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| Les Gastronomades, Angouleme |
This morning I am feeling like a
fat little piggy having spent the whole weekend celebrating all that is good
about French food and social eating.
On Friday morning I set out for the
regular airport run to collect Ade, but we found ourselves diverted from our
usual drive home, firstly by the coffee stop that has become our routine and
then by Les Gastronomades, an annual food festival in Angouleme that we have
visited before (see here). Held in a selection of marquees throughout the town,
the festival promotes the local Poitou-Charentes produce, holds a huge market
where producers from all over France come to sell their products, puts on
displays and demonstrations by top chefs and more importantly encourages
everyone, young and not so young to learn more about food and where it comes
from. From snails to saucisson, wine
to walnuts, fromage to foie gras
and breads to Bio (organic) products, we tasted the best of flavours from
Brittany in the north to the Pays Basque in the south.
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| Some of our purchases from Les Gastronomades, Angouleme |
There were increased security
measures following the recent events in Paris, but I’m delighted it was still
able to go ahead and not only that but Friday is the day the event normally welcomes
around 2000 school children and this year was no exception. It was lovely to
see them tasting, learning and trying their hand at making too. That’s the
spirit France, allons-y!
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| Les Gastronomades, Angouleme |
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| French village pork fest |
On Saturday evening we joined
over a hundred others to eat a pig feast in the salle des fêtes (village hall), where a small team of experienced
family cooks had spent three days preparing lots of different pork dishes. The
smell of cooking pork had been lingering over the village and even tempted me
to take a peek in the kitchen on Thursday afternoon. The cooked meat from the
pig’s head was being mixed together with vegetables and parsley before being
poured into plastic water bottles with a homemade gelatinous pork stock. Once
set, the plastic bottle was cut away leaving cylindrical blocks of fromage du tête (pig’s head cheese or
brawn) that was sliced and served. There were many firsts for me,
including the first time attending this annual event despite having lived here
for 11 years. The pig’s head cheese was certainly a first as was the boudin noir, a black pudding type of
blood sausage and the gigouri a local
speciality made using cooked pig skin, belly fat, seasoning and blood. The boudin noir was delicious, the brawn ok
but I think I’ll pass on the gigouri
in the future. I was always a very fussy eater when I was a kid, so I think I
did very well to try what I did. The main course was roast pork, studded with
garlic and served with beans, then there was cheese and to top it off (at about
11.30pm) a tasty homemade apple tart. I rolled into bed after midnight feeling
happy but very tired and very full.
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| Rillettes, pate and gigouri |
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| Roast pork with garlic |
Sunday dawned and despite not
really needing to eat, a Sunday isn’t a Sunday without a breakfast of coffee
and croissants from the village boulangerie,
so I somehow found room. Thankfully my diary is showing no major eating events
until next weekend and I’m back to enjoying my simple vegetable soups, the perfect winter detox.
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