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Even if you're not in France for the World Cup, you can eat your way around the venue cities, writes Jennie Milsom.
KEY POINTS:
Fancy eating your way around France? Wanted to go to the rugby but the boss said no? Just because you're stuck at home doesn't mean you can't pretend you're scoffing yourself silly from Paris to Marseille. So, turn up the heat, crack open the Dom Perignon and inject some French flavours into your kitchen.
Lens
This old mining town in northern France is known for its terrine de pot'je vleesch. Devised as a poor-man's stew, leftover cuts of chicken, beef, veal and lamb are simmered in a large pot with white wine, vinegar, herbs and gelatine to a rich, sticky mass.
Perfect with: Cider, northern France's specialty. Le Pre Jules, $16, comes in a champagne-style bottle with pop-off cork and has lovely fruit flavours.
Paris and St Denis
There's no one typical dish of Paris but a fruits de mer (seafood) platter is not to be missed. Parisienne streets are lined with seafood buffets, bolted on to the front of restaurants, where beautiful displays of crustaceans are piled high on beds of ice.
Perfect with: A Sancerre from the neighbouring Loire. Henri Bourgeois 2006, $35, is a vibrant, fleshy sauvignon blanc with a crisp finish. And, of course, a glass of champagne.
Nantes
Nantes, nestled in the Loire valley, is known as Le Jardin de France (the Garden of France), where the temperate climate and fertile soils produce stacks of fruit and vegetables. A typical Nantais dish would include a freshwater fish, such as perch or carp, simply cooked and served with a beurre blanc (hot butter sauce) and a selection of locally-grown veg.
Perfect with: Muscadet, the Loire's famous white wine. Chateau de la Ragotiere Muscadet Sur Lie 2006, $22.50, is clean and lean without a whiff of oak.
Bordeaux
With all that red wine sloshing around in these parts, a meaty steak is a pretty safe accompaniment. An entrecote marchand de vin (a rib of beef) is roasted in a rich, glossy sauce made from Bordeaux's famous wine, butter, shallots, herbs and bone marrow.
Perfect with: Cabernet sauvignon-based Domaine du Seuil Bordeaux 2004, $25.50, is packed with blackcurrants and bramble flavours and has a delicious savouriness.
Lyon
Lyon is best known for its pork and the Lyonnais are mad about sausages. The offal-based andouille sausage is served cold and hot sausages include the full-flavoured Jesus (a type of sausage) served with potatoes.
Perfect with: Beaujolais from the picturesque wine region to the north of Lyon. Mid-way between a red and a ros, the French typically serve Beaujolais slightly chilled. Chateau du Bourg Beaujolais Villages 2005, $21.50, has floral violets and fresh fragrant notes.
St Etienne
St Etienne's cuisine has always fallen in the shadow of famous neighbour Lyon but its traditional dish fritteur - deep-fried white-bait-like fish, piled into huge domes and splashed with vinegar - makes a tasty, if rustic, lunchtime feast. Not something we'd suggest devouring on a daily basis but a bit of what you fancy is never a bad thing.
Perfect with: Yann Chave Crozes-Hermitage 2006, $36. This elegant syrah from top local producer is packed with redcurrants and fresh berries and has a savoury finish.
Marseille
Marseille's famous fish soup, the bouillabaisse, originally came about as a cheap way of using the bony little fish from nearby rock pools that weren't worth catching for fillets. The tomato-based soup was put through the blender (bones and all) and served with garlic mayonnaise toast. Cheap and cheerful with bags of flavour.
Perfect with: A rose. Houchard Cotes de Provence 2003, $22, is an easy-drinker that's bursting with fresh strawberries and raspberries.
Montpellier
Kick-off with some pre-dinner nibbles in the form of crevettes grises (tiny grey shrimps) followed by local speciality daube, a rich, meaty stew that's traditionally made with local wild bull, anchovies and olives. Serve it with a tian de courgette, a ratatouille-style dish of fried onions, eggplant and capsicum, topped with sliced courgettes and tomatoes then baked with breadcrumbs.
Perfect with: a grenache-syrah blend. This elegant Pic St Loup Chateau Lascaux, $23.50, is a full-flavoured red with stewed berry flavours.
Toulouse
Toulouse's famous cassoulet is a hearty casserole of preserved duck, chicken, sausisse de Toulouse (white sausage) and flageolet beans, with a breadcrumb crust that's traditionally broken up and stirred into the mixture as it bakes.
Perfect with: malbec. The grape of nearby Cahors is known as the Black Wine and is hearty, tannic stuff. Cedre Heritage Cahors 2004, $22, has lovely cooked fruit flavours and goes perfectly with rich, robust foods.
ACROSS THE CHANNEL
Edinburgh
It's got to be haggis, the highly seasoned, bulbous sausage which was traditionally made with sheep's innards and boiled in a sheep's stomach. Today, better cuts of lamb are mixed with offal, oatmeal and spices and cooked in a synthetic skin. It's nutty, savoury, full of flavour and definitely tastier than it sounds. Serve it with tatties and neeps - that's Scottish for potatoes mashed with turnip or swede.
Perfect with: a Scotch whisky from one of Scotland's many distilleries.
Cardiff
You can't go to Wales without tucking into a delicately flavoured roast rack of Welsh lamb served with Welsh staple vegetables, leeks and cabbage. The Welsh are proud of their cheese, too, and Welsh rarebit, a tangy cheese sauce made with mustard and beer. Spread on toast and grilled, it makes a pretty fine snack.
Perfect with: a beer. Cardiff's city brewery is famed for its curiously named Brains SA and no city watering hole is without it. We can't promise you'll find it here though.
* Wines and cider recommended by Jean-Christophe Poizat of French wine merchants Maison Vauron and available from Maison Vauron, Newmarket. www.mvauron.co.nz
- Detours, HoS
