Au Valet de Coeur

The day: 30th December 2008, Dinner.
The place: 40 route de Ste-Marie-aux-Mines F-68150 RIBEAUVILLE (tel: +33 (0)3 89736414)
The venue: Restaurant Au Valet de Coeur, Hostel ‘La Pepiniere’.
The food: French
The drinks: Adequate for a starred French venue, interesting wine-menu pairings at €25, 32, 40.

For the second year in a row family events prevent us from taking a proper break over the Winter holidays. But on the road back to London we allow ourselves one treat: driving along the axis Basel-Strasbourg, just past Colmar (where we stayed last year), we turn straight towards the freezing Vosges forests and, upwards on the icy road next to the charming village of Ribeauville’, we find this hotel restaurant. As we notice not infrequently in our pilgrimages to Alsace, the restaurant seems to be one step ahead of the attached hotel in terms of comfort and overall quality. With its Michelin star, and given the excellent levels of Alsatian cuisine, we are expecting a bloody good dinner! There is a religious pilgrimage route nearby in case we want to expiate our sins later (but there is also a ‘cremant’ wine maker almost in front of the route, making for a hard choice, or an intriguing combination).

The décor is warm, in light brown and white tones, pleasant, unpretentious and varied, with several areas in the large room and the (slightly corny to be fair) ‘heart’ motif all around, even in the butter on the table. The tables are very comfortable and well-spaced. The jovial Maitre d’ adds to the sense of comfort.

Several menus are on offer, from the largest 6 course tasting menu at €85, to the 4 course ‘Menu decouverte’ at €65, to the 3 course ‘Menu saveur’ at €45. And a ‘Menu du marche’ at €33.50 features on weekday evenings and Saturday lunches. A la carte choices afford less good value, with starters at €25-35 and mains at €29-38, and with some items only available in the set menus. Had we gone a la carte, we would have tried the ‘Cour de saumon mi-cuit/mi-fume, Remoulade de Celery et Caviar d’ Aquitaine, Blinis’ (€35) as a starter. For mains, we’d been happy with our set menu which you’ll see in a minute.

We go for the Menu Decouverte (€65), and we begin with a little snack of puff pastry with poppy and sesame seeds, or topped with some kind of bechamelle sauce and lardons:

Well, not your average Gregg’s offering, these are high levels of bakery.
And the bread rolls are already expecting us:

Beautiful to look at (again the corny heart motif), excellent taste, made with strong flour as we like it, and really well made. Good start, if they can make Man and Woman happy about the bread!

And an amouse bouche:

A salmon mousse, St. Jacques on a mousse of green veggies, and a chestnut mousse. The cold salmon mousse regales a surprising sweetness, and is bodily, buttery, rich and compact, satisfying. Equally pleasing is the scallop, also cold, with a peppery punch that Man appreciates more than Woman, who finds it close to overpowering. As for the chestnuts, we detect potatoes in the warm, delicate and airy combination. We must say that this beginning already reveals an assured hand, with clear flavours, variety and seasoning judgement.

Our starters:

– Raviole de Foie Gras de Canard a la Farine de Chataigne dans un Bouillon Corse’.
– Delicate gelee de Crabe Royale, Creme de Crustaces et Harenga.

The foie gras is intense, carried by the delicate bouillon with sweet fine carrots in abundance. We appreciate the good texture of the chestnut ravioli, while the truffle is more of a decoration. This is a good dish but not altogether convincing: most of the work is really done by the great foie gras, with the rest adding little and not integrating appropriately, in our judgement.
But the Gelee…the gelee is on a different level of cuisine, the technique presenting us with a sumptuous multitude of flavours (the crab is dominant –it’s a king after all- but the lobster mousse/cream and the non-salty jelly are a very valid support) and a ravishing soft-solid consistency: this is an occasion where richness (mayonnaise is present) comes with absolute balance and lightness, leaving on the palate a satisfied sense of freshness. This is haute cuisine.

Next we have:

– Maree du jour accomodee selon l’Inspiration du Chef
– Le Baeckeoffe de Homard Gratine’ aux Poireaux

The ‘fish according to the chef inspiration’ is an Atlantic seabass on risotto and a creamy lobster reduction. Fresh and cooked perfectly (‘crispissimo’ on the skin and moist inside) and sitting on a pleasant risotto ‘cake’ which also has a crispy outer layer, still the fish is slightly inexpressive on the palate. The rice is a tad over (Woman here unusually sterner than Man on risotto), but as Italians we’ll always say that in France… The lobster reduction is, conversely, fantastic, providing a backbone of pungent burnt flavour. A very sound dish where once again several cooking skills converge.
The beackaoffe is, as you know, a traditional Alsatian casserole, typically a rustic dish which here the chef offers instead in an ennobled and sophisticated version, with lobster instead of, for example, game. The result is totally convincing: the lobster is simply wonderful and cooked just so, held together by a texturally interesting eggy quiche-like filling with leeks adding vegetable depth. Another definite hit.

What delights. We arrive to the main mains:

– Dos de Cochon de lait Laque’, Boudin maison et Pomme de Terre Ecrasee a la Fourchette
– Pigeonneau en croute Feuilletee aux Choux Vert et Foie Gras

Oooh: In the eye-pleasing pork dish we encounter the first (and only) serious cooking flaw of the evening: it’s rather dry (remember: this is moist suckling pig, so it takes a real error to dry it up). A pity, because the rest is perfect, its flavour, its elegant ‘laque’ exterior, the exemplary reduction. And the potato and boudin ‘cake’ is to scream for, rich and velvety and decadent, a punch of strong traditional cuisine flavours classily reinterpreted.
And talking about potent flavours… the foie gras stuffing in the pigeon, which you reach after going through a pretty and texture-wise very apt ‘puff pastry’ enveloping the juicy, tender bird, is an explosion (notice the similarity of this dish with what we had here) that calls for even more screams of contentment. All accompanied by an excellent Savoy cabbage. What a movingly good dish!

And we have come to the desserts:

– Baba au vieux Rhum, Crème legere et Minestrone de Fruits Exotiques
– Carre’ Chocolat Grand Cru, Glace vanille’

For the baba’ we have a conceptual disagreement with the Chef…We appreciate the humour of the deconstruction, serving the (excellent) rhum and (equally excellent) vanilla mousse separated: but for us the pleasure of baba’ has always been and always will remain that of the rhum enveloping your palate at the first, soft bite. So we’d say this is a deconstruction too far. This aside, there’s also a problem with the baba’ itself which, while good in flavour, is inelastic and (of course) dry and heavy. The ‘minestrone’ is, however most tasty and welcome.
No such problems with the other dessert: accompanied by a fine vanilla icecream, stunning chocolate and masterful technique combine to create a ravishing, marvellously beautiful cake: you go through the several layers (the chocolate ‘ganache’ covering, the chocolate mousse, some thin praline layer, the jelly/chocolate cream, the white chocolate) and…you dream.

To conclude, the petit four:

They are all very pleasant, the almond madeleine, the hazelnut praline – especially fine is the jammy density of the apricot jelly, and we also like very much the sort of chocolate brownie, which is lighter than a brownie.

(We prefer to forget this…

…just look at it! And that heart shape again, this is begining to be a little obsessive)

We said we went for the Menu Decouverte. In fact, to be precise, we went for a ‘Formule carte blanche’ (€250) which included a night in a large room for two, the Discovery menu for two, and the €25 wine paring plus water – so let’s say our dinner for two all inclusive cost €180, well deserved for the quality and quantity we experienced (the wines we tried were a Muscat d’Alsace, a Riesling 2006, a Vouvray 2006 and a Haut Medoc 1998, all nice, especially the Medoc – Chateaux Hantellan).

The service was smooth, correct, less rigid and more human than can be the case in French venues.
As you have seen we enjoyed a great dinner. Chef Christophe Cavelier is not God and does make the occasional mistake (and we even had our ‘conceptual’ problems!) but the variety of perfectly executed and conceived dishes he put in front of us, with very strong, powerful but at the same time balanced and clear flavours, always classically and elegantly presented, must make this one of the best examples of cuisine in Alsace. Not an innovative cuisine, one deeply rooted in tradition but also in a profound technique and cooking mastery, thanks to which heartiness is married to modern criteria of lightness. The menu itself was also nicely designed. And after you are satiated, the choice is yours: a religious pilgrimage, a peaceful walk in the steep woods, or a visit to the sparkling wine maker. Whatever you prefer, we recommend that you go to the Valet du Coeur!

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Au Moulin de la Wantzenau

The day: 22^nd December 2008, Dinner.
The place: La Wantzenau (Strasbourg)
The venue: Au Moulin de La Wantzenau
Closest airports: Strasbourg
The food: French
The drinks: Not too long, mostly Alsace and Burgundy, on the pricey side

Yet another stop in Alsace. After our other experiences (here, here, here, and here) we are beginning to think that Alsatians restaurateurs can do no wrong, that this is a blessed culinary land where no disappointment is possible or even conceivable. Let’s try this new (for us) venue, charmingly located (together with a hotel) on the premises of an old mill (the original dating back to the 17^th century).

The room is attractive, in its dominant wooden and red tones, very warm,

the mise en place showing the little touches of somebody who cares, like the dried fruit decorations on the table:

You wouldn’t expect it from the tepid welcome of the manager, who looks like a real @!&#! (Man wanted to write ‘asshole’, but fortunately Woman prevented him). What is a host doing there if he can’t even bring himself to greet the (smiling) guest? Go to sleep then! Providentially, there is also the sweet and smiling maman to put us at ease.

The a la carte menu is rather heftily priced, with entrees and mains in the twenties and thirties. Luckily, there’s plenty of set menus, ranging from €25 for the menu marché to the €65 for the full tasting menu.

We opt for:

– Menu gourmet (four courses at €48)

– Menu saveur et santé (flavours and health, sound interesting!), three courses at €34.

Our bread appears:

It looks wonderful, but the taste, while not poor, does not quite match the expectations. The crust is not as crispy as it could be.

Oh, a nice looking amuse bouche is placed on our table – pity that the @!&#! waiter only describes one item and then, maybe bored, leaves.

It comes in the guise of a mussel mousse with some caviar, a warm carrot cream/soup, bread with a sort of sausage inside, and a mushroom flavoured cheese cream. Very good, if a little elaborate, Man thinks: both agree on the great variety, really ‘amusing’ in the sweet-salty contrasts, in the temperatures, in the textures (liquid-mousse-cream-chunk).

The entrees for both menus arrive:

– Foie gras (from the gourmet menu)

– Vegetables sautéed (from the healthy menu)

The foie gras is excellent, resting on a bed of delicate stock jelly and accompanied by a warm brioche. But those little tomato cubes, tasting like potatoes: what an absurdity in December.

The simply boiled root vegetables appear a little extreme in their blandness even for a health menu. On the other hand, the pied de mouton mushrooms yield some pleasure and are well presented in a crispy crepe, with a whiff of pepper and rosemary all round (the rosemary branch is pretty but uncomfortable, thinks Woman, who has done the donkey work of clearing the spikes away by the time uncomplaining Man gets to it…). But, once again, that terrible mushy tomato!

And now the second entrée of the gourmet menu:

– Dublin Bay Prawns, seabass and chanterelles.

The prawns are fine on the palate but their extreme, excessive softness makes one suspect that something untoward has happened in Dublin Bay… Again, the seabass rewards the palate, being fresh and well-seasoned, but for us it is overcooked and the skin is far from crispy (mercifully also far from completely soggy). To complete the triptych, the mushrooms, first rate but not cooked precisely and left a little watery. The boiled rice is…well, it’s boiled. Mmmh.

For mains we are treated to:

– Veal (from the health menu)

– Hare stuffed with fois gras (definitely from the unhealthy menu)

Is this veal really a ‘saveur et santé’ specimen? How supremely tender, succulent it is, and lifted by a great combination, the pungent reduction with the sweet vanilla pods. The topinambur (Jerusalem artichoke) puree tasted to us like celeriac, but was pleasantly fresh, as was the accompanying cabbage. And there is a strange but welcome touch of little cubes of candied orange peel. Overall, an impressive dish.

The hare and foie is not for the faint hearted. The flavours are most potent, animal, coming at you in an undisguised fierceness and richness in which you have no choice but to immerse yourself and give in: it’s not subtle, but it is very good. There no relief in the concentrated reduction, dense, salty (maybe with blood in it), but we find in an accompanying apple compote with sultanas an almost perfect match.

Nice side additions of red cabbage

and (very) buttery spatzles, too.

Finally, our desserts:

– Winter fruits (from the health menu)

– Pineapple with coconut sorbet (from the unhealthy menu, really!)

Here, a role reversal: the health menu looks somewhat more unhealthy than the other one, but they were both pretty good.

Cubes of what tasted like gingery pineapple with some spirit (Cointreau?) were huddled in a hulled pineapple, with a fresh coconut sorbet nesting in a hollowed passion fruit struck Man for their nice presentation. Woman, less easily swayed by a pretty face, still had to agree this was a successful dish, the coconut sorbet being particularly good. The ‘but’ comes from the fact that these same two specimens also figured in the healthy dish of winter fruits, accompanied by an endearing mango mousse (of the consistency of Italian meringue) and a very convincing plum tatin, plus assorted sliced exotic fruit (which are not really that available in Winter, except from the Equator down, but there you go). In spite of repetitions and deviations, no hesitation (note: this is for readers who follow the BBC comic radio program ‘Just a minute’): quite a satisfying way to end our meal, in fact.

Well, here is where it really ends, although the petit fours were brought before the desserts:

Meringues, aniseed biscuits, chocolate brownie, sort of gingerbread biscuit, and a ‘croccante’ with hazelnuts. Very good.

With a jug of free tap water brought with no sulks and a bottle of Pinot Noir Trimbach Reserve 2005 ‘Cuve 7’ at €32 (a little square but with personality), the total comes to a most reasonable €114.

The service was disappointing. Some of it was not the fault of the front of house: the dinner took more than three hours with very poor pacing: very annoying. But some members of the FOH contributed with some of their own. Dishes only partially described, impatience, lack of any warmth, brusque manners in laying the plates.

Well, so we have discovered that even in Alsace one can have somewhat mixed and frustrating experiences. Even putting to one side the wait and the service, which may have been the result of an off night (the place was heaving on a Monday night), the cuisine left us overall satisfied but not fully convinced. On the positive side, there was great generosity, in the portions, in the labour going into the dishes, and in the pampering extras. But there also was also unevenness, occasional cooking imprecision and heavy handedness and lapse of taste. Mind you: this was still a well above average performance, with good flavours and techniques on display, so take our criticisms as relative to the best fine dining we’ve experienced (and we will experience: more on this story later) so far in Alsace. Overall we probably would not go back given the terrific other choices in the vicinities, but we are happy to have stopped by at Le Moulin and we would definitely patronise it in less blessed culinary districts.

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A l’Agneau

The day: 28^th June, Dinner.

The place: 185 Route de Lyon Illkirch Graffenstaden (Strasbourg, France)

The venue: Restaurant a l’Agneau

Closest airports: Strasbourg, Basel

The food: Fine modern French

The drinks: French, not too long but interesting,.

Oh well, we are falling into the habit of stopping by in Alsace on our way back to London. Our designated victim this time is Restaurant a l’Agneau, on the high street of the small village of Illkirch-Graffenstaden (how much history in these German sounding names), in the outskirts of Strasbourg. Again, a pretty line up of characteristic Alsatian houses, and there at the corner is our target, still shut:

Cute, isn’t it? We had got a written confirmation for a table on the terrace, perfect for the warm summer evening…but as we get in, we are told these tables have already been taken up. Our surprise and less than skilful mastery of French (and total absence of German) combined dissuaded us from pursueing this further, but stole a “forget about the tip” muttered with clenched teeth.

But the interior is nice too, with an interesting ‘faux-crack’ on the ceiling:

Uhm, is that a vacu-vin on top of that bottle? Tsk, tsk…The flatscreen above the range cooker (!) flares up with images of past dishes, and our initial smirk turns into some kind of trance as the beautiful dishes follow one another and we try to guess the ingredients…

Now for the menu: the set menu is five courses, and this would normally be too much for us (especially after a day of forced immobility while driving, and before one other long drive), yet the dishes seem so light, and then, well you know we like a bargain, this set menu is €33… so it is a done deal. Should you wish to go a la carte, the pricing structure is very simple: starters go for €13.50, foie gras dishes for €18.50, and mains for €22.50. The menu is short (three of everything, i.e. starters, foie gras, meat main and fish mains) but interesting; we were intrigued by Sweetbread with peanuts, toasted walnuts, almonds and pinenuts, and betterava sorbet from the starters, or the Turbot with Hibiscus flowers and vegetable pancakes.

Let us start.

First an unadvertised amouse bouche: olive tapenade with a pepper mousse:

Nice contrast in textures and flavours, with the aggressive and ‘bodily’ tapenade tamed by the almost ethereal peppers: this is looking promising.

Next, the bread, from a tray. The table next to us gets to choose after being exhaustively informed about the varieties of rolls on offer; we only get a random one put unceremoniously (but with a smile) on our dishes. Our initial mumbling must have promoted us to total dupes…there is obviously no point in explaining. Nice bread nonetheless:

Now, the first course of our menu:

– Meringue frosted in liquid nitrogen at your table

This is a Port mousse that is siphoned in front of you, then dropped into liquid nitrogen for a few seconds, then placed onto a cube of frozen melon jelly (or at least this is how it felt to us). You eat it in one bite – this much we deserved to be told 😉

Besides the choreographic element (some would say the main point of the matter), the two worked quite well: the ‘meringue’ turns out slightly hollow (which is fine otherwise the whole would be too cold and simply shatter your teeth!), and smooth and sweet and fat, while the melon is so crisp and intense. Fun and pleasant.

Next up is:

– Marinated salmon with sesame symphony and dill sushi:

The rice in nori was the most forgettable part of the dish (says Woman); the salmon was simply superb, velvety, soft and luscious like the best we had e.g. at Latium or Havis or L’Ortica, and the dish overall was fresh and light. The leaves were also interesting, with some intriguing flavour that we could not recognise (no, neither sesame nor dill, we get that far).

The soup arrives:

– Cucumber duo with iced soup and chive yoghurt ice cream:

Imagine some kind of gazpacho variation: the ‘soup’ was mainly cucumber, salty and thin, with a piquant note, while the central ‘ice-cream’ was both salty and sweet and slightly cheesy. The squiggle you see is of sweet balsamic vinegar. So this might sound excessive, this combination of very sweet and salt, but it worked out remarkably well. An extremely accomplished and clean combination of flavours, balanced and again refreshing and light.

Time for the main dish: here we avoid choosing, and opt for one of each:

– Sea bream fillet on courgettes;

– Duck breast in currant sauce, confit tomato gratin and sweet peppers

The sea bream, which had been cooked perfectly, was fresh, plump, good. The courgettes were sitting on an unadvertised ‘cake’ of beans which constituted a very suitable base for the fish favour, with the whole taken higher by a great sauce, which we suspect must have been some sweet reduction. Very satisfying.

The duck was a rather complex combination: half of the dish was somewhat Northern’, with the honey glazing the duck and the currants. But the other half was ‘Mediterranean’, with the ‘brick’ of finely sliced potato soaked in egg and peppers, reminiscent of a Spanish tortilla. In spite of all this, the dish held together sumptuously, with the right equilibrium between acidity and sweetness, with much to intrigue your palate and your brain. Only one blemish: the duck could have been tenderer.

A pre-dessert of strawberries is what we need for a clean mouth:

Here you have strawberry ‘pearls’ in a strawberry ‘mousse’: the dish comes with the pearls on the bottom, then a strawberry thick liquor is poured on top. Really very pleasant, the only problem being that the ‘pearls’ may get stuck to the bottom of the glass, with the result that you either sigh at the sight of the poor abandoned things, or get sucked into some undignified and complicated fishing operation.

Finally, dessert:

– Cherry concert with morello cherry juice and 82% cocoa sorbet

Ok, it is hard to go wrong with chocolate and cherries, but here we were bordering on the divine: all components at the same time very light and very intense. Sublime.

And we even had room for one coffee (€3), simply because we had eyed the nice accompanying chocolates…

With a 0.5 litre bottle of water at €3 and a bottle of Gewrutztraminer (a choice strongly disapproved by our waitress, but damn good) at €39 the total bill came to €92.81 before VAT, or €111 after the 19,65 VAT (and by this time we were so pleased that all was forgotten and, in case you wonder, yes we reneged on our vow not to tip…). Yes, once again less than 100 quids.

Service is taken care of by a trio of efficient and courteous, if slightly distant, young ladies that are certainly not intrusive but take good care of you. The price is amazing for the quality of what we had. You might say, they have low running costs because you are in the middle of nowhere: but, besides there being several e.g. Italian restaurants lying in the middle of nowhere and charging €10 for a bottle of water, in fact in this case you are not: you are at the outskirts of a very busy business centre, and this is the living proof that you can get top notch fish even several hundred miles inland. As for the kitchen, you might have noticed that this time we omitted the French description of the dishes, as – to our uneducated ear, to be sure – they sound a little less pompous in English. But this is as far as our criticism can go. We had a dinner as light as the flavours were clean and intense, a dinner screaming for you to go back. The hand in the kitchen is very assured, the complex combinations of flavours and textures the obvious expression of thoughtful research, the menu is constructed with great intelligence, and this is yet again one of those establishments that make you wonder what else in France one must do to get a star in the red guide (at least these people are in the 2008 edition with three forks) – this chef puts to shame certain starred celebs in London…. And, another living proof that you can offer excellent cuisine at reasonable prices, one to add to our collection that spans different countries.

We’ve got the feeling we will just happen to stop by Illkirch-Graffenstaden again 🙂

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Au Cheval Blanc (near Mulhouse, Alsace)

The day: 27^th January, Dinner.
The place: 17 rue de Hecken 68780 Diefmatten (Mulhouse, France)
The venue: Restaurant Au Cheval Blanc
Closest airports: Basel (BA)
The food: Fine modern French
The drinks: Extensive and well priced list, obviously strong on Alsatians

Just a convenient 500 miles drive from London, is this family restaurant, the only restaurant indeed in this tiny little village at the southern end of Alsace. So rather than go shopping in Calais for the day, stretch your car a bit further, and here you are.

Chef Patrick Schlienger is at the stove, and should you feel too tired to drive straight back, you will be able to rest in one of the four cosy little rooms in another building opposite.

The interior is huge, and we felt a little lonely being the only guests in the dining room. But not to worry, another three diners arrive to take the pressure off.

The a la carte menu is relatively pricey, and presents a wide choice: besides a selection of foie gras starters (including e.g. Foie gras confit à l’ombre à la fleur de sel de Guérande, at €23: as for the specifics of it, your guess is as good as ours, indeed be prepared that English speaking waiting staff here appear to be few and far between), there are the ‘regular’ starters (well, still plenty of foie gras in there too), from the €15 of the Presskopf Sundgauvien Marie Therese style to the €25 of a lobster and foie gras salad. Mains cover fish, meat and game, and go from €23 for Filet mignon the Porcelet de Marcassine to the €32 of the Mignon de boeuf, foie de oie chaud at Reinette, jus de vin rouge reduit

In addition, there are at least nine different set menus, from €15 to €72, so there is plenty to choose from. We settled for the ‘March du moment’ three course set menu at €39 each.

In the meantime, here comes the bread:

A selection of home made rolls and slices from larger loaves, rather good. And as an accompaniment, some rather generous amouse bouche:

These were cold crayfish, warm mussels in their broth and a fish terrine. The first thing which strikes you is a strong smell of the sea. All was very fresh, and very good, complemented by a very effective use of herbs, with clean and fresh flavours. Well, this puts us in a very good mood! As for our meal, there were choices between several dishes. As for starters we opted for:

– Saumon fume du patron, Bouquet d’herbes et de salade (available a la carte at €19)

– Salade de gambas grillees a la plancha et copeaux de foie gras ‘Espuma de homard’

The salmon was nicely presented (ok, here Woman is less struck) and good, though admittedly not the best salmon we ever tasted.

As for the gambas salad, we agreed the best element in the dish was the lobster mousse, light and simply sublime. The gambas were perhaps overcooked, but still good. Man particularly enjoyed the array of flavours, while Woman was rather overwhelmed by too many of them, though admittedly we agreed they were all very distinctive and pleasant, with the foie gras “shavings” lending substance and body to the dish.

Moving on to the mains, we ordered

– Pave de Sandre rôti aux ‘legumes oublie’, beurre de safran;

– Delice de Pintade aux champignones et garnitures (both dishes were also available on the a la carte menu at €23 each)

The fish had been cooked well, the moist flesh retaining all its taste. All around it, a myriad of very pleasant flavours, with so many elements, a nice and accomplished dish… save for the pasta, and you know what we are used to (why o why do even very good French chefs keep serving this substandard pasta? It was simply awful, and if we could find a worse adjective we would use it. Just terrible). The accompanying mash was instead very good, with a tangy aspect that we could not pinpoint, and the remarkable saffron butter…delicious.

The Pintade was for Woman an even better dish (and rather less of a pasta misgiving here). The meat had been stuffed with the mushrooms, and although thoroughly cooked it retained all its moisture. Here, too, many components (a vegetable wrap here, some kind of mashy apricoty dollop there, chestnut spatzle everywhere) working effortlessly and very well together. A very accomplished and enjoyable dish.

Before our desserts (is this normal?) here come the petit four:

You can recognise two almond thins, chocolate and hazelnut shortbread, some spieced shortbread, coffee truffles and some almond frangipane. Very very good, so much so to wonder whether we should have let the desserts go. But let them that we begin to wonder if we should have let the desserts go – but let go we did not, and in fact we ordered:

– tarte tatin glace vanilla bourbon

– clafouti tiede aux fruit glace aux miel

We were very surprised with the Clafouti (we are spelling it as they did on the menu): it was very runny, more of a ‘zabaione’ than a clafoutis, with hardly any flour detectable. A mistery for us, nevertheless very pleasant. Tarte tatin was less than a success with Woman, who found the pastry too soggy, but Man had no such qualms, finding the dish balanced and satisfying, and anyhow we both polished off our plates with gusto.

We washed it all down with a bottle of water (€5.50 ) and a bottle of 2004 Pinot Blanc Theo Faller at €27.50, and the total bill came to €111.

Service was sweet (a kid probably apprentice in the kitchen), amicable and efficient, though the five friendly customers did not present a challenge. Though this is not the kind of sharp, focused cuisine that we favour above all, what we liked overall in Chef Schlienger was the lightness of the hand in some rather hearty dishes: in spite of all the advertised creams and butters, it was a festival of light and clean reductions. There is obviously solid and confident cooking in those quite opulent and very generous dishes. If you happen to drive this way, it is very well worth a visit. And if you stay overnight, make sure you also stay for breakfast and have maman’s home-made brioche/cake and jam from the fruits in the garden behind.

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Alsatian fare at Le Rapp

In one of our several Alsatian stops while crossing Europe North-South we decided to just try a place at random (a rewarding way to take the pulse of a regional cuisine – provided you are in the right region!).

We stopped overnight in the beautiful city of Colmar, and we entered a restaurant (Le Rapp, 1-3-5 rue Weinemer – 68000 Colmar, Tel +33 (0)3 89 41 62 10 , Fax +33 (0)3 89 24 13 58, E-mail resa@rapp-hotel.com) whose offerings looked firmly regionally based and the rough equivalent of an Italian trattoria, while the interior looked rustic, yes, but slightly more upscale. The prices for starters are €8 to 10, for the main course game specialties (which is what we had) around €17 (for fish and beef of course you look a little higher), and for desserts €6 to 8.

Let’s give the game away: What a treat!

Well, that it was a bit more upscale than a trattoria was underlined by the fact that we even got a serious amuse bouche
Prawn (grilled or ‘a la plancha’) in ratatouille: sweet, fresh and delicious, the rustic presentation concealing a rather accomplished technique.

When the bread arrived and we tasted it, we were impressed, if not by the variety certainly by the quality (and, as we discovered later, it was a bottomless basket):

We continued with a ‘quiche au lard maison’impressively served on a black slate, rich but not overwhelmingly so, and nicely, colourfully garnished.

Equally satisfying was the creamy pumpkin soup with chestnuts and slices of smoked duck breast:An array of sweet flavours with luscious, soft consistencies, and a perfect backbone of smoky elements. Good balance.

And of course we could not miss the classic Alsatian ‘Baeckaoffa’:This version, served in a super hot bowl, had wild boar and venison. This is all that plain regional food can be at its best, a multitude of flavours fully extracted from good quality meats, vegetables, herbs and spices and mellowed into harmony by means of simple but time-proof cooking methods.

To enjoy more clearly the flavour of a (much younger) wild boar we also had this:

Cutlets prepared with green pepper and red cabbage. Once again, we were struck by the balance in the richness of this food (no overwhelming grease, no heaviness), and by its true flavours.

Finally, in the dessert you also see some presentation skill at work:
Remarkable, quite some precise cooking going on here, with the cinnamon and wine infused pear accompanied by a very well made vanilla icecream; and the ‘kugelhopf’ shaped delice glace’, the only disappointment in this latter dish being that we thought they were going to serve the kugelhopf itself: oooh.

This is the typical establishment which (we merely imagine) must have been run for ages by the family with basic home cooking, and where now, with the young generation at the stoves, probably well trained at the hotelier school, more ‘scientific’ in their ways and eager to show their skill and express their creativity, the transition to a different order of cuisine and sophistication is taking place. It’s not an easy balance to reach at all, between tradition and sophistication: but here at Le Rapp all indications are that they have been successful indeed.

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