Mediterranean and Catalan Food

Mediterranean/Catalan Food

You only have to travel a few kilometers in France and you are in a different region with different cuisine and specialties. The Dordogne area is foie gras, duck, truffles, goose, mushrooms, with Cahors and Bergerac wine. These are the main products raised and served there.

This area, the Roussillon region on the Mediterranean Sea, is all about seafood such as mussels, oysters, shrimp, and fresh fish notably anchovies, cod, sea bass, turbot at this time of year. Mussels and fries, plates of raw oysters, fish soup and bouillabaisse, paella, and grilled fish dominate the menus. Starter courses are often delicious anchovies, raw and marinated, served with olive tapenade, bread and grilled sweet red peppers. Fresh fish is simply grilled. Olive oil, balsamic and exotic vinegars are used to flavor the foods.

But there is also a huge Catalan influence to the food here with many restaurants boasting Catalan menus. As near as I can understand it, Catalan is a geographic and political distinction and includes people who because of their heritage are not French or Spanish but Catalan. To mistakenly call them French or Spanish is an insult. They retain their customs, language and food. French people are quick to point out, however, that the Catalan people have no problem accepting the social benefits of living in France.

Catalan food can be game, meatballs, lamb, and sausages of many types, with the accompaniment of tomatoes, olives and garlic. The Catalan restaurant that we went to - L’Hostalet de Vives - cooked over a wood fire and served the food family style in serving dishes from which you helped yourself. The food is rustic and natural. The appetizer we had was onions, pulled from the ground and grilled over the wood fire. The clods of earth were still attached. We pulled the tender onion bits from the roots and charred outsides, dipped them in a tomato, garlic and oil puree and dug in - the Catalan answer to the Outback’s deep fried blooming onion and more delicious! I had the wild boar stew and Sandra had lamb. We shared a coronet of local wine.


One other experience was going to the docks in Port Vendres where the fishing boats unload and the auction is held. Chefs and the public come and buy their daily fish and seafood. Within this huge fish market is a bar where we sat and devoured a platter of huge shrimp (oxymoron?) and drank wine. The price was excellent and you can’t recreate that kind of ambiance. The barmen joke and share anecdotes with the patrons and everyone talks with neighbouring strangers. This is a wonderful custom in France and I suspect it is a throw-back to the social, family meal. Arriving and departing tables greet you, ask you how the meal is and whether it was a good choice and wish you, “Bon Appetit”. It is not unusual to strike up a conversation with a nearby group at a restaurant or café.

---

---