Chef David's Culinary Tour: Day 5

Today was our last day in France. Tomorrow we drive to the Piedmont  region of Italy. There we hope to go truffle hunting and visit some vineyards. Today was a full day of visiting Nice -- we saw the beautiful Mediterranean beach, hiked up Castle Hill, went to the market, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Matisse Museum.

In the market I bought a huge head of purple garlic (pictured, top), which I would love to bring back to the US, if it wasn't an issue with customs. At home I grow garlic every year, and this year looks like a great crop.  My wish would be to split the French garlic and grow it in my back yard. It smells strong, so we are keeping it outside the hotel room window for now.  Maybe we'll get a chance to cook with it before we leave!

The big culinary delight today was discovered on our way into the Matisse museum. In front of the museum was a small festival going on in a park filled with old olive trees. The festival was featuring marionette acts, small plays and lots of food from street vendors. We were trying not to invade, but we could not help but smell the fresh made-to-order churros served with hot Nutella. And yes, they were as good as they sound.

Best regards,

David

Chef David's Culinary Tour: Day Four

Day 4 in paradise, and we decided to visit Antibes. By the time we got there, it was around noon.  There is a huge market there, which is bound to make anyone hungry. Our plan to visit the Picasso Museum was delayed in lieu of lunch. We have been eating in a lot of restaurants lately, so Lauren and I thought it best to eat various foods in the market. We bought fresh raspberries, a wheat baguette, farmers cheese, walnut salami, and two types of tapenades,  one with sun-dried tomatoes and bell peppers, the other with green olives and chili peppers. 

After collecting what we thought was enough food, we discovered a street vendor cooking Socca in a wood-fired brick oven on wheels. Socca is a savory chickpea flour flatbread, they cook in a deep dish pizza pan for a minute or so. You could taste the charred flavor from the brick oven making it a great treat with the farmers cheese we bought.

 

 We visited the Picasso Museum after perusing more of the markets that were selling antiques, clothes and cutlery. I was impressed with Picasso's artwork.  If you need some unique food paintings to hang in your kitchen or dining room, check out some of his work -- amazing!

Chef David's Culinary Tour: Day One

Our own Chef David and his wife have embarked on a dream culinary tour of France and Italy and David has promised a daily update of his travels and adventures in words and pictures.  And so, our first missive from David....

We arrived in Vence, France at around noon. Relying on printed directions from googlemaps, we managed to find our way to the hotel, conquering 8 rotaries in a little Citroen.

I must say, the highlight of our day was having two scoops of "glace," from a street cart. The obviously homemade ice cream was super creamy with "parfumes," like Nutella, Caramel, and Violets, yum!

After sleeping off some jet lag, we had a pleasant dinner at Restaurant Les Agapes. There, we had the "Plate Discoverie," which was a tasting of Vietnamese Smoked Duck Summer Rolls, Grilled Mackerel served on a "pirinaca," which is a sauteed mixture of peppers, onions, shallots, olive oil, vinegar and sherry. And Creme Brulee for dessert.

A perk about this part of the world, is that everything seems cooked perfectly and all of the products are as fresh as can be. The highlight of the meal was the chickpea fries that came with the mackerel, they looked just like french fries, but taste like a falafel fry, minus the cumin.