Restaurants and cafés remain closed in France, but there are still some great take-out options. However, Jan and I haven’t been indulging too frequently lately, in part because our favourite source (O Moulin, in Carsac) has been closed. However, we are getting back into the swing of things.
In recent weeks, for instance, we’ve taken out pizzas from La Cantine, the restaurant next door to the Office of the Mayor in Daglan. Not exactly fine-dining, but still good. (Jan buys gluten-free pizza dough at the supermarket, and the staff at La Cantine use that as the base for her pizza.)
Then on Sunday, we thought we should give Le Petit Paris (a short walk from our home) another try. The take-out menu for that day seemed attractive enough, and so we ordered lunch for the two of us.
The entrée was a bouchée à la reine (“a queen’s morsel”), and a generous “morsel” it was. The filling was served to us separately, so it could be re-heated in our oven, and then poured into the crispy, light, flaky pastry shell, without making the pastry soggy. The filling was traditional — pieces of chicken and bits of button mushrooms (champignons de Paris) in a creamy sauce. (Chef had cleverly given Jan a hollowed-out baked potato as her “shell,” since she is allergic to gluten.) I thought the dish was delicious — and here’s my serving:
The main course was at least as good, featuring a well-balanced combination of dishes — baked cod with a light tomato sauce; white rice; and a roasted red pepper. Here’s my serving:
For dessert I had the baba au rhum, stuffed to over-flowing with whipped cream. The baba was about as rum-soaked as you can get, and of course I loved it. For her gluten-free dessert, Jan was served an incredibly thick and rich chocolate mousse (so rich that she couldn’t finish it, so I had the second half as my dessert with Monday’s lunch). Here’s my baba:
This coming weekend, we plan to order the Saturday lunch from Le Petit Paris — featuring lamb sweetbreads, in a sauce made from Monbazillac, the sweet white wine from the Bergerac region, about an hour west of Daglan. A report will follow.
Radio Free Daglan 