A Tour Through Transylvania

Peles Castle


Peles Castle Gardens


Colorful Sibiu


Carpathian Mountains


Transylvania fully restored my faith in Romania.

After one day in Bucharest it was seriously waning, and I would have been happy to stay comfortably ensconced in our hotel for the remainder of our trip.

Our original plan was to arrange an overnight trip into the wilds of Transylvania once we arrived in Bucharest, so with the help of our hotel's concierge, we happily drove out of the city a day later with our guide, Nic and driver, Igor (no, that wasn't his real name but since he said his real name was impossible to pronounce, he suggested that we call him Elgor, which jokingly became Igor - he cracked up every time we said it).

Before I go any further, I have to mention the obvious; What is the first thing that you think of when you hear the word Transylvania?
Surprisingly, the focus on Dracula wasn't as overwhelming as I thought it would be. Especially after living in the French Quarter of New Orleans and seeing all of the goth/Ann Rice fans/vampire wannabees taking Vampire Tours through the Quarter and the Garden District.

The tour groups that we encountered in Transylvania appeared to focus more on the historical figure of Vlad Tepes, not the fictional figure of Bram Stoker.


Though if you wanted them, there were some Dracula souvenirs to take home.



Bran Castle


Bran Castle


Sighişoara


Braşov Central Square


Sibiu Skyline


Various modes of transportation

The two day tour was action packed.
We visited beautiful Braşov, toured the very ornate and breathtaking Peles Castle and the smaller, charming Bran Castle, spent the night and morning in the stunning UNESCO World Heritage medieval city of Sighişoara and spent an afternoon in colorful and friendly Sibiu, the 2007 European Capital of Culture.

By the time we returned to our hotel in Bucharest, we were churched and castled and medievaled out. We'd climbed to the top of not one, not two, but three very tall church towers and had aching thighs. We'd spent a late night out in a happening little night club in the center Sighişoara's old town. We'd covered hundreds of kilometers and learned volumes of history. We were exhausted.
And it was worth every minute.

Photo du Jour - Green

Lush and green. And tranquil.

Photo du Jour - Old Stones and Old Vines

A weathered stone building in the middle of the oldest Carignan vineyard in the Languedoc, circa 1902.

La Fête du Fromage - Brin d'Amour

Looking to fall in love?
It may look a little sharp and spiky on the outside, but its velvety, savory inside will seduce you.*

This prickly little porcupine of a cheese is Brin d'Amour.


Brin d'Amour - "a little bit of love" is produced by artisan cheesemakers on the island of Corsica. It is an unpasteurized ewe's milk cheese that is wrapped in a blanket of aromatic local herbs from the maquis, the distinctive Mediterranean shrubland of Corsica, and matured for 2 weeks to 2 months. This cheese also goes my the name Fleur de Maquis.

As you can probably guess, the herbs -rosemary, thyme, savory, and juniper- infuse the cheese with their assertive flavors. There are also subtle hints of green olives, hazelnuts and tangy citrus, making this a very unique cheese.
The texture is firm, yet creamy and smooth, and melts in your mouth. The aroma is dominated by the heady herbs, especially the rosemary.

Enjoy with a Côtes de Provence rosé or a white wine from Corsica.


*We cut the herb covered rind off because the texture was too sharp, but a less matured cheese should have a softer coating.


Larousse translation of brin.

Photo du Jour - European Markets

Potatoes with dirt still clinging to their skin, piles of onions, pink spring garlic and bright green sprigs of asparagus.
A familiar scene.

It looks just like the local Tuesday Olonzac market. But this outdoor market is several hundred kilometers away...in Zagreb.

Sunday (you mean it's Monday already?) Reading

So bad it's wickedly good.

It's that time of year again. Stage 5 will be zooming through our little corner of France on Wednesday.

Paris.
Paris!
Paris!!
The longer we live in France, the stronger my desire to live in Paris. Maybe one day...

This woman has the most incredible eye. Truly stunning photos.

Husband came dangerously close to having one too many of these delightful drinks yesterday at a friend's BBQ. They are the ultimate summer refresher. I find that they go down far too easily...so I usually play it safe and stick to rosé.

Photo du Jour - Un P'tit Verre

Un p'tit vin blanc.
Délicieux et très rafraîchissant!

What I Love About Being a Chef (Again)

Many, many years ago I had the chance to apprentice as a pastry chef for an expensive little restaurant in San Francisco. I was considering spending a small fortune to attend the CCA at the time, so this was a golden opportunity.

I absolutely loved the cooking part of the job; spending all day making different flavors of ice cream and fruit sorbet from scratch, making paper thin tuile cookies and handmade chocolates and rich sauces, working with sugar to create beautiful, fragile decorations such as sugar corkscrews and orbs, and making puffy loaves of golden brioche and stuffing sheets of pasta to make agnolotti and ravioli.
Then service would start and the restaurant became a volatile place. Frenetic people running around, cursing, yelling and sweating. I wanted to escape back to my tranquil little pastry room and be left alone to create delicious things.

But with the good comes the bad, right?

In the end though, I quit.
Working 10-12 hours a day without a break, 5-6 days a week, and making a pittance while trying to pay the rent in one of the most expensive cities in America took its toll. The apprenticeship had turned into a full time job without any of the perks of a full time job.
And I discovered that this wasn't the life for me. I am so glad I didn't spend that small fortune going to school at the CCA!

However it was the beginning of an intense passion for cooking and food in general.

the shady terrace at En Bonne Compagnie, looking toward the Canal du Midi

Since then I have been a personal chef, taught cooking classes, done many catering jobs and written about food. Recently an opportunity to work for some friends literally fell into my lap and couple of weeks ago I stepped back into a restaurant kitchen as a sous-chef.

It couldn't be more different from my first restaurant experience!
Thankfully. (the cursing - mainly by me - and the sweating are inevitable though!)

panna cotta with rhubarb compote


What I love about being a chef again:

• Working for friends
• Satisfaction at the end of the night
• Learning new things
• Giving people a meal they'll remember
• Working with food
• Great hours
• Receiving my first paycheck in France

What I'm not loving:

• Moments when I lose my confidence
  
• When the temperature in the kitchen hits 40 degrees C (that's 104 degrees F) during service
• Making mistakes
  
• My rusty knife skills
• My skin is breaking out

But with the the good comes the bad, right?

If you're ever in the Minervois and craving something delicious, then come to Restaurant En Bonne Compagnie, on the Canal du Midi. Please be sure to send a "hello" to me in the kitchen.

Restaurant En Bonne Compagnie
Quai des Negociants
11200 Homps
Telephone 00 33 (0) 4 68 91 23 16

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Photo du Jour - Here's Looking at You, Kid

Signature, eye-shaped dormer windows in Sibiu, Romania.

La Fête du Fromage - Brebis Fermier

Don't get me wrong, I adore salt. (especially Brittany butter packed with crunchy salt crystals)
And I think that a good sprinkling of salt enhances the flavor of most cheese.

But the excessive saltiness of this Brebis Fermier that I bought from my favorite cheese guy at the Olonzac market the other day was a bit over the top.


So much so that I found it almost inedible. Almost.
Because I loved everything else about it.

Brebis Fermier is an unpretentious, unpasteurized ewe's milk cheese that is produced in the Aveyron. It has a supple, dense, chewy texture and other than the heavy salt, I loved its subtle nutty and mushroom flavors.
And the eau de barnyard parfum makes it impossible to forget that this cheese comes straight from the farm.

A hearty red such as Marcillac or Gaillac would be a good wine pairing.