Day five Provence...

Another bready, croissanty and jammy breakfast on the terrace and a late start on the road. Today being Sunday meant that the bakery is closed tomorrow so we had to select enough bread for two days and try to pick which of the many loaves would last the longest. None of the bread contains any preservative so it only lasts about half a day and the croissants seem to begin going stale as soon as they leave the shop.

Sunflowers on the roadside.

Once in the car we turned for Coustellet to see their market. Unlike many of the other towns this particular market arranges all the produce trestles in the one area with the tat and other non-food related things in their own area. This made it a lot easier to see what we have come all this way for. Coustellet is renowned for its gourds and pumpkins which were proudly on display.

Gourds on display.

We selected (as usual) a variety of tomatoes including, this time, the green and yellow tiger-striped variety. We also found a tray of golden fleshed peaches, warmed by the sun, potatoes, dark and shining eggplants and some golden ripe cape gooseberries in their crisp husky skins.

The tomato dance.

Lots of peaches.

Cape gooseberries.

We loaded up the car and headed for Bonnieux where we had a booking for Le Fournil, a little restaurant situated below the hilltop church in the formerly fortified town. We parked at the bottom of the hill and walked up the steep lanes to find the terrace where we would be eating.

Le Fournil

The outdoors setting was comprised of bent steel tables and chairs and uneven cobble stones in the shade of two large plane trees. The building itself cut back into a cliff with a brick facade.

We made our decisions on the menu and the food quickly arrived. Elysia started with a pressed terrine of pork with some pickled courgette and Iain with confit cherry tomatoes with crisp greens and goats cheese (he thought he might enjoy some tomatoes for a change). The cheese had large soft pine nut kernels folded through - a great combination. The terrine was scented with orange and made up of meat from the pigs head including the rich and dark coloured cheeks all beautifully soft and bound with their own jelly.

Confit tomatoes.

Pork terrine.

Mains were the fish du jour and lapin. The fish was pan-roasted hake with a melange of green beans, squash courgette and various coloured capsicums. The hake was crispy-skinned and cooked perfectly. The rabbit was served with a coarse eggplant puree and a reduced rabbit sauce. The serving included both the front legs of the animal roasted until tender but not dry.

Hake with beans.

The rabbit with a shard of crisp fried eggplant skin.

Desserts were a creme de chocolate with a chocolate ganache and whipped cream... impossibly rich but very very good. We also ordered a pistachio parfait with fresh raspberry coulis, the coulis, unsweetened, was a fantastic accompaniment to the soft and rich parfait.

Chocolate cream.

Pistachio parfait with raspberry coulis.

We accompanied the meal with a bottle of the local rose from the Louberon Appellation, packed with fruit and well balanced acid.

Le Fournil was quite different to the other restaurant and cafe experiences we have had to date in France. They placed an emphasis on the presentation of the food. None of the garnishes were repeated from dish to dish and the flavours were excellent and true to the season.

After lunch we tackled more of the hill to reach the church perched on the top and made our way back down around a steep cobbled land to the sweltering car and took off to Menerbes another hilltop town just down the road. After climbing to the top we found another wine tasting hub located in the vault of the old chateau. The cellar master was very helpful and spoke a little English helping us to select half a dozen bottles including a bone dry muscat - quite unusual!

Lots of rose at Menerbes.

Back at La Louche and after a couple of Camparis we started with dinner. Tomatoes, a peach and watercress salad, ham, bread and cheese. The day's special green and yellow striped tomatoes being the highlight.

Day four Provence... ancient Rome... Iain's tomato obsession

Day four began in the usual way with the sun rising over the mountains and shining in the open windows of our top floor bedroom.

It was then time to endure the 40 or so metre walk up the stepped lane to the bakery for croissants and bread for the day and then into the car early for a long day of travel to Le Pont du Guard, a 2000 year old Roman aqueduct that spans a deep gorge with a river running underneath. The Romans' idea was to divert water from a spring on one side of the ravine to the city of Nimes on the other. They spent 14 years about the time of Christ building a massive arched bridge with a carved stone channel running across the top about 40 metres up from the river below... a mind blowing achievement and it's still standing today! There used to be 12 more spans off to the right (in this picture) but people used the stones for other things in the middle ages.

You can see from the intensity of the sun it was going to be a hot day!

We then took off to the town of Arles, famous for the local plump grained rice, large black fighting bulls and the place where Vincent Van Gogh first went crazy and severed part of his own ear. The town has a huge market that displays fruit, vegetables and the local crafts spreading down a wide vista and up the laneways into the town.

As it was market day we had trouble parking and had a long walk into the city. On this walk we stumbled across a mock bullfight with some of the young Arles men taunting a young black bull with large steel balls taped to the tips of its long curved horns. There was quite a crowd gathered and a raucous brass band. We didn't stay long, by Australian standards it seemed a little cruel. They don't kill bulls in France, but leave that to the Spanish just south of where we were.

The bull fight...

The amphitheatre at Arles.

Arles itself centers around an ancient amphitheatre that stands majestically next to the catholic cathedral. We sat just metres away from the theatre listening to booming operatic dress rehearsals of Carmen (more bullfighting) and had lunch at La Brasserie 2G. We both started with a tomato and jamon bruscetta type creation with toasted wholemeal bread with garlic and a ripe tomato smeared over it and generous room temperature jamon knotted over the top. The chef had scattered the plate liberally with pink peppercorns, lovely and pungent.

Second course Elysia had a large steak barbecued until it was warm but raw in the middle and a dollop of stewed capsicums. Iain ordered tuna that arrived glassy pink in the center with the same capsicums and a dome of the local rice. Both dishes were scattered with the obligatory pink peppercorns... way too much. Iain uses very little pepper in his cooking so it was a bit of a shock to the system. Although tolerable with the jamon, tuna is a little more delicate.

Tuna was nice, the rice very nice with large earthy grains. Beef a little too raw for us and the capscum compote was bitter on both.

Dessert was a rum baba (thankfully no peppercorns) with a caramalised rum syrup. The baba itself like a large canele (the little French cake very crisp on the outside and cloud light and soft in the centre) very light in the centre and softened with syrup, quite nice! The service was very slow, it was nearly 2 hours for three courses.

Jamon with tomatoes and garlic.

Tuna, rice and peppercorns.

Beef with pepper corns and capsicums.

The rum baba...

We wandered around the ancient theatre past a temporary stable housing large gleaming white horses for the town's horse festival (we think part of the opera) and through a beautiful lush green park back to the car.

Action had hotted-up at the arena with the bulls. A slightly larger man and bull were facing off. The bull without any protective steel caps managed to knock the (rather clumsy) man over as we hurried past hoping not to see anything distasteful.

We turned for home and stopped in at Saint Mark, the local co-op for small wine makers of the Cote du Ventoux Appellation and picked up a couple of bottles of the local rose and muscat to wash down the remainder of yesterday's things from the market.

Today's main lesson being that the GPS portable navigation system owned by Iain's parents is the best! Our advice is don't even attempt to drive in France without one, although you may end up on impossibly narrow roads, you still have confidence that you will end up where you want to.

Dinner tonight was again on the terrace and involved tomatoes. All the different kinds from the day before. The beef hearts are the standout with virtually no seeds or excess water, just flesh and sweetness! We also cut a ripe canteloup, cheeses, bread, good ham, grapes and rose from Caromb.

The beef heart tomatoes about the size of a very large grapefriut!

The little tomatoes before the goats cheese and oil went on.

More tomatoes tomorrow!

Day three Provence.

Day three began with toast and raspberry jam on the terrace with the sun rising over Mont Ventoux and a fairly lazy morning with the highlight being a tiny street sweeper truck driving up the narrow laneway below the house. About 9:00 we headed off back to Carpentras to the weekly market.

Carpentras was totally different to the day before. Thousands of people and hundreds of stalls lined every street and lane. Everything from clothes, jewellery, meat, fish, vegetables, leather, fabric... you name it. The selection of foodstuffs were a little bit uninspiring, just the usual eggplant, leeks and bananas.

We stumbled across a little shop called Les Marches de Provence and they had EVERYTHING! Stone fruit, berries, apples, different beans, figs, lettuces, melons and tomatoes... tomatoes and more tomatoes, green, yellow, red, black, pink all shapes and sizes. We bought heaps!

Selecting the tomatoes in the market.

Chanterelles and ceps.

Some of the things we brought back!

The cathedral at Carpentras.

Strange green cauliflower..

We also picked up a lamb shoulder some ham and cheese with the intention of cooking dinner!

Back to La Louche for baguettes with lots of ham and butter and a cos and watercress salad with red and white peaches, aged compte cheese and greenish yellow cherry tomatoes.

It was after lunch that we learned that our bags had arrived at the Caromb post office from Paris! We walked around there and were happy to see that the same lady we had spoken to the day before was there and recognised us so we didn't have to try and explain in "French" what we had come for. We raced home and changed our clothes... Fantastique!

A very lazy hot afternoon found us on the terrace with gins and tonic until it was time for Champagne that we had bought at the supermarket the day before, a blanc de blancs. It was one we hadn't heard of but very very nice - hazelnuts and honey!

Dinner time rolled around so we had our first try at La Louche's very well stocked and thought out kitchen. We made a start on the tomato salad with fresh goats cheese - so light it was almost like a mousse! Iain's main reason for coming to Provence in late summer was the tomatoes!

In the kitchen at La Louche.

We had golden ones, pink ones, green and red striped ones, white ones, yellow ones, beef hearts, black Russians, yellow pear shaped ones and red pear shaped ones! Fresh basil, fresh goats cheese, salt, pepper and beautiful local olive oil!

The tomatoes were followed by the lamb shoulder which we had sealed in the Le Creuset pot and placed into a low oven when we got home at lunch time with some shallots, garlic, tiny potatoes and herbs from the garden, along with tiny green beans and the strange green cauliflower and lots of butter.

...and cave-aged Roquefort with fresh black figs (back inside due to darkness) to finish!

Day two Provence.

The Terrace at le Clos de Patre where we enjoyed our dinner on a perfect evening.

The coquiles St Jacques with market vegetable burger at le Clos du Patre.

Jambon baguette at Bedoin with a cyclist returning from Monte Ventoux

Caromb from down the road standing in a vineyard.

Driving our car down a lane that has traffic going both ways but is only wide enough for one way.

Day two started pretty early for Iain, after a relatively early night woke up quite early when it was still dark and went off for an explore around Caromb, walking up and down all the little lanes and streets and into the town centre.

We then made the short 50 metre walk up the steps to the bakery for croissants and baguette for breakfast, which we ate on the terrace with the first rays of sun shining over the wall. After breakfast we made for the post office to try and organise an address where our bags could be sent. They were very helpful so we made the call to arrange it with the airline.

It was then off to the car and to Carpentras for a look around at the shops and the beautiful old buildings including a 1300 year old Roman archway. It was here that we saw our first French supermarket! cheeses behind glass that stretched for 15 metres then pate and jambon, then meat and poultry then fish! Mackerel, tuna, octopus you name it! We then turned our backs on all that and aimed for the alcohol section with Champagne, brandy, wine, beer you name it! We picked up a Poire Willlam and a champagne we had never heard of for about 40euros! Leaving with only some basics saving space for markets tomorrow.

Then to another little town (Bedoine) for a ham baguette and a beer at the foot of the Monte Vontoux. There were cyclists everywhere, we guessed it was where you parked to ride up the famous mountain.

We had made a booking for le Clos de Parte, the best restaurant in the village, earlier in the day and made the short walk for 7 o'clock and were able to sit out on the terrace under nothing but the sky and choose the special menu for a choice of 3 dishes plus an amuse bouche, glace and truffled goats cheese.

The Amuse was a coarsely chopped, oily tomato tartare floating on top of an almond cream.

Elysia began with the house made foie gras terrine which came out with a little duck prosciutto and the (we didn't know this yet) same garnish as every other dish, dressed oak lettuce, a beautiful little radish and a quartered cherry tomato. Iain had the Entree de Marchet a salad containing all the best of what could be found at the market including tiny fresh water crayfish, a beautifully smokey piece of salmon and tomatoes.

Second dish for Elysia was the boef roti seared eye fillet with mushroom sauce and potato gratin. Iain had roasted lamb shoulder with lots of lemon, duck breast, barley risotto and sauteed chantrelles and giroles.

Third dish was a passionfruit sorbet containing little bits of frozen chopped peach drowned in poire williams from Avignon (just up the road!). The passionfruit and alcoholically-aromatic pear spirit worked very well together!

Next up the truffled goats cheese, a fresh curd cheese with a dollop finely chopped black truffle bound with a little oil, along with the standard lettuce, radish and tomato. Very very truffly.

Dessert. We struggled to finish a chocolate brulee and an apple clafoutis. The brulee was perfectly set and the clafoutis contained apples caramelised to a point just before they became bitter. A very nice way to end the meal! In all le Clos de Parte was trying a little too hard and had lost focus on the best local ingredients that are about at the moment and tried a little too hard to tizz up the presentation on the plates, the food though was tasty and quintessentially French!

We drank a bottle of the local rose from le Domaine du Grande Jacquet 2008, fresh crisp and fruity it was perfect for a warm night on the terrace.

Our first full day in Provence was exactly as we had hoped it would be. Pretty countryside, warm weather, ancient buildings and rich food that's slightly backwards by Australian standards but where flavour is considered above presentation (presentation being low on the list of things to do).

Day one Provence.

Firstly a couple of pictures of the old floor and walls in the kitchen at Piccalilly..

There will be a contrasting shot on our return!

We arrived in Provence via the high speed TGV from Paris (without our luggage, it was still in New York). We were picked up at the station in Avignon, by 6:00 in the evening we were at La Louche in Caromb and unpacked what belongings we had in our cary-on bags, and sat down on the terrace overlooking the Mont Ventoux, in front of a huge platter of cheese, grapes, pate, foie gras, fresh figs and preserves, having not eaten for a long time it was quite welcome! We ate until we felt sick, had a shower and crawled into bed.

Quay.

We arrived in Sydney on Monday morning, checked our bags into the hotel and headed straight to the Sydney Exhibition Centre where the Sydney Fine Foods Exhibition had just opened. We spent a few hours wandering around, however the exhibitors are geared towards the bulk food service and convenience products markets so on the food side of things there wasn't all that much for us - a couple of cheeses and olive oils but that was about it. We then went and checked out all the wiz-bang new kitchen equipment and glass-ware. And back to the hotel.

Our hotel was located in the city within walking distance to Circular Quay so we walked down and ordered a Hendricks martini in a little bar where there were lots of trendy types enjoying after work drinks as well as tourists and joggers enjoying the boardwalk. No sooner had we got inside, the heavens opened scattering the tourists. Within a moment, the boardwalk around the quay was an inch deep with water. It was raining so heavily the water had no time to drain away. We sat and looked out at the opera house with lightning streaking across the sky just above the skyline of the buildings. As quickly as it started it stopped and (Sydney being designed to receive a lot of rain all at once) the water drained away very quickly - perfectly timed with the end of our drinks!

We arrived at Quay at 6:30 and were shown to our table right in the window on the furthest point out along the pier, right over the water. An influential Sydney friend of ours had organised a glass of Bollinger for us on arrival. We had a quick look through the menu, which is based on an interesting idea, similar to Piccalilly with the small dish concept geared towards 4 dishes per person. The menu folds out into four separate pages and you select one dish from each of the pages, three savoury and one sweet.

We opted for the degustation with matching wines... why not make the most of it?

The first dish arrived at the table. A little heavy-based glass containing a layer of horseradish creme fraiche in the bottom, with smoked eel tapioca, Toro tuna belly and a tiny violet sitting on top. It was all soft and beautifully flavoured. The tuna was the best we've ever eaten. They poured a Cava to go along with it, the yeasty dry palate was a great contrast to the creamy fattiness of the cream and tuna.

Second dish was chef, Peter Gilmore's famous sea pearls dish. A beautiful glass plate arrived at the table with five small spheres arranged on it, each very beautiful. The waiter explained what each was and the order in which to eat them. 12 o'clock was the same toro tuna we had eaten in the amuse bouche sliced very finely and enveloping the same horseradish creme fraiche. There was a little dollop of caviar on top. As before the tuna was perfect and with horseradish being similar to wasabi you can imagine how good it was.

At 2:30 was smoked eel brandade enrobed in tiny spheres of egg white that has been cooked by dripping it into clarified butter at exactly the right temperature to set it but not allow it to form back together. This sphere looked as though it had been rolled in tiny pellets of artificial sweetener. The brandade itself was soft and packed with eel.

The next sphere was octopus rolled in tapioca. Again the tapioca was perfectly cooked and left a lasting starchiness in the mouth.

At 7 o'clock was a gell of dashi stock containing some slices of slow-cooked baby abalone. The jelly was set so perfectly that it broke apart as we cut into it.

And, finally at 10 o'clock, raw scallop sliced finely and formed into a ball studded with tiny cress and some silver leaf. An excellent dish and everything good you hear about it is true! Presentation, flavour and creativity perfectly combined.

The third dish along with a rose was a sous vide squid with finely sliced red skinned radish in a carpaccio style fanned around the inside of a bowl. There was a roasted squid consomme poured over the top at the table and garnished with the tiniest radishes, smaller than your little fingernail.

Next up was sous vide partridge breast with Quay's chocolate and walnut black pudding and a little disk of perfectly set truffled custard. A very pretty dish as you'd expect with perfectly cooked partridge, soft and pink. The black pudding was the most interesting part of the dish it had a crunch and was scattered rather than as a chunk or disk like we were expecting. it added a richness. Beautiful!

Confit of pork belly with its skin crisped and cut into little cubes and chequer-boarded with house made tofu with asian mushrooms. The tofu was exquisite, soft and naturally sweet and paired with the mushrooms it was an earthy delight!

Lamb belly rolled and placed in the middle of a large plate with fresh peas, asparagus tips, leek hearts, spring onions and broad beans scattered around it - the essence of Spring. Along side was a fresh jersey milk curd set into a petri dish with a line of crushed nuts and grains scattered across the top. The curd added a rich creaminess to the freshness of the vegetables around the lamb.

The first of the sweet dishes arrived in a stemless balloon-shaped glass. custard apple ice cream with jackfruit granita. They had matched it with a moscato frizante. There was a tropical note to the wine that perfectly matched the over-ripe pungency of the custard apple.

Fresh and perfectly ripe raspberries were the star of the next dish - vanilla cream, raspberry sorbet, white chocolate pistachios, violets and croquantes. Presented beautifully and such a treat to get fresh berries of such good quality at this time of year.

Lastly petite fours in the form of a paper-thin chocolate tuille in the shape of a cigar filled with an orange mousse and a tiny disk of hazelnut chocolate coated in white chocolate. The tuille was amazing, it just melted in the mouth.

Chef Peter Gilmore came out to the table to say hello and ask how everything was. He had just returned from the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide awards where he had been awarded Sydney's Chef of the Year, Quay had kept it's "three hat" rating and Quay was named Restaurant of the Year. The first time ever a restaurant has won best restaurant in the Gourmet Traveler and the Good Food Guide two years in a row!

We finished with a pot of green tea and wandered back out to Circular Quay where there was no evidence of the downpour from earlier on and back to the hotel to pack our things ready for a 6:30 departure.

Overall impressions of Quay were that everything we had heard about the place and all their awards is very, very well deserved!

We're there...

Finally we are in Provence after flying from Hobart to Sydney to Los Angeles to New York to Paris (our luggage didn't make it all the way) and then a long train ride and a dinner at Quay in between.. Right now it's bed time but photos and a proper Quay story tomorrow.