Having been on such a breakneck pace the last few weeks, I’ve found it necessary to slow down here in Bordeaux after getting to the know the city a bit after arrival. On Friday, I did take a Gastronomical Tour of the city. It ended up being just the tour host, Chloe, and myself. A couple and a family of three cancelled at the last minute. However, that gave me complete and sole access to the host and we were able to have a wonderful late morning/early afternoon together with a wine tasting, a wonderful lunch, two pastry stops, and finally a chocolate stop. Chloe has lived in France her entire life and grew up in Saint-Emilion, but moved to Bordeaux a few years ago for school and stayed. We had a lot in common, as she teaches French as a second language, often to UK and American citizens coming to France. We spoke about nearly everything including those taboo subjects - politics and religion. It was quite a fascinating afternoon; learning particularly what French people, outside of Paris, think of Americans politically speaking and the continued decline of the church as an institution. Most French people have found our recent politics and world relationships confusing and had always looked up to the US as the world leader, but have begun looking inward for that leadership role among themselves. In that regard, they are not happy with their current president, Macron, and are looking for someone with more experience and someone who is able to get the EU nations on board together as a more powerful presence. She said that French people have a reputation for being unhappy about everything, but particularly politics, national, and international affairs. In the past this unhappiness was always in check, under the surface. She says she sees it rising to the surface lately with some outward forceful demonstrations that she hasn’t witnessed in her lifetime. Granted she’s in her early 20’s, but I find this very interesting. And, as I’ve already encountered on multiple occasions in my travels this year especially among the younger generation, there’s a growing interest and curiosity about spirituality and theological beliefs, even if that doesn’t correspond to a particular religious tradition.
I don’t have much else to report: We were so busy talking that I didn’t take many pictures of our walking tour and eating. But here are the ones I did take. Another wine tasting, but this time I tasted wines from the Medoc region. One of the wines had a strong citrus/grapefruit taste. I liked it the best.
We then stopped for Bordeaux’s signature pastry called a canale. Sometimes it is spelled with two n’s and sometimes with just one. I learned that the cannale spelled with two n’s usually refers to a non-traditional recipe that can be savory or sweet, but that the traditional canale is the one that Bordeaux is most noted for. I’ve made them. They are a pain to master, but they are really delicious. The batter is similar to a crepe batter with lots of vanilla and rum flavoring, but cooked in a high temperature often until the outside crust is nearly burned and the inside “cake” is barely cooked. The timing and temperature and so many other variables to make this particular combination, can make these bites of deliciousness, tricky. Chloe described them historically as basically a bread pudding baked in a pastry cup. The story is that many years ago this area of France was part of the Silk Road trading route and that they traded a lot for vanilla and rum and wove them into the cooking methods of everything they did - thus the typical taste of these pastries. Over the years the recipe was lost and forgotten. In the 1940’s when certain food ingredients became difficult to find, the recipe resurfaced but was raised to a more sophisticated level. One of the mayors of Bordeaux loved them so much that he started bringing them to every meeting and the trend caught on until it became the Bordeaux pastry.
A newer pastry has started surfacing as a Bordeaux tradition, as well. This one began in 2007 when a pastry chef’s adult son came home one night from being out drinking. He was very hungry and made himself something to eat from what was left over in the chef’s refrigerator. The father saw the remainder of his son’s experiment in the morning, tasted it, loved it, and they have been making them every since as a father and son enterprise. They are called Dunes Blanches and are similar to a puff pastry filled with cream.
And finally, there will be a winner at the end of this trip between French chocolate, Swiss Chocolate, and Belgian Chocolate - all who claim to have the most delicious chocolate in the world. Having grown up near Hershey, PA - I was never exposed to much other chocolate available in the world. And to be honest, I was never a chocolate lover. Sorry to say, but American Chocolate is pretty awful. In my opinion, it is cloying and overly sweet. My Belgian student brought me some chocolate from her country a few years ago, and I became hooked, perhaps you could even say addicted to it. It is so far superior to anything available in the US. Favorite company is Galler. However, the French claim to have better chocolate and my Swiss student claims that Swiss Chocolate is superior. So, there will be a winner at the end of this challenge.
I tried a number of chocolate pieces at a French Chocolatier.
I put some of the “leftovers” together on a plate for a full picture.
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