LO CAGAROL - RESTAURANT REVIEW

In front of a warm fire in a pleasant room, Cathey and I spent two hours enjoying drinks and dinner, well prepared and cheerfully served, in the restaurant Lo Cagarol in the village of Aigne in the direction of Minerve from our home in Quarante. 

The mussels were small but the portion was sufficient to share. The broth was lightly spiced and plentiful. We were given bread to sop it up and a soup spoon to finish it off. I never did figure out how to use the little springy doodads that were provided.

My duck yakitori was a tasty fusion, properly seared with good color and creamy mashed on the side. The best duck that I've had in a while. 

Cathey’s St. Jacques could have been better, served as it was in a deep bowl that didn’t allow the pasta to breathe, a minor but real disappointment. 

At dessert, I simply asked our server if there was anything chocolate, and chocolate arrived in the form of a gooey lava cake, a scoop of dark ice cream, and chantilly. 

All in all, a comfortable and satisfying dining experience. Our 45€ per person freight included two aperitifs and a bottle of a favored pink from a regional domain Cailhol Gautran. Worth a visit for a tasting. 

We won’t return to Lo Cagarol often. Our preference runs to less formal village bars and inns. But we will return.

LEAVING THE UNITED STATES, PART 2: CHOOSING A DESTINATION

LE CHAT QUI PECHE (THE CAT THAT FISHES), ARGELIERS: RESTAURANT REVIEW

You would think that after over five years of searching for restaurants serving good food at reasonable prices, I would have made my way to Le Chat Qui Peche before now. After all, it's only about ten minutes from our house, in a beautiful spot along the Canal du Midi. But it took a friend to suggest that we would like the place. So we went. And we did.

Port-Argeliers isn't much a port, just a spot along the Canal du Midi that boats use as a stopping place. Like a town that might be described as just a wide spot in the road, there hardly seems to be a reason for it to exist other than the fact that it does. So Le Chat Qui Peche, at the foot of a narrow but driveable bridge over the canal, commands a view of the canal that can't reasonably be described as bustling and scenery that might best be described as bucolic.

We were among the first to arrive on a lazy summer day, breezy so we chose an outdoor table with less of a view but sheltered. Our server practiced his English while we practiced our French. While we sipped rosé, he brought over a slate and explained the menu and the prices - some interesting choices that did require explanation, 19€ for a start and a main, 24€ to add dessert.

Cathey started with carpaccio, filling the plate, fresh and sweet and colorful. Liz's salad with thin slices of smoked duck breast was also fresh, tasty and a full portion. Nicola and I tried different twists on the same dish. Small ceramic pots with a radius of a fried egg came filled with a cheesy cream sauce, croutons, and bits of chorizo in my case, veggies instead of chorizo for Nicola. There may have been a name for the dish but I don't remember it. In any event, look at the picture. The surprise was that the egg yolk was not even warm while the filling that it covered was piping hot, an indication that the egg was precooked and plopped on top, I suppose. But an interesting and enjoyable dish nonetheless.

My knife-chopped tartare de boeuf with bits of shaved cheese and the occasional pine nut was, like the carpaccio, nice, sweet beef. Cathey had the catch of the day, back of cod. She cleaned her plate. Nicola and Liz both ordered a Charolais rib steak sangnant (rare), cooked to order but, as is the case with much French beefsteak, cut a bit thin for our taste. And, again typical, just a bit chewy. Not the fault of the chef, the fault of French beef. But that's my common, constant complaint. Let's just say that the serving was above average for French beef.
 
We passed on dessert...well...I had two scoops of fine chocolate ice cream.

With coffees and two carafes of rosé, the tab came to just over 25€ per person. A pleasant way to spend two and a half hours with friends and family on a lazy summer day. Recommended.

Le Chat Qui Peche is on Facebook. You can check out more of my restaurant reviews HERE. If you haven't already, why not subscribe to my blog?

BROWNS AND TANS (AND A HORSE): A FEW PICS OF WINTER IN THE VINES 2018

In the summer, the landscape is a symphony of greens. Every shade imaginable. In winter, browns and tans preside. Here are just a few pictures taken on my walk this morning to illustrate the point. And yes, I do bring apples with me for the horses and the donkeys and the Shetland ponies.

Is that the guy with the apples?

You're the guy with the apples. right?

OK. So where's the apple?

Not trimmed yet.

Work to do.

Work done...for now...

It's been warm enough, with enough rain, so there's green between the vines.

But mostly, brown and tan...

A reminder of the greens...

And in the fall, I can almost remember the look of the trees in the autumn in my erstwhile northeast USofA home.

WINE TASTING FOR PLEBS

I don't know a darn thing about wine. So I warn you. Don't listen to a word that I say. Why? I'm an American, born in the Northeast USofA, not exactly a hotbed of boutique wine making even today when the folks in places like the Finger Lakes of upstate New York have been trying to establish their creds for generations. All that I knew of wine as I was growing up came from my experiences with my grandmother's concord grape wine. Oddly enough, straight out of the barrel in the basement it wasn't too sweet. If you liked sweet wine, though, Nana didn't mind. She'd just add a dab of maple syrup to the carafe and shake it a bit.

See what I mean? Don't listen to a word that I say.

Like many of my fellow English-speaking expats, I have come to enjoy sampling the great variety of wines available to us in here Occitanie. We live in the midst of a terroir that is transforming itself from a region known for sheer quantity to a region dotted  with an ever-increasing cohort of quality producers of light and sunny rosés, clean and subtle whites, and hearty and complex reds. Signs dot every two-lane blacktop directing travelers to domaines with wine for tasting and for sale, often along with olive oil, honey, saffron, or other bounty of this ancient land.

We all have our favorites, from affordable but reliable standards to bottles laid in for special company. Domaine Pain de Sucre, with vineyards just down the road from us along the Canal du Midi, supplies us with an inexpensive rosé that has sweetened our sunny summer afternoons ever since we moved here.full-time several years ago. Laurent Miquel's Cazal Viel estate, another early discovery located between Cazouls-les-Beziers and Cessenon-sur-Orb, produces a range of viognier and chardonnay-viognier to suit any taste. And we're learning to navigate the reds, sampling and/or laying down bottles from Domaine de Pech-Ménel, Domaine Moulin Gimie, and Domaine Saint-Georges d'Ibry among several others.

Early on, we discovered vrac, bulk wine. Our English-speaking friends know of it. But our French friends are the ones more likely to buy it. After several years standing in line, waiting to get my hands on the stainless steel hose from which pours that cheap product in bulk like petrol into the tank, I can scarcely remember hearing English spoken. (Yes, I said petrol. Life among British expats...) I can't think why not. After a pleasant evening of sips and nibbles, and more sips and nibbles, and an extra sip or two, when all of the chilled bottles of rosé in the fridge have met their maker, we have on occasion been forced to pour from an unlabeled bottle of local vrac. No one has seemed to mind, although at the point that we bring it out, taste buds have already been dulled beyond repair. Of course, 95% of the time, our guests don't get anywhere near vrac rosé. But it's what we drink for dinner when we're by ourselves. And for us, it works.

Does this mean that we cannot discriminate one wine from another? Pas de tout! Three of the local cooperatifs offer vrac at prices averaging about €1.50 per liter, the caves in Capestang, Cebezan, and Argeliers. We periodically sample each in turn to check out which pleases our naive palates best at the present moment. Our current choice is Argeliers. We have a sneaking suspicion that the taste is dependent on how carefully they separate the snails from the grapes as they are unloaded. But they're not talking and we're not asking. 

So there you have it. 10 liters at a time for €15. Ah, France. Ya gotta love it.

 

ASSIGNAN WALK WITH PICS - JUNE, 2018

There's not much to say about this walk. It's typical of the region. Typical except that Assignan is an interesting experiment in foreign ownership of a French village. (See how they market the "French village experience" HERE.) And don't forget the Belgian-inspired beer available at the end of the walk. The walk itself is partially wooded and shaded, partially open and in the vines, with some spectacular views and an oddity or two.

Visit other walks and my observations on French life HERE. Enjoy.

An 'official' walk starting in an overgrown parking lot

Lower sections shaded.

But every once in a while the path opens up.

Everywhere that I go, brooom finds me and my nose.

The vines are exceptionally lush this year.

Back into the woods.

This one won't make my collection of stone walls.

Can you see it?

Closer. Right in the middle of the trail. Not many walkers this year, I guess.

How to choose? Follow the marked trail. Blue lines. I've shown them before.

Tended vines in the most remote places.

Amazonia?

The walls of a hamlet? I keep threatening to bring a shovel with me.

Broom follows me where ever I go!

Upland meadow.

You just have to stop and look.

Hunter's stand. Deer? Boar?

Open...

...and closed up again.

At the end, a bit of road.

A photography installation throughout the village. Even an illuminated one in an olive grove.

WINE PAIRINGS: OLD RULES - NEW RULES

Let me be clear from the beginning, I am not a connoisseur. Of anything. I have opinions. I provide them to you for free. You'll have to decide their worth.

We live in the south of France, once Languedoc-Roussillon, now Occitanie. A friend calls our region the largest vineyard in the world. It is precisely that, the largest single wine-producing region in the known universe.  Seven times Napa Valley. Three times Bordeaux. More wine produced than in the entire USofA. So even if you are a friend of Bill, it's hard not to absorb a modicum of knowledge concerning the ancient art of vinification, if only through osmosis.

(For those not familiar with the term, being a friend of Bill means that you have forsworn alcoholic beverage in the manner of Bill W., a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.)

Anyone can drink wine, of course. The trick would seem to be to pair wine appropriately with the food being served. Articles and websites and books that discuss the rules for pairing wine with food abound. In the end, I have discovered that there are really only two overarching rules.

RULE #1 Conventional Wisdom. Proper pairings have been determined by general consensus over many years. Check out the chart below courtesy of Food & Wine through Wine Folly.

And you thought that the rule was simply Red = Meat, White = Fish. No, my friend. Life is too short and the wine trade is too lucrative. There are rules. You must follow the rules.

RULE #2 There Are No Rules. What sharp eyes you have. Yes, Rule #2 directly contradicts Rule #1. If a vintner can age rosé in oak to give it the kick of a light red, rules no longer apply. Drink what you like with foods that you like. Wear stripes with plaid. It's a new world.

Speaking of New Worlds, have you been to California recently? If you like charts like the one above, check out this one compliments of Leafly:

OK. Pick your jaw up off the floor. Yes, recreational marijuana is now legal in California. In a state known for both its wine and its pot (even before legalization), should we be surprised that Wine/Weed tastings are now a thing in the Golden State? How about starting the day at a pot dispensary stocking up on smoke (at your own expense), then taking a bus to two different wineries to try out wine/weed combinations, then finishing up back at the dispensary just in case you didn't choose wisely the first time? All for under $200...plus the pot.

I am old. Acapulco Gold is not on the pairings list. Too retro even for California.

Should this be archived on my FOOD AND RESTAURANT REVIEW PAGE or my FRANCE PAGE? I'll decide later.