France 2025 – post 4

Food glorious food! We had several more meals that were memorable. Let’s start with another food tour this time in Strasbourg!

Our meeting spot was a bronze display of the historic city center in a nearby park.

Our guide shared details using the bronze map giving us an idea of our walking path and the stops we were going to make. The cathedral can easily be seen below.

Before our first ‘official’ eating spot, we had to make a slight detour and pick-up. This tasty treat – kougelhopf – was being shared at the very end of the tour. But to be sure the bakery still had some available, an order was placed earlier for us to pick up. They have a unique shape (and baking instrument), somewhat similar to a bundt pan. You can see part of one behind the sign below.

Our first stop was the Meteor Brewery – an independent, family-run brewery since 1640.

The beer was easy drinking and served with local sausages, meats and cheese.

Next up – a bit of cheese.

Yes, one of those were a local Munster cheese.

Time for a sit-down break at the next stop at Le Gruber. Most of their patrons were sitting outside, yes, the weather was that nice. We went inside since our group was larger.

Choices were meat or vegetarian. We got one of each to share. 🙂

The last stop on our food tour was a ‘dessert’ tarte flambe.

Remember that first stop we made to pick up the ‘kougelhopf’? Yeah, we were too full and we each were given a mini kougelhopf to eat at our leisure. Thank goodness.

We had walked past this restaurant a number of times as we traversed the area. One day we stopped for lunch – delicious! Another fine choice for eating.

Two rooms and an outside terrace (of course, that’s where we sat) gave this restaurant a capacity of almost 50. It was a privileged gastronomic experience. The salmon with creme-fresh (left photo) and the duck foie gras (right photo) was a heavenly way to start the experience.

All of the main courses were well chosen:

Beef Carpaccio with pesto and Parmigano Regioano.

I chose the creamy risotto with spring vegetables (white asparagus). It was the creamiest!

Pork shank braised in beer & honey.

Steak with tiger sauce and mixed vegetables.

Delicious desserts.

Excellent eating!

While the restaurant noted above was a great lunch spot, we made reservations for one of the oldest establishments in Strausborg for our last evening of dining…….Maison Kammerzell.

Written by numerous journalists around the world as one of the 1000 places to see in your life. Located at the foot of the Strasbourg Cathedral, it symbolizes the Renaissance art of the city. The wood sculptures, murals and the 75 windows with stained glass in a cul-de-boteille fashion, exalt the virtues combining medieval nobility and ancient culture.

A quick shot before the feasting began.

The duck terrine with hazelnuts and snails in Alsatian style started our dining. Seems like every meal has foie gras or a terrine – what living.

My chicken supreme marinated with lemon and ginger (and don’t forget the frites) was some of the best chicken I’ve eaten.

Pan-fried sea bass fillet with saffron rice and veggies.

Veal kidneys and mushrooms, pasta and more mixed veggies.

The last meal selection was Pike perch fillet, ‘Matelote’ style, a Riesling sauce, tagliatelle and crispy bacon – of course it needed the bacon. 🙂

Desserts were no less fabulous: chocolate & banana tart (left) ice cream & sorbet (right).

Pistachio biscuit, w/ yogurt mouse and yogurt sorbet.

We would definitely eat at this restaurant if we ever make it back to the city – yes, it is that good. Then right around the corner……………..

One last post for Strasbourg and then headed to Paris.

France 2025 – post 2

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.

Ginny

Rome Eats – second post

We needed a lunch before the start of our Vatican tour. Knowing we were going to be around a high tourist spot, we tried to get a bit off of the beaten path. We found Mama Eat. It is a chain found in Italy in several of the bigger cities. No matter, it got high ratings and it was within walking distance of our meeting place for the tour.

Luckily, we don’t have any food allergies, but they advertise ‘two kitchens, two ovens, two chefs and two brigades’ for the separation of their dishes. Nice.

One guess who ordered the soda? That would be me.

I felt like another pizza – why not? Just your basic (?!? ha!) thin Roman pizza crust, tasty tomato sauce and buffalo mozzarella cheese. Waaaaay to big but gave me a chance to eat only the tastiest morsels.

Adrienne’s choice for lunch was a pasta dish with eggplant and creamy tomato sauce.

Eric also choose pasta – that’s all I’ve got. We’ve had so many (great) meals by this point, we don’t remember the specifics. It looks good though. 🙂

It was a nice lunch in a high tourist spot.

Our last meal in Rome was excellent. It was recommended by our AirBNB host and although we did’t have a reservation, we were there right when it opened at 7pm and was given a table.

I will say that researching a bit on the internet before completing this post, it seemed like we were one of the lucky ones. A number of reviews were unhappy with the service (we were not), unhappy with their food (we were not) and treated rudely (we were not).

Our meal started with wine – white for me and red for the other two.

While this was very simple, it was excellent. Bread soaked in (their) olive oil – absolutely delicious.

We ordered two starters, but our waitress said we needed to try the stuffed squash flowers. They don’t look like much but were tasty.

Next up was the Parma Ham – 36 months and buffalo mozzarella. Man! That ham is fantastic.

Along with a steamed Roman-style artichoke. It was tasty but different than the first one eaten on day one in Rome.

Adrienne’s selection was lamb – 3 ways (lamb chop, lamb loin and lamb brain). She really enjoyed all three.

They had a special with chicken (de-boned) and peppers – which was my choice.

Eric had been wanting and waiting for his selection for years – Tripe, Roman style.

And since we didn’t have enough food yet…………we got two desserts to share.

I literally could not eat another bite. Once we got back to our place, I stayed up several hours later then my norm just to let my food digest. It was a great meal – but way too much food.