Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Our Tour de France...May 2010...Part 3, Le Moulin d'Alotz near Biarritz, France

Our trip base was Paris and then we took the train down to Bordeaux. Before actually staying in Bordeaux we rented a car and drove down to Biarritz in the south western part of France.  It's very close to the Spanish border.  It's a coastal town and known for their surfing.  We were at the cusp of the tourist season starting and unfortunately didn't have great weather down there.  We heard that the week before and after our stay was beautiful...lol  We still had a wonderful time!

We hadn't made any restaurant plans before we arrived, but I did travel with the France Michelin Restaurant Guide though :o)  When the bellman took us to our room, he asked if we had dinner plans yet and when we told him no, he gave us recommendations.  Can you believe that a bellman would be so knowledgeable with Michelin starred restaurants! He even called the restaurants for us!  One place wasn't open yet for the season, but the one we ended up at was a One Star and we loved it!  It was called Le Moulin d'Alotz and was about 20 mins from our hotel and was in a cute little house with a garden.

 View from our room...

Homard Wrapped in Crispies w/Foie Gras

This was delicious!  I can't remember exactly what the homard (French Lobster) was wrapped in, it may have been potato, but it was served with seared Fois Gras and lobster foam/jus.

Foie Gras 4 Ways

Yes, that is popcorn!  The one that's wrapped was covered in crushed popcorn too!  The chef was very imaginative...

Their version of Roast Chicken...

This also was delicious!  It was so flavorful and succulent.  Notice the pasta that's all rolled up with cheese (I can't remember what type, it was soft like ricotta,but tasted like Parm).  I think the sauce was just chicken au jus that was cooked down and therefore, was thick...

Close Up of the Pasta Roll...

I'm fascinated by this...I'm not sure how they roll it up.  We had the same roll up at a Paris restaurant a couple of years ago and there was a restaurant in LA that did the same thing, I should have asked them how they made it.  It's individual strands of the pasta that's rolled up, it's not stuck together like a sheet.  It was topped with Fois Gras and the chicken had Morel Mushrooms with it...Morels were in season while we were there :o)

Pigeon!

This was soooo good...so crispy and flavorful!  The garnish on the left side was ground licorice, mushroom & sugar...strange, but good!  It took a while to figure out the translation of licorice with the waiter;o)  He brought me a tin with teeny tiny licorice pellets to show me what it was...lol  I had to taste one to figure out what it was!  The upper left was Aligot Potatoes...Mashed potatoes whipped up with cheese!

Dessert!

This was Hubby's dessert, I had the cheese plate that was underwhelming. This dessert was so delicious! It was a soft centered pistachio cake and I LOVE pistachio!!  I think I ended up eating most of it, I'm not really a dessert person, but I can't resist pistachio...

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