1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (34 page)

Where:
In France
, sample Roquefort at its point of origin. Three cheese companies offer tours of their Combalou caves: Roquefort Papillon, tel 33/5-65-58-50-08,
roquefort-papillon.com
; Roquefort Gabriel Coulet, tel 33/5-65-59-90-21,
gabriel-coulet.fr
; Roquefort Société, tel 33/5-65-58-58-58,
roquefort-societe.com
.
Further information:
French Cheeses
by Kazuko Masui and Tomoko Yamada (1996);
Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins (1996).

Dipped in brandy or wine, enfolded in chestnut leaves, and tied with a raffia ribbon, this gently crumbly cheese has a piquancy that’s reminiscent of damp autumn leaves and the crisp astringency of an early fall evening. Based on cow’s milk and virtually rindless, Saint-Marcellin was said to have been a favorite of the young King Louis XI. According to legend, the Dauphin’s affection for the cheese stemmed from the memorable experience of finding himself lost in the forest and at the mercy of a bear. Luckily, wandering woodsmen in the Dauphiné region of northern Provence
spirited him to safety and served him bread and a local cheese—Saint-Marcellin.

Stateside and elsewhere today, you won’t find the soft cow’s milk cheese in its traditional leafy wrapping, but rather in small crocks, which, contrary to popular belief, in no way diminish the flavor. But if it’s a leafy cheese that’s desired, Saint-Marcellin’s first cousin, Banon, may fit the bill. Artisans in Haute-Provence, Comtat, and Tricastin continue to wrap this raw goat’s milk cheese in chestnut or grape leaves that have been soaked in eau-de-vie, imparting fruity, earthen flavors to the exterior that subtly filter within. Unfortunately, U.S. FDA laws require that raw-milk cheeses be aged a minimum of sixty days, a stipulation the exquisite Banons fail to meet. But in the U.S., excellent options do exist: Judy Schad of Indiana’s Capriole Farms makes an outstanding variety called O’Banon, which is a noteworthy approximation of the real thing.

Both are crumbly and tart until ripe, when they become liquidy, golden, and appealingly fruity-woodsy in flavor.

Where:
In New York and environs
, Fairway markets,
fairwaymarket.com
.
Mail order:
Capriole Farms’s O’Banon cheese,
capriolegoatcheese.com
.
Further information:
French Cheeses
by Kazuko Masui and Tomoko Yamada (1996);
Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins (1996).

This unctuous, semisoft, aromatic cow’s milk cheese is said to have been a favorite of Louis XIV, although surely he was not the last
fine gueule
to prefer it. Traditionally, the earthy, woodsy cheese was produced on the high ridges of France’s central Auvergne region, where the cows feed on thick, rich, volcanic soil–lined pastures. A hearty cheese with a smooth, melting, velvet texture, it has a haunting mushroom-like flavor and reveals a creamy, straw-colored interior when cut. After it is made, the cheese is formed into three-and-a-half-pound rounds and then aged on rye mats in Auvergne’s caves. There, the flavor of Saint-Nectaire is further developed by several strands of bacteria that also impart a distinctive reddish tint to its rind. (The noted cheese authority Mother Noella Marcellino, whose dissertation on French cheeses eventually led to the PBS documentary
The Cheese Nun
, located fourteen different strands of bacteria among the seven caves in which Saint-Nectaire ages.)

In 1955, the legendary cheese became the first farm-style cheese to receive the government’s Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (A.O.C.) designation protecting its point of origin, ingredients, and processing by law. As with many of Europe’s greatest cheeses, U.S. FDA laws mean that Saint-Nectaire’s most flavorful varieties aren’t available in the U.S. Yet even the pasteurized versions sold in America hint at the complex flavors that make it the perfect companion for Auvergne’s spicy red wine, Chanturgue.

Where:
In Farges, near Saint-Nectaire, France
, La Ferme Bellonte provides tours, tel 33/4-73-88-52-25.
Further information:
French Cheeses
by Kazuko Masui and Tomoko Yamada (1996);
Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins (1996).
Tip:
When choosing Saint-Nectaire, look for a smooth, uncracked rind.

“After all, it’s only a salad,” a naïve dieter might proclaim, presuming any dish bearing that name to be beneficently light and nonfattening. Just as long as there is plenty of greenery in view, never mind what is tucked beneath.

Let’s hope the naïfs
do
go ahead and order this sumptuous salad from Lyon, the city famous for its lusty charcuterie and lavish cream-enhanced fare. More of a lunch main course than an appetizer, this salad combines springy frisée lettuce with a gently poached or boiled egg, the yolk still runny, and
lardons.
Chunks of sautéed chicken liver hidden under the greens add an even more velvety heft, and the whole is tossed with a red wine vinaigrette brightened by a hint of mustard and garlic.

In springtime, another version of this salad is made with the sprightly dandelion greens known as
pissenlits
—a play on wetting the bed that derives from the plant’s alleged diuretic effect. Considering how much the runny egg yolks, the wilting fat of the fried lardons, and the red-wine-vinegar-and-olive-oil dressing do to relax and enhance the piquantly bitter greens, it’s worth taking the risk.

Where:
In Lyon
, Daniel et Denise, tel 33/4-78-60-66-53,
daniel-et-denise.fr
;
in Paris
, Aux Lyonnais, tell 33/1-42-96-65-04,
auxlyonnais.com
;
in New York
, Bar Boulud, tel 212-595-0303,
barboulud.com/nyc
.
Further information and recipes:
Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud Cookbook
by Daniel Boulud (1999);
gourmet.com
(search frisee salad with lardons and poached eggs).

The sweetly burnished earthiness of white salsify makes it a favorite winter root vegetable in many parts of Europe. Although popular in the U.S. in the early Colonial days, over time it practically disappeared. But the newly vegetable-conscious locavore movement has granted salsify a comeback, and it’s become a favorite on menus and at farmers’ market stands.

Tragopogan porrifolius
, as the root is scientifically known, looks like a skinny white carrot or parsnip covered in long, hairy filaments, which account for its first name,
Tragopogan
, or goat’s beard. Above ground, it sprouts the slender, green, leeklike leaves that are increasingly and delightfully finding their way into salads. Another name, oyster plant, indicates the saline essence that is a hallmark of salsify’s flavor;
its German name,
schwarzwurzel
, or black root, refers both to its dark color (before its skin is scraped off) and to the way its cut flesh can quickly turn black due to oxidation. To prevent discoloration, keep the flesh acidulated with lemon juice or vinegar, or put it into a flour and water bath, just as you would with cardoons, artichokes, celery root, and parsnips.

Originating in the Near East, salsify began to be grown in central Europe in the sixteenth century and is now most popular in France, Germany, and other parts of northern Europe. Its root is delicious as a base for cream soups. In Germany, it is tossed with butter and toasted bread crumbs or baked au gratin under a cheese-glazed cream sauce.

A close first cousin is
Scorzonera hispanica
, or black salsify, a thicker, rounder, less tapered root also with a rough black-brown skin. Most popular in Spain and Italy, scorzonera distinguishes itself from its relative with an almost dairylike sweetness, but it lends its subtle earth overtones to the same preparations and requires identical precautions against discoloration of the flesh (including yours as you handle it).

As when shopping for any root vegetable, look for specimens that are full and firm, with no damp softness indicating rot, and avoid any that look dry or withered. Use a stainless-steel blade to scrape these roots, and, because the peeled and cut salsify should be cooked with a little lemon juice or vinegar, choose a cooking vessel made of a nonreactive material such as enameled cast iron, stainless steel, or glass.

Mail order:
specialtyproduce.com
(search salsify).
Further information and recipes:
Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini
by Elizabeth Schneider (2001);
saveur.com
(search rarefied root chicken with salsify).

At Chez Pipo, socca is baked in a huge copper pan.

The tantalizingly crisp and peppery
socca
is a favorite in Nice toward the end of the day, when working people in need of sustenance unwind with a glass of the local light rosé wine or a beer. Similar to focaccia but thinner and crisper, the warm pancakelike flatbread is based on a chickpea flour that lends an inviting grittiness to a dough made sprightly with salt, pungent with generous grindings of black pepper, and aromatic with olive oil and leaves of fresh rosemary. Here, as in Liguria, where the same flatbread is known as
farinata
, a piece is torn off the whole huge round and eaten out of hand.

Although socca is best when baked in a thin, round copper pan in a blazing wood-fired oven, as at the more traditional taverns (and is especially enticing when one has worked up an
appetite shopping at the festive outdoor food market along Nice’s Cours Saleya), one can turn out fairly convincing substitutes at home. Because it is based on chickpea flour, socca is a treat for those on gluten-free diets. Just don’t forget the glass of Provençal rosé.