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