French épicerie: La Cave aux Fromages

For most people, buying cheese, jams, conserves and hams means heading for the nearest supermarket but for the French, it means going to your neighbourhood store for the finest and choisiest regional products. Though severely concurrenced by hyper and supermarkets, the French neighbourhood stores still exist, especially in towns because of many reasons - one of them is that French knows how to enjoy good artisanal  products and they detest making trips to supermarkets often set up in the outer ring of the city limits. The épicerie is like a convenient store for fine artisanal food as well as daily needs. This one, called La Cave aux Fromages (the cheese store) is right in the middle of Besançon city at the market square...

the entrance...

The cheese cutting machine. In the glass container are some very fine Comte cheese. behind the counter are salt, sugar, spices for daily needs...

 The jams, honey and other sweet conserves (as well as biscuits and confiseries) section.

 soft cheeses and yogurt section.

 wouldn't be called a cheese store if not for the cheese...

 hams of all kinds are sold too...

 Rillets, terines, foie gras and even truffles...

At the entrance: regional wines are offered to complement the dairy products. Select quality oils and vinegars, often artisans, are sold too...

Here's what I bought out of caprice:

1 bottle of milk

2 bottles of rose water

1 bottle of orange flower water

1 jar of pork rillet (Rillet Moulin de Vaux)

1/2 kilo of vanilla flavoured sugar (actually supposed to come for this only but got side-tracked on top of the fact that I only actually needed normal sugar...)

1 packet of biscuits of Reims (flavoured with rose water)

a piece of 165g Parmigiano Reggiano (for my pasta)

1/2 dozen of organic eggs

1 box of fleur de sel (salt flower)
1 small can of smoked cod liver mousse

Total payment: 43.69 Euro. Not Cheap...

The finest restaurant in Besançon: the Poker d'As

This summer, I get to return to France for my summer classes but this time, I get to go to a totally different region that I did not know before: Franche-Comté. As luck would have it, public works to built a new tramway for the city of Besançon is in full throttle, stirring up dust everywhere, coupled with the heat of summer - I felt like I've not left Malaysia!

To cut the story short, I was tired and 'lost' because of some technical error on my place of stay and so, once everything settled down, I went strolling to get to know the city a bit. I was in Galleries Lafayette (bought myself a panama hat) and I casually asked the salesperson if she knew any good place to have dinner, one that will restore some strength to the weary traveller and she excitedly suggested "le Poker d'As".  It actually sounded vulgar in English but luckily it was in French...As it was summer, the sky was still bright at dinner time (19H00) and as I arrived (the restaurant has a rather sombre allure on its facade), the Maitre D was in the midst of preparing the tables and service. Well, it did take me awhile to find the place, having being sent on a wild goose chase by the French on the street, and this, I can communicate perfectly in French!  Every person in the street suggested an opposite direction of the precedent (which was already wrong to begin with!) until I finally gave up on them and used THE MAP. I reckon this is a fair warning to all would-be travellers out there - trust your map than those confused locals!

Back to the restaurant, well the Maitre D, which is a lady, showed me to a table after having took my panama. I was allowed in even though I was in shorts and was given a menu to ponder on while the waiters continued busying themselves with the tables. I chose the 39.20 Euro menu consisting of 4 entrees: an entree, a main dish, a cheese tasting and a dessert. Not bad, value for money...

the main entrance

The interiors of the restaurant is dimly lit with a lot of wood and rustic decor in the Alsatian flavor. Not surprised, we are very close to Alsace and Switzerland...

the hanging bells vary in sizes - the largest is a REAL one used for prize winning cows during a competition!

rustic settings of the restaurant

my table - notice the hand painted plates...

an amuse bouche - mousse of cucumber with espelette pepper, a special labelled AOC red hot pepper from the Basque region in Southern France.

First course - Croustillante of escargot of Bourgogne, crayfish and fresh Girolle mushroom. Too heavy on the salt. The prawn bisque sauce has a nice tangy base but still way too salty.

Main course: slow-cooked canette (young duck) with panfried cherries (now in season) and lemon-scented pearl barly, served with potatoes confit. OK

Good selesction of cheese. tried two eventhough there are quite a few to choose from.

I didn't die for the dessert because it wasn't impressive enough for me. Too sweet and too acidic at the same time. I find the overall composition of taste too "busy" on the tongue.

Little something to accompany the dessert; a madaleine, a truffle, a crispy caramel chips and a tiny meringue.

the service table at the entrance to the restaurant

Colmar Tropicale at Bukit Tinggi

This is a mirage in the tropics - read the title: Colmar TROPICALE. This is a crazy "replica" of the actual old town of Colmar in France and they even got a  plaque from the city of Colmar and the Regional Council of Southern Alsace - a thank you for the interest shown on the city of Colmar!

From a distance, it looked promising, with drawbridge et al...up close, the concept doesn't much live up to its "vision" for me. For one, the roofs are made of prefab zinc and painted like tiles. That's a minus for me. The walls are faux stone walls made from concrete and again, painted. If you Google for images on Colmar in France, you'll instantly realise that the colour scheme is actually quite close ( but less gaudy) AND it is not an exact copy but rather an 'inspired' village, which is good because there is nothing worse than a 100% copy! There are even some efforts to present restaurants like actual alsatian ones. We tried the grilled chicken - failure for me because there isn't any authenticity in its presentation but what is worse is the fact that the flavour is worse than a fast food roaster - and more expensive! Otherwise, everything inside the village is tailored for the local taste...

 towards the "drawbridge" which serves as the entrance.

Two storks from the French

inside the village

 a real carriage but two horse statues painted gaudily and passed off as "art"

 a faux armor in the hotel's lobby

gaudily painted windows - kinda Malaysian cliché everywhere these days

 the wishing well

 view from the viewing tower at the end of the village

like this one better: panoramic view of the surrounding hills

the carpark, a faux chateau

We later boarded the shuttle to the Japanese garden and was utterly disappointed with the state of unkeptness of the whole thing. Worse, the return journey took forever because the shuttle took too long to come pick up the tourists and when it did come, there weren't enough places...wouldn't even upload the pictures on my blog! (except for the nice ones on Nature).

 a blue dragonfly on a granite boulder

 a Skipper Butterfly sunning itself

 panoramic view of the Main Range

 a Bush Brown butterfly

probably the best highlight of the whole trip: the shuttle stopped for a moment half-way down the hill slopes for us to look at a pair of Siamangs on the branches of a tree.

Asam Heh updated

Asam Heh in the Nyonya language (mixture of Malay and Hokkien) means prawns cooked with tamarind. The original recipe that my MIL gave was simple - clean prawns and marinade with tamarind paste (sole seasoning). Deep fry in medium heat oil until crispy and serve. Well, I decided to update her recipe with my own take and I quite like the result...

Ingredients (serves 4):

20 medium-sized prawns

2" Tamarind paste

salt to taste

pinch of sugar

2 limes

1 red onion, finely sliced

1/3 cup of oil for frying

Clean the prawns but keep the shells.

Mash the paste with 1 tbsp of water and juice of the 2 limes. Season with salt, sugar and a dash of soya sauce. Marinade the prawns with this paste.

Preheat the oil in a frying pan under medium heat. Fry the prawns until slightly caramelised. Half-way through the frying process, add the onion slices. When ready, transfer to a serving plate.

Garnish with sliced onion, grated lime skin and slices of lime.

The Threat on Sungai Sia

It has been awhile since I had the time to revisit this place (or to go dipping here) but I was working on a photobook about this place and I needed more photos... For a start, the magnificent Tualang is still standing tall at the edge of the tiny village. However, the same cannot be said about the state of the once pristine river as a swath of the bank had been cleared for farming! That was actually not the most frightening thing - from far, the right side of the mountain that makes up part of the few mountains that feed this river is being logged!!! Tell-tale signs of bare laterite patches can be seen and I seriously hope the authorities have GOOD reasons for this. Already, the stream is no longer crystal clear even on a hot dry day...