Ellen and I joined French friends for Christmas dinner in
L’Isle sur la Sorgue. Daniel had found the restaurant, made the reservations
and invited us to join them. We loved the idea and jumped at the chance – one
of the best decisions in years.
Daniel lives in Auch but chose to visit L’Isle sur la Sorgue
for the holidays. It is a town about 50 km from here and a town that we know
well having spent two weeks there several years ago. The town is an antique
hunter’s paradise but as we discovered, it is also a gourmet’s paradise.
We ate at a restaurant called Le Vivier – a word which means
fish tank/fish pond. The restaurant is located along side the Sorgue River
The restaurant had put together a special lunch-time meal as
its Repas de Noël (Christmas meal).
The meal started with canapés and amuse-bouche
(mouth pleasers) including a light mousse of cream and fish served with a piece
of crisp bacon, oyster paté served on an oyster shell and a lobster roll.
The Entrée (first
course) was “Maki de Saint Jacques,
cressionnière à l’ail noir, emulsion au lard rance.” – I’ll never get the
word-for-word translation for this item. Suffice it to say that it was a lovely,
thinly-chopped scallop wrapped in basil (or spinach) topped with a watercress
and garlic sauce. The sauce was a bright green and looked lovely served in a
white bowl.
There were two plats
(plates) for the main course. The first was: Turbot rôti, citron confit de Menton, gnocchis de potimarron et blinis. Roasted white fish (turbot)
served with a crispy slice of preserved lemon (from Menton, Fr.), gnocchis made
from pumpkin and little pancakes.
(Daniel chose a Jurançon sec for the above courses.
Wonderful pairing. We had a burgundy – Auxey Duresses – to go with the second part of the main course. Another wonderful pairing!)
The second plat was: Dos de cerf aux poivres, velouté de topinambour à l’huile de noisette,
copeaux de châtaigne et pomme de terre en transparance. Venison
rubbed with coarsely ground pepper served on a sauce made from Jerusalem
artichoke and hazelnut oil with pieces of roasted chestnuts; potatoes sliced so
thinly that they looked transparent after cooking.
The cheese course was warm St. Marcellin cheese
(creamy, soft cow’s milk cheese) with a slice of truffle in it. Saint Marcellin truffé, servi tiède.
Dessert was: Boule de
Noël aux litchis & pommes (a Christmas ball that contained an apple/litchi
ice cream). –and the Christmas ball was a sugar confection, i.e., edible!
Merry Christmas
Joyeux Noël
Et bon appétit!
