Food: Post #2

Warning: this post is not for the faint of heart. If you get queasy watching contestants eat bugs on Survivor, maybe you should not read further.

Gilles and I ate supper at Le Berry, a restaurant favoured by locals, on Friday night. It’s certainly not fine dining, but an equally worthwhile dining experience. The staff pumps out local specialties at a fast pace; the tables turn over about ten times a night, and that’s saying a lot when the first seating is at 8 PM! The clients are packed into the restaurant, which means we get a good view of our neighbours’ dishes. We enjoy the place so much that this was our second visit. The food is delicious, and it gives us a chance to observe the locals in a social setting. But this Friday night, the most interesting observations were of a couple of dishes.

The first was cervelle, or brain, that the young lady sitting beside us ordered. I am not quite sure what type of brain it was…lamb, perhaps, because of its size. She received two cerveaux. I later asked Gilles if he thought it was prepared, as say a pate is. He assured me that they were two perfectly assembled brains. He described what it looked like when she cut pieces off to support this conclusion.

I can only assume that this dish was very yummy: why else would this lady have ordered it, and eaten it so enthusiastically? And what is wrong with eating brain anyway? It’s simply one’s reference frame. Most North Americans are used to eating pre-cut, pre-cleaned cuts of meat such as chicken breast, beef tenderloin and pork chops. In this case, a brain may seem unusual. But why is it different? An animal part is an animal part, right? I enjoy sweetbreads and the green stuff in lobster, yet these would disgust many people I know. So, I would likely try cervelle if given the opportunity. However, neither Gilles nor I are brave enough to try the next dish that we observed.

Steak hachees. The thought of it amazes me. Freshly ground beef mixed with salt, pepper, and wine, then served. Yes—ground beef, eaten raw.

This dish is loved all around France. On Friday, I saw it being mixed in a huge bowl by the bar. Within minutes, five plates were served to various tables. The first time I saw steak hachees was at a different restaurant while in Pau in June. That time, it looked fairly innocuous. It was shaped into a nice, small disk, and served with a raw egg on top. Not that I would have eaten this dish, but I did appreciate its creative presentation. Friday, however, I saw something different. Our neighbour, this time a man, had a plate of steak hachees placed in front of him. It was piled high on the plate. At least one pound of ground beef. It looked as though he should be forming hamburger patties. He would have gotten three or four large patties out of the meat. But no, this was his dish. He tucked in, bread in hand. Gilles and I stared rudely, unable to look away.

Now, I am sure this guy survived the night, as did the many other people who ate steak hachees that night. But ingrained in my mind is the fear of undercooked ground beef. If undercooked is bad, then raw must be really wrong, right? As much as I want to experience everything that our living-in-France opportunity has to offer, I am not sure I can bring myself to try this delicacy. Would you?