Flashback: Epic Loire Dining

Having recently posted about some recent Loire Valley experiences, I thought it appropriate to record an experience on my first visit to the Loire.

The Loire Valley has been my favorite wine region since 1996 once I read Jacqueline Friedrich’s “A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire Valley” while mending a broken wrist from a motorcycle accident five weeks into starting a new career at the California Culinary Academy. I had six months to read and taste my way into expertise. The key to this title is wine and food, because to me the two are inseparable in understanding the value of wine and no single region offers a more diverse, value driven, food friendly wines than the Loire Valley.

Chateau Chenoceau, typical Loire castle.

During my first trip to the Loire, not to mention my first trip to France and Europe, I had arranged to visit a wine producer whose wines I had sold while working wine retail in San Francisco. When Eduard Pisani-Ferry of Chateau de Targe in Saumur- Champigny had entered the shop, he was pleased that I had taken a fancy to his wine and offered a tour if I ever came to visit.

Business card of La Mangeoire

Well, that tour came a year later in late September 1999. After departing Paris with a classmate/friend from the California Culinary Academy, we arrived at Ch de Targe the producer of Saumur-Champigny red wines which means cabernet franc. The tour of the vineyard and cave then tasting in his office promptly ended at noon, the beginning of the French lunchtime. I’m not kidding. When the clock neared twelve, it was time to go and I can respect that lifestyle.

However, he generously made a recommendation for our own lunch experience. He said that if we wanted to eat like a real Frenchman, then we should drive down the hill toward the riverbank to Auberge La Mangeoire. And so we did.

La Mangeoire is a traditional Loire restaurant that specializes in wood grilled meats. But as we found out, the meats aren’t just wood grilled. They are wood grilled on a massive stone fireplace in the dining room. The ambient air in the room was dense with the aromas of smoky meats. I could barely control myself, certainly not as well as the two dogs politely lying under their owners table.

Both of us started with a slice of terrine of duck foie gras. About three times bigger than any portion seen at home, it was simply stuffed with a fig in the middle and without the typical fruit compote garnish seen here. That’s because the old school foie gras garnish in the Loire is a small glass of Coteaux du Layon, the unheralded vin doux (sweet wine) from Anjou made from chenin blanc. When young, Layon is an exciting glass full of peach, apricot, orange blossom, honey and bright acidity that makes you wanting more, which is the perfect fruit and palate cleansing foil for rich, fatty foie gras. We cut into the terrine with our forks as if it’s our last meal, slowly letting it melt in our mouths like glaciers across the northlands.

For mains, my friend stayed with duck that was grilled in the room’s fireplace. I opted for a traditional dish I had read about in Friedrich’s book. The Loire is renown for eels and my dish, matelote d’anguille au Chinon are segments of eel on the bone simmered in red Chinon wine (cab franc), onions and herbs. Once cooked, it is served a la nage which means to serve in a shallow pool of its cooking liquid as the sauce.

Eel is common in Europe and Asia but needs to be lacquered in a salty-sweet glaze in the name of unaghi in sushi restaurants and groceries before Americans will even look at it. Eel is nothing less than elegantly delicate, sweet, falling off the bone delicious.

For both of us, my tender anguille and my friends smoky, roasted duck, a bottle of Chateau de Targe Saumur-Champigny was perfect for the meal. Saumur-Champigny typically show aromas and flavors of red berry fruits, wet earth, a touch of spice and in this case a bit of smokiness.

The next course consists of the server bringing a basket of local goat cheeses. Loire is synonymous with goat cheese. Goat cheese is tangy and a perfect match for the local sauvignon blanc like Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume or Touraine, but as I found out, works great with the bright reds like our Saumur-Champigny or a Chinon and Bourgeuil.

The classic Selles sur Cher, an ash covered Loire goat cheese.

Next up is a dessert featuring another local classic, tarte tatin, which starts with a stovetop skillet of apples simmering in knobs of butter and sugar. Once it caramelizes to a bubbly brown, it is covered with a simple dough and finished in the oven. When done it is turned upside down and cut into wedges. Legend has it that in the late nineteenth century, one of the Tatin sisters neglected the pan on the stove and hurriedly finished it in the oven. Regardless, it’s a great dessert, always served warm. Finally, we finish lunch with a café before moving on to visit nearby Angers.

A slice of Tarte Tatin.