Les Terraces lite

I texted Bill the following: so far I’ve eaten raw shrimp, trout and now I’m eating pigeon. I wasn’t making it up. I was trying to make him a little jealous. I was texting from the park in town where there was a tasting event outside the hotel’s 2-star restaurant.

It cost 10 Euros for the 5 course tasting meal. (The portions were really small, even for here.) Drinks were, of course, not included. But there was a bar with wine and beer and water.

When you walk in, you get a wristband (like at a concert in the US), a map of the food stands, and a little baggie with a napkin, a piece of bread, a pair of wooden tweezer like things and a wooden spoon.

I, of course, misread the map so we started with the fish course. It was a local trout on some kind of onion sauce. I’m still a little weary about fish but I figured there was probably not a better place to give it a whirl. It was wonderful. I had no idea how much I like trout. At least, the way they made it. I’m still not sure I’d try it anyplace else.

Then we had the entree. (appetizer) It was shrimp and I was all prepared to wrestle with the shrimp in its shell, which is normally how it’s served here. I was not prepared to wrestle with whether or not I was willing to eat a raw shrimp. As we walked up in the line, I saw the tray of grey shrimp and I thought “oh, that’s going to be handed to someone to grill.” But it wasn’t. It was handed to someone to place right on top of the tomato puree and olive oil sorbet. I did try it. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t something I’ll rush out to eat again, but it was ok. I still prefer my shrimp cooked and pink. I did really like the tomato and olive oil sorbet. I could have had seconds. But you don’t do that here.

So we went for the next course: the meat. The meat they served was pigeon. When we came to this one, the friend who was with me said she wasn’t sure she could bring herself to eat it. But we figured we’d at least get our share. And it looked pretty good. So we found a shady spot in the park and sat down to give it a try. And it was good. Really good. Her 20 month old couldn’t get enough of it. Well, really no one could since the portions were so dinky. Samantha just kept sucking on the little bone to try to get any bit of meat off of it that she could.

That ended the main portion of the meal; cheese was next. This is where I really wasn’t sure I could even try it. The cheese course was a St Marcellin — a stinky cheese. Bill likes it. He says it’s really good warm and gooey. I say the warmth just helps radiate the odor. But I thought, hey, I ate trout and raw shrimp and pigeon — how bad could a little stinky cheese be? The portion was very small, only two bites. My only mistake was not stopping to buy another drink in case I needed something to wash it down. I took my first tentative bite and thought “well… only slightly sweat-sock like…” I shared my cheese with little Samantha who thought it looked like cake and when she bit into it and discovered it was cheese, was rather displeased with me. (I told her it was cheese!) I finished it off. I may try St Marcellin again. But I won’t cry if I don’t.

Finally, it was time for dessert. We stood in a long line in the very hot sun with a now cranky toddler for it. There was a spice cake with a cherry in the middle. Excellent, although to me spice cake seems like a fall food. That was with strawberries with some sort of little dab of cream and mint jello lookin’ stuff. That was good, too. There was a second plate you had to juggle for the chocolate. There was a chocolate sauce poured on the plate then something white that I think was lemon then on top a carefully placed crispy wafer of dark chocolate. It was good and with the lemon even refreshing on this super hot day.

I didn’t bother to try to hunt down a cup of coffee in the hotel bar. I’m sure I could have. But it was about 86 degrees and I was fairly certain that my shoulders were burned and it was time to head home.

It was a great, if not large, lunch. Have I mentioned the small portions? Maybe I am just a little bit hungry. But what do you eat after that? Nothing can compare.

One Response to “Les Terraces lite”

  1. D.A.D. says:

    My God, no wonder Kaitlyn eats anything. Pigeon?? I’m at a loss for words.

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