This weekend, the entrance to Notre Dame in Paris smells a lot better. The annual Fête du Pain features fresh bread baking, classes for children, demonstrations, and a large display of French cheeses.
The festival will continue on Sunday. It’s geared for the younger bread lovers, so take the children with you.
Monthly Archive for May, 2008
Food festivals are always fun. You’ll find obscure dishes (garlic ice cream at the Garlic Festival), pseudo-celebrities (William Hung at the Artichoke Festival), beauty queens, and some really great food to eat and buy.
Rocamadour is a small town in France that features an annual Fête des Fromages in May. It’s the largest cheese fair in Southern France, with over 50 producers arriving to share their products.
The Travel Signposts Blog describes a cheese from this region:
This village has a cheese named after it, i.e. Cabécou de Rocamadour or more commonly known as “Rocamadour“. Since being awarded the AOC label in 1996, the producers have abandoned the name Cabécou as it’s too generic and hence today the cheese is just called “Rocamadour“. This also enables them to differentiate Rocamadour from the many Cabécou that exist. Rocamadour can be eaten at the various stages of maturation.
When it’s between 1 and 2 weeks maturity it has a subtle acidic aroma and a slight nutty taste. As the “affinage” progresses, these characteristics mature and become more pronounced.
Fête des Fromages - Rocamadour, France</cite>
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Blue D’Auvergne is a milder blue cheese than its nearby cousins in Roquefort. It is creamy, smooth, and cooks/melts easily. It may not have the punch needed for a hearty blue cheese souffle or sauce, but it is great to eat in salads and by itself.
Artisanal Premium Cheese has a great description of it on their site:
Bleu d’Auvergne is a name-protected (Appelation d’Origine Controlée, AOC) cheese from the Auvergne region in south-central France, where it has been made since the middle of the 19th century. Bleu d’Auvergne is made in the traditional manner from cow’s milk and features blue veining throughout. Its moist, sticky rind conceals a soft paste possessing a grassy, herbaceous, and (with age) spicy, pungent taste.
Blue D’Auvergne Cheese - Artisanal Premium Cheese
Salad with Blue D’Auvergne tartine
Recently, i had this salad with tartine at a small brasserie in Paris. The beauty of this dish lies in its simplicity.
The salad consisted of greens, tomatoes, walnuts, and olives. A tartine was made with a slice of Poilâne bread, smothered with Blue D’Auvergne and placed under the broiler for a minute or so to melt the cheese. This was then cut into smaller pieces and placed on the salad.
The bite sized chunks of cheese and bread made the salad a great meal. Try this for dinner tonight.
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