French Holiday Eats

Joyeux Noël!!  Awh, the holiday eating season is here.  This is the time of the year when there is always room for one more bite.  Below are a couple of the plates and treats that I was able to enjoy over the last few days here in Alsace.

One of my wife’s family’s traditions for their appetizer is to eat Apericubes amongst other munchies with their Champagne.  Apericubes are little cubes of flavored cheeses that are wrapped in tin foil with trivia questions written on them.  The questions cover a range of topics but primarily focusing on European topics with the occasional question about the U.S.  The easiest question for me to date was, “In what sport does Tiger Woods play?”        

What would a Christmas meal be without les escargots.  I’m a snail veteran of many years now and look forward to this buttery, rich dish.  Don’t let all of the childhood images of those slimy mollusks fill your mind.  These edible delights are tiny, have an unrecognizable shape and are each baked in individual baths of butter and parsley.  Once you've taken care of the little tasty snails, the butter-parsley liquid is sopped up with a crunchy baguette.  It is almost a meal in itself.

Foie gras, goose liver, is another one of those unique French treats that you should not pass judgment on until you try it.  This is nothing like beef liver and onions.  It resembles a pate but it is so rich and creamy that it is in a category of its own.  It is usually accompanied by a salty jello and a sweet fruit jelly such as fig or strawberry jelly.  In the U.S., I always said that just about any food would taste better with bacon on it, foie gras would be the French equivalent of bacon.

For my birthday, my wife treated me to a raclette meal.  This meal is one of those active eating meals where you are preparing your food as you go.  We went to a restaurant where cheese is the featured ingredient.  I thoroughly enjoyed this meal as you grill cheese and dip prosciutto, salami, and other cold cuts in the melted cheese and eat.  The meal was accompanied by fresh carrot and cabbage salads.    

Plenty of good food to discover here in France especially during the holiday season when the French pull out all of the punches.  There always seems to be one more course coming and a wine pairing with each course.