"Food Week"

We had some visitors a couple of weeks ago. Jacinta, Chris' older sister, arrived in early November, followed closely by her boyfriend Adam and his mother Margaret. After spending the last 6 months galivanting around South-America, they had just spent a couple of weeks driving around Spain with Margaret and came to Nice for a short stop before heading to Africa for more galivanting. Yeah, life can be tough...

In any case, they thought that they had had it pretty good in Spain with Jamon hanging everywhere, tapas at any time of the day or night, mojitos galore and so on and so forth but that was all before they came to Nice and we had our little Food Fest. That week was an all-round display of skill, flair and craftiness and nobody was left out!

Throughout the week, we went to a café called "le pain a table" in the old town which I have grown to enjoy very much for its spacious light-filled ambiance, the food, which is simple but always nice and fresh, and the pleasant service. We started by going there for morning coffee because they have a great selection of tarts and patisseries with a special mention for the lemon tart and a little chocolate and crisp concoction that was delicious. Invariably, coffee would extend into lunch territory. I have trouble getting past their Salade de Chevre Chaud served with little mounds of creamy goat cheese on crispy toast with a drizzle of thickened balsamic vinegar and a lovely green salad with apple, raisin and walnut.

We also did a lot of home cooking and tried something totally different each night. We had rabbit in mustard sauce prepared mostly by Adam. I can still taste the lovely mustard and cloves sauce.

Another night, we had honey glazed duck breasts with roasted figs, one of Rosa's recipes which I have seen being cooked several times in her class and it is splendid! it was the real winner of the week and was truly sensational. The duck breasts are slowly cooked on a fry-pan and then glazed with a honey and balsamic vinegar mixture + a secret ingredient which we hesitated about but were glad we got in the end. If anyone knows what else to do with green anis seed powder, let them be heard. We attempted to serve those with panisses, the local french frie made with chickpea flour but they were a total disaster (and I mean that) so Adam came to the rescue with some well... french fries.

We also had a raclette which tends to invariably have a good effect on people. It's fun, it's easy and how can you possibly go wrong with stinky melted cheese on potatoes. It's awesome and that's a fact.

Finally, we had a vegetarian delight with a lovely dish of fresh pasta with a wild mushroom sauce. Very delicious and a nice light touch after the rabbit, duck and raclette.

As for dessert, I'm glad you asked, because it wasn't so bad either. We had the chocolate tart mentioned in one of the posts below as well as a delicious Apple and Almond tart, also from Rosa's recipe collection. Both were complete successes.

And in case that wasn't enough, we topped it off with an outing to what has to be one of the best restaurants in Nice. It is called the "Bistro d'Antoine" and should be overseen under no circumstance. I could go one for a while but I think I just want to go back. The food is fantastic, the decor is lovely and the service impeccable. To make it even more impossible to resist, it is serioulsy well priced for the quality you are getting. Let's just say we can't wait for our next batch of visitors so we can go back as quickly as possible!

And thus ends "food week" which led me directly into "soup month" but it was worth it, every single juicy bite of it!