Sometimes you just need a good meal that isnt acclaimed or known as the spot. The Michelin listed restaurants in town le mas, le tiger, and l outsider didn’t seem that interesting or were pricey.La trinquette was one of these places, not talked about by any guide books, instagram food influencers, or other media. Found this place solely by looking at the google reviews and photos. It fill the bill of being reasonably priced and open in the evening. Beautiful view of the valley/cliffs from the terrace or balcony. Seems to be run by a lovely family. They were very sweet to our kiddo and even brought out some popcorn for her to chew on while we waited. Very straight forward cooking. Fresh ingredients, large portions, and cooked with expertise all things that I love more than Michelin stars. A great way to kick off the Provence portion of our trip.
The markets in Provence generally happen on a weekly rotating schedule. The apt market on saturdays is supposedly the largest and has been running since the 1100s! It blows my mind to think there may be vendors here whose families have been showing up to the market for 100s of years possibly. It’s been awarded the “marché d’exception” by France for its variety and liveliness.
Fun market with great energy. Lots of great items. When I find a new market, I try to figure out where the locals buy products or select vendors that only sell a couple of items.
Provence is known for their goats and sheep and I found a vendor with the longest line of French speakers to try their vittles. The woman seemed a little caught off guard that I was interested in buying cheese which surprised me since the market is filled with tourists but maybe they don’t buy goat cheese? I bought a 2 week old goat cheese and also an aged cows cheese. We had a hilarious exchange when the woman pointed at one cheese and kept on saying “ca” I thought she was saying something to me in French and then she made a “moo” sound and everything became immediately clear. Apparently these cows that make their cheese only eat chestnuts. The goat cheese was creamy and fresh with a little aged finish, very smooth. Best damn goat cheese I’ve ever had will try the cow cheese tomorrow.
I guess this is the original beignet? Dissimilar to the ones in New Orleans more like a hush puppy but they are either filled with squash/eggplant and emental cheese. Pretty solid when piping hot but you have to add your own salt and I wish there were more ingredients and less dough.
Salad greens/spinach from a sweet older couple. They were the only stand selling salad greens and the greens looked delightful. We made a mixed green salad with them for dinner.
Another solo purveyor, only sold strawberries and strawberry jam. Apparently strawberries are in season in May around provenance. I was able to procure some mara de bois varietals. The rest of the stands were selling carpentras which seems to be the dominant varietal of the region. They were very soft, highly aromatic, and mildly sweet with a very different almost barnyard/grass flavor some of the oddest tasting strawberries I’ve ever had. But glad I got to try them.
Was also able to buy a cavillion melon and some cherries. Which I will post about later.
You asked in the other thread, but I’lll respond here.I don’t have anything to report on St. Remy, the only thing that sparks my memory was going to a place just outside the inner ring of the old town and being happy with it, but I can’t pinpoint it, sorry. Let your instincts guide you… I also suspect sometimes that things that get talked about a lot outside of the area and on the net/guide books have sometimes gotten past their prime as their business builds.
The Apt market looks great, especially the fresh local mesclun and mache. There is a guy (I bought from in Gordes) that does a fantastic Miel de Garrigue, a honey that is basically from the natural scrub like rosemary, thyme, etc. It pairs well with a good goat cheese and some lemon zest.
Appreciate the time I will look for some miel, the Luberon goat cheese has been delicious!
Sorry I totally forgot about asking in the other thread! I agree a lot of the times once a restaurant hits critical acclaim esp by international standards, things within the region have passed it by and they are typically catering to an almost different crowd. At least that is my experience in LA where I’m from.
Gotta cook at home once in awhile as eating out for every meal can become overwhelming and pretty unhealthy.
We decided to do a bbq since the place we were staying had a grill. Along with the apt farmers market haul, I found local agneau from a specialized producer called Domaine du Couleton along with lamb chop steaks/house made saucisse purchased from the local boucherie in bonnieux. Made a large salad with Dijon mustard and some evoo/vinegar dressing with our over half kilo of greens and roasted some local potatoes to pair with my previously acquired goat cheese and echire butter. Dessert was local carpentra strawberries and cherries which are apparently in season.
A very small producer that is located in a beautifully restored estate/castle. I got to meet the owner who was an American finance guy who bought the winery/estate with his French wife in 2017, they were both very nice p. Lawrence is involved with all steps of production from working the farm to harvesting and aging and bottling. They are organic and natural but don’t market themselves as natural due to the negative connotation in France. They use yeast to naturally ferment most of their wines. The estate dates back to the 1200s and was at some point a summer estate for some ancient popes.
Really cool setting to taste some wines. Pierre our pourer was very generous with the pours and gave us a couple free on the house. I’m a pretty unsophisticated wine drinker, if it tastes good I’ll drink it and if it’s really good I’ll take a picture of the bottle to possibly purchase later (though I rarely do). Everything drank great and we purchased their lighter offering of white which was highly drinkable and paired well for my aforementioned home bbq. Best thing about French tastings is it seems that 3 are free but I think it’s probably polite to purchase a bottle if you’re going to have a tasting.
Also it’s unreal the quality of wine for the price another reason why Europeans are on average so much happier than Americans. Our bottle was 12 euros. I can’t even buy Carlos Rossi Chianti for that price back at home.
Definitely worth a visit for both the wine and the beautiful setting.
After the apt farmers market we decided to have lunch. Found a nice place in a back courtyard near some purveyors. Very lively with locals and tourists passing by the market stalls. Was super fun to have an espresso and people watch.
Ended up ordering lunch there too. The menu appears to be a very odd pairing Italian appetizers and Asian entrees. I would assume the owners are Italian and Asian but that is my pure speculation. I did see an older Asian woman in the kitchen cooking. Although the pairing was odd the food happened to be quite good and it was nice to have a respite from going so hardcore on French food for the last week or so.
This place makes the best ice cream we’ve had the entire trip. We’ve been eating ice cream/gelato daily or even multiple times in a day due to having the little one in tow (we blame the child but I’m also a pretty big ice cream fanatic lol).
They make crepes along with both ice creams and sorbets. Crepes were pretty good but I’m also not a huge fan of crepes. Ice creams and sorbets were excellent. They have all their electrical induction stoves on the counters and you can see them prepping and making the ice cream. Best flavors i had during our multiple visits were pistachio, dark chocolate, lemon and the mango. Worth visiting bonnieux solely for the ice cream, we stopped by on the way home just for a scoop yesterday!
Thanks for the reports. The produce you’re talking about seems to extend throughout all of southern France (was just in Montpellier, now in Bormes Les Mimosa). It’s a good time to be a foodie in France - especially to what I left in Boston LOL.
Looks like you are having a great adventure in the countryside. Looks like you are meeting some wonderful small producers, restaurants and shops. The white and rose can be quite nice in the valley, but some would say 12E is starting to push it! (To be real, the very finest French wines have an unbounded price point, but these small producers can be very good).
Great dinner in a restored country house. Great outdoor area it’s basically tables in a big yard/garden. We had dinner inside as it was Sunday and much livelier indoors. But I could see on a Saturday or Friday how outdoors would be amazing with the sun setting and golden hour.
They let the house cat run all over the restauant which is super cute and pets are allowed which gives it a real country side vibe. Provençal cooking with some modern flair but mostly really good bites of food cooked using top notch meat and produce.
I asked for an off menu house made foie gras that they had earlier in the week and they were happy to make it for me. The pate was loaded with truffle. The chef came out of the kitchen multiple times to chat with each table which was a very nice touch. He was a little brusque with us but I chalk it up to us not speaking French and also us being first timers. There seemed to be quite a few regulars in.
Huge portions the cocotte de daube came out in a literal pot that I spooned onto my plate. Peas, beans and asparagus in the stew had so much flavor and bite.
A suprisingly good bakery in the town of gordes. We stayed in gordes for four nights and I bought baked goods there five days in a row. Their highlights were the baguettes and their focaccia which was super airy/pillowy with a soft outside crunch. Went very well with the goat cheese I bought.
Sunday marche - coustellet and isle sur la sorgue
Maison jouvand - isle sur la sorgue
I had read in a blog that the Sunday market in coustellet is much more local (meaning small producers, good products, organic etc) than the larger and more famous sunday market in ilse sur la sorgue.
After visiting both back to back I would definitely agree with that assessment. Most of the produce vendors were selling max 5-6 items in coustellet and most of them were organic. We had some of the best strawberries of the trip from one of the vendors and a half a rotisserie medium sized free range chicken. We also bought some a tomato truffle tapenade that was extremely pungent from the truffles along with the best tasting marinated raw garlic I’ve ever had with in fresh herbs, olive oil and a hint of vinegar.
We used them to make sandwiches that we ate along the river in isle sur la sorgue after visiting their market.
Also dropped in at a pastisserie for some very refined treats. Probably the best pastisserie I’ve visited on this trip.
A mainstay pizza spot that appears to be adored by locals, probably likely for nostalgia and convenience reasons. They use a wood fired oven to churn out Romanesque pizzas which gave me high hopes for the pizzas. The crust came out floppy and it was a 2 out of 10. But by crisping the crust on a pan I was able to increase that to a 6.5 out of 10 it went from inedible to pretty solid in about 5 minutes. Strange how small changes can make food so much better. We got in late so we just needed something quick and easy before the kid got too crabby. Also word of caution mondays in st remy only about 5 restaurants are open so if you’re in town at that time plan ahead.
Funnily enough we didn’t end up having any French food in st remy. The other restaurant we went to was also a new aged small plates style restaurant. Do they generally do lighter saucing in western Provence?
The only two “french” meals we had I will post about shortly but neither of them were what I would consider traditional.
I got pretty tired of the entree plat dessert format towards the end of our two weeks in Provence so we chose a “hip” shared plates restaurant listed in le fooding.
Food was what I would rate a pretty good. The best of the bunch were the sardine pizette, spicy mussels, and the chickpea fritters which are a marseille speciality apparently. Nothing truly exceptional or memorable but an enjoyable meal with a healthy dose of veggies mixed in. The venue it self is very nice with a large square outdoors space with a huge foundation in the middle. Great vibes and also a friendly house kitty named “roast beef”. And it’s easy walking distance from the city.
We had bookmarked bar tabac apilles which served roasted meat and classic brasserie type faire but felt it was too meat forward.
Probably our favorite meal in st remy. Was a makeshift farmers market lunch we put together.
They st remy farmers is very tourist centric and I feel like most of the producers were trying to sell more to the out of town set vs regulars.
I again tried to track down some specialized purveyors which I saw what appeared to be locals lined up at.
Found a local mobile butcher that had regulars lined up since they knew each other by name and bought some charcuterie including a salami like meat (butchers wife said it was not salami but I did not know what she called it), a very delicious pate canard en croute (one of my favorite charcuterie bites of the trip) and some jambon cru. Some crudite of snap peas, carrots and radishes along with dips of hummus, olive tapenade, an almond based tapenade, and the best dip the caramelized onion. Along with comte and brebis goat cheese. The brebis cheese was phenomenal. The tomatoes while good pale in comparison to the ones we get in California.
