The things you can learn while floating aimlessly around Google alerts...Apparently, some sort of Aveyron festival was held in Paris last weekend. I couldn't find any official information about it...or let's just say that I didn't feel like floating around Internet for THAT long! But a couple of WordPress bloggers living in Paris apparently spent a "Sunday in the provinces" last weekend, visiting this Aveyron festival and discovering the joys of aligot:
"We noticed that everyone was carrying or eating plastic containers of a yellowy substance that looked like it had the consistency of cream cheese or pudding. Upon further investigation, we learned that it was called aligot, and a jolly old French man in traditional garb told me that it was made from potatoes, cheese, butter, creme fraiche, salt, and pepper - and just as much cheese as there is potatoes."
Their observations remind me that there was once a time when I had never even heard of aligot, Aveyron's trademark potato dish. Now it is just part of life, and especially part of festive meals. And I guess it can even be Parisian street food too...pourquoi pas?
(Image courtesty of JeDecouvreLaFrance.com, an information-packed site about France...in French.)
PS: As serendipity would have it, within two hours of writing this post, I was speaking to one of my butchers and it turned out he had been at the event. He lent me the official brochure, so more information about this Aveyronnais market in Paris will be on its way in the next few days.
7 comments:
I have not heard of aligot (though probably browsed past in a cookbook).
Have you heard of or had mogettes?
I have heard of mogettes. I think they are some sort of bean, and I am saying this totaly off the cuff without doing any Internet research -- I could be wrong. But I have never eaten them.
That's one charming thing about France: all of the regional dishes...
My uttermost favorite! You make me want to rush into the kitchen to make one!
Wow! I have never heard of aligot either, but it looks just like my sort of food!
I have just read Katiez's comment about Mogette - it was something I used to eat a lot of when I stayed in the Vendée. It is a big white bean that they ate either covered in butter or tomato sauce.
Ah reading your post about L'aligot took me back a few years to a charming village fete which I attended not too far from your neck of the woods in Léotoing (Auvergne)...perhaps you know it. After a hard day's dry-stone walling the whole village gathered in the small salle des fetes around the enormous copper pot of delicious aligot which a couple of young people from the village had been preparing all afternoon. Aside from the deliciously hearty meal, what really struck me was the was in which this meal and social occasion brought together people from all generations of the village and surrounding settlements.
This wonderful dish certain gets my vote! Really enjoy your snippets of French life from my not-so-distance home in Barcelona.
Josh
http://barcelonaaccommodation.blogspot.com/
Béa and Mountain Dweller -- Indeed, aligot is one of the best dishes around. The first time I ate it, I thought I would explode! Later I calmed down a little!
Tinsie - If you come to Aveyron, of course you'll have to eat that. You can just take the TGV to Rodez and then we can take the subway up to the Aubrac mountains to eat some in an authentic restaurant! (Just joking -- about everything except eating the aligot, of course...)
Delice! This time of year calls for fondues and dinners like this!
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