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Published: October 8th 2007
Dordogne Food Reports Continued
La Belle Etoile
Hôtel La Belle Etoile
Le Bourg
24250 - LA ROQUE GAGEAC - FRANCE
Tél. : (+33) (0)5 53 29 51 44
Fax : (+33) (0)5 53 29 45 63
This is another one of those restaurants that we missed last year because of days of closing, timing and so on. It is located right along the road and a window table can be favourable. It is more formal and I would guess that the clientele tends to be older. We were there on a Saturday for lunch and most of the other patrons were French.
We opted for a menu which included an entré, plat and dessert for €25 per person.
The amuse bouche was a small veloute aux cepes. This is a soup made thick with the addition of egg yolks and cream. It was superb even with the foam on top (the foam thing has been overdone and is tiresome). I have eaten so much Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup that any other is such a surprise with an intense mushroomy flavour.
Sandra’s entré was oeufs cocottes en tasse aux morilles à la crème de la chicorees moulette de pain de
campagne. Doesn’t it sound wonderful in French ! It is a soft-boiled egg in a creamy morel mushroom/chicory sauce with toast. Probably she would not have ordered it had she known of the mushroom soup but not ordering it would have been a mistake. Delicious. Can you imagine keeping an egg soft in such a mixture?
Mine was foie gras pressed around an artichoke, which was a wonderful combination of flavours, and a small mesculin salad. It had coarse salt sprinkled on the foie gras which goes so well... and I am a guy who does not even put salt on corn on the cob.
Sandra’s plat of chicken a la fermiere (in the style of the farmer’s wife) in a choice stew of vegetables and morels (again), is the type of thing that I never order and then regret. She loves these home cooking type things and they are usually amazing. This one was.
However, I wasn’t displeased by my perfectly cooked slices of roast duckling with a bit of juice and olives accompanied by cheese dumplings. I still don’t like dumplings but the duck....
She doesn’t choose a chocolate dessert! However she said that the mara de bois
strawberries and mango sorbet with vanilla cream was more than OK. Sorbets in France seem closer to ice cream than the water ice that we associate with sorbet and are usually homemade and smooth.
My crème brulé was perfect. It wasn’t ruined by the addition of marc or odd flavours or layers of pudding and the few berries on the top hardly got in the way of my spoon. The sign of a confident chef!
The delices were two of those caramel cakey things in the shape of a mini bundt cake. What are those things called? No loss if you don’t tell me ‘cause I don’t much like them anyway. Somebody must ! Every restaurant serves them.
Dordogne Rural Cafes
These can be really good or simply awful. The prices are usually good value. Often they are combined with Pizzerias as we know them in North America and the pizza can be quite good.
I show these pictures for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is quite common to get an egg in the middle of your pizza. I don’t think it really adds much. It’s just different.
Secondly,
A Rural Cafe
Pizza with an eggthis is probably the second time in our travels in France when we got inedible food. Note the burned croque monsieur.
Thirdly, I have found that there is a tendency to over dress the salad in some of these small places so you might decide to try and order the salad dressing on the side.
Le Bistro de L’Octroi
111 av Selves
24200 Sarlat
Tél: 05 53 30 83 40 Fax: 05 53 28 36 43
This restaurant is owned and run by the same people who do La Meynardie (see previous posting). I say restaurant because the term bistro is misleading in the description of the food of this place. The meals are not simple though the tables, bar setting inside, bustling wait staff are bistro-like. Upstairs at L’Octroi is more formal and quiet.
We both had the €26 menu complet - entré, plat principal and dessert.
Sandra began with a choice that surprised me again. Sometimes I think that I don’t know her as well as I think. She chose the scrambled eggs with cepes. This simple dish is usually one of
L'Octroi
Eggs with cepes the best ways to taste something that you wouldn’t necessarily eat alone - cepes, truffles. This is the area of cepes and we enjoy them often.
I had the starter of carpaccio de boef Limousin marine aux huile de noix. Again, this is a common French dish that is becoming more evident at home. It was tasty but if the beef wasn’t yet dead (carpaccio is very thin slices of raw beef) it was drowned by the walnut oil. If you look at the picture closely you can see the puddles. This is a shame because the beef is delicate and needn’t be overpowered.
Sandra’s plat of Limousin rumsteak was swimming in the three pepper sauce. The vegs - pea pods, grilled tomato, cepe soufflé, mashed potatoes and lentils were the same on both plates and fine. I do wish that the sauce man had a little more delicate hand.
My plat was excellent! Perhaps one of the best I have tasted in this sort of place. It was grilled monkfish with a langoustine coulis. The coulis was ladled, rather than spooned, on but it was easier to deal with than with the carpaccio. Very tasty combination! It makes me
L'Octroi
Carpaccio wish that lotte (monkfish) were more commonly found on menus.
The desserts are fabulous here. Sandra had a moelleux au chocolat (surprise, surprise) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a little English cream. This is one of those chocolate cupcake things with the molten inside. She keeps threatening to make one at home but it hasn’t happened yet. Come to think of it, I don’t recall being offered a taste.
I had a soufflé aux glace de noix et sa liquor. It was frozen more solid than I had hoped as I had to wait until it thawed a little... and waiting was difficult. This was a common dessert this noon hour as I saw a number being dropped off at various tables. It was worth waiting for.
I had expected better of this bistro because of reputation. However we did eat here again the next week and it was much improved. Sometimes it is the mood you are in when you dine, n’est-ce pas?
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Anselm
non-member comment
Wonderfully written
Delightful descriptions of food, Bob. Loved the reference to the rural cafés. We've had some mixed café experiences too, but that's all part of the pleasures of travel in France.