A drink before noon? (and lots of pictures)

BU is down with that. On Friday, we had our French Gastronomy class.

(The following is long, but tasty - for the most part.)

We walked into Salle A and were greeted by our professors with plastic glasses and bottles of rose wine to start us off on our French food lesson. My tasting just happened to be at 11 am because they arranged us alphabetically. But it's still kind of amusing to note that BU offered us l'alcool before noon.

Set before us was an array of mouth-watering French food, ranging from meats to cheeses to pastries. The wine was just to hold us over, for before we could taste the goodies, we had to listen to a short presentation about the history of French Gastronomy. Elisabeth walked us through the ins and outs of French cuisine, including the ambiance of the eating experience, the geographical origins of the food and wine, and the actual food itself. We were all finished with our goût (drop or taste) of wine and ready to eat.

First course, this:


It's salami, which the French call saucisson sec (dry sausage). It's a bit tough on the edges, but the middle has a more tender, flavorful taste.

Next, we moved to this:


Rillettes. According to Wikipedia: Originally made with pork, the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded, and then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste.
Sounds healthy, huh? It was pretty darn good. Much better than what's next:

Looks harmless, eh? I learned the contents of the sausage just as I had put the last two-thirds of the cracker into my mouth.

The French call it Boudin Noir. The British call it black pudding.

Straight-up no frills translation: that stuff is PIG'S BLOOD SAUSAGE. Made from CONGEALED P I G ' S B L O O D.

I promptly spit the two-thirds that I had just tasted out into my napkin, and that was the end of that.

We moved through the cheese course with no drama. Cheese is pretty straight forward. (I think. If it's not, I'd rather not know at this point.) We learned that cheese courses are supposed to have at least five different cheeses of varying firmnesses, and that you taste from mild to strong. We had Comte, Camembert (the good kind and the cheap kind for comparison), Chèvre (goat cheese), and Fourme d'Ambert (kind of like blue cheese). All of this with lots of yummy red wine.

Finally, we got to the carbs: bread and dessert. If I come home ten pounds heavier, it will be because of these things. We tried everything: croissants, pain au chocolat (essentially a chocolate-filled croissant that tastes pretty much like heaven), chausson aux pommes (a pastry filled with what tastes like apple sauce but fresher than that stuff from a jar that you get in a grocery store), and palmiers. The professor asked someone to name the different pastries on the table. I must admit, I knew every single one of them. I've been quite adventurous when it comes to trying new treats at the boulangerie.

Desserts: opéra (tastes a bit like tirimisu), profiteroles (sweet pastry stuffed with chocolate or sometimes ice cream), éclaires (chocolate and coffee), and one other thing, the name of which I can't remember, but that I would eat in a heartbeat if given another chance. All of this with a generous serving of Côte du Rhône white wine from the Rhône Valley region of France. (NOTE: by the time we got to desserts, I was so consumed with eating that I forgot to take pictures. My bad.)

The teacher walked around the room with a bottle of wine and a tray of food trying to get us to finish them both before the class was over. We all complied happily.

And that is how I started my Friday. Ça, c'est bon!