Sampling a Metz Meal: Dining in Lorraine France with Savvy Mom Ruth
Paget
Quiche
Lorraine is certainly well-known in France, but it is the suckling pig and pork
products that make the Lorraine famous.
Pork
tastes sweetest when pigs have been raised on milk, but pigs can eat almost
anything. This fact allows the citizens
of Lorraine to enjoy nutritious meals even in lean times.
Our
host, Laurent’s cousin’s husband, prepared an optimal gastronomic experience
for us. The meal started with several
hors d’oeuvres. The first of these was
rillettes (pork cooked in its own fat and preserved in it).
Our
host next heated up sausages that were flavored with thyme and white wine. He also had some plain pork sausages just in
case we were not getting enough food.
Just
as I thought we had finished, I began to smell bread baking. Our host now appeared with a tray of puff
pastries filled with sausage.
I
could have stopped then and there and eaten a sorbet for dessert, but sturdier
offerings appeared out of the kitchen again.
This
time our host carried out an oversized Quiche Lorraine. As the American visitor, I just could not
have one piece of Quiche Lorraine.
Seconds
of a “real” Quiche appeared on my plate despite my unheeded pleas for
mercy.
“What
is that?” I asked.
“A
pork pie,” he said.
I
ate some more and took a nap. When I
woke up, I drank some Mirabelle, an eau-de-vie yellow plum brandy.”
At
home, I would have just had a large slice of Quiche Lorraine, salad, and a
lemon soda. I truly was overwhelmed by
the meal, but it was very good.
Some
French cookbooks with specialties of the Lorraine Region include:
-Saveur
Cooks Authentic French: Rediscovering
the Recipes, Traditions, and Flavors of the World’s Greatest Cuisine by the
Editors of Saveur Magazine
-Paris:
Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World by the Editors of
Williams-Sonoma
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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