AUBERGE DE LA SELETTE - RESTAURANT REVIEW

They say that familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe that's true. We'd passed by Auberge de la Selette dozens of times if not more, sitting close by a very busy two-lane blacktop, next door to a wine shop, just around the corner from bustling L'Oulibo - the touristy olive cooperative outside of Bize Minervois. A highway joint. With a wine shop next store. And a tourist attraction around the corner. Why waste the time and money?

Over two years go by...

For some unknown reason, friends suddenly began asking us what we thought of La Selette. They liked the place. We'd never been? Let's fix that. A visit was arranged.

Worth the trip.

Five of us sat on a patio, quite close to the highway. But somehow a small retaining wall and some landscaping seemed to modify the noise of passing cars considerably. We had plenty of space although the patio was quite full. And with a bit of adjustment as the sun moved, a large parasol provided sufficient shade. That's not to say that comfort was total. The temperature exceeded 90F (32C) so the girls traded the one dainty little fan back and forth.

Enough side business. What about the food?

We all went for the 24 euro lunch, a bit pricier than our normal, wine not included. (And we went through one and one-half liters of pink and a half liter of red.) We started with a small plate of olives (local lucques) and a cheese-and-cream dip seasoned with Espelette pepper and accompanied by nice toasted bread bits. The table was a bit large for the one small plate but we managed to each get a share. A simple little glass of gazpacho followed, nothing fancy but you can't beat the local tomatoes when they are in season.

Cathey went for an escargot starter that came in four small cups. She could detect no differences between the four, and if the differences were too subtle for Cathey, they were just too subtle. Not too garlicky. I had a good-sized salad featuring what I would call Camembert fritters, four chunks of pleasantly tangy Camembert fried with a crispy crust of bread crumbs. Plenty of lettuce with a creamy dressing and a radish and onions and corn kernels. (The French have a thing for corn kernels on salads. Don't know why. I surely do miss my American sweet corn though. Nothing like that here. But again. I digress.)

Cathey had the seafood gratin for her main course - creamy, cheesy (I say that a lot, don't I? Creamy and cheesy...) piping hot fresh catch flanked by fleurettes of mashed potatoes. Very satisfying. My slow roasted lamb with black pepper and lemon confit just fell off the fork. If you like lamb, the lamb here is heavenly. The pepper threatened to be overpowering at first taste. But once I settled in, it worked. You had to like black pepper, though. Sides included mashed potato, a little dish of ratatouille (totally unnecessary), and a little spoonful of diced fresh tomato with garlic and oil.

Dessert? Of course. I had a tall, wonderfully nasty profiterole (see pic). Cathey's sorbet finished her meal cleanly and well.

I should add that there were a couple of different choices by our table mates throughout the meal. All satisfactory. The full-on cafe gourmand was quite impressive.

I can't speak to the full freight. We were treated to lunch and I don't ask. Whatever the cost, the food was well-prepared and well-presented in a no-rush, pleasant atmosphere, served by attentive, helpful servers. As it should be...

Read more of my reviews HERE.

Camembert Fritters

Seafood Gratin

Slow-Roasted Lamb

Profiterole

CAFE DU MIDI - BIZE MINERVOIS - A REVIEW

You can't go home again. Well, in this case it might be more accurate to say that you can't always get back to where you once were even if you go back to the same place. Catch my drift? Too much drift?

On a luscious fall day in 2004, my wife Cathey, her sister Liz, and I happened across a restaurant in the little village of Bize Minervois. It's a pretty little village with the river La Cesse running alongside, not far from the regional olive cooperative with its neat gift shop, and on the back road from here to there if you're tired of the highway. We're in and around Bize quite often. But we've never returned to that little restaurant just inside the Bize archway until this weekend. We remember the restaurant well, though we've lost the name, because of a picture that Liz took of Cathey and I as we sat down to eat, a picture of a younger, happy, and satisfied couple that was printed out, framed, and given prominent play in my office at work and also served as my avatar on several websites in the decade since it was taken. The meal was as memorable as the picture. The girls shared a huge salad plate with a dozen or more ingredients including fresh veggies of the region and the season, pickles, and a hunk of country pate. I had rabbit, my first in France, stewed to perfection and served in a funky terracotta bowl. No ambiance, though. Not a lick. Just good French country cooking.

Today's Cafe du Midi is a different sort of place. Modern brown and red fabrics in place of the white linen. Modern, slightly awkward chairs. Modern lighting. Modern. That's okay. Modern is okay. But the menu was not okay. Our choice for a main dish was either hamburger or steak. Granted that it was a winter weekend. Granted we arrived just before a party of about twenty that had booked beforehand. Granted that it was the fixed price special. Even so, you shouldn't have to choose between cow and cow.

I will say that the presentation was interesting. Check out the picture. But to Cathey, the idea that hot and cold courses were served at the same time meant that by the time that you got to the last hot course, it wasn't hot any more.

So...

The sauteed veggies atop a square of puff pastry with a mild sauce was OK. The gazpacho with bits of bacon would have been interesting if we didn't get the feeling that the tomatoes came out of a tin. The steak was French biftek with a sauce and a dash of onions. The fries - chilling down while we worked on the veggies and the gazpacho - were probably reconstituted. The pineapple was fresh and the presentation novel. The goat cheese was good and the cheddar was French cheddar. (The French don't get cheddar.) Good baguette.

With a demi of wine, 32 Euros. Cathey has spoken. There are too many kitchens to sample in the region to come back to the Cafe du Midi any time soon.

Read more of my reviews HERE.