Wow, almost a month later and I'm finally getting back to my blog! Sorry everybody! So, the food festival, les instants gourmands, was amazing! Les instants gourmands means 'the gourmet moments' and in French, since the subject is plural, everything is plural! It's one thing that still gets me. Like if we are talking about a bunch of cats who are white, we would say 'the white cats' whereas in French it would be 'these whites cats'. If the noun is plural, the article and the adjectives will be plural too.
Anywho, the festival was amazing. They had booths selling all kinds of meals but also product booths with wines, breads, cheeses, dried meats, honey, seafood, you name it! The meal booths had these huuuge skillets, like four feet in diameter! It went on for 4 days and I went twice. If I had enough room in my stomach for more, I would have been there more often but alas my stomach has shrunk since moving to France. The first day Jeremy and I went with Louis and Marianne (the Canadians that threw the Quebec party in this post) and Marianne's friend. Jeremy got some shaved glazed pork and fried potatoes and I got ratatouille with tagliatelle. We also saw our first ever soft pretzels so we got one of those too. Oh and then there was this delicious apple pastry thing that was to die for. It tasted like an apple cider donut - and not just any apple cider donut. Picture the best apple cider donut you've ever had (and if you don't live in south Jersey and therefore get your apple ciders from a farm, multiply by 3) if it had just come out of the oven, fresh and warm, and instead of a donut, it's rolled like a cinnamon bun. So good. We also had wine and beer because you can do that in the middle of the day here and at festivals it's often cheaper than water!
The second day I met up with Marianne, her friend, and Louis by myself. Jeremy had to wait at the apartment for the plumber so I straight up ditched him for food. It's okay though, I brought him home a snack. That day I had flammekueche. Flammekueche is an Alsacian and southern German dish that's basically super thin crust pizza with onions, cheese, and lardons over white sauce. I don't remember if I went over lardons. If not, lardons are like thick bacon but diced instead of in strips. Alsace is the French region just north of us and home of many wonderful wines. I also had some concoillotte (cahn-coy-aht), a regional cheese so runny it's like a dip, with some fresh oat bread. For dessert I had some kind of berry tart. They use a lot of different berries here than in the US. For instance Jeremy's coworker's wife made a mulberry pie. Like monkey-chase-the-weasel mulberry! I've also seen currants in the markets, especially blackcurrant. This tart had a slightly bitter, tart, dark blue berry so maybe it was blackcurrant? I don't know many berries besides the normal ones put in American yogurts.
I also brought home a shredded coconut muffin type thing covered in honey. A guy at a booth had given me a free sample and next thing you know I'm pulling out my wallet. I just can't help myself. I try to stay a respectful distance from booths so the people running them can't talk to me because once they start talking I feel almost obliged to buy something! But this was a very delicious decision and pretty cheap too.
Anywho, the festival was amazing. They had booths selling all kinds of meals but also product booths with wines, breads, cheeses, dried meats, honey, seafood, you name it! The meal booths had these huuuge skillets, like four feet in diameter! It went on for 4 days and I went twice. If I had enough room in my stomach for more, I would have been there more often but alas my stomach has shrunk since moving to France. The first day Jeremy and I went with Louis and Marianne (the Canadians that threw the Quebec party in this post) and Marianne's friend. Jeremy got some shaved glazed pork and fried potatoes and I got ratatouille with tagliatelle. We also saw our first ever soft pretzels so we got one of those too. Oh and then there was this delicious apple pastry thing that was to die for. It tasted like an apple cider donut - and not just any apple cider donut. Picture the best apple cider donut you've ever had (and if you don't live in south Jersey and therefore get your apple ciders from a farm, multiply by 3) if it had just come out of the oven, fresh and warm, and instead of a donut, it's rolled like a cinnamon bun. So good. We also had wine and beer because you can do that in the middle of the day here and at festivals it's often cheaper than water!
The second day I met up with Marianne, her friend, and Louis by myself. Jeremy had to wait at the apartment for the plumber so I straight up ditched him for food. It's okay though, I brought him home a snack. That day I had flammekueche. Flammekueche is an Alsacian and southern German dish that's basically super thin crust pizza with onions, cheese, and lardons over white sauce. I don't remember if I went over lardons. If not, lardons are like thick bacon but diced instead of in strips. Alsace is the French region just north of us and home of many wonderful wines. I also had some concoillotte (cahn-coy-aht), a regional cheese so runny it's like a dip, with some fresh oat bread. For dessert I had some kind of berry tart. They use a lot of different berries here than in the US. For instance Jeremy's coworker's wife made a mulberry pie. Like monkey-chase-the-weasel mulberry! I've also seen currants in the markets, especially blackcurrant. This tart had a slightly bitter, tart, dark blue berry so maybe it was blackcurrant? I don't know many berries besides the normal ones put in American yogurts.
I also brought home a shredded coconut muffin type thing covered in honey. A guy at a booth had given me a free sample and next thing you know I'm pulling out my wallet. I just can't help myself. I try to stay a respectful distance from booths so the people running them can't talk to me because once they start talking I feel almost obliged to buy something! But this was a very delicious decision and pretty cheap too.
I also promised to tell you about the spectacle I witnessed called a "silent party". So I'm walking down the street at around 7:30 pm and there is a fenced off area full of people. I take a look to see what's going on and see a DJ up on a stage and all these people milling about and everyone's kinda bobbing their heads. I realize everyone is wearing headphones and silently listening to the DJ play! It was totally bizarre. No one is talking since they are wearing headphones and occasionally everyone would throw their hands up in the air in unison and cheer. It was actually kinda creepy cause it would be dead quiet with tons of people just slowly meandering around and bopping their heads up and down and then all of a sudden hands up and "Yeahhhh!!!" and then back to zombie status.
Weird. Anywho unless something spectacular occurs in the meantime, my next post will be about European Heritage weekend. I just have to get all the photos off the camera which is currently with Jeremy in Ireland. Please leave comments, I really enjoy knowing that people read my blog! You can even make it anonymous. Also, don't forget to do all your Amazon shopping through my affiliate link!