Saturday, January 01, 2011

Bonne année

Happy New Year! On New Year's eve in France it's traditional to eat oysters, so we did. There was a small market in town on Friday morning; only a few vendors were there. But the regular fish monger was there and had the usual bins and baskets filled with huîtres (oysters).

Oysters for sale!

The oysters they sell are farmed out on the west coast around the Ile d'Oléron and a town called Marennes. The closest large city is La Rochelle. It's one of the very well known oyster producing areas on the French coast.

We got ourselves a dozen flat oysters and one and a half dozen fines de claires. Ken made a mignonnette sauce (shallots, vinegar, and black pepper) to accompany them along with buttered rye bread. What a feast!

13 comments:

  1. Happy New Year wishes from Australia.

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  2. Happy New year from Caseysworlds....Bellingham, Washington.....let's hope 2011's a good one with no more wars.
















    Ejm

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  3. Umm, haven't had oysters in awhile. Happy 2011!

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  4. ˜*•. ˜"*°•.˜"*°•.•°*" ˜.•°*"˜ .•*˜•°*" ˜
    ˜"*°•.˜"* Bonne année *"˜. •° *"˜
    .•*˜ .•°* " ˜.•° * "˜"*°•.˜"*°•. ˜*•

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  5. Happy New Year and may you have a fantastic garden this year!

    BettyAnn

    p.s. Could you ship me a bushel of those oysters, please?

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  6. andrew, and the same to you from France!

    casey (and humans), thanks!

    vtt, you as well!

    rick, do you find them often in your markets?

    judy, tasty, and we didn't get sick! ;)

    cubby, same to you and Greg!

    beaver, how clever! Merci!

    starman, and to you and Robb as well!

    bettyann, thanks! And that would be cool, eh?

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  7. Happy New Year to you as well.
    Those oysters look gorgeous. I had a few just the other night at a local brasserie here in my neighborhood.

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  8. Happy New Year to you too!

    I have started it off with a new blog, which you can find by going to La France Profonde. I'm not shutting that one down, just feeling a little weary of all of that deepest France imagery.

    Cheers!

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  9. I hope I am not too late to wish you both a happy new year.

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