David Downie: Christmas in Paris is All about Eating and Drinking, What Happened to Jesus?

Published by Monday, December 19, 2011 Permalink 0

In most Christian countries, Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, to more or lesser degrees. In consumer-driven countries, much of Jesus’ birthday is lost as people scurry around looking for the perfect Christmas gifts.

Birth of Jesus in a Kabyle Catholic book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Downie thinks Christmas in Paris is focused mostly on food, and just a little on Jesus. The more foie gras, smoked salmon, champagne, and everything else rich under the sun you can slide down your gullet, the better. It’s about good food, but also about excess. It’s about dressing up all pretty and going from one meal or party to another. It’s about having a crise de foie or “liver attack”, as the French call it, after the holidays.

Read David Downie’s take on it.

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David Downie: some restaurants to add to the Food Wine Burgundy guidebook

Published by Wednesday, August 24, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

Change is the nature of the edibles-and-potables business everywhere. In Burgundy the region’s symbol is the snail. Change comes slowly. But the snail, like the tortoise, defeats the hare in the long run—or the long slide.

Cuppa? Change-resistance is part of the Gallic gene pool

The down-slide first: reliable fellow gourmets who scour Burgundy for great food and wine confirm that Amaryllis, the discovery of a few years back, is being spoiled by success. Michelin rewarded this unlikely candidate with a star after only a few years of operation, and crowds and crowns of laurels soon followed. So too did a precipitous move from funky quarters in an unattractive highway-side location in a nowhere village – part of the discovery experience – to fancy-dancy, flower-filled premises: the former home of stuffy-but-likeable Le Moulin de Martorey. This reconverted millhouse complex is at San Remy, near Chalon-sur-Saone. Now Amaryllis and its still-very-young chef-owner Cédric Burtin is becoming staid, in a beautiful, mainstream setting… another one-star Michelin place serving elaborately plated, microscopic portions of France’s notorious silly haute food.

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David Downie: Burgundy: Grapes No Gripes

Published by Thursday, August 18, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

From Burgundy, land of emerald pastures, grapevines, giant white cows, and looping two-lane roads where tractors stop for crossing snails or lost chickens…no joke…

Somehow the wildflowers found their way into our watering can (made of plastic). We made about 10 bouquets for the house, and for friends, and put the rest in buckets and…watering cans…

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