francofiled

What strikes me when reading through internet recipes for salade niçoise is the sheer variation of ingredients.  Everyone it seems has a preference. This one prepared by ma conjointe certainly hits the spot. By the time I got around to taking the picture I had already devoured the luscious black olives but still on the plate are the French beans, tomato quarters, potatoes and anchovies.  A lovely vinaigrette was served alongside. Notice too those quarters of hard-boiled egg.  Egg features a lot on those internet recipes but not in my go-to source of French Cookery - Louis Saulnier's Le Répertoire de la Cuisine .   Saulnier had the famous Auguste Escoffier as his mentor and the Répertoire is a quick reference guide to the master's cookery. Interestingly, the Répertoire does not include tuna either although many recipes do. One that I have to hand even states that Escoffier - there's Saulnier's mentor again - calls for tunny fish in oil to be added. It se...

As was promised in my last post on Cases of Cognac to Belfast available here  I added some cognac to a Belfast Crystal glass and paid a silent toast to those mentioned in the post.... Admittedly it was with a VSOP rather than a 3* but then it is whatever's to hand. Right?

The Friend at Hand is more than just an Irish Whiskey shop in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter, it is also an emporium that houses a vast array of whiskeys and whiskey memorabilia; legacies of a bygone time which are definitely not for sale, providing instead a visible, authentic record of the many distilleries around the city in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Among the items on display was the framed telegraph request pictured above. That evocative word - Cognac   - near the top of the page caught my eye and, interest aroused, I noted the date: 8 August 1891. 1891 - This is a remarkably well preserved document but I wondered what on earth was an order for brandy doing as a display item in a whiskey store.  I set about finding out.  The telegraph as you can see was addressed to a company in Cognac.  This lead me to an internet search but my initial queries on Bouhelleau or Bonhelleau and other variants returned zero results. The solution lay in that lovely...

I had held on to them for ages - these old recordings from the BBC Radio French language courses À Vous La France and its follow-on France Extra!  I had the pupil books to go with them and the teacher's guide too.  They served me well in planning lessons all those years ago.  Old friends. With space clearing at home it was time to say Au revoir !  to the K7 - cassette - collection.  No one seemed interested in having the recordings in this format what with CD and MP3 downloads more easily managed. When I brought them for recycling I had a moment of doubt and regret. I'd miss having them around. So I took a quick picture to remind me of the time and effort put into setting timers to record;  labelling the cassettes and creating the J-card covers. Au revoir les K7 !

I am very much looking forward to La Nuit de la lecture which will take place on Saturday 14 January 2017. I think it's a great idea to encourage people to get more into reading. Libraries, publishers, authors and a range of organisations all over France are getting involved. If you would like more information on La nuit de la lecture then check out the details at the following link:  La Nuit de la lecture To join, at least in spirit, with the event I intend to read the Kindle version of the book, Le corps de ma mère by Tunisian writer, Fawzia Zouari.  It's a title that was recommended to me and it sounded my kind of book.   Clicking on this link  takes you to the Amazon Kindle store version where you can get more details.  If you read or have read the book consider sharing your views and opinions in the comments section below... Saturday 14 January might be a good time for that. Note: Although the link to the book site offers an option to buy, I don't r...

A gift from Paris in time for Christmas from family members who just got back from the City of Light.  This is a beautifully presented box of Lindt chocolates featuring les Champs-Élysées on the lid and it is almost too good to open.  Almost?  It might happen over the Christmas holidays... ssshhhh, keep the lid on that. Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année 2017 !

The angels' share, la part des anges, is that part of the alcohol in cognac which is evaporated as the spirit matures in its casks.  I well remember our first trip to Cognac and the air seemed sweet with its aroma.  The memory of that trip came scenting back on a more recent staycation in County Fermanagh. However, I wasn't expecting the angels' share to be provided by a glass warming technique that we experienced when we visited the Watermill Lodge near Lisnaskea  Our very friendly and knowledgeable sommelier, Flavien, first placed a brandy glass upside down on his service table and then filled the dimple in the base with a small amount of the house XS cognac.  This he then lit with a gas torch and as the flame took hold he suspended another cognac glass upside down over the rising heat. He did this twice, once for each glass, and then served us a measure of a finer cognac in the warmed glass.  Other diners paused their meals to witness the spectacle....