So I Brought My Own Peanut Butter, and other food stories

If you want foie gras (liver pate) in this part of France be prepared to take quite a while to make your selection. There are cans or jars, there is duck (mostly) or goose, there are different percentages of FG (i.e. 50% foie gras), there's whole or block, semi-cooked, preserved etc, etc. There are huge sections in every supermarket dedicated to it and every village market has FG vendors.

The other day we drove about 50 km to Sarlat-la-Canéda (no relation to Canada) which has to be the foie gras capital of the world. We must have seen more than a dozen stores that sold ONLY FG.

But like most places in the world except North America, don't expect to find peanut butter which is why I've started travelling with my own little jar which is almost gone since some of my travelling companions (Scott?) may have been enjoying it as well. Fortunately for me he has also been researching where to find it in Barcelona which is our next stop. Not sure why Europeans haven't embraced this wonderful food that I can't get through a day without having!!

Sarlat is a very beautiful medieval town with lots of towers, 14th c. architecture, quaint shops and quite a few tourists, which so far this trip we actually haven't seen much of.

Ross and Mike managed to find this interesting little nook to hang out in.

One of the main squares:

An old interesting looking building:

More old buildings:

A cheese shop with various flavoured cheeses one could sample - saffron, basil, tomato, etc.

It's hard to say if we've had more cheese or more wine here but there's been no shortage of either.

Like Foie Gras, baguettes are ubiquitous and come in many permutations. You also have to decide if you like them cooked a little (blanche) or a lot (bien cuite). Or you might be like the lady in front of us in the line up who didn't even bother ordering - the baker had her order ready for her before she asked. I'm sure she's there every day.

Finding food at the right time takes plenty of planning. Don't even think about going for lunch past 2 pm - all the restaurants will be closed and won't open again until 7:30. Even the little store in our village is closed from 12:30 - 3:30 every day. Sunday afternoon there's probably nothing open and Monday everything's closed. And maybe Tuesday too. PLAN AHEAD for those days!

We were fortunate to be able to go for dinner at Le Gindrau last night. It's a Michelin restaurant about 15 minutes away from here and not only is the food delicious but it is beautifully presented.

My entree/starter (which arrived after 2 other small courses of deliciousness) - foie gras with hazelnuts and potatoes in amandine vinaigrette.

A few courses later my dessert - some kind of raspberry compote with chocolate pieces and sorbet:

The cheese tray from which you could select as many and as much:

A few little après-dessert desserts (?):

This unusual, yet highly impractical, device was used to serve up thin tomato or basil flavoured crackers. However since it was made of stone it never moved from its position on the table.

We are very fortunate to be able to enjoy this time with our family and our friends Rod and Cathy who so kindly lent us their house last time we were here.

I hope I haven't made you hungry :) and wish us luck finding PB in Barcelona!