No visit to the Northern French city of Lille would be complete without a stop at 27 rue Esquermoise. This address has delighted local gourmands since 1761. Initially, it was a humble chocolaterie and ice cream shop until it was taken over in 1849 by Michael Paulus Gislinus Méert who turned the shop into a local institution with its signature thin, gaufres filled with Madagascar vanilla. Today, the former confectionery is an elegant patisserie, salon de thé and gourmet gourmet restaurant and a must-visit sight if you're in the area. I don't remember the first time I had one of Méert's waffles, but I must have been a baby -- I'm a second generation Lilloise after all, though we moved to ...
A Taste Of
A Taste of Nice: Farmers’ Market Petits Farcis
Last Christmas, I spent a few days in the South of France with my family. We started in Marseille, where my mother was born and where she grew up, then made our way to Gould to spend the holidays with my uncle Philippe who lives there with his family. Afterwards, we made our way to Nice, on the French Riveria. France's fifth largest city gets a pretty bad rep. It's like the Florida of France, where grandparents retire (my grandmother herself considered moving there for a while) and older Brits winter. It's no Cannes and it's no Monaco. But it's got a lot to offer: stunning Art Deco architecture, great museums (Chagall and Matisse both used to call Nice their home), the promenade des ...
A Taste of Burgundy: Jambon à la Chablisienne
Making Jambon à la Chablisienne is very simple and allows you to bring together two ingredients that are abundant in Burgundy: wine and ham. In this case, the wine in question is Chablis, one of the better chardonnays produced in the region. The original dish as it was created in the first half of the 20th century called for a whole ham cooked on the boned in Chablis with added flavouring and served over spinach or fresh noodles . Today, the recipe has been simplified: thick slices of ham are baked with a sauce made of tomatoes, wine and shallots and served over rice. Here's how to make it at home... INGREDIENTS PREPARATION Start by heating up the oven to 400° and preparing your ...
Flexing my (Belgian) culinary mussels
Perhaps I was inspired by the tasty Classic Mussels that my friend Olga of Mango Tomato ordered as a starter at Brabo when we dropped by last week to try their new spring menu. Perhaps it was my Belgian heritage kicking in. My grandmother, after all, did grow up in the suburbs of Brussels and my father and I were both born in the Northern French city of Lille, a mere 20 kilometers from the Belgian border. Or perhaps it was the $4.99 bag of mussels I stumbled upon by chance at Whole Foods... whatever the reason was, I decided to have some classic moules-frites for dinner the other night. MOULES MARINIERES Ingredients for 2-3 peoples 1 bag of mussels (approx. 2lbs), rinsed, scrubbed ...
