Saturday, September 22, 2012

Beef Tartare: Or How I Was Humbled in the South of France

Does your reach ever exceed your grasp?

I love to eat - if I am not allergic to it, I will give it a try..  I note the second part as I am deathly allergic to fish and nuts.  Don't cry for me, Argentina - have never had either so I don't miss them.  But for the rest of the food items - I will give them a go! 

When I was in France, if it was on a plate, I ate it; if it was in a bottle I drank it.  Every meal was the best meal ever, every bottle of wine was glorious!

Remember the scene in "Julie and Julia" when Paul Child asks Julia what it is she really likes to do and she says "Eat!" - well I could relate!  I tend not to overeat, but I start thinking about dinner at breakfast.

And of course France is the perfect place to go if you love to eat.  Each meal seemed better than the last and I thanked every waiter and chef profusely for every great experience and had a grand time!

 There was the best bruschetta ever near the Eiffel Tower...



The best tomato salads and frites which were everywhere and amazing!  And the rose!  Oh my!  This is a lunch at the Tuileries, en route to the L'Orangerie musee.  We were planning to make the pilgrimage back to Dani's patron saint, but it started to pour buckets just as we finished lunch so we hot-footed it for the musee and did not have time to get to say hello!  Ah - another excuse to go back!


How about the best chicken ever, eaten on a terrace in Nyons?  Hey - is that more wine?  How did that get there???



And then, dear friends, I met my Waterloo at the little hotel in the village near our gite:




Yes, that is raw beef. We had eaten twice at this restaurant before (it was the only one in the village!)  I knew the chef by then and I knew the food was all made with local produce and local animals.  They took great pride in their food and I took great delight in eating it and it was a match made in heaven.

And then I got cocky.  I eat my steak quite rare; 2 minutes a side for a tenderloin and then onto the plate and into my belly.  I am not the person to sit closely beside if you like your steak well done and i always warn folks of such.

So I told the chef I wanted to try beef tartare.  This was a source of great rejoicing.  "Certainement, Vous etes une gourmet, Madame!" which loosely translated means "Ah, you crazy Canadian Woman, you love to eat, let's see if you can eat THIS!

And then it arrived at the table. Not only was it raw beef, but there was a big old raw egg yolk on top.  Oh dear!  My 20 year old daughter had ordered the same thing (she is the poster child for the meat eater's society of the world - I apologize profusely to any vegetarians who are reading this, though I suspect you didn't even click on the blog today when you saw the title...) and she was excited.  My husband was horrified and could not look at either of us.

And so, I dug in.  You could add shallots and scallions and tabasco, and i added them all.  Oh dear. 

It was horrible.  My daughter was raving about how unique it was.  I ate on.  The wait staff kept coming by: "Aimez-vous, Madame?"  "oui" I responded, weakly.

I drank wine.  A lot of wine.  Two or three mouthfuls for every forkfull. 5 or 6 frites per mouthful.  More wine.  I made it through half of this.  My daughter ate all of hers.  I admitted defeat to all and got a round of applause by the chef and staff.  I had to have the chocolate mousse to get the taste out of my nouth and drink some more wine to wash away the memory.  I walked back up the steep hill to the gite half-drunk and with a horrible feeling in my belly.  I have not eaten steak since.

Well, I can say I have done it, and that is worth something, isn't it? 

Here's to culinary adventures in beautiful places!  And as a lovely parting "shot", this was the sunset off the terrace of our gite that evening before we went down to the village for dinner...



Ah - I feel calmer already!  Have a lovely Saturday!

22 comments:

  1. I really like steak tartare, I always ask for it extra spicy, it's quite common here. My worst was wait for it...brains... in Morocco! It came to the table looking just like a brain but politeness made me take at least one bite, it looked repulsive beyond belief.

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    1. I think I would have been better with steak tartar. But the brains - Oh my goodness - over the edge for me!

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  2. Hilarious! I can just imagine how you felt as you kept eating it, and I would have guzzled the wine back too.
    I wonder if you'll ever eat steak again?

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    1. I imagine I will eat it again, but it will take awhile. I find I am eating less and less meat now anyway - although I do love my chicken and I really love duck!

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  3. I adore steak tartare, but always ask for it without the egg... I make sure the meat is hand-cut "à la minute" so it hasn't been sitting around, and I go easy on the seasonings.

    Some of the local specialities in different parts of the world are the truest reflection of the evils of poverty and colonialism, and should only be tasted by curious history students.

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    1. Well colour me a curious history student. They did just do the meat once I ordered it, but oh my...I cannot recall if the menu noted the egg... It was hard, since the owner was the loveliest man - he was not good looking but had the face of any angel!

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  4. Food stories... I quite like beef tartare, extra spicy please. My favorite food is sashimi, so I guess raw stuff does not scare me but my husband went to the Korean restaurant with his buddies once and hit the stop sign when they were serving live leeches. You have to kill it by biting its head off, so it does not attach to your throat. Now this is repulsive to me. Brains too, but I suppose it is a cultural thing and what you are exposed to.
    When I was in Paris we were staying in friend's apartment and he came over the weekend and we went to dinner together. It was this super sophisticated 'local' place but the 'delicacies' I saw on his plate made me never ask for dish recommedation, lol.

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    1. AJC - you are a brave woman! Leeches! I have seen them on my son's body after swimming in the river and that is enough for me! I guess i am not so sophisticated!

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  5. Oh my gosh, you were pretty brave! I wouldn't have gone there at all. I have had beef carpaccio, thinly-sliced raw beef, and that was ok, but I think the texture of minced beef would put me off. Add to that the raw egg! I do seem to remember, though, when I was much younger and thinner, drinking a raw egg yolk mixed with red wine as someone told me that it helped put on weight. That lasted maybe a couple of days .... I have to say that ajc has the best story ever - live leeches, yuck!

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    1. Oh Patricia - I remember my mother trying to get me to put on weight! Wonder what it would be like to be there again! I think I would like beef carpaccio, but the minced beef was revolting! But then, I am not much of a hamburger girl to begin with!

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  6. Wow,you are brave:).
    Something similiar happened to me in italy.We went to this restaurant and they didnt even have a card,you could only eat what thay had that night.It was all fish and octopus and mussels and for me it took alot of guts,but i ate it all and it was delishious!
    That rose wine loooks so good:).

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    1. It is hard, isn't it? that's where i find my food allergies a pain - you have to be so careful! But people are so joyful about food in Europe (my perspective) that they want you to love their food and they want you to be safe, too!

      And the rose was amazing!

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  7. Ack! Better you than me! I'm a well-done kind of girl, I could not have done that. I don't even eat sushi!

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  8. I have a confession. I am a strict vegetarian. However, it was not the Steak tartare that I found distasteful, it was the raw egg. (When I replied that I found raw eggs repellant as a response to one of Tabitha's witty posts, she replied back that they were of "sinister origin". It still makes me laugh.) But the wine and tomato and potatoes sound lovely!

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  9. Knit yarns - I am heading in your direction...as for sinister origin, wonder which egg came first?

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  10. Oh my goodness you are a warrior. I felt queasy just looking at the picture. Next stop a contestant on Survivor !

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    1. ONly if Survivor is held in Paris or London and I can eat and shop my way across, with pit stops at museums and can have a massage each night! :-)

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  11. I love to eat too!!! And what memories your post brought back from my visit to Paris decades ago ... I remember thinking whether it's just a little hole in the wall or a well-known place, it was wonderful food and great wine to be had.

    Nothing like overdosing on something to curb your taste for it, LOL, I've been there myself. I'm with you, I'll give just about anything a try. I met my match years ago with a bowl of menudo. I don't know if what I tried is typical but I doubt I'd give it another chance.

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    1. Menudo? I had to look that up! I was thinking of the boy band!

      Wikipedia says:

      The soup Menudo is a traditional Mexican dish, made with beef stomach in a clear broth or with a red chili base (this variation is called menudo colorado). Usually, lime, chopped onions, and chopped cilantro are added, as well as crushed oregano and crushed red chili peppers. Boiled tripe has a tough chewy texture somewhat similar to calamari, but with a unique flavor and smell.

      Okay Tiffany Rose - no beef stomach for me! Yuck!

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    2. I could only stomach about a half teaspoon (ha!).

      And did you notice the common practice between the dishes to add chopped onions, chili, etc. etc. etc.?

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  12. Ok, maybe, just maybe I would force down a chunk of raw beef, but raw egg??? No way. I love eggs, I live on egss, I consume eggs like no other, but can't do the raw one fro the life of me. Last time I tried it was sushi with a raw quail egg on top. I thought I'd die. Isn't it funny how we all have our little food aversions?

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Kindness is a virtue...