Photos from the Beat
Between the Rivers and the Mountains, there are Calories
Giraudet Quenelles
The highlight of the gastronomic experience in Lyon had to be the Rhone-Alpes Tasting Dinner -- a sampling of some of the city's best dishes, made or inspired by some of its most well-known establishments.
The five-course meal began with one of Lyon's signature dishes, quenelles, made by Maison Giraudet. Giraudet is a gourmet purveyor that creates and sells quenelles, soups, and sauces; it's based in Lyon with locations in Paris and Bourg-en-Bresse as well. As the story goes, Giraudet adapted the quenelle recipe from Joseph Moyne, who invented the dish in 1880 by combining semolina, butter, flour, eggs, and fish into a thick dough, and creating oval-shaped loaves using a two-spoon technique.
Giraudet makes quenelles with chicken, truffles, crawfish, pike, and other ingredients, and pairs them with cream sauces such as Sauce Nantua:
At the Rhone-Alpes tasting, both white and black quenelles were served -- the latter colored with squid ink. They're tender little morsels of goodness, and the Sauce Nantua is thick and tasty. The dish was also paired with a local vintage -- the region is famous for its Beaujolais. The first wine of the evening was a Brouilly: Domaine de Bel Air 2006, a light, sweet red.
Another highlight of the meal was the cheese course -- a sampling of St. Marcellin Etoile du Vercors made by Fromageries L'etoile. It's a soft, light, creamy cloud of cheese and get this: it's being marketed in the U.S and the U.K under the name Etoile du Sud.
Dessert was made by a Lyon chocolatier, Seve, which specializes in pastry, macaroons and praline tarts:
The tart -- sweet, sticky, and buttery -- was paired with Beaujolais Villages 2006 Daniel Bulliat, another light red and probably my favorite of the night.
There was a chicken course in there somewhere too, but it wasn't my favorite -- the rice was a little dry and the meat dark. Overall, the food and wine were phenomenal, though, and the educational piece of the dinner was a nice touch. It's nice to know what you're inhaling.
