Strasbourg is well known for it’s food and drink.
You can eat and drink very well, with large portions and at a reasonable cost.
We had no intention of any fine dining in Strasbourg as the local food would be
far more interesting for us. So, folks, it was generally `peasant’ food, meat
and potatoes kind of stuff.
Strasbourg is in the Alsace, so wines are big here.
The most famous of the lot being the Rieslings a white wine that is made here.
The other is the unpronounceable and un-spell able Gewürztraminer also a white
produced in the Alsace region. You should remember Gewürztraminer. Any wine
pairings book, any wine snob, and any fancy Indian restaurant anywhere in the
world will recommend a Gewürztraminer with Indian food. Hence if you want to be
a fancy pant remember Gewürztraminer when ordering Indian food. No need to know
how to pronounce it, just point it out. All you need to do is memorise the
large un-spell able and unpronounceable word – Gewürztraminer.
As far as food is concerned Alsace is a total
winner. The most famous dish from here is the Quiche Lorraine, as far as I am
concerned, the king of Quiches. Mind you the real Quiche Loraine does not have
cheese, simply egg custard and bacon in a tart base. The Onion Tart is also
very famous. Being part of France and Germany successively, Choucroute [in
French] or Sauerkraut [in German] which is pickled cabbage is garnished with a variety
of pork products. You can get as few as 1 to as many as 10 on a plate as
garnish. The correct name of the dish is Choucroute Garnis. You get a heap of
the cabbage, a couple of boiled potato and the pork – sausage, garlic sausage,
pork belly, pork loin, liver dumpling and so on and so forth. A Coq Au Vin is
made with Riesling instead of the red wine. Massive Pork Knuckles either boiled or baked with crisp skin are another favourite, eaten with delicious fried potato either chips or sauté potato.
The popular snack is much like a
pizza except much thinner, it is called a Flammekueche—also known as a Tarte
Flambée. The topping has no tomatoes. A traditional Flammekueche is simply
topped with cream cheese, chopped onions and lardons, tiny pieces of smoked
bacon. It’s then popped into the oven until the onions are cooked, the bacon
crisp. I thought this dish was ridiculous,
one of the most disappointing and foolish dishes I have eaten in a long time. The onion was to strong and the cream cheese too bland.
In short, the
pig is a very important animal here. Almost all food revolves around a pig.
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The absolutely disappointing lackluster Flammekueche |
On peculiarity among restaurants was that all of
them had several small blackboards – by small I mean about 18 inches wide and
24 inches high – on which the day’s specials were written. While ordering this
board was placed on your table. Bit strange. In one restaurant we went to, a
handwritten page was slipped into the menu. This seemed more like it. Mustard
and freshly grated Horseradish were the condiments of choice. Most people
ordered carafes of wine and not bottles. This was strange too as the carafes were
filled from bottles. Anyway!!
Alsatian dogs do not come from here.
Two further observations. The restaurants we went
to were very local, in fact in some even English translations were unavailable.
Possibly, this is not tourist season as a result proportionately there were
more locals eating at these places. There were certainly no Indians! The point
I am making is that to me this seemed like locals eating typically local food
in restaurants. At first I was surprised by this. Then I realised that most
people do not cook like this at home anymore. This is much like seeing
Maharashtrians eating at Gajalee or in the case of food like Tandoori Chicken
or Kebabs in India where you simply cannot make that at home. Secondly, as I
said earlier, portion sizes are large. But I was surprised at slim ladies far
in excess of 65 polishing of the food. That was amusing to watch.
On the first night we were recommended a few
restaurants by the Concierge. We narrowed our choice down to Chez Yvonne Winstub.
A most charming old style place and, as we discovered later on further
research, highly regarded even by locals. As soon as we sat down a small bowl
of Terrine pieces was put down to have with our beer. For starters I ordered an
Onion Tart while HRH the Queen of Kutch ordered a hot Foie Gras with a Plum
Sauce. A carafe of white wine was ordered. The Onion Tart was decent, not in
the least outstanding. I was mildly disappointed. The Foie Gras was excellent.
Then it was time for the main course. HRH the Queen of Kutch ordered a Braised Pork
Knuckle [braised in Amber Beer] with Sauté Potato while I got myself a Choucroute. The food was
absolutely top class. The Knuckle was literally falling apart while my
Choucroute was a delight, a play on textures and cuts of Pork. No room for
dessert.
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Pork Terrine as a snack |
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Onion Tart. Yes, Blue Cauliflower |
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Foie Gras with Plum Sauce. A blue flower is the garnish. Do not get alarmed. |
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The amazing Choucroute |
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Amber Beer braised Pork Knuckle |
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Saute Potato |
The next night we had booked at Les Trois
Chevaliers another seemingly fiercely local place. This was a very pretty
restaurant. No one spoke any English and the apology of an English menu was a
joke. So using broken French, some names of food from memory we manoeuvred our
way thru the menu. This time tables were slightly turned, if you pardon the
pun. I ordered a cold Foie Gras with Jelly and Jam while HRH the Queen ordered
a local speciality a Cheese Salad with Sausage. The Foie Gras was good but
something that I have had several times in the past, I should not have ordered
it. The Cheese Salad was delicious and had a great dressing. For our mains, HRH
the Queen ordered the Choucroute while I got myself a Veal Cordon Bleu with a
Cream Sauce and Chips. Both dishes top notch. Heavy food but damn tasty. We shared
a Chocolate Filled Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce and Ice Cream. Oh yes,
they do like squirting Cream from one of those aerosol dispensers to make
things look pretty.
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Duck Foie Gras with Jelly and Jam |
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Cheese Salad with Smoked Sausage |
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Veal Cordon Bleu with a Cream Sauce |
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Choucroute |
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Chocolate Filled Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce and Ice Cream |
The last night was the best meal of all. The
restaurant was called Restaurant Au Pont Corbeau. The restaurant was shut for
lunch so getting a reservation proved to be a bit of a challenge. Finally at
about 5 pm someone answered the phone. Phew. We were glad to have waited. Great
little place probably seating 50. Front of house had just two people, the owner
and a paid employee. They did everything, order taking, wine service, starters,
main course, dessert, coffee, clearing plates resetting the table, getting the
bill and finally the process of paying the bill. They were on the go
continuously. Both had little buzzers on their waist, and as soon as food was
ready the buzzer vibrated so they knew they had to get food from the kitchen.
To start we shared some delicious Fried Pig Ears
with Tartare Sauce and dried Wild Boar. Both were delicious. Then for our mains
HRH the Queen ordered an Andouillette Sausage with Mustard Sauce and Chips. An
Andouillette Sausage is a coarse sausage made with intestines and various
seasoning. It is quite nice, I find the texture
a bit strange but the Queen likes them. I got a roast Pork Knuckle and Sauté
Potato. Excellent food. To round of the evening we had a disappointing Plum
Tart.
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Wild Boar Cured and Dried with two delicious Toast with Caramelised Onion |
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Fried Pigs Ears |
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Baked Pork Knuckle with a crisp skin |
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Andouillette Sausage with Mustard Sauce and Chips |
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The disappointing Plum Tart |
All in all, eating in Strasbourg is very good, you
can eat well very well for a reasonably small sum of money. They have a lot of
good local food and wine. The place is very pretty too. So why not go there?
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