What I Ate Today

Like many our age growing up in England, a fair few childhood holidays were spent in France. Neither of us have spent much time there on our recent holidays though (nothing against France!). Like most of our holidays, we were excited about trying out lots of new food – probably food we screwed our faces up at when we were younger.

I had never really visited Normandy so in the months leading up to our visit Jenny filled me in on some of the local cuisine (including an infamous sausage which popped open with lots of stringy pieces!). To make the most of the visit Jenny decided to lapse from being vegetarian – to be fair she would otherwise have mostly been eating cheese and bread.

We were based in the beautiful seaside town of Cabourg, which although touristy was far from tacky and full of primarily French tourists. Despite being less than 30mins from Caen’s ferry port, we encountered very few English speakers so Jenny’s GCSE French certainly came in handy! For one of the first times, we had an apartment with cooking facilities (very good ones at that). We found it made a huge difference – it’s nice to have a simpler (less rich) meal sometimes and saves money too.

Walking around Cabourg the difference between the French and English approach to food was clear. Literally a couple of streets away was the wonderful bustling Avenue de la Mer, half a kilometre of mainly cafes, restaurants and food shops. In between that and where we were staying was a decent food market too. Along the promenade were still more places to eat. It was clear we weren’t going to go hungry.

Most of our breakfasts consisted of fruit, fresh bread, juice and coffee (Jenny even curtailed her Tea addiction). Bread is clearly something the French take very seriously, living up to the stereotype of carrying huge sticks of bread around with them. Just on Avenue de la Mer there were about 4 Boulangeries / Pâtisseries all within a 2-3 minute walk of each other. They all seem to work in harmony, closing at different times, but there is always at least one open. To contrast with England – Banbury, a town famous for it’s Banbury Cakes and with a population of 40,000, has not one single independent bakery! We tried a good selection of breads as well as the obligatory Croissants, Pain au Chocolat and Pain au Raisin. The fruit was also great – we mainly stuck to Greengages (Reine-Claude), Plums (Prunes) and Apricots (Abricots).

Another pervasive food type were Galettes (or more properly, Breton galettes). These are buckwheat pancakes, usually filled with savoury ingredients. They taste significantly different to crêpes, and unlike them are apparently only cooked on one side. The most traditional versions are known as Galette Complète and feature Emmental, Ham and Egg, which Jenny tended to stick to.

In the nearby town of Dives sur Mer we visited La Galichoun, a laid back local restaurant specialising in galettes. They had a great menu deal - €10.50 for starter, main, dessert and choice of local cider or wine (notice the cidre served in a ceramic jug and cups). They even had one pre-cinema deal where you get your ticket for the independent cinema opposite as part of the offer. The galettes really were tasty – of course I had to try the Galette with andouille de Vire, emmental, camenbert, crème. Andouille de Vire is a very old version of Andouille (note the difference for Andouillette), a sausage made from seasoned pigs intestines. From what I could taste under the cheese and cream it was like nice cured ham.

The best dish we had on our trip (even according to Jenny) was found at L’Insolite in Bayeux - Galette Cotentin - Black Pudding (Boudin Noir) with Apples, Apple Puree and Calvados. Black pudding and apple is one of my favourite combinations but this really surpassed any similar dishes I’ve tried. The pudding was not quite as dry as British versions (it was more red than black).

I still don’t quite understand the distinction between French names for sausages la saucisse and le saucisson but they all seem to taste good to me. My favourite shop in Cabourg was Le Fils du Pôvre charcuterie on Avenue de la Mer.

Although only a tiny shop, it was crammed with a whole array of meat products (sausages, hams, terrines, pâtés, confits), cheeses, alcohols, vinegars and other jars containing things like cassoulet and pickled tripe.

A memorable restaurant we visited was Au P’tit Normand in Cambremer. It had a very local feel to it and some delicious sounding and looking regional dishes. It was the kind of place where our Britishness really stood out. Jenny opted for the Entrecôte sauce crémée au Camembert and I went for Soupe de Poisson followed by Tripes à la mode de Caen. Jenny’s steak was huge but she loved it. My fish soup was lovely – really rich without being overly fishy – and reminded me a little of Mum’s Crab Curry. I had never had Tripe before, so I thought since this place looks so good, this is the place to give it a go. Sadly, I have to confess to not being won over – the smell was pretty intense (even with my poor sense of smell). The stew itself was good, and I quite liked some of the smaller pieces of meat which were like slow cooked melt-in-the-mouth meat, unfortunately I just couldn’t deal with the texture of the big chunks of stomach. Many recipes I’ve seen for it indicate it’s made from the cow’s four stomach compartments, a calf’s foot, cidre/cavaldos and vegetables. I can’t say I noticed any calf’s foot, but that could well have been the bits I liked.

I’d love to hear from some tripe fans out there how you recommend eating it? I can’t actually think of anyone I know who likes the stuff. I would however give it another go.

Stay tuned for Food Adventures in Normandy part 2.