Read Ebook: The Gourmet's Guide to Europe by Bastard Algernon Newnham Davis Lieut Col Nathaniel

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Here is a typical Breton menu, one of the meals at the H?tel des Bains de Mer, Roscoff:--

Artichauts ? l'Huile. Pommes de terre ? l'Huile. Porc frais froid aux Cornichons. Langouste Mayonnaise. Canards aux Navets. Omelette fines Herbes. Filet aux Pommes. Fromage ? la Cr?me. Fruits, biscuits, etc. Cidre ? discr?tion.

This is rather a terrible mass of food ranged in the strangest order, but I insert it to show the traveller in Brittany that he need never think his meal ended when he reaches the omelette, and that he had better take a gargantuan appetite with him.

Brest

This great naval town has better caf?s than it has dining or lunching places; the Caf? Brestois in the Rue de Siam, and the Grand Caf? in the same street being both good. Besides the restaurants attached to the H?tels des Voyageurs, Rue de Siam, Continentale, and de France in the Rue de la Mairie, there are the Restaurant Aury and the Brasserie de la Marine, both on the Champ de Bataille, but I have no details concerning them.

Skipping Nantes as being out of the route of the Anglo-Saxon abroad, though in the Place Grasselin the Fran?ais and the Cambronne both deserve a word, and the Plages d'Oc?an which lie between Nantes and Bordeaux as being purely French, though Rochefort has a European reputation for its cheese, and Marennes for its oysters, I step down from the platform to make room for my co-author A.B., who will take up the parable as to

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is, of course, the home of claret, and good feeding goes with good liquor, the combination being essential. The result is that here you can procure a good dinner with the best of wines, which being consumed, so to say, on the spot where they have matured, are in perfection both as to flavour and condition.

The H?tel des Princes et de la Paix has the Restaurant Sansot attached to it, which is quite good.

All these restaurants have saloons for private parties in case you require them.

Arcachon

Of cooking at Arcachon there is nothing in particular to be said. The place has a celebrity for its oyster-beds, and a great number of the oysters we eat in England have been transplanted from the bay at Arcachon to the beds in British waters.

Biarritz

Melon. Minestron Milanaise. Friture du Pays. Carr? de Veau brais? aux C?pes. Ortolans ? la broche. Salade de Romaine. Coupes d'Entigny.

I have not kept any bill for this, but I know that I regarded the total as moderate in a town where all things in September are at gambler's prices. The Royalty, in the main street at Biarritz, is the afternoon gathering place for the young bloods, who there drink cooling liquids through straws out of long tumblers, while the ladies hold their parliament at tea-time in Miremont the confectioner's.

Marseilles

Once more I step down from the platform to give place to my colleague A.B.

Before leaving the subject of Marseilles and its cookery and restaurants, let me record the verdict of a true gourmet and Englishman who always lives the winter through in Marseilles. He writes me that in Marseilles itself there are no restaurants worthy of the name, the best being Isnard's , Rue Thubaneau, and another good one that of the H?tel d'Orl?ans, Rue Vacon, where the proprietor and the cook are brothers and charming people.

Cannes

Nice

Hors-d'oeuvre. Potage Lamballe. Friture de Goujons. Longe de veau aux C?leris. Gelinotte ? la Casserole. Salade Romaine et Concombre. Dessert.

Two resorts patronised by the young sparks of Nice are the R?gence and the Garden Bar. The subjoined menu shows what the R?gence can do when a big dinner is given there:--

Hors-d'oeuvre vari?s. Consomm? ? la d'Orl?ans. Bouch?es Montglas. Filets de soles Joinville. Pi?ce de boeuf Renaissance. Chaud-froid de foie gras. Petits pois ? la Fran?aise. Faisans de Boh?me ? la broche. Salade ni?oise. Mousse R?gence. P?tisserie. Dessert.

The great confectioner's shop in the Place Massena and the Casino Municipal are always crowded with ladies at tea-time.

Beaulieu

Monte Carlo

Hors-d'oeuvre vari?s. Oeufs poch?s Grand Duc. Mostelle ? l'Anglaise. Volaille en Casserole ? la Fermi?re. P?tisserie. Fromage. Caf?. 1 Magnum Carbonnieux 1891. Fine Champagne 1846.

This feast cost 61 francs. The Mostelle, as I have previously mentioned, is the special fish of this part of the coast. It is as delicate as a whiting, and is split open, fried, and served with bread crumbs and an over-sufficiency of melted butter.

Hors-d'oeuvre et Caviar frais. Cr?me de Langoustines. Friture de Nonnats. Selle d'Agneau aux Primeurs. B?cassines r?ties. Salade Ni?oise. Asperges de G?nes. Sauce Mousseline. Dessert.

VINS.

To crown this feast we had some of the very old brandy, a treasure of the house, which added 60 francs to the bill. The total was 363 francs 10 centimes.

Cr?me Livonienne. Filets de Sole Waleska. Baron de Pauillac ? la Broche. Pur?e de Champignons. Petits Pois Nouveaux. Merles de Corse. Salade. Asperges. Sauce Mousseline. Souffl? du Parmesan. Friandises.

The Hermitage, in which MM. Benoit and Fourault are interested, shares the rush of fashionable diners with Ciro and the Paris and Grand, but I cannot speak by personal knowledge of its dinners.

There are other restaurants not so expensive as the ones I have written of, and further up the hill, which can give one a most admirable dinner. The Helder is one of the restaurants where the men who have to live all their life at Monte Carlo often breakfast and dine, and Aubanel's Restaurant, the Princess', which one of the great stars of the Opera has very regularly patronised, deserves a special good word. The Restaurant R?, which was originally a fish and oyster shop, but which is now a restaurant with fish as its speciality, is also an excellent place for men of moderate means. Madame R? learned the art of the kitchen at the Reserve at Marseilles, and she knows as much about the cooking of fish as any woman in the world. When it came to my turn in the interchange of dinners for six to provide a feast, I went to Madame R? and asked her to give me a fish dinner, and to keep it as distinctive as possible of the principality, and she at once saw what I wanted and entered into the spirit of it. She met me on the evening of the feast with a sorrowful expression on her handsome face, for she had sent a fisherman out very early in the morning into the bay to catch some of the little sea hedgehogs which were to form one course, but he had come back empty-handed. The menu stood as under, and we none of us missed the hedgehogs:--

Canap? de Nonnats. Soupe de poisson Mon?gasque. Supions en Buisson. Dorade Bonne Femme. Volaille R?tie. Langouste Parisienne. Asperges Vinaigrette. Dessert.

The Riviera Palace has a restaurant to which many people come to breakfast, high above Monte Carlo and its heat, and the cook is a very good one.

After the tables are closed the big room at the Caf? de Paris in Monte Carlo fills up with those who require supper or a "night cap" before going home; and though a sprinkling of ladies may be seen there, the half-world much preponderates. The night-birds finish the evening at the Festa, some distance up the hill, where two bands play, and there is some dancing, and where the lights are not put out until the small hours are growing into big ones.

Mentone

Mentone has a splendid tea-shop at Rumpelmayer's, and a pleasant restaurant at which to lunch is that of the Winter Palace. Many people drive from Monte Carlo to lunch or take tea at the Cap Martin H?tel, and it is a pleasant place with a splendid view from the great terrace, though sometimes people not staying in the hotel complain of the slowness of the attendance there.

The Pyrenees

As a gastronomic guide to the Pyrenees I cannot do better than introduce to you my very good friend C.P., who knows that part of the world as well as any native, and whose taste is unimpeachable. I therefore stand down and let him speak for himself:--

Throughout the Pyrenees, in nine hotels out of ten, you can obtain a decently cooked luncheon or dinner--neither above nor below the average.

To attempt to enumerate them all, to describe them minutely, or to give any account of their preparation, hardly comes within the scope of these notes. Suffice it to give the names of two or three.

In any case you will always be able to get a good bottle of claret, bearing the name of some first-class Bordeaux firm, such as Johnson, Barton Guestier, or Luze, etc. If you are lucky enough to obtain a glass of genuine old Armagnac, you will probably rank it, as a liqueur, very nearly as high as any cognac you have ever tasted.

A word of warning! Don't be too eager to order whisky and soda. The "Scotch" is not of uniform quality.

So much for eatables and drinkables. A few hints now as to where you might care to lunch or dine.

Pau

For confectionery, cakes, candied fruits, etc., Luc or Seghin will be found quite A1. Whilst for five o'clock tea, Madame Bouzoum has deservedly gained a reputation as great as that of Rumpelmayer on the Riviera. But again a word of warning! Be discreet as to repeating any local tittle-tattle you may possibly overhear. So much for Pau.

Throughout the mountain resorts of the Pyrenees, such as Luchon--Bagn?res de Bigorre, Gavarnie, St-Sauveur; Cauterets--Eaux Bonnes, Eaux Chaudes, Oloron, etc., you can always, as was stated previously, rely upon getting an averagely well-served luncheon or dinner, and nothing more--trout and chicken, although excellent, being inevitable. But there is one splendid and notable exception, viz., the H?tel de France at Argel?s-Gazost, kept by Joseph Peyrafitte, known to his intimates as "Papa." In his way he is as great an artist as the aforementioned Guichard; the main difference between the methods of the two professors being that the latter's art is influenced by the traditions of the Parisian school, while the former is more of an impressionist, and does not hesitate to introduce local colour with broad effects,--merely a question of taste after all. For this reason you should not fail to pay a visit to Argel?s to make the acquaintance of Monsieur Peyrafitte. Ask him to give you a luncheon such as he supplies to the golf club of which Lord Kilmaine is president, and for dinner consult him, over a glass of Quinquina and vermouth, as to some of the dishes mentioned earlier in this article. You won't regret your visit.

Provence

"Cure" Places

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