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Monthly Archives: April 2010

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Chewing on dried beef in the African bushland…

April 30, 2010 by Ullrich

…is the best you can do to kill some time while driving and driving and…driving through the vast North-West Province of South Africa, heading for the Royal Bafokeng Kingdom (founded in 1140) where the FIFA World Cup Stadium of Rustenburg is to be found. The venue isn’t in Rustenburg, really, that’s just a weird town with a rotten Far West aura surrounded by the world’s biggest platinum mines. In fact, the arena sits about 20 kilometres further up – in the […]

Categories: Dinner, Lunch, malbouffe • Tags: Biltong, FIFA World Cup, Rustenburg

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They serve “Stella Artois” in Pretoria…

April 29, 2010 by Ullrich

…the South African and the world’s capital of fast food chains, if you asked me. In buzzing downtown, there’s hamburgers, nachos and Portuguese chicken wings sold at every corner and hardly anything else. Yet there’s Café Riche, too, on Church Square, founded in 1905 and “reestablished in 1994” when Nelson Mandela took power, so it’s a noble place. Here, you can find paté, but made of Biltong (dried beef), French salad (composed of green leaves, shallots and – celery?), and […]

Categories: Lunch, signature dish • Tags: Pretoria

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Rise and shine in Johannesburg…

April 29, 2010 by Ullrich

…on a crisp and clear morning sipping on a mug of rooibos tea (on a balcony!). Behind the mug? That’s Africa, and if you heard the birds singing (and squeaking and whistling), if you could breathe the fresh air, you’d be convinced like me right now that this is going to be a good day.

Categories: poetry, Whatever Works • Tags: Jo'burg, Rooibos

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South Africa isn’t warming up to me…

April 28, 2010 by Ullrich

…foodwise, that is. I mean, I enjoy it a lot to stroll around Johannesburg. All the people I meet are gentle and welcoming, yet I somehow make the wrong choices whenever it comes to ordering (or just buying) food. Let me guide you through my day. It started here: It didn’t went on much smoother due to my packed agenda (it’s a big hassle getting from A to B in Johannesburg, it is a vast city). Lunch had to be […]

Categories: Dinner, Lunch, malbouffe • Tags: South African food

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First African meal in Johannesburg…

April 27, 2010 by Ullrich

…on Nelson Mandela Square where people were in a shopping frenzy today because it was Freedom Day and many of them had a day off. I had the ostrich steak(s) as pictured below. The meat tasted like, well, having been slowly cooked in benzine before landing on a barbecue or so. But you know what? It was better than anything offered by Air France during the 10 hours flight from Paris. A ride on an Airbus 380, yet they had […]

Categories: Dinner, malbouffe • Tags: South Africa

1

Saying goodbye to my kitchen…

April 26, 2010 by Ullrich

…and heading for South Africa tonight. Will stay down there for two weeks or so preparing the Football World Cup and a first reportage about the upcoming event. This won’t be about oysters, Beurre Bordier, hero butchers, Paris pâtisserie and fancy French restaurants. But I’ll keep you posted about what crosses my way in Johannesburg, Soweto, Durban and wherever my journey might take me. In a book, I’ve read about Afrikaners having lamb chops for breakfast…sounds tempting? We’ll see. Stay […]

Categories: Whatever Works

2

The French seafood season is fading out…

April 24, 2010 by Ullrich

…that’s a good occasion to enjoy a last platter combining Coquilles St. Jacques, Pétoncles, Shrimps and Mussels of all kinds. Had the “gratin” pictured below in a small town sitting on the Normandy coast. A perfect dinner accompanied by a bottle of Viré-Clessé, white, cold and edgy.

Categories: Dinner, good food, seafood

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Breeding oysters means hard labour…

April 23, 2010 by Ullrich

…you have to get out there whenever the tide is low regardless the weather, the wind, the temperatures. Today, they were lucky though, the tough guys from Normandy turning the heavy shellfish loads on their rusty tables – the oysters that you might find soon on a well-dressed “plateau de fruits de mer” in Paris, Lyon or wherever you roam.

Categories: poetry, seafood

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Beware of oysters…

April 21, 2010 by Ullrich

…when walking the Normandy beaches. Between Isigny and Grandcamp, there’s large banks where they’re grown by the “farmers of the sea” as the producers are nicknamed. On weekdays, when the low tide is at its lowest point, you can watch them moving their machines offshore, between long “tables” where the shellfish ripens in black bags like the one you can see below. This one though had been ripped off its table during stormy weather. And if the seabirds had not […]

Categories: good food, poetry, seafood • Tags: Normandy

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Isigny is the world’s butter capital…

April 20, 2010 by Ullrich

…sitting on the coast of Normandy in a remote corner of France yet it is not one of those pittoresque province towns you might imagine. People here work hard in the dairy factories, it’s all about milk and cheese and butter. I already had products from Isigny on hotel breakfast tables in Hongkong and New York, so “ça rigole pas” as they say in French, it’s serious business. My favorite place to go in Isigny has nothing to do with […]

Categories: good food, hero butchers • Tags: Normandy

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“Carrefour” has a salmon problem…

April 19, 2010 by Ullrich

…if you asked me, or how would you call a retail offer where you supposedly get high quality food at the price of junk? Look at the picture below and feel invited to be surprised. I’ve taken it today in the Paris metro station Grands Boulevards, it’s a new ad campaign of the French multinational supermarket chain featuring Saumon fumé de Norvège, that is: Smoked salmon from Norway, 200 grams sold for 2,69 Euros (3,62 US$). That is, forgive me, […]

Categories: Whatever Works

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“Cru” means raw, which is what you get here…

April 16, 2010 by Ullrich

…at Cru, a small flashy restaurant opened 9 month ago in the Village Saint Paul close to the metro station of the same name. At number 7, rue Charlemagne, inmidst of a Marais postcard-like street scene, you’ll find Cru, half bar, half restaurant and there’s even a nice terrace al fresco. It’s a cool, modern bistro with an amazing menu: raw fish, raw beef, raw vegetables, and that’s almost it. They come as salads, tartares, carpaccios. And they’re all pretty […]

Categories: Dinner, good food, Lunch, signature dish • Tags: raw food

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