August 18, 2012, Breakfast at Hotel Lechin; Picnic Lunch at Carnac

August 18, 2012, Breakfast at Hotel Lechin; Picnic Lunch at Carnac

We got up at 6:40 a.m. and dressed and walked outside to watch the diurnal shift from night to day.  Unfortunately, we were a little late, but saw a wonderful sun rise.  Then we went in to take a shower and go to breakfast. I ate something I have never had before, chunky apple sauce in a small plastic container.  Unfortunately, I ate a croissant that was so buttery that it gave me indigestion.  We then drove to Guerande for its Saturday market.  The medieval city of Guerande was delightful, walled with ramparts and gates and full of people enjoying the market day.  We had everything we needed for lunch, so we just bought bread, but then we saw some plastic coated cloth with lovely pink and red flowers printed on it.  We bought 10 meters of it so we can run it the length of five six foot tables along the length of the banquette in the new garden area.   We then walked down another arm of the market toward another gate of the Medieval City of Guerandé and saw a fruite de mer restaurant named Au Gre des Marees that had a fresh wooden carton of oysters sitting on the counter. Even though it was 10:30 a.m. we decided to eat a dozen oysters and a glass of wine. Wi the assistance of the waiter, we selected two different oysters from two different bays along the Breton coast just north of Guerandé.  One was buttery in flavor with a shell that was not as concave as the other.  Also the more concave was colder, so you would get a larger amount of cold salt water, which was a real eye opener.    

On our way back to the car, we stopped at the Tourist information Office and inquired about salt production in the area.  Apparently Guerandé is and has been a center for production of sea salt for a very long time.   We decided to drive through the salt lagoons on our way back to Batz sur Mer , but for the moment we had to push on the Carnac.

 Let me say how wonderful the Tourist information office system is in France.  Every town of any size has at least one and they are positioned strategically at main squares and always have bathrooms and most speak English and they can direct you to any place in their area.  There is another tip that travelers to the beaches in France should know and that is that rentals begin and end on Saturday around 11:00 a.m., so driving to a beach resort, such as Carnac or Belle isle on a Saturday morning can be a daunting experience.   After a two hour drive through some terribly congested traffic we arrived at the peninsula on which Carnac is located and made our way to the town of Carnac and then to the megaliths.  There are over 3000 megaliths and several barrows (dolmen in Celtic) at Carnac which makes it the largest Neolithic monumental site in the world.  The arrangement of the stones is pretty straightforward.  They are arranged in rows from smaller to larger as the alignments ascend small hills until they reach the top of the hill or terminus where there is typically an enclosure of megaliths.

There were seven or eight rows of stones running about two miles with several larger stones arranged in an alter grouping like at Stonehenge and several barrows or dolmen or burial mounds beside the center of the stone rows,  so this is far from a random monument.  What is not known at this time is why was this arrangement of stones created at this place 6000 years ago.   There are several theories, but I like Suzette’s theory the best.  Suzette thinks the array celebrated the club of persons who had eaten three thousand oysters each.   I guess you can call it the Clan of the Happy Oyster Eaters

After we walked two alignments and around a cairn we ate lunch in the woods beside the largest Alignment de Kermanario beside some German tourists who kindly gave us knives and forks, napkins and plates.  We ate our chevre coated with herbs, a wonder soft cow cheese and Ousseo Irkvoy? (a Basque cheese). ham and melon slices, wild boar railletes, duck pate, salami, on fresh baguette with a wonderful pasta salad we made with melon, cherry tomatoes pasta, ham and pickled beets.  

After lunch we drove back to Guerandé and diverted around it to Pretal and the Terre de Sal, which is a cooperative that controls much of the sea salt production in the area.  We stopped at the Salt Museum and Suzette bought 5 kg of fin salt, which is finer than gros but is still made from the grey salt that is harvested from the boom of the salt ponds and not as fine or white as the fleur that is skimmed off the top of the water.  We stopped and talked to some salt guys who had a a salt flat that they were harvesting salt from.  It was like hippies in California growing pot but, in France and in the salt flats.

The flats are lined with clay on the bottom, and they let salt water in and the sun and wind drive the water off and at the end of the day around 5:00 p.m. the salt guys come out for two or three hours and harvest the salt.   They sell to the cooperative, unless they have a relationship with some restaurants.

After the salt flats we went into Baule, which turned out to be a beach scene with hundreds of thousands of people on a ten mile beach.   We did not like the beach scene although we sat at a small restaurant/bistro/bar on the beach and I had a cidré de Bretagne and Suzette stayed with Stella Artois and walked the beach and found a few gastropods.

We were not hungry at the end of the day so we did not eat dinner and went to bed around 11:00 p.m.

Bon Appetit

 

August 19, 2012 Lunch – Restaurant Egirie- Pririac-sur-Mer, dinner at Hotel Luchin

We started driving around 9:00 a.m.  Many stores open for shopping in the morning on Sunday morning.  We drove toward Le Pouliguen and stopped a small shopping mall that had a small wine shop, a boulangere, a flower, shop and a kitchen shop.  We purchased a rose wine from the area and drove on in search of a box to pack our salt and table cloth and extra wine bottles.  We stopped at a Lidl discount grocery store but they did not have any big boxes, but they did have a good dark chocolate bar with pieces of orange peel  for 1.28 Euros.   We had no idea of where to go but then we saw that it was market day at Le Pouliguen, so we stopped near the centre of town and walked to the market.  Finally at the stall of a lady selling handmade soaps I saw a banana box with a top and a bottom that looked like it would work.  Suzette asked the lady and she was kind enough to give us the box and then we bought four cakes of citron soap for 10 Euros ($13.00) from her.  We walked down to the port where the cote (point) was and bought an ice cream cone.  Suzette got coconut and I got a mixture of melon and pistachio.

 After we ate the ice cream and walked back through town and found the car park where we had left the car, Suzette suggested that we drive out the coast to the next coastal town to the north, named Piriac-sur-Mer that was one of the places near where the Guerandé oyster bar said produced the oysters we had eaten and appeared to be another petit cité de Caractere.  When we arrived in Piriac we parked and walked into the center of town and admired the many Bretagne granite houses with slate roofs and red shuttered windows.  We asked at a Poissonerie where to go for lunch and the kids recommended Le Egerie or something like that.  When we walked to the port and beside the marina and sea wall we saw the restaurant and it had an outside dining area beside the marina, so we sat down near the marina and ordered a dozen oysters and a pot of moules and frites and a pichot (50cl.) of dry white muscadet for 39 Euros.   The mussels were the best I have ever tasted.  They were incredibly tender, melt in your mouth tender and the oysters were the deep bowled type we had had the day before in Guérande that got chilled in the ice on the plate they were served on.  We put lemon juice and mignonette sauce on the oysters and let them sit while we dealt with the over one kilo of mussels in a cream, butter, white wine, and pernod sauce and the pommes frites.  We put catsup on the pommes frites and dug in. When we had eaten almost all of the mussels and all the French fries, Suzette took the last dozen or so out of their shells and we ate the cream and mussel bisque with a spoon and dipped pieces of bread into the sauce.  Finally, we finished and walked along the quai (quay) for a few blocks and then turned back toward the car and walked narrow streets of Bretagne houses, built of local stone and roofed with black slate. Very picturesque, which is what they must have meant when the town its cite de caractere designation.  

Then we drove back along the coast and at Pradel, we turned and drove across the salt flats with Suzette behind the wheel, so I could see them as Suzette drove to our Hotel Lichen.  We slept two hours until 5:00 p.m. and then went looking for tape by driving out first to Batz-sur-Mer and after finding none, to the end of the cape to Le Croisic where we found a roll in a stationary store.   We then went to the handicrafts hall we had stopped in two days previously and they were kind enough to give us some bubble wrap.  Having met our primary objectives we went back to the hotel along the coast road and say many lovely old Brittany homes and hotels.   I am particularly impressed with the wind blown pine trees with their pattern of dead and fresh growth that gives them a two toned appearance.  We got back to the hotel at around 7:00 and packed and drank a bottle of Chateau de Fontaine-Audon Sancerre, 2011 produced by Langlois-Chateau Val de Loire.  It was terrific.

Then we sat on to deck of the hotel and watched the beach and then walked to the beach and watched the sunset until around 9:00 p.m.  After the sun set we ate the last of our food with the bottle of rose wine we  had bought earlier in the day in Le Pouliguen that was not very good and marveled at our luck and good fortune to be able to take such a lovely trip.   After being with so many people wherever we went, it was a great pleasure to be quiet and alone in the dunes by the beach at La Govelle.  When it comes to crows of people less is definitely more.  There must have been 500,000 people on the beach at Baule yesterday.

Bon Appétit

August 17, 2012 Breakfast – Sautéed Sardines and egg, Dinner La Roche Mathieu , Batz sur Mer

August 17, 2012 Breakfast – Sautéed Sardines and egg, Dinner La Roche Mathieu, Batz sur Mer

We started by cooking a lovely breakfast of fresh melon and sautéed lovely large sardines and a fried over easy egg, plus the ubiquitous bread and butter and jam.

Then we talked to Elka for a few minutes.  She had read my blog and liked it. At around 10:00 we took off for Batz Sur Mer and arrived at around 12:30 in Pontinfort.  We were short of Euros but stopped at a small seafood restaurant and ate a dozen No. 2 fresh oysters.  In France oysters are served with mignonette sauce which is sugar, vinegar, pepper and shallots.  When made properly the shallots get pickled in about 1 or 2 hours and you have a lovely pickled shallot sauce.  Unfortunately, I do not like the black pepper in the sauce and we prefer catsup.  We asked for catsup and lemon wedges and were given a small plate filled with each.   So after Suzette made a cocktail sauce of lemon and catsup, we ate the oysters garnished with the two sauces.  French oysters are flat on one side and deeply concave on the other.  They are opened and served with the flat side up so that they look like a lidded bowl.  The technique I like is to remove the flat lid without tipping over the bowed bottom, thus capturing all the water in the bottom.  When we were at Cancale last trip we visited the oyster producing cooperative and saw that when the oysters get to be about four years old they are harvested by bringing in the metal racks they are propagated on and taking them off the rocks and placing them in a large salt water pool for a day or two to wash out any sediments and sand and leaving only salt water, so that when you open the oyster you have an oyster I a bowl of salt water.   I cannot tell you how special a dining experience it is to slide a fresh oyster with a clean spoonful of salt water into your mouth is.  It is worthy of trying.  12 oysters were 18 Euros with bread and butter and sauce.  We drank glasses of Heinekin beer like in the States for 4 Euro each.

Then we tried to cash $100 dollar bills at the Post Office in Pontinfort  and the post office sent us to St. Nazaires.  We drove over to St. Nazaries and wandered around town until we found the post office and they would not cash our $100 bills, so we cash Suzette last $70 and we then decided to tr y using r debit card at the ATM’s on the big shopping street in St. Nazaires.  They worked perfectly.  The big lesson is to not take dollar bills.  No one wants them.  Plastic credit cards work everywhere.  We charged dinner on our Mastercard.  We obtained Euros instantly with our debit cards.  So you only need two cards.  Money is really not necessary, unless you want to buy a post card or a glass of wine and do not want the aggravation of a credit card transaction.  What a discovery.  France’s economy has gone totally to plastic.  Of course, you do not want to lose your credit cards as I did in Spain last year, when I was robbed by Gypsies. This year I did not travel with a wallet.  I only have my credit card in my pants pocket o more accurately, in Suzette’s purse. So let the gypsies come, they will get nothing from me.

After we discovered that we could get all the money we wanted with our ATM cards. Took
200 Euros each and drove back to the Hotel Lichen and walked along a cliff side path for about 1 ½ miles and then returned to the Hotel to shower.  At 6:30 p.m. we drove down the beach to Batz sur Mer to the Restaurant La Roche Mathieu, buy since it did not open until 7:00 p.m. we drove on to Le Croisite at the end of the peninsula and parked and walked around.  We first went into a large exposition of arts and crafts for sale and Suzette found a small handmade steel pair of pruning shears (39 Euros) and I found a raku tea bowl with a red glaze (12 Euros), then we walked further into the old town, which is identified as a petit cité caracterite.  It was lovely with its old white granite walled and slate roofed houses and a lovely fishing harbor.   After walking down a few streets, we headed back to the car and drove to the restaurant.

We had not eaten since breakfast, so when we arrived at the restaurant at 7:30 p.m., we were starving.  There were many interesting dishes, but we wanted a lot of food chose the Menu of the Day which for $35 Euros, give one a choice of an appetizer, an entrée, a cheese course with a small salad and a dessert.  Suzette chose escargots, Monkfish, and a strawberry macaroon.   I chose duck foie gras, roasted squab (pigeonneau), and the profiterole.  We chose a white Muscadet Sevre and Maine sur lies from Chateau de Chasselour that the waiter recommended for 21.50 euros.  Although we had never had the wine before, it turned out to be demi-sec and perfect with the foie gras and the Monkfish and the squab and even the dessert.  Suzette’s escargot were served on a home made cracker garnished with caramelized onions.  Rather simple and surprisingly not infused with parsley, basil, garlic and olive oil, like so many restaurants prepare them.  My foie gras was divine.  It was a thick slice of terrine of fresh entire duck livers that had been baked with a garnish of apricot preserves and dollops of strawberry coulis and two slices of hazelnut and fig bread.           

For the entrees Suzette chose the local fish, monk fish (lotte), which was poached in a white wine broth with baby turnips  and sugar snap peas and carrots and haricot verte, very much like what we had made the night before with pike and pasta at Rocheford sur Loire.   Suzette likes Monk fish because it reminds her of lobster. 

 I loved my roasted pigionneau (squab) prepared in a very classical manner with a dem-glacé sauce and mashed sweet potatoes, baby turnips, haricot verte and baby wild chantrelle mushrooms and fried Moreno plantains. 

The cheese course included two cheeses I had never heard about before and a small parfait glass filled with hot melted camembert cheese with a bread stick stuffed into it  A very interesting way to serve cheese and probably the most interesting part of the meal to take back to the Bistro.

We were full after the cheese course, but were amazed when the desserts arrived.  Suzette’s dessert was two large strawberry flavored macaroons with a thick layer of Bavarian cream in between laid on a bed of strawberry preserves and served with fresh strawberries and strawberry coulis.  I tasted the strawberry macaroon and it was different than any macaroon I had ever eaten.  First, it was made without wheat flour.   As far as I could tell, it was made entirely of egg whites, sugar and almond flour and milk.  Second, the macaroon was flavored with orange citrine that gave it a delightful flavor.  Let me say that in such a great mea, iit is hard to pick out one thing that is so impressive, but it was easy in this meal.  I had had the classical pigeon preparation before, so it was comforting to have it again.  But what startled me was the strawberry macaroon.  I have eaten a lot of Francipan that mixes eggs flour and almond flour, but I have never had a macaroon that was made entirely of egg whites, sugar and almond flour.  This gave the texture and flavor of both meringue and macaroon but without the heaviness of normal macaroons.  This decidedly light concoction was a new and delightful experience for me.

My perfiterol was equally over the top.  First of all, it was the largest one I have ever seen.   Second, it was served with a delicious dark chocolate sauce and was stuffed with homemade vanilla Ice cream and mounds of whipped cream.  Heaven on Earth.

The entire meal cost 100 Euros or about $130.00.

Bon Appétit   

   
 

August 13, 2012 Lunch – Picnic of Caves Bouvet Ladubay; Dinner – Veal Piccatta with English Peas and Pommes Frites

August 13, 2012 Lunch – Picnic of Caves Bouvet Ladubay; Dinner – Veal Piccatta with English Peas and Pommes Frites

This is written on the evening of August 16, so it may not have the immediacy of other notations.  We drove to Saumur in the morning and stopped at Tourist Information for the local map, although Erika had told us where to go for the best wineries in Saumur.  We got lost looking for the Postal Bank, but stopped at Combier Distillery and tried our first glass of real absinthe and pastis, which are heavily herbed drinks the only difference between them was the addition of wormwood to the absinthe.  There was also a great peach liquor that had won a gold medal.

Then we drove to Gratien & Meyer Winery and tried several brut and Cremant sparkling wines. We bought wine at most of the places where stopped and drank, including Gratien & Meyer.  All of the wine in Saumur is Chenin Blanc. . Most of the successful wineries also have lovely buildings and Gratien & Meyer is no exception.  Then we drove out along the road to St. Hilarie  St. Florent where yo Bouvet Ladubay Winery,  said to have the largest private collection of contemporary art in France.  When we inquired at the tasting room, we were told that the art was not available to see that day, Monday.  So, we tasted their wine we asked if we could eat at the Chateau and they showed us to a patio inside the chateau and we bought a bottle of Bouvet’s Saumur dry sparkling wine to drink with lunch, which they opened for us.  In the morning we had stopped at the Hyper U near Angers and had bought a package of ham and salami, a goat cheese dusted with ash and a muenster style cheese from the Langes region plus a bunch of radishes and some celeric in mayonnaise salad, two rounds of duck pate and some bread, so we ate and drank royally . 

After lunch we stopped at Langlois and Caves Veuve Amiot and drank and bought more wine, all good.    We loved all the wines we tasted in Saumur.  The whites are all made with chinen blanc and the reds and roses are all made with cabernet franc.  We did not have a bad wine.

After tasting so many wines from the four Caves that we stopped at, we started back to Rochford.  The road system is still a little confusing to us, especially since our road map is fifteen years old and very out of date because it does not include the auto routes/turnpikes. So we headed south away from the Loire River and population to find the A85 auto route that we had driven from Rochfort on.  And when we did, we decided to stop at a castle at Montreuil-Bellay, which turned out to be charming.  The castle was built in the 15^th and 16^th century during the 100 years war with England and is perched on a promontory above the Le Thouet River.  The heavily fortified castle was relatively small but interesting with its own gardens and winery within the ramparts.  There was also a tasting room in the castle and the wine was delicious, so we bought a bottle of Chateau de la Durandiére blanc which is dry chenin blanc made in Montreuil-Bellay.           

We ten drove back to Moulin Breant and cooked a simple and delicious dinner with ingredients we had bought at the Hyper U in the morning.  I pounded veal scallops and we shelled peas.  I chopped parsley and sliced a lemon and some mushrooms and a shallot.  Suzette then sautéed the mushrooms, English peas and shallots and doubled dipped the scallops of veal in egg and flour and then sautéed them with the mushroom and pea mixture and added the parsley and lemon for a simple dinner.  We sliced the four small potatoes and Suzette cooked them in a separate pan in butter.  Suzette said the secret to preventing the potatoes from getting greasy is to cook them in butter and not oil.  We drank the Grosette rosé we had bought on our drive into Rochford on Saturday, which was not very good, because too sweet.  I loved dinner.  It was wonderful and so healthy and filling.   It was fun to start cooking again.

Bon Appétit  

August 15, 2012 Lunch-Bric Brac in Moulinneuf, Dinner – Restaurant du Pont, Rochford sur Loire, Chambord Castle and the difference between creativity and repetition

August 15, 2012 Lunch-Bric Brac in Moulinneuf, Dinner – Restaurant du Pont, Rochford sur Loire, Chambord Castle and the difference between creativity and repetition

Another huge day of travel.  We started with breakfast of a croissant and bread and jam and butter and some tea and coffee at our Hotel du Pont in Moulineuf at 8:00 a.m.  We then walked up the hill to the Bric Brac, which is half traders’ market and half just local folks’ stuff with over 100 booths.  Jean Claude and Kipp had a booth with many of their old family pieces from around the house, some of which dated back to his grandmother over 100 years ago. 

Suzette found curtain holders and a finding for a fabric my mother had bought that needed an edging to complete as a duvet cover.   

We ate moules and frites and drank beer.  Then at noon we shared a Merguez ( lamb)  Sausage n a loaf of French bread and a beer, said goodbye to Jean Claude, and Kitt and Michel and Shelly  and drove to Chambord around noon.

Chambord is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It sits in a thick forest favored by the kings of France for hunting. It is a large moated castle/hunting lodge linked to a river by a canal for access and fresh water where Francois I and his entire court could comfortably stay.  It was completed after Francois’ death by his son and grad son, Louis IVX. 

Le Croissette.  She said that there was a difference between the food at Du Pont and le Croisette.   I took that to mean that the chef at le Croissette was creating dishes and the chef at Du Pont was merely combining ingredients that were fresh in time tried and proven combinations.  This Is a significant difference in cuisine as it is in building an architectural legacy.  For example at Chambord, h great architectural feature are the staircases within the towers.  There is one central staircase and four additional staircases that form a grid that joins all the three floors at the apex of the central core of the building and the two wings of the chateau together 

Although there is no clear historical evidence that proves who was responsible for the design of the staircases within the towers, it was either Leonardo da Vinci or Francois I under the influence of Leonardo.  Chambord has a central staircase tower that is double loaded.  This means that the floors are tall enough to accommodate a double stairwell with a landing on each side of the staircase.  Likewise the outer tower staircase are also double loaded in the sense that they open to an inside glassed promenade on the outer side of the staircase and on the inner side of the double loaded staircase onto an outdoor gallery at each floor that surrounds an inner courtyard.  This is clearly an example of Leonardo’s fluid dynamics theories, in my opinion.  It allows better use of the available space within the tower and creates a design that allows a better or greater flow of people up and down the staircases.  

Michel, Jean Claude and Kitt’s friend also put us onto this by recommending a visit to Chambord by saying the central staircase must be seen. N

This is what Michel meant I think the difference between following historically established patterns and seeing a new more creative and simpler or more efficient solution to a problem.  At Chambord, the problem was a weird one, to allow Francois exclusive access to the Royal rooms, but the solution was genius. 

The same thing can be said about cuisine.  There is a difference between combining elements, either ingredients or preparation techniques and actually creating a new synthetic technique combination of ingredients.  For example, at Du Pont, we ate the same salad, Angevine, which is similar to the frisee and lardettes salad at Viniagrette called French Bistro Salad.  At Viniagrette it is made with frisee, lardettes and a poached egg and croutons.  At Croisette it was made with a combination of escarole and baby greens (so truer to the original design of the dish), with finely diced bacon lardettes that had been cleaned of any fat and a strong mustard dressing made with seeded mustard, a little oil and an egg enrichment that bound the whole together, with some objection, I was given a thimble full of extra olive oil and I stretched the dressing from a solid into a more flowing mass so Suzette could have some dressing on the salad served on the plate with the fried calamari and pommes frites.  But the point here is that the extra care in technical execution makes a difference.  The Du Pont salad featured the freshness of the butter lettuce and not much else.  The Lardettes were odd large chunks of bacon with the fat still on them.  There was a thin julienne of carrots and two wedges of tomato and a pile of pureed beets.  Although called the by the same name, the Du Pont version clearly was more a combination of available fresh ingredients, instead of a purposeful explication of a theme, like Le Croissette and Viniagrette’s salads of the same name.

A better example of creativity can be found in the gazpacho soup.  At le Croisette, it was a simple lightly creamed combination of pureed and sieved celery, cucumber and tomato with a little olive oil.  The chef had figured out that combining the essence of those three vegetables with a bit of olive oil would create a new emulsification that we would consider to be a cream soup that would stand up on a spoon.  So he abandoned the traditional approach in Gazpacho to combine a bunch of ingredients into a thick soup that sits on your spoon in globs or has been thinned by blending to give an uneven combination of vegetable globs and liquefied vegetable juice.  Instead he united the ingredients into a unified whole by reducing them to their simplest ingredients and then re-combining those ingredients into a unified whole.  Somewhat like combining two staircases into one to achieve a more dynamic and unified whole.

That is what makes Michel and the thousands who come each day to marvel at the great design of Chambord; the evidence of the genius of seeing a simple solution to a difficult problem through vision and the ability to execute a new and different design solution than had ever been used before.  That is what confirms the separateness and superiority of homo sapiens from former hominids and animals.  It is worthy of a World Heritage Site designation.   

Bon Appétit

        

August 9, 2012 Stone Age Architecture and a picnic dinner at Stonehenge

August 9, 2012 Stone Age Architecture and a picnic dinner at Stonehenge

We got up around 6:30 a.m. and were at the Thursday morning market by 7:00 a.m. There was only one merchant set up and that was Hannia cheese company.  He had all the best cheeses from England and Europe.  We had a love a lovely whole chedder made with only skim milk and the best Stilton in the world according the proprietor, an incredibly creamy Bassett Stilton.

Then back for breakfast and off to see some Neolithic ruins.  We started by going to the Market in Divezes.  There were only a few good items among many uninteresting items.  We bought a great fresh baked loaf of multigrain bread 1.6 £ and a pin of fresh lovely strawberries for £.75.

We then drove to Avesbury and walked the great circle with its high henge or berm.  This is the largest Neolithic circle in Europe and a very impressive.  We then drove over to Silsbury Hill which is the largest man made Neolithic Hill in Europe, I think at over forty meters high (130 feet) made of piled up chalk.  We then crossed the road and walked to the top of hill on the other side of the road (A4) to the West Kennett Long Barrow, which is a multi-chamber burial site covered with chalk.  The 5000 year old barrow was over 100 yards long and we entered one end of it that has been excavated and restored to its original condition.  Very creepy but interesting.

After our hike up the hill to the barrow we were tired, so we stopped at an old 15^th century Stage Coach house named Waggoners and Horses, and drank a pear cider in the garden with a view of Silsbury Hill about ½ mile away.  The A4 lies in the original alignment of the London to Bristol road and very old.    Silsbury Hill and the West Kennett Barrow also are in alignment with the henge and stone circles at Ayesbury, so at the Inn we were sitting at one of the oldest crossways in England, dating back at least 5000 years.

After our cider at around 4:00 p.m. we drove to Stonehenge and after a reconnaissance of the situation we realized it was not crowded and we were hungry, so we drove back into the nearest village of Amesbury about three miles and stopped a large supermarket named the Cooperative were we bought Cadbury chocolate covered shortbread cookies, orange flavored duck pate, and a bottle of red Tempranillo and headed back to Stonehenge. We arrived at the parking lot at Stonehenge at about 5:00 p.m. and discussed the possibility of a special access tour and called but none was available for+ today.  So we sat down near the entrance at a group of tables in the concession area near the entrance and ate our cheese, pate, strawberries, and drank the wine for a lovely early picnic dinner.

After dinner, we entered Stonehenge and walked around it for 1 ½ hours until 7:00 when the park closed and the setting sun was starting to send shafts of light through the great stones.  Stonehenge was the most impressive structure we saw today.  It has an outer berm or henge, three rings of upright stones with the two larger rings topped with lintels.  It was constructed with triangles in the upright stones that fit into the lintel stones and the lintel stones had triangles that fitted into the next lintel stone to fit everything together.  The orientation is along an axis that aligns with a Keel stone that casts a shaft of light through one of the openings into the central alter area on the longest day of the year (the solar equinox) and the sun set from the other side of the circle on the shortest day of the year.   There is also a processional path that winds its way from the Avon river several miles away to the site that enters Stonehenge from the keel rock side, which is still visible from Stonehenge. There appear to have also been four station stones set outside the perimeter of the big stone circles that not only form another axis with the center but also each pair of stones form an alignment with the farthest north rising moon and farthest south setting moon (every nineteen years). So not only is Stonehenge an impressive monumental architectural structure built 5,000 years but it is also a very cool astronomical religious tool, like the Mayan observatory at Chichen Itza or the sun dagger at Chaco Canyon.

As the sun set we drove back to our room at the Great Ashley Farm content and totally happy.

August 10, 2012 Breakfast at Great Ashley Farm, Lunch at Lucca, Dinner at Pump Room

August 10, 2012 Breakfast at Great Ashley Farm, Lunch at Lucca, Dinner at Pump Room

Another fabulous day of traveling, even though we spent the entire day in Bath.  We started with a lovely breakfast of smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and two types of toast and a five berry Compote at Great Ashley Farms.  We are enjoying the quiet of the country with the good breakfasts cooked by our hostess, Helen and large elegant and contemporary decorated room.

After Breakfast we drove into Bath and parked near the Avon River.  We immediately went to the Thermae Spa and paid for 1 ½ hours of soaking in the Cross Bath pool, which is the oldest pool available to soak in.  The original Cross Bath dates back 1000 years, but has been updated many times and little of the even the 17^th century pool still remains other than a few of the wall decorations.  The thing I found special at Cross Bath is that it has a plume of water directly from the spring that exits at the pool, so you can feel the actual spring water.

After 1 1/2 hours we were completely refreshed but chose not to walk up the long hills to the top of Bath, which is built on a hillside up from the river.  Instead we took a bus tour and went up the hill to the Costume Museum because that was 1 block from a restaurant that Helen had recommended.  We arrived after 3:00 so the salad bar was closed, so we decided to order a parma ham and goat cheese Panini on field greens garnished with a red onion Marmalade.  The field greens appeared to have been foraged and were very interesting.  Then we got back on the bus and went around the rest of the lower part of town and then on another bus tour through the upper part of the city with views of the entire Avon Valley and town.

We finished the bus tour around 5:00 p.m.  Near our last stop I saw a book store and we went in.  It sold mostly antiquarian books, but I asked for a copy of Evelyn Waugh’s “The Loved One” and they had a lovely copy in a special Folio edition for £21 that I bought for Charles Palmer.

We then walked around the main shopping District and at around 5:40 pdecided to eat at the Pump Room located on top of the Roman Baths.  The Pump House dates from the early 1700’s and was one of the main gathering places for such luminaries as Beau Nash and Jane Austen during the 1700’s and early 1800’s.  It is a large room with a stage on which a pianist was playing music.  We ordered the Summer Dinner which is two Courses for £17.  We both ordered Smoked Salmon on a Blini with clotted cream and rocket as an appetizer.  Then I ordered Sea Trout, which turned out to be a pink Trout with shaved zucchini and wild mushrooms on a bed of more rocket and a bulgur and red pepper dressing that was very nice but a little greasy.

Suzette ordered the vegetable tart with squash, English peas, lima beans, and several other vegetables

in a tart shell with more clotted cream.  I drank an apple cider and Suzette drank a glass of South African Chenin Blanc.

We then went down next door to visit the Roman Baths.  I had no idea how interesting the Roman Baths would be.  It is the largest Roman Bath in the world and in very good preservation.  It is located below the pump Room at a depth of about 12 feet below street level.  The advantage that Bath had over almost every other Roman Bathhouse was that the water comes out of the ground at about 146˚ F, so it can be handled pretty easily and does not need to be heated.  The Roman Baths were built around 69 A.D. and are extensive.  They were renovated over the years.  The original pool of spring water was within the Temple of Sulis Minerva, who was worshipped for her curative powers.  Then the water was channels through lead pipes into the various rooms and pools for bathing.  There must have been at least 8 or 10 pools and rooms.  The largest is still open to the sky and is restored to its original condition.  How weird to walk on the same stones that were walked on by the Romans 2000 years ago.  Much of the original plumbing is still intact also, such as the drains and head gates to direct water.  
An amazing experience.

     

August 11. 2012 Travel to Rochfort sur Loire, Dinner at La Croissette, Behuard, France

We drove to Southampton and arrived at the Hilton Inn, where we ate a hearty English breakfast with smoked salmon, eggs, sausages and tea.

After breakfast, we drove to the airport and watched two hours of BBC coverage of the Olympics while “waiting and relaxing” for our flight to Rennes.

We arrived at Rennes at around 1:30 p.m. and picked up a car and drove to Nantes and then to Rochfort sur Loire, near Angers and across the river from Savanniers.  When we arrived our hostess told us she had made a reservation at a good local restaurant located on an island with a view of Savanniers.  So after showering we drove to the restaurant.  We both chose the three course meal for 25€.  We also ordered a bottle of Chateau du Moines from Savanniers for 31€.  The first course was a raillade of fish in a creamy sauce with a slight taste of tarragon and vinegar.  The second course was fresh pike (Sarde) cooked in a cream caper, and shallot sauce with an egg yolk enrichment.   The dessert was a sabagayon wine flavored custard or flan covered with a cherry compote. 

Bon Appétit

August 14, 2012 Lunch – Cave de Fours de Vin de Vouvray, Dinner-Jean Claude’s and Kitt’s house in Moulineuf.

August 14, 2012 Lunch – Cave de Fours de Vin de Vouvray, Dinner-Jean Claude’s and Kitt’s house in Moulineuf.

We started out around 8:00 with an egg omelet with parsley and goat cheese and toast and coffee and tea at Moulin Geant.  We then drove to Tours and got lost and finally found the road to Vouvray.  When we arrived at Rochamond?, we were directed by the Tourist information lady to the Chateau de Ausnishers, which was recommended by O’Neil in her Wine Bible as one of the best Vouvrays.  It did not disappoint.  We bought four bottles.  Then we went up the hill to a cave dug back into the hillside quite a distance that circled around with two entrances so there could be an entrance, a circuit and an exit.  Inside were over twenty vineyards were tasting and three foie gras fabricators were serving their products.  At the foie gras dealers, we tried duck liver mousse, rillettes of duck meat, duck meat with duck blood or boudin, or a mixture of liver and duck meat on bread.  The wines were all from Vouvray and all Chenin blanc.  They included sparkling wine in four degrees of sweetness.  The Extra dry ranged from 0 to 4-5% by volume, the Brut was up to 6-10% and the demi-sec even higher sugar.  Between Brut and demi-sec there was a category of 1/4 sec that was slightly drier than demi-sec and sweeter than Brut.  There are also a wide range of still wines starting with sec or dry with little or no sugar to moulleux that is very sweet and even sweeter is Graines nobles that are usually picked by hand when the grapes are almost frozen.  After two hours of tasting we got hungry and bought a sandwich of pate.  I ate rillettes of duck and Suzette ate boudin with some of our groceries and glasses of complimentary wine from the tasting tables.

Most of the wine was quite good and we bought two or three bottles of wine.  There were lots of silver and gold medal winners.

At around 2:00 we headed to Ambroise.  When we arrived it was packed with tourists.  I went to exchange money and got 1.28 Euros to the Dollar at the postal banc.   I then went to the Tourist Information office and bought tickets for Amboise Castle, Leonardo Da Vinci’s house from 1519 to 1523 and Chateau Chennonceau (65 Euros) and went back to the car.  We then drove to a parking lot near both the Castle and Leonardo’s house and walked to each.  The castle sits on an imposing site above the Loire, but it is not as imposing as Angers, perhaps because part of its battlements were torn down and replaced with a Renaissance chateau and gardens after 1500.  It also looked as if some of the lower battlements facing the Loire River had been removed because a street of modern houses stood between the castle walls and the river.   The most interesting part of the castle for me was the grave of Leonardo Da Vinci in the small St. Hubert Chapel on the grounds of the castle.  We also enjoyed seeing Leonardo’s home given to him by Francois I and the small museum of his models.   After touring the house we ate a pistachio and rum raisen ice cream.

Then on to Chennoceau which is the loveliest chateau I have seen to date.  It is ideally positioned spanning the Cher River it is a large square three story castle on the north side of the river with four decorative turrets and a long glassed two story promenade above the river connected to the castle.  It was built in 1499 by Francois I for one of his favorites, Diana of Portiers, but when he died his widow Catherine de Medici took ownership of the castle and added another garden in the classical French Renaissance style like our back garden, eight triangles within a square.

The Hundred Years War ended in 1453, when the French finally forced the English out of France, so when the Renaissance reached France in the late 1400’s there appears to have been a spurt of building that converted existing defensive castles into more livable castles, as at Amboise, and construction of more pleasure palaces for hunting and relaxation and entertainment along the lines of the Renaissance’s Palladian ideals of symmetry.

I think I read in one of the guide books that the owner of the castle had a good relationship with the local people in 1779, so Chenenceau escaped the ravages of the Revolution.  It looks like the original wool wall coverings, tapestries, furniture and paintings are still intact. The mostly religious themed paintings include some by Reubens, Tintoretto, Bassano, Ribera, Van Dyck, Clouet, Poussin and Murillo.

After touring the castle, we walked the gardens.  My favorite was the farm and kitchen garden with is row after row of mature and beautifully colored vegetables and flowers.  If seems that the garden designer selected those vegetables with the most vibrant colors.  For example there was a row of alternating bright yellow and red kale.  

We finally left Chenenceau at around 7:00 pm and started driving to Moulinheuf along the Cher River.  We passed one more castle at Chivessy? and many lovey small villages with lovely houses. Finally at        Moulinchard, we turned north and drove toward Blois on the Loire.  When we arrived at Blois, which is a fairly large city, we had difficulty finding the correct road out of town and ended up in an area with many high rise apartment houses and some North African looking fellows working on cars in the parking lot, so we got to briefly see that part of France also.  After retracing our turns, we found the road to Moulineuf and arrived at around 8:30 p.m.  We stopped at the Hotel du Pont and the lady said she had a reservation for us, so we settled in, although we had copied Kitt and Jean Claude’s number incorrectly and were unable to call them. So about fifteen minutes later Kitt came over to the restaurant patio where we had decided to take dinner.  We walked the two blocks to their house and were warmly greeted by their friend Michelle and his wife Shelly, who was from Tulsa.  We sat and drank a rose from Provence that was a gamay and syrah blend and a St. Emilion red with rosette salami and chorizo and cantal cheese with Gallatine of Papp and a lovely bread accompanied with a sea salt butter.  Finally at 11 p.m. we said good bight and walked back to our hotel.

Bon Appetit

    

August 9, 2012 Stone Age Architecture and a picnic dinner

August 9, 2012 Stone Age Architecture and a picnic dinner

We got up around 6:30 a.m. and were at the Thursday morning market by 7:00 a.m. There was only one merchant set up and that was Hannia cheese company.  He had all the best cheeses from England and Europe.  We had a love a lovely whole chedder made with only skim milk and the best Stilton in the world according the proprietor, an incredibly creamy Bassett Stilton.

Then back for breakfast and off to see some Neolithic ruins.  We started by going to the Market in Divezes.  There were only a few good items among many uninteresting items.  We bought a great fresh baked loaf of multigrain bread 1.6 £ and a pin of fresh lovely strawberries for £.75.

We then drove to Avesbury and walked the great circle with its high henge or berm.  This is the largest Neolithic circle in Europe and a very impressive.  We then drove over to Silsury Hill which is the largest man made Neolithic Hill in Europe I think at over forty meters high (130 feet) made of piled up chalk.  We then crossed the road and walked to the top of hill on the other side of the road (A4) to the West Kennett Long Barrow, which is a multi-chamber burial site covered with chalk.  The 5000 year old barrow was over 100 yards long and we entered one end of it that has been excavated and restored to its original condition.  Very creepy but interesting.

Then we were tired and so we stopped at an old 15^th century Stage Coach house named Waggoners and Horses, and drank a pear cider in the garden with a view of Silsbury Hill about ½ mile away.  The A4 is the original path of the London to Bristol road and very old. 

After our cider at around 4:00 p.m. we drove to Stonehenge and after a reconnaissance of the situation we realized it was not crowded and we were hungry, so we drove back into the nearest village of Amesbury about three miles and stopped a large supermarket named the Cooperative were we bought Cadbury chocolate covered shortbread cookies, orange flavored duck pate, and a bottle of red Tempranillo and headed back to Stonehenge. We arrived at the parking lot at Stonehenge at about 5:00 p.m. and discussed the possibility of a special access tour and called but none was available for+ today.  So we sat down near the entrance at a group of tables in the concession area near the entrance and ate our cheese, pate, strawberries, and drank the wine for a lovely early picnic dinner.

After dinner, we entered Stonehenge and walked around it for 1 ½ hours until 7:00 when the park closed and the setting sun was starting to send shafts of light through the great stones.  Stonehenge was the most impressive structure we saw today.  It has an outer berm or henge, three rings of upright stones with the two larger rings topped with lintels.  It was constructed with triangles in the upright stones that fit into the lintel stones and the lintel stones had triangles that fitted into the next lintel stone to fit everything together.  The orientation is along an axis that aligns with a Keel stone that casts a shaft of light through one of the openings into the central alter area on the longest day of the year (the solar equinox) and the sun set from the other side of the circle on the shortest day of the year.   There is also a processional path that winds its way from the Avon river several miles away to the site that enters Stonehenge from the keel rock side, which is still visible from Stonehenge. There appear to have also been four station stones set outside the perimeter of the big stone circles that not only form another axis with the center but also each pair of stones form an alignment with the farthest north rising moon and farthest south setting moon (every nineteen years). So not only is Stonehenge an impressive monumental architectural structure built 5,000 years but it is also a very cool astronomical religious tool, like the Mayan observatory at Chichen Itza or the sun dagger at Chaco Canyon.

As the sun set we drove back to our room at the Great Ashley Farm content and totally happy.

August 8, 2012 Dinner – Meat Pies at Grapes Pub, Bradford on Avon, England

August 8, 2012 Dinner – Meat Pies at Grapes Pub, Bradford on Avon, England

We arrived at Heathrow Airport and drove our rental car west about 150 miles to Bath and changed money at the Post Office and then followed the directions to Great Ashley Farm, near Bradford on Avon. The Farm is a working farm that raises mainly grass for cattle fodder and is growing a small cow/calf herd.  The old farmhouse has been remodeled to update two rooms to modern standards for tourists and the house serves breakfast with farm fresh eggs, so it is  bed and breakfast.

After showering and changing clothes, we drove into Radford on Avon on one of the narrowest roads I have ever seen, little more than a two rut jeep road with stone walls and vegetation on each side.  I am completely confused by the maps and directions. We got completely lost after dinner and Suzette sideswiped a car on the side of the road. 

Anyway back to Bradford on Avon. BonA is a lovely old stone cottage town built along the Avon River that passes through the town.  We parked beside the Railroad Station, The Great Western RR, and walked back across the river past the posh Three Gables Restaurant with its fancy fine cuisine and across the old bridge over the Avon and up the Main Street to Grapes, a small pub that our hosts recommended for its “proper English meat pies”.  Almost everything in the pub was different than what we see in bars in the U.S. There were taps with beer we had never seen before except for Kronenborg 1664. We chose a Triumph Ale made in Bristol that had a very clean light flavor that we thought would go well with the food.  We were immediately impressed by the menu choices.  Although there was a complete menu the menu was mostly pies.  Wednesday night featured the second pie for ½ price, so Suzette chose a Rabbit and Mushroom pie and I chose a beef and Stilton pie with the approving nod of the young lady who was attending bar and taking our order.         

The pie came on a large platter.  It was about 8 inches across with a baked crust of pie dough and the ingredients in a ceramic pie plate.  My Beef and Stilton pie had roast beef in a dark beef stock gravy.  Suzette’s Rabbit pie had onions and mushrooms with lots of boneless rabbit meat.  Each platter was also served with a side dish to of mashed potatoes and a pile of boiled carrots and haricot vert.

We enjoyed eating the heavy meat pie, but could only finish about ½ of it, even with another of the lovely light Triumph Ales. 

We drove back to Great Ashley Farm and watched the finals of Women’s Beach Volleyball as Misty May and Kerri Walsh easily rolled to their third Gold Medal and enjoyed a lovely night’s sleep.

Unfortunately the next day my digestive system suffered from the heavy dose of meat in the meat pies.

July 29, 2012 Garden Party - Mediterranean Potluck

July 29, 2012  Garden Party – Mediterranean Potluck

We decided to have a Garden Party now that the new raised beds in our back yard are finished and planted.   So we invited about 25 folks and suggested they bring something Mediterranean.  The party worked out really well and everyone had fun.  We set up the ping pong table on the patio and I marinated three boneless legs of lamb from Costco ($4.99/lb.) for 1 1/2 days in red wine, rosemary and garlic.  I should have added a little olive oil, but did not this time and the lamb had a decidedly winy flavor instead of that usual oily flavor.  I prefer the winy flavor, but understand the need to use olive oil in the marinade to carry the flavor of the spices into the meat.

I also made a bucket of Tabouli (#2 Bulghar wheat, tomatoes, green onions, mint and parsley, olive oil and lemon juice and a little salt).  I soak the Bulghar wheat until it swells up and will not take any more water.  Then I strain off most of the water off and then add lemon juice and olive oil and then the other ingredients.  Then let it sit for an hour or two to allow the flavors to mix.  

Everyone brought wonderful dishes.  There was not a sad looking thing on the table. The dishes included in no particular order: polenta made fresh in our kitchen by Harry Weil, baked faro with cherries and pistachios by Nancy and Cliff Blaugrund, a lovely fresh spinach lasagna made by Max Aragon and Jane Phillips, homemade dolmas by Janice and Tom Lafontaine, a wonderful dish of Spanakopita made by Jim Graff and Diane Souder, a dish of moussaka made by Jennifer Bean, fruit salad made by Annie Weil, a watermelon and feta cheese salad and Tsasiki made by Cynthia Elliott and Ricardo Guillermo.  Desserts included a fresh apricot tart made by Barry and Kylene Wing, a chocolate mocha cake from Trader Joe’s brought by Wayne and Elaine Chew, Turkish cookies stuffed with almonds and a platter of dried dates and apricots made by Susan and Charlie Palmer.

Everyone brought wine and I did not keep track of the wine because we simply put out ice chests with ice in them and told folks to put white in one and beer and red wine in the other chest and filled a table with glasses, so folks could pour and fill their own glasses.

We set up four 6 foot long tales next to our new raised beds and placed a cushion on the 16 inch edge of the bed that we had designed for seating and placed the tables next to that edge in the graveled pathway and then chairs on the other side of the tables so we could easily fit 25 to 30 folks.

I am sure I left out several dishes and folks, but it was a haze of food and wine and I loved it and I think others did also, because I received many thank you notes.

Bon Appétit    

                                                                                                                                                                      

August 2, 2012 - Dinner - Pita stuffed with lamb, cacik, and tabouli

I was out fetching my bike from the bike shop around 5:00 p.m. when Suzette called to ask me to pick up a bag of fresh pita bread on the way home because she had an idea for a new dish.  I stopped at Sahara Restaurant on Central across the street from UNM and bought a bag of 6 fresh pitas for $2.99.

When I got home we discussed Suzette’s idea.  We decided to heat slices of lamb in a skillet and then stuff pita with the lamb and tabouli.  I like my lamb sandwiches with cacik sauce, so I found a recipe in Nigella Lawson’s Always Summer Cookbook at page 57.

Cacik is the Turkish word for what the Greek call tsatsiki, a cucumber and yogurt sauce spiced with garlic and cooled with mint.

Cacik

1 cucumber (Armenian)

18 ounces whole milk Greek yogurt (from Costco)

1 tsp. dried mint

1-2 tsp. salt

1 cup chopped mint leaves

1-2 cloves of garlic, depending upon the size and intensity

Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

I made about a ½ recipe by estimating the ingredients but used three small cloves of fresh garlic from our garden, which gave the sauce too intense a spiciness when fresh but mellowed after a day of being stored in the fridge.  The dried mint is very important because when crushed finely, it emulsifies and gives the sauce a smooth texture.

I sliced the lamb as thinly as I could and Suzette lightly sautéed it in a skillet with olive oil.

I sliced and julienned two slices of a large tomato and sliced thin slices of cucumber and fetched the PPI tabouli from Sunday’s Mediterranean pot luck dinner from the fridge and cut the pitas in half and heated them in the microwave.  Then we each took a warmed pita and carefully opened the walls to make a pocket and stuffed warm lamb, and cool cacik and tabouli and sliced tomato and cucumber into the pocket for a delicious sandwich.  This was the best new dish in a long time and a wonderful summer dish that is both warm and cool and full of fresh ingredients from the garden.

I drank a glass of PPI Pay d’ Oc Merlot and we each drank mojitos. A very minty dinner, with mint in the cacik, the tabouli, and in the mojito syrup and fresh in the drink.

Bon Appétit  

August 3, 2012, a Fishy Day of Food: Lunch-Chirashi at Azuma, Dinner-Sautéed Halibut and Yu Choy

I went by Costco after a lunch of chirashi at Azuma.  The sushi guys at Azuma have worked out an assortment of fish that I like (four slices of ultra-white tuna, four slices of yellowtail tuna, two slices of salmon, two slices of red “maguro” tuna and two slices of octopus plus the usual two slices of omelet and two slices of pickled daikon, with shredded fresh daikon, wasabi and sliced pickled ginger on a layer of sushi rice in a box).  I drink hot green tea.

After lunch I went to Costco for fish and found fresh halibut ($17.99/lb.) and two new white wines that I thought might go well with fish, so I bought a slice of halibut filet and one bottle each of Bursans Albarino and a Dry Creek Sauvignon Blanc ($10.99 each).

When Suzette arrived home, we discussed how to cook the meal.  I remembered the great dish I used to order called Bonne Femme (a battered slice of dover sole, sautéed in butter sauce), so I suggested battering and sautéing the fish and making a piccata sauce with parsley, lemon juice and capers sautéed in butter) and since we had an unopened bag of Yu Choy, simply cooking the Yu Choy in a wok with some fresh garlic, but without the normal Chinese sauces.

So I chopped up about three cups of Yu Choy, separating the stems from the leaves and Suzette cut the fish filet into four pieces and coated the fish in egg and then dusted the fish in rice flour and then fried it in a skillet filled to about ¼ inch with canola oil.  We decided to try the Bursans Albarino. 

So dinner was very simple.  Suzette dipped, dusted and fried the fish.  I stir fried the Yu Choy in peanut oil with the garlic and we both worked on the sauce.  We then plated the dishes with fish, poured sauce over them and laid a pile of Yu Choy on the plate and a wedge of fresh lemon.

The Bursans Albarino was a little sweeter and less citrusy than Laxas Albarino.  I actually think the Dry Creek Sauvignon Blanc would have been a better match to the fish and vegetables because of its more citrus flavor.   

 Bon Appétit