- Part 5

34 posts Posts by julie

France: Oh, the Cheeses We Ate

by julie on June 12, 2012, 0 comments

Halfway through our France trip, I started keeping track of the cheeses we tried. I come from a family of cheese-lovers, but I’m afraid I’m not all that educated about cheeses. I tend to stick with my favorites, but lately I’ve been thinking I should get a book on cheeses of the world so I can educate myself a bit on the topic (should’ve done this before the trip!). I’d love to try my hand at making some in the future (I’ve had this recipe bookmarked forever), and I love Little Brown Pen’s idea of a weekly cheese night with friends to sample and learn about different cheeses. If anything, though, I can at least start with being more adventurous with the cheeses I try and being better about documenting them. So, below I give you the cheeses that we sampled in France. Sorry I don’t have pictures for everything… Next time, I will plan better! Crottin We saw crottins everywhere in France! This goat cheese comes in thick, small rounds usually about the size of an apricot. The texture is somewhat hard and crumbly. When we tasted this after we got it from the markets, it had a mild goat flavor. But I also brought some back to the U.S. with me, and it surprisingly lasted quite a few weeks and definitely got quite strong as time went on. Tomme Tomme is a type of semi-hard cheese produced in the French Alps and Switzerland. There are many different types of tommes, the most famous being Tomme de Savoie (which sadly we did not try). We had several kinds, and my favorite was tomme de brebis, a sheep’s milk tomme, for its subtle flavor. St. Marcellin This was one of my lesser favorites. It’s a soft cheese, but I found it to be rather bland for me. I liked the soft, smooth texture but kept wanting more flavor. It may have just been the particular round I got, but I tried it again somewhere else and still felt the same. CurÃ© Nantais This was a semi-soft cheese we picked up at the market in Aix-en-Provence. It has a bit of a fermented, winey flavor.

Goat cheese with herbs (left) and CurÃ© Nantais (right) with roast chicken and potatoes.

ChÃ¨vre Frais and ChÃ¨vre Sec We had fresh goat cheese (chÃ¨vre frais) both plain and encrusted in herbs. We also tried a dried goat cheese (chÃ¨vre sec) for the first time. We got one that was in the shape of a cylinder and had a dark gray crust. The dried goat cheese was quite hard and took a bit of effort to cut into. It wasn’t necessarily stronger than the fresh, though. Burrata Not a French cheese, but when I saw that Delitaly, the little Italian shop on rue Montorgueil, had fresh burrata, of course I had to get some. This is a very popular cheese and one of my all-time favorites. But who doesn’t like burrata… it’s soft, creamy, and has the most fragrant, subtle, fresh taste. It’s actually a soft mozzarella with cream in the middle. Burrata is Italian for “butter,” so I think that pretty much sums it up. :) Mimolette This is one of my cousin’s favorite cheeses, and I’d never had it before so we decided to try some. I guess it’s a bit like a French cheddar, with the same bright orange color and fudgey texture. Brie, Camembert, Roquefort, and RondelÃ© These cheeses don’t need much introduction. I just went to Monoprix’s cheese section and picked up a bunch of typical French cheeses to snack on throughout the week. I tried to look for brands not available in the U.S. None of the Camembert I’ve had in the U.S. has ever come close to the real thing, so I definitely made sure to get that. Ã‰poisses I’ve never tried this infamous French cheese and knew that I needed to on this trip. Ã‰poisses is made in the Burgundy region and is a soft cow’s cheese that’s been washed in brandy. It is famous for being incredibly stinky and is what Brillat-Savarin called “the king of all cheeses.” The lady at La Fermette (on rue Montourgueil), where we bought this, told us to spread it on very thinly and to try to eat it within two days, as after that it gets unbearably strong. Well, we took this back to the apartment for a try and, cheese lovers that we are, we actually did not find the Ã‰poisses to be too bad. The only cheese that’s been too stinky for me so far has been a Mexican cheese my mom’s friend got us in Arizona. We all agreed that the Ã‰poisses was fine, but as far as strong cheeses go, we prefer ones like la Tentation (see next). La Tentation de Saint-FÃ©licien This was the first cheese we bought at the fromagerie near the MarchÃ© Aligre, and it ended up being my cousin’s favorite and almost mine too (I’ll get to what beat it out for me in a bit :). It’s a double cream but tastes like it ought to be more, since the consistency is quite liquidy and gooey. It’s made from raw whole cow’s milk and has a soft rind. My favorite part about it is that there is a bit of blue mold throughout the rind, so you get this strong blue-cheese-like flavor but with a soft core. Pretty wonderful. PÃ©rail de Brebis This was my favorite of the trip. I became quite enamored with sheep’s milk cheeses during our two weeks in France. I usually overlook sheep’s milk cheeses — I guess they kind of get lost between cow and goat. But the nice thing about sheep being in between is that it’s got a touch of that gamey flavor that goat does, but is more subtle and subdued. The PÃ©rail is a semi-soft cheese, like Camembert, with a nice, smooth texture. What I love about it is that it is mild but with a very fresh and fragrant flavor. You can read more about it here. I also brought some of this home with me and was sure glad I did. I’ll definitely be on the hunt for some PÃ©rail here in DC.

Cheeses we brought back.

For more posts on France, see…
Eating in Paris
Not Eating in Paris
The Bastille Quarter
Bistrot Paul Bert
Markets (Paris)
Aix-en-Provence
Markets (Provence)
(La Vraie) Bouillabaisse in Marseille
ProvenÃ§al Specialties in Nice

The Taste of Fat

by julie on June 5, 2012, 2 comments

Here’s a little break today from all the travel posts:

I recently wrote a piece on the increasing scientific evidence for fat as a basic taste (yup, just like umami). While still not definitive, many taste scientists are becoming more and more convinced that our tongues can actually taste fat. Not only that, but there are a host of other tastes that we may have receptors for and that scientists are studying — things like calcium, carbonation, water, starch, and metallicity. The piece appears in today’s Health & Science section of The Washington Post, and you can read it here.

I talked to so many fascinating people and learned so much while researching this piece, it was impossible to include all of it in the article. One really fun website I wanted to mention is Barb Stuckey’s Taste What You’re Missing. That’s also the title of her recently published book, which I’m in the middle of and highly recommend as a fascinating and very accessible read on the science of taste. I particularly love these fun exercises on sensory science on her site!

I also enjoyed talking with Linda Bartoshuk, who is known for her work on the genetics of taste and for coining the term “supertaster” (someone who is particularly sensitive to tastes). Bartoshuk views basic tastes as being hard-wired in our brains: we’re born liking sweet (like mother’s milk) and hating bitter (which serves an evolutionary role in turning us away from poison). Under this view, umami is not considered a basic taste because it has no evolutionary purpose, and the widespread fascination with and acceptance of umami may instead have more to do with marketing. Hm… Guess I should not be suckered into trying out umami paste then.

Lastly, before we all get our hopes up on being able to buy fat paste in a tube in the near future, I should mention that scientists believe that the taste of fat is actually, well, not pleasant. The taste receptor that’s been discovered is for free fatty acids, which don’t typically exist in pure form in foods, and when they do, they usually indicate that a food has gone rancid. For example, fatty acid is what’s responsible for the stink in stinky cheese. What we normally eat and enjoy in foods are fats known as triglycerides (composed of three fatty acids and glycerol), which we’re not yet sure can be broken down on the tongue in order to taste. We experience triglycerides typically through aroma and texture. Rick Mattes has done extensive research on the topic and explains that our taste receptor for fat (or fatty acid, specifically) may serve more as a warning system, like bitterness, for foods that have gone rancid.

Did that last part just go over your head a little bit? If so, no worries — it completely went over mine too initially. :) I’m most grateful to the many people I talked with who helped illuminate the science of taste a bit for me. It’s definitely encouraged me to delve more deeply into the topic.

If you’re interested in learning more about the science of taste, be sure to check out Jeannine Delwiche’s helpful site, Tasting Science.

Food Matchmaking: Lavender Loves Lemon

by julie on June 1, 2012, 0 comments

Happy first day of June! For this month’s matchmaking posts, we’ll be highlighting a somewhat uncommon ingredient in many people’s kitchens: lavender. As a cooking ingredient, it is most commonly encountered in the French seasoning mix herbes de Provence. The famous lavender fields of Provence go into bloom from late June through July, and hopefully you will see some blooming in your neck of the woods this summer as well.

Lavender also happens to be Becca’s favorite color and inspiration for her website and design business, Lavender’s Blue. Three years ago, when I was planning Becca’s tea party bridal shower, I wanted to incorporate her dearly loved lavender into not just the color scheme but also the menu in some way. So I decided to make lavender lemonade (I’ve forgotten the exact recipe I used, but this one is similar). I was worried that our mostly Asian guestlist would find lavender lemonade strange, but people ended up liking it so much they kept asking what it was they were drinking. The lavender is subtle, and the lemony tang adds brightness to the flowery perfume.

I must confess, I haven’t made lavender lemonade since then, but what a perfect summer drink it’d be for brunches, barbeques, afternoon tea, or just some people watching from the front porch (if I had a front porch). Incidentally, the lavender doesn’t actually color your lemonade, but if you’d like, you can add some blue and red food coloring to get a subtle, dusty purple, as I did for Becca’s shower. For a bit more excitement, try this boozy version. And beyond drinks, I can imagine lavender and lemon being a hit in cookies, creme brulee, and macarons! Try to look for culinary lavender, as other types may be heavily sprayed with pesticides.

I brought some Provencal culinary lavender back from my recent trip to France and am looking forward to some inspiration these next few weeks on how to incorporate it into my cooking and baking. You’ll be hearing from Becca the remainder of this month on her favorite color, flower, and now ingredient!

Photos from here and here.

Provence: Markets

by julie on May 31, 2012, 0 comments

It was interesting to see the difference in market fare between Paris and Provence. There were a lot more Mediterranean goods in Provence, obviously, but also some North African things, like Moroccan leather and hammam towels. We were based mostly in Aix-en-Provence during our stay, and I tried to time our excursions elsewhere to coincide with local market days.

We got some of this roast chicken and potatoes in Aix — and, I have to say, I think the potatoes were tastier than the chicken after soaking up all the drippings!

Arles sure had an incredible market for such a small town. It seemed to go on forever, and there were even live chickens and rabbits!

I had originally wanted to go to Lâ€™Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, which is known for its crazy Sunday antiques market, but due to a change of plans, we never made it. Instead, we spent a leisurely Sunday in Aix sipping coffee, which was a pretty welcome break that day.

While I’m talking about markets, I also have to give a shoutout to Monoprix, which we visited in almost every city. I like to think of it as a French Targetâ€¦ or Super Target would be more like it, since, in addition to all the clothing, pharmacy products, and household goods, thereâ€™s also a full grocery section, usually in the basement level. But the great thing is that there are Monoprix stores located right within the city. (My other love is Carrefour, which is like a humongous French Super Walmart, but these are usually located in the outskirts of the city.) We got things to supplement what we picked up at the outdoor markets and also picked up a good number of other non-food items, like pharmacy products, a few shirts for baby E, and I even found these cute little chalkboards in the stationery aisle.

I loved the different foods available in France that are usually harder to find fresh and affordable back home, like magret de canard (duck breast). We also found pre-packaged steak tartare that came with the seasoning mix as well as beef carpaccio. Ok, these were nothing fancy, but they were decent and easy. I kind of wanted to make a rabbit stew, but decided not to in the end ’cause it would’ve meant staying in much of the day.

We actually ate in most nights, which works out better when traveling with a baby, and it was nice to unwind in the evenings at the apartment. Hereâ€™s a glimpse of some of the meals we prepared in both Paris and Aix-en-Provenceâ€¦ Sometimes they were just simple meals with the fresh foods we got from the markets, and other times we did a bit more cooking.

My favorite part, though, was the daily cheese and charcuterie plate we always put together. I sure miss that!

I also made sure to sample some La FermiÃ¨re yogurt I found at Monoprix. This stuff is amazing. It’s incredibly smooth and light. I could only find the vanilla flavor, and you can actually see the specks of real (Madagascar) vanilla bean in the yogurt. So good. What’s more, it comes in these beautiful painted terracotta pots! I tucked a few in my suitcase to bring back, and one of them is now holding my pens.

We brought back all kinds of gifts and goodies to try from the various markets we visited. I used this helpful guide on things to bring back from France by (who else?) David Lebovitz. As for what you can get through U.S. customs, I followed these guidelines from the U.S. customs site itself. I actually did not realize you can bring cheese (hard and semi-soft) into the U.S.! According to the list, though, foie gras, being a poultry product, is not allowed, although I’ve read that it all really just depends on your customs agent. Not wanting to take too many chances, I only brought back a few cheeses and cans/jars of foie gras and declared them on my form. We got through without any problems (I’m not sure our agent even read my form, so don’t take my word for it).

Here’s a peek at just some of the things we brought home… others have already been given away, and others still already consumed. :) Any suggestions on what I should make with the sundried tomatoes, vanilla beans, or lavender?