moet et foie gras

Posted on | July 2, 2010 | No Comments

yesterday we spent the afternoon in the caves beneath moet et chandon.
gracious….28 KILOMETRES of dimly lit subterranean tunnels with cellars branching off on every side, simply crammed full of millions of bottles of moet.
it was THRILLING.
and it was very nice and cool down there after the 36 Celsius afternoon we were wandering about in up top.
did you know that someone somewhere in the world opens a bottle of moet every two seconds?
and every drop of it originates from those 28 km of cellars.
it is mind-boggling.

at the conclusion of the tour, we sampled a glass of the 2003 vintage rose and the 2003 vintage regular.
wow, the white was incredible and totally worth the extra euros.
we decided we hadn’t come all this way to drink ordinary old moet we could get at the bottle shop in malanda for heavensakes.
in 2003 they had a ragingly hot summer and the harvest was ordered to start in late august which is madly early.
it has resulted in a delicious champagne, that’s for sure.
i wasn’t quite as enthralled with the pink, but i wasn’t exactly dashing my glass to the ground in a disgusted pique either. it was fabulous.

we bought a bottle of dom perignon and a dom perignon apron to go.
the dom perignon is already chilling in the fridge and will go down nicely on one or other of these long hot evenings.
and i can prance around making soap in my dom apron in august.

after all that excitement we went home for a couple of hours to read and relax, then we set out again to les grillades gourmand, where maurice had taken the precaution of booking us in the day before……very good planning, because we saw disappointed diners being turned away with our own eyes.
we sat out on the terrace and ate our way through three courses of beautifully cooked and presented french food, washed down with plenty of champagne by the glass.
i had grilled sea bass with asparagus and maurice had quail with foie gras and rocket.
he cut off a slice of the foie gras for me and i can see why people love it so much.
the stuff is simply divine, but i cannot get past the cruelty involved in procuring it….so i won’t be having it again.
not to mention the coating of the arteries that you can actually feel happening in real time.
i had a crisp apple tart with the best french vanilla icecream ever, and a big belt of fraise des bois….and maurice had a perfectly poached pear with cinnamon icecream and a big snifter of gorgeously marmalade-y mandarine napolean, which you cannot seem to get any more at home for love nor money….le sigh.
all was excellent, but i do prefer my own pear recipe which involves a bay leaf.

we met the chef-patron, christophe, who graciously comes out and greets all the diners table by table, and then waves the happy and replete ones off at the end.
he has worked with bocuse and ducasse and i have no doubts he could snatch a michelin star of his own.
however, that would require driving up his prices and altering the vibe of his restaurant and truly….it is perfect just as it is, in my opinion.
les grillades gourmand in epernay: recommended!

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