More villages in the Pays Basque

On Wednesday, after Ann sent off some work she had finished, we set off for the village of Ainhoa, one of the French Plus Beaux Villages (Most Beautiful Villages).  It had a large church in the center of town that was fairly impressive from the ouside, but was really spectacular inside when it was lit up.  The rest of the village was charming enough and well-preserved, but I don't know if it really deserved its designation.

On the other hand, Espelette, where we drove to next, was quite impressive with its beautiful buildings, many of which were decorated with strands of dried red peppers.  The AOC of Piment d'Espelette, the special red peppers of the region, encompasses a number of villages, with the village of Espelette giving the AOC its name.

After leaving Espelette we headed to Sare, another of the Plus Beaux Villages, where we were supposed to meet up with a French couple, Philippe and Isabelle, whom we had met about 20 years ago when we both rented gites in the Auvergne.  At the time they lived in Paris, but had since moved to Hendaye on the Atlantic coast near the Spanish border, where we had visited them about 15 years ago.

We didn't get to see much of Sare, because when we arrived there we got a message from Philippe and Isabelle saying that they were running very late.  Eventually we agreed to drive to Saint Jean de Luz, a port town near where they lived, and meet them there. We then spent a couple of hours with them and their 11-year-old daughter, Delphine, in Saint Jean de Luz, which is a lovely town that gets very crowded in the Summer but was not overrun with people now.  There is a charming port area, a long sandy beach, and some beautiful old buildings.  We also picked up a Gateau Basque, a special Basque cake that you see everywhere in the region, at a place our friends recommended.  We had a great Gateau Basque when we visited them in Hendaye 15 years ago, but have not found a good one since.  The one we bought in St. Jean Pied de Port when we arrived there was simply awful; the one we picked up today turned out to be very good.

Sauveterre de Bearn

Tuesday morning I took a stroll around Saint Jean Pied de Port, including a walk along the Nive River, while Ann finished off some work.

In the afternoon we headed out for an excursion to Sauveterre de Bearn, a medieval town in the Bearn department.  The medieval center of town was quite impressive, with much of its old wall still intact.  At the top of the town was a magnificent church overlooking the Gave d'Oloron River.  Looking down from the viewing point next to the church afforded great views of the river, as well as the ancient bridge that jutted out into the river.  Afterwards, we walked down to the bridge and had a great view up to the church.

After leaving Sauveterre we drove towards the Chateau de Iholdy on the way back to Saint Jean Pied de Port, but unfortunately the chateau is closed this time of year, and the gate and hedges prevented us from getting a good view or any photos.  After we got back I went to Domaine Brana for a tasting of their Irouleguy wines, which Ann had to skip because she had a cold.  Domaine Brana is possibly the best Irouleguy producer, and their prices reflect that.  Their whites were just too good to pass up even though I had planned to buy mostly red wines in this region, but I also bought one of their ageworthy reds.

More from the Pays Basque

On the way to Saint Jean Pied de Port from Bordeaux, we had stopped in the town of Saint Etienne de Bigorri at La Cave Irouleguy, the wine cooperative of the Irouleguy appellation.  It was another stop on our Appellation Spring, although it was technically still winter.  Irouleguy is one of the smallest French AOC's, and is known for its rich red wines based on the Tannat grape, although there is also some rosé and white Irouleguy wine.  The wines at the cooperative were excellent, and we picked up a couple of rosés and reds (they were sold out of their white wines, but I managed to find some later at a small grocery store in Saint Jean Pied de Port).  While driving through Saint Etienne de Bigorri we stumbled upon a small farm that produced Ossau-Iraty cheese (Ossau-Iraty is also an AOC) from their sheep and chorizo from their pigs, and we bought some of each.

On Sunday we drove to Biarritz on the coast to check out their indoor market, which had been temporarily moved from the center of town to the outskirts, so we never got the chance to wander through the center of Biarritz, which we were told was worth seeing.  Somehow we managed to find the market, and filled up our sacks with provisions.  We drove a bit through the coastal towns, but it was raining, so we didn't make any stops or take any pictures.

Monday was market day in Saint Jean Pied de Port, so we spent a good part of the morning checking out the vendors.  We  bought some Ossau-Iraty from a couple of producers, as well as foie gras, cured duck breast (basically duck prosciutto), ground piment d'espelette (a special Basque red pepper that also has an AOC), and vegetables.  That afternoon I spent a lot of time walking through the town while Ann finished off some work that she had brought with her.

I also took a walk to the nearby village of Ispoure which has a magificent church surrounded by vineyards overlooking the valley below.  In Ispoure I stopped at an Irouleguy wine producer in the village, Domaine Mourguy, where I bought a bottle of their excellent 2010 red Irouleguy.

Bordeaux to the Pays-Basque

We spent only about 1 ½ days in Bordeaux, but made 3 visits to a great wine bar – Wine More Time – which was recently featured in an article by Robert Camuto, the author of Corkscrewed.  I had first heard about the Chatus grape when I read Corkscrewed a few years ago, and kept track of Camuto's writing through his blog.  He had highly recommended a couple of wine bars in Bordeaux, so we decided to give this one a try in the afternoon after arriving in Bordeaux on the train from Paris.  We had a couple of glasses of wine each, and liked the place so much we returned twice the next day – before dinner for an aperitif then again after dinner for a glass of dessert wine.  They have a great selection of wines by the glass, and we wound up trying 2 different red Bordeaux and a fantastic sweet Coteaux du Layon from Domaine des Forges, which we now hope to visit when we're in the Loire in a few weeks.

While in Bordeaux, we mostly just wandered around the city, ate, and tried wines.  Although it was pretty chilly at times, flowers were in bloom in the public gardens.

After 2 days in Bordeaux we picked up our car and drove to the Basque region. We had rented a gite in Saint Jean Pied du Port, a beautiful town on the Nive River that is best known as a stopping point for pilgrims heading to the Spanish section of the Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle from the various French segments that make up that pilgrimage route.  Our gite is in the upper part of the town, and we have great views of the surrounding hills and the Pyrenees in the distance.

Appellation Spring in France

  Here we are in France, having flown into Paris and then taken a train to Bordeaux. While it's chilly in Bordeaux today, at least there's no snow, unlike Paris, which got quite a bit earlier in the week.  No photos yet, as we just arrived, so this will be a short post.
     Although we're beginning and ending our 5 1/2 week trip in areas well-known for their wines -- Bordeaux and Burgundy -- in between we'll be exploring some of the more unusual and unknown French wine appellations, such as Irouleguy, Jurancon, Coteaux d'Ancenis, Cote Roannaise, and Bugey.  So I've nicknamed this trip "Appellation Spring," with apologies to Aaron Copeland:

Appalachian Spring:

A Fall Weekend of Cheese, Goats, Wine and Ice Cream in Rural Maine

Hello from Coastal Maine

Goat Cheese at Seal Cove

The Best Ice Cream in Maine?

Columbus Day weekend is a big tourist weekend in rural Maine, both inland and along the coast, with leaf peeping, Fall events like pumpkin festivals and Oktoberfests, and Open Creamery Day on Sunday, where most of Maine’s cheese producers open their doors to the public. This year we drove up on Saturday to Ellsworth, in northeast coastal Maine about 3 hours from Portland, for an overnight stay in order to get an early start visiting cheese producers up that way the next morning.  But before heading to Ellsworth we stopped at Bailey’s Orchard in Whitefield for apple picking, one of our regular fall activities.  Bailey’s has been owned by the same family for 60 years, and raises over 50 varieties of apples.

After picking our share of apples, we headed towards Ellsworth.  As we were driving on Route 3, a high-speed road through rural Maine, we saw a roadside sign in the town of Liberty for “John's Ice Cream.” As we passed it I realized that this was the place a friend had been telling us about for years as having the best homemade ice cream in Maine, and in a flash I pulled into the next driveway and we made our way into John's parking lot.  The shop opens at 1 p.m., and I looked at my watch and saw that it was 1:01. So we had “lunch” at John's; 2 sccops each.  And my friend was right; it's the best ice cream shop in Maine, despite tough competition from Toot's in North Yarmouth.

After leaving John’s Ice Cream we continued on towards Ellsworth, stopping to check in at the Twilite Motel, where we were spending the evening.  We then drove the short distance into downtown Ellsworth, where our first stop was Mortons Moo Homemade Ice Cream, which had gotten rave reviews on-line.  Although decent, it paled in comparison to John’s.  We then spent some time wandering around the charming downtown area of Ellsworth.

Twilite Motel Patio

After spending a little time in downtown Ellsworth we drove to Mount Desert Island and through parts of Acadia National Park, stopping in the charming village of Southwest Harbor for a short stroll and a visit to Sawyer’s Specialties, a wonderful wine and cheese shop run by Scott Worcester.  After picking up a couple of bottles of wine there, we strolled down to the harbor, then drove down and around the western part of the island, winding our way back to Ellsworth.  We unpacked our car at the Twilite Motel, then headed to dinner at Cleonice in downtown Ellsworth.  Although it started to rain, we walked the three-quarters of a mile to the restaurant, where we had an excellent meal.  Cleonice specializes in Mediterranean-inspired cuisine, and has a superb wine list emphasizing Spain, Italy and France.  We had a bottle of the outstanding 2008 Petalos Bierzo, a wine made from the Mencia grape variety, which is grown principally to northwest Spain.  We also had a couple of glasses of the 2 featured wines from Greece: a white blend of Roditis and Viognier; and a smooth, flavorful red made from the indigenous grape varieties Mandilaria and Mavrotragano on the island of Santorini.  When we left Cleonice the rain had stopped, which made for a very pleasant walk back to the Twilite Motel.

Sunday morning we headed out towards our first cheese producer, Seal Cove Farm in Lamoine, which is reached by turning off the main road shortly before crossing onto Mount Desert Island and Acadia.  We had been to Seal Cove a couple of years previously, and considered it to be the best goat cheese producer in Maine.  This follow-up visit certainly confirmed that; in fact, the cheeses rival those from the Loire Valley and Provence regions of France, where Barbara, the owner/cheesemaker, trained.  We spent about an hour and a half touring the farm and tasting the cheeses, guided by Barbara, her sidekick Lynn, and several apprentices.  Of course, the real stars of the show were the producers of the raw material from which he cheeses are made: the goats.  A few pigs and turkeys are also raised at the farm, and they also recently had a beautiful stone pizza oven built, which they plan to put into full operation next year.

Thanksgiving Is Coming

Pizza Oven Ready To Go

After visiting Seal Cove, we left coastal Maine and drove inland to Unity to stop at South Paw Farm/Fuzzy Udder Creamery.  While South Paw Farm has been around for awhile, they only started making cheese last Winter, under the Fuzzy Udder name, under the guidance of Jessie Dowling, who formerly worked as an assistant cheesemaker at Appleton Creamery.  At the moment the creamery is making sheep and cow milk cheeses of various styles and ages, utilizing milk bought from nearby farms.  However, the farm raises goats, sheep and cows of their own, and plans to start making goat, sheep and cow milk cheeses from their own milk next year.  Jessie and Cassie showed us around the creamery and provided a number of cheeses for tasting.  As was the case at Seal Cove, we left Fuzzy Udder with several cheeses, and also spent some time with the star attractions.

We then headed back to make the long drive home, with a few stops along the way, including a wine tasting at Savage Oaks Vineyards, a tasting of a Calvados-like aged apple brandy at Sweetgrass Farm Winery and Distillery in Union (which specializes in spirits such as Back River Gin), and a stop at one of the best farm stands anywhere, Beth’s Farm Market in Warren.  At each stop our car’s trunk got fuller and fuller, so we finally headed home before we ran out of space.

Sweetgrass Gins

Great Pizza, Doughnuts, and a Farmstand in Southern Connecticut

   

Thoroughly Modern Pizza

    This is one of my few posts that isn’t derived from a trip outside the United States, but the food aspect of it fits right into what I’ve posted about over the past few years, so I thought I’d mention that aspect of my recent overnight trip to Southern Connecticut, where I grew up.  While I moved away from that area around 40 years ago, I still have family there, and on a recent family visit I made some surprising food finds.  I hadn’t planned to write anything about the trip, and hadn’t brought my camera, so the pictures I’ve posted here have mostly come from the web sites of the places I visited.

    First up was Modern Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut, which has been around since 1934.  A lot of Italians settled in the New Haven area, and having grown up nearby, I was familiar with the well-known pizza establishments that have been mainstays of the New Haven scene for years, particularly Sal Pepe’s Pizza and Sally’s, both on Wooster Street in downtown New Haven.  However, having been twice disappointed on my most recent forays to one of these establishments, I decided to do some research before the trip, and came across glowing reviews for Modern Apizza, which was #1 ranked on Tripadvisor.com among all restaurants in New Haven.  So on Saturday night, after picking up my father, who lives in Wallingford, we all went into New Haven to Modern.  The parking lot was mobbed, and there was a line outside the restaurant.  But the parking attendant, who, like all the staff I came into contact with that night, was incredibly friendly and helpful, directed us to the one empty spot.

 
    While my wife waited in the car with my father, who is in a wheelchair, I went in to leave my name.  The place was mobbed, but I could see that the line moved fairly quickly, and it was a pleasant evening to wait out on the street.  After about a 20 minute wait (I was later told that was very short for a Saturday night), we were seated.  The staff helped me get my father out of his wheelchair and into a seat, and when I had trouble folding up the chair, one of them said he’d just put it off to the side to save me the trouble.
   
    The helpfulness and friendliness of the staff at Modern continued throughout the meal, with our server explaining about the local beers they had on tap, and recommending the Caesar salad, which was excellent.  We had a pepperoni pizza and one with eggplant, and they were outstanding.  And while I’m far more of a wine drinker than a beer drinker, I thought the beer from Elm City Brewing was superb. I can see why Modern is so highly rated, and why it’s always busy.  I’ll definitely be back.

Ready for the oven

    That evening we stayed at a hotel in Wallingford, north of New Haven.  A major part of Wallingford used to be farmland, but development has taken over large swatches of former farmland.  Besides the hotel we stayed in there are several others right nearby, all built on what probably used to be farmland.  There is still some farming in town, and in fact you can see corn fields from the hotel.  The next morning on our way out of town we discovered Farmer Joe’s Gardens and Farmstand and stopped there on to stock up on wonderful corn, peaches, plums, and other produce grown right beside the stand and at another field nearby.  We had the corn that night with dinner after we got home, and it was superb.

    Sunday morning we had another food find that was as pleasantly surprising as Modern Apizza; Neil’s Donuts in Wallingford.  I had stumbled across it on the Internet the day before when looking for a place to get something for breakfast on Sunday morning, and there were glowing reviews.  As with Modern, the reviews were spot-on, and the place was just as crowded.  I should have known as much, since when I stopped for gas nearby and I asked where Neil’s was, the person at the gas station pointed me in the right direction and, when I asked if it was good, her face lit up ands she said “The best; they make them by hand, not by machine like at [well-known donut chain].”  I got apple cider doughnuts, a glazed cruller, and a glazed chocolate, and all were excellent. Not greasy, and not too heavy (for a donut, that is).

[Neil's Photos from Roadfood.com]

    So, if you find yourself in New Haven craving pizza, go to Modern Apizza, but be prepared to wait.  And if you need a doughnut fix when in the area (but probably not after eating at Modern), stop at Neil’s.  You won’t be disappointed in either one.