This time it was at the neighbouring village of Monviel. Monviel supports a village in Mali, France still has strong ties with its former empire, and each year they hold a fund raising meal. I know they do more than just the meal and every year a group goes out to Mali from the village but it was just to noisy to hear about it. It was Ann's 5th anniversary since moving into her house so we were celebrating that as well.
The meal itself was really good, although some of my companions weren’t so happy. They wouldn’t eat seafood and didn’t like rice. Poor things, they didn’t realise that the main part of the meal was a paella. Suffice to say it was extra mussels and squid for me. Grins from ear to ear!
So the meal; the starter was garlic soup, very enjoyable but would I have wanted more than a bowl? Jury is out on that, it’s not that it was very garlicky more it was a bit too creamy. It’s difficult to put my finger on it, I’ll just have to try it again next year. The paella, and none of your ‘Birds Eye’ frozen here, then followed this. Walking in I spotted the meter plus diameter paella dish. The saffron spiced rice was full of chicken, whole mussels, large prawns, squid and crab claw, well that’s what I found on my plate. It was delicious. To follow that was the inevitable dressed lettuce with some cheese and do you know, I’m really getting into this as a palette cleanser, it’s really refreshing. Then the sweet, cornetto (as ever) and a sort of apple flan all finished off with coffee.
4 comments:
I would love to go to stuff like this - but I can't. Being a celiac means I can't eat anything with flour in it...which is usually the case when you eat away from home - so I go hungry. I am not a happy person when I am hungry....
That's really difficult - I have a slight dairy intolerance and cut out all dairy for nearly 3 years. I have to say it was a miserable 3 years. Dairy is added to everything; eating out, even if you asked for vegetables with no butter they usually arrived with it. Reading each food packet to see if dairy filler had been added and realising that one manufacturer's version of something might be OK but another's wouldn't be. Not good.
It did allow me to bring the intolerance under control and I now have a balance between the symptoms and restricting my dairy intake but if I remember rightly, that's not possible if you are celiac and it is drastic if you eat the wrong stuff.
Gosh what a lot we are. I have an intolerance to garlic would you believe? Why did I move to France? I am getting a little better, if I can't smell the garlic it means it isn't too strong so I will give it a go, but I couldn't have done the soup. I am getting better by having little bits every now and then on the advice from the doctor and it seems to be working. I could never have a very strong dish of it though. Good to be back guys, I feel as though you are becoming special friends, aims and dnd :-)
Oh yummy - I love paella! I have a Spanish friend's grandmother's recipe and the right pan to cook it in :)
As for rhubarb crumble - I'm right with you there too, but my waistline isn't, so the low(er) calorie version I talked about will have to do for now!
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