Don`t forget the Rennies, Mum!

As I was saying yesterday, you have to be a hearty eater to appreciate French hospitality at Noel!  Not that I am for a moment complaining, mind. We have eaten all sorts of tasty and exotic food at the Christmas meals over the years, for example sanglier (wild boar) and ostrich!  This year, the Christmas menu was a little more down-to-earth, but equally delicious and equally challenging for the digestion. It went like this:-

     Aperitifs Peanuts, crisps etc with very assorted drinks.
     Entrée No 1  Choice of salmon or oysters. See photo on right.
    Entrée 2 Slices of foie gras with fruit.
    Main course Chicken cooked in Vin Jaune, duchesse potatoes in white sauce, with morilles, green beans tied in little bunches
    Cheese course
    Desert   Buche and /or mince-pies
    Coffee + digestif....

 A sterling test for anyone`s digestion, especially as loads of wine was offered to accompany the various courses. Incidentally, oysters are one of the few French foods I cannot bring myself to eat. I have eaten snails(in fact we ate them during this stay) I have eaten frog`s legs, I have even eaten andouillettes though only the once, but oysters `transcend the outer confine` as Kai Lung expressed it. It`s bad enough that it looks like a watery sneeze in a sea-shell, worse that it is raw, but the crowning horror is that it is still alive!!! You put a squeeze of lemon on it and the poor thing flinches. No, oysters are way beyond my limit for things that are even vaguely edible.. Garfield the cat advised `Never eat anything that is on fire` and it`s good advice, but I have eaten Crepes Suzette all ablaze and it was far superior to those disgusting oysters!!  Luckily, not all the French are that keen and an alternative of salmon was chosen by almost half the diners.

   Our contribution to the feast was one of the cheeses, a goat`s cheese sur feuilles that some of the northerners particularly like and some mince-pies prepared by the delicate hand of Mrs Noah herself, as evidenced above.
  Well that`s enough food thoughts for today--it`s made me feel quite hungry and I`m off to find something for tea
     
     Bye for now!