food it's about the near deat experience we had!

Hot on the heels of our crepe catastrophe we plunged further into trouble when our entire table was set on fire during what can only be described as Fondu-gate.

We spent an age deciding what to have. Raclette? Hot stone? Fondue with meat? Fondue with cheese? Or more simply some grilled duck or steak. Cowie and I chose brilliantly. As much as we wanted to get stuck into something novel and alpine we didn't think we could face the idea of a vat of molten cheese or a medieval bowl of boiling oil. And the hot stone turned out not to be a stone at all. It looked more like a nocked over trouser press and gave out about as much heat. I had some delicious duck with a fig sauce and Cowie had a steak. Well done us. Both were brilliant. I'll be repeating the fig sauce at some point soon. Or at least trying to!

This story is all about Edwin and Anna and their exploding fondue. Now my French isn't what it used to be, but I'm pretty sure we would have spotted the word combustible, flamable or exploding on the menu next to the meat fondu had it been there.

After dipping in their fifth or sixth lump of meat the spectators next to Edwin and Anna started to wince as the fat started leaping out of the pan an onto their arms. Cowie jumped to the resuce and turned the flame down. But in doing so turned it completely off. For some reason it wouldn't restart. Not to worry the waiter with a splendid pink shirt brough a replacement burner. Which didn't work. So he brough another. Cowie mentioned in the aftermath that she could hear it hissing. Ah. One turn of the ignition button later and the entire table was on fire. The gas from the canister had spread all over the table and onto the girls' laps. In two terrible seconds we went from being mildly peaved that the fondue wasn't working to hopping around evading the grim reaper's colourful clutches. Drama doesn't come close. The waiter gave a wry little smile as if he expected a big fat tip for the entertainment and skipped off leaving Edwin and Anna with a story to tell for the rest of their lives!

Val Thorens' Highest Kebab Shop and Pub in Europe / The World

Val Thorens is the highest ski resort in Europe. It's so high up there are no trees and the snow is fantastic. This also means that it is the proud home of the self proclaimed "Highest Pub in Europe" - The Frog and Roastbeef as well as the "Highest Kebab Shop in the World" whose name I have forgotten.



The kebab was average at best. Not spicy at all and lacking in dirtiness. I didn't think the French would be able to cope with the intricacies of the perfect kebab. It's not really their bag!

Val Thoren Market

Tuesday and Thursday are market days in Val Thoren. A fairly ugly town that needs a bit of va va voom to take your eyes away from the fairly monotonous bars and concrete buildings. This came in the form of a fantastic alpine market selling everything from warm gloves, hats and scarves to things that got me a bit more excited such as countless types of sausage, honey, stupidly smelly cheese and jams to die for.

Cowie had a great time nibbling away at all the freebies whilst I spent most of my time either posing for photographs with enormous hams or trying to find a cash point!





Cowie bought me a fabulous chanterelle mushroom sausage which smells like one of John Wright's socks. I can't wait to find a good recipe for it, or better still to simply slice it thinly and have it with some fine cheese and bread for lunch or a picnic.

It didn't take me long to find the jam stall. It was heaving under the weight of scores of different types of conserve and preserve. I never know the difference. After much teeth sucking, humming, ahhing and rearranging of jars I decided on two classics. Arpicot and raspberry. I was tempted by the myrtle and the blackcurrant but we've already got some at home. I had a good lashing of both on some toast when I got back home and they are both delicious. Really fruity. Very French. But I have to say, the blackcurrant jam I got from Whitstable in the plain jar is the best jam I've ever had.

Holy Crepe! What a nightmare!

On one of our more successful day's skiing Edwin, Anna, Cowie and I found ourselves in Meribel for lunch. We'd skied hard all morning and decided it was well and truly time to get stuck into a crepe or two. We sat down inside and thawed out quickly. It didn't take us long to decide on having a galette each and a bowl of chips per couple. The girls fancied some tea to warm them up and some water to stop us getting thirsty.

So far, so good. Pretty straightforward. Not in France!

3 fantastic galettes arrived. Oozing with barely cooked egg and bursting whith cheese. Magnificent. Cooked by a pro. Eaten almost immediatley by everyone except Cowie who waited patiently for hers.

The tea arrived. Whislt stictly speaking this is true it's not much help ordering tea if they aren't going to bother either supplying the hot water or doing it themselves. So our tea bag remained unopened for the whole meal. It wasn't as if we could pour cold water on top and warm it with our hands because they forgot the water as well, despite being asked for it so many times that we just got embarassed to ask again!

All around us chaos was breaking out. An English couple slipped out having not been visited by the waitress for 15 minutes. Then, even more dramatically, a table of 5 girls walked out without paying only to be chased by 2 members of staff. It's amazing to see such otherwise slothful staff spring into action. Too little far too late. It did mean that they left 4 boys from Upppingham to deal with the aftermath!

Cowie's crepe never arrived. Poor little Goose. She'd been looking forward to it all day! It just means I am going to have to take her to My Old Dutch in London to make u for it.

Maybe they were having a bad day. Maybe they are just useless? Who knows? At the time it was disastrous but now it seems quite funny. It just made us appreciate the times when we got good service elsewhere.

Skiing Cuisine

We've just got back from a fabulous week in the French Alps gorging ourselves on everything that Val Thorens and the rest of the 3 Valleys could throw at us. Our Ski World chalet was brilliant with a fantastic view over the slopes.





Gwen and Sophie did a great job of keeping us fed and watered with cooked breakfasts every day, afternoon tea including a cake and a 3 course meal in the evening. Somehow they managed to feed all 14 of us. Quite a feat. But then again they do cook entirely the same thing each week. How boring for them must that be!!!

Our meals ranged from chicken monteyard (chicken breast stuffed with herby Philidelphia and wrapped with bacon), to confit of duck, pesto breaded salmon and pork fillet for main. The duck was excellent despite coming out of an enormous tin. Meanwhile the salmon was very tasty but the sauce was split and the pork was very measly and dry. Our deserts were quite fun. The girls made us a delciious chocolate torte which would have been great had we not already stuffed ourselves with a mascapone fondue and confit of duck! You could almost hear our arteries clogging up and tapping out morse code contractions.



Ski World's meals bookened our busy days' skiing in a way that made us want to wake up and also come home. Pretty impressive when you consider that the skiing was absolutely awesome. Gwen mentioned that you can write to Ski World to get their recipes. I think I might well do that!

It would be really cool if Ski World were to run an online competition to revamp their recipe book and weekly menu. I'm sure the blogging community could rally round and help out if a free skiing holiday or two were thrown in. It would be a super way of Ski World standing out from the crowd. Anyone keen?