Strausbourg Dining:
Our first night of dining was absolutely amazing. Rich found a tapas bar that specialized in regional food and this was one of the top rated: Restaurant les Chauvins. They welcome you in a modern and warm setting in preparation for discovery of the flavors of Alsace. Their mission is for their diners to rediscover the authentic taste of fresh quality products, including organic farming and the know-how of local producers. The owners make it a point of honor to work with fresh products grown on Alsatian terroir.
Days into our trip and we were still talking about some of the food from that night. The first thing to arrive was ‘tarte flammbee traditionnelle’, a lovely thin-crusted item with a special cheese base, thinly-sliced onions and bacon pieces. Truly, it is the only thing I remember from our trip in 2005.
Next three items to arrive were: foie gras de canard (duck), aslacian pork and mini-burgers.
We still wanted more food: white asparagus, rolled meat & herbs rolled in egg pasta and hot dog aslacian.
This item was liked the least: escargot in mushroom cap.
Desserts? But of course. Eric ordered ice cream……..raspberry and citrus flavors, with sparkling white aslacian wine poured into the glass. It was pretty good.
However……………..this is the dessert we talked about the remainder of our time in France: Kougelhopf pain perdu with ice cream and a v.e.r.y tasty sauce. Most similar to French Toast – only better.
The kougelhopf was a local specialty of the Alsace region. It is a yeast brioche cake with raisins and almonds although googling recipes found a multitude of fruit and/or nuts that could also be added. I am going to make this at home! Don’t think I’ve mentioned yet, but at the point this photo was taken, I had been up 32+ hours. Yikes – I’m too old for this.
Walking through the historic area, one gets hungry. Lunch was at Au Petit Bois Vert, outside on the terrace around the foot of the oldest tree in Strasbourg.
While not a tapas place, we continued to share and taste each other’s selections. Never going to be a bad meal when sitting next to water – just saying.
No surprise, I got another tarte flambe with plenty to share.
All shared the homemade duck foie gras and the assorted venison meat & cheese platter.
Eric chose the traditional choucroute garnie (sausages, pork and sauerkraut).
While Rich and Hunter had the ‘wild game (boar) from Alsace. The presentation wasn’t exactly what they were expecting, but enjoyed their selection.
The guys all got dessert with Eric choosing raspberry glace (ice cream) and cafe gourmand for the other two.
So far so good our first few days in Strasbourg. Next up, Strasbourg Cathedral.
Darden Travels 