Degustation

As we near the end of our adventure in France, we’ve started thinking about all the things we haven’t done yet, or “have to do” before we go. I guess it’s natural – there’s no way we’re going to be leaving with regrets, but with 3 longs months stretching out in front of you, it was ok just to ease into the French experience; with under 2 weeks left it’s all systems go! It’s too early for a “what we’ve achieved and what we haven’t” blog (I guess that means there’s at least 1 more!) but the topic of food was prominent in the discussions, so here we are….

Em made a comment something like: “I’m a bit disappointed we haven’t embraced French food and cooking as much as we could have”. We’re both pretty good at trying things when we go out, but unfortunately we don’t get to go out nearly as much as we’d like – although I’m sure the credit card appreciates the restraint that 2 young children have provided!

We’ve been lucky enough to have a couple of restaurant meals in the last few weeks, including “Le Nord” (http://www.nordsudbrasseries.com/), a bistro run by Paul Bocuse who is (apparently) one of Lyon’s most famous and favourite chefs. The other lovely meal was for Em’s birthday; where we had a wine tasting / lunch combination at Domaine Comte Senard (http://www.domainesenard.com/) – a winery in Burgundy: lovely Burgundy wines and some great traditional French food including Coq au Vin. “Le Nord” was just the 2 of us (very special!) but we had both Hannah and Abby for the lunch; somehow we still managed a lazy 3 hour lunch which looking back on it was just extraordinary, but a lovely way to celebrate.

Lyon is renowned for its rich, meaty, “offaly” food, and we’ve had a fair bit of that. We’ve tried Rognol (kidneys… sheep I think) and sheep testicles at various restaurants. I’ve previously blogged about the escargot and frogs legs we had at friend’s place. At home we’ve had all sorts of sausages, salamis and terrines etc (including Terrine De Chevreuil, or Terrine De Bambi as it was described to us) – some of which we’ve known the contents of, and others where we didn’t and knew it was best not to ask. And everywhere we’ve had Foie Gras which is the most incredible food until you think about how it’s made. And of course, we’ve had more French cheese than can possibly be good for us, but that wasn’t a real chore!

But Em’s point was that we hadn’t been too adventurous in the kitchen. We’ve done duck a few times (and are big fans), and Em’s mum tackled rabbit once with great success, but we weren’t sure we could count that as our achievement! So this week, we decided rabbit was on the menu again. The timing was perfect as my aunt Alana had provided us with a rabbit recipe at the start of the trip, and a friend of hers from Benalla, Sarah, was staying with us (hence the ability to sneak out for a restaurant dinner!).

So “le lapin” and ingredients were purchased, and preparations began. The first setback came when we realised it was a whole rabbit that had been purchased, and dissection would be necessary. But a sharpened knife and deep breath and that hurdle was cleared, and it was relatively smooth sailing from there. The outcome was tremendous: good looking, and very, very tasty! Kind of makes you wonder why we haven’t done more of it!

For those that are interested, to accompany the rabbit, we recommend a red burgundy (of course), specifically:

2005 Givry, G. Prieur

Medium –Light red colour. Stewed strawberry aromas with hints of red berry. No sharp edges. Some fruit sweetness and a little bitterness on the medium length palate.

For more pictures, click on the image below.

Degustation