My World of Travel and Food: Moules, pigeon, bread, wine.....

I always thought NZ was the king of the mussels with it's lovely green lipped jobs. But the French ones are so sweet. They are small yes but sweet as sweet comes and utterly delectable. They also come very very handily packed so that you just pick up a pack for around 3 euros (a big pack this is) already debearded, scrubbed, or maybe these little ones just don't have time to get the beards and whatnot. And they keep in the fridge all packed up for a few days. Yay. Mussels made easy.

Andy did this mussel dish. It was a BEAUTY! Finely chopped shallots and garlic, a little chopped tomato, pernod, white wine, a little leek sweated down and the mussels in at the end for a few secs. Oh lord, yum!!!

Pigeon is one of those birds that is so unique in flavour that you simply cannot substitute another bird for it. We find it increasingly difficult to get here in Dubai. But in France it's abundant and glorious too. Yay! I deboned it, leaving the little wing tip bones and leg bones in, cooking the breast on the crown to make sure it didn't over cook and made a sauce with the bones, lardons, chanterelles, port etc....

And bread, yes I know the French are renowned for the stuff but in fact it's not always that good. It depends on the village you are in as to whether the bread is good or not. The local boulangerie of a particular area might have plain blah baguette. I was so relieved to see the stuff sitting in our local. Whew. It's the good stuff and even in the supermarket it's the good stuff. A relief for a complete bread lover like me. In my opinion Germany is the best place for bread not France. They have bread completely and utterly sussed. France, no but in our area a resounding YES!!

Then there's the wine, we're still learning. The regions whites are well known and phenomenal. The regions reds can be rather underwhelming until we tried a bottle of Volnay our friendly real estate agent dropped by (he wasn't much on the real estate front but really did know his wines as a trained sommelier and is ever so convivial we forgive immediately all his shortcomings on the actual business side of things). Volnay is a gorgeous wine. A fruity light red - pinot noir grape - but sort of more fruit driven than the pinots I've tried in the past. A gloriously feminine wine which is just as Virgille our agent described it to be.

Apple cake will always be my all time favourite and I enjoy knocking them up particularly in France. Dunno why, I just do. For this version I popped in a centre of blackberry jam.