Sips & Nibbles...
Morsels of information about food and wine by guest contributors
Biking in Brittany: Creperies and Vin de Pays
Photos and article by Leigh Klotz, Jr.
"We're trying a bit of an experiment on you," said Geoff Husband.
Not usually the words you want to here while on a long-awaited vacation in France.
Geoff and his wife Kate own Breton Bikes, a bike trip facilitator headquartered in a small village in France with a name that seems like it might have been inspiration for the Coneheads: "Gouarec.
My wife Becky and I are excited to begin a trip we've planned for a few years now, waiting for our two children (at this point, age 12) to be able to hold their own as distance cyclists.
A late email exchange with the Husbands has put them in a bit of a panic, as all four of us are on the short side and we've depleted their store of appropriate bikes.
But Geoff is pointing to the sleek design of a new touring bicycle, so we hold off for a bit as he steps back into the camping tent that serves as their bike shed.
And Kate expresses her confidence that all will work out: "It's dead easy," she says cheerily as we load our bags into her red Renault.
Brittany is a multi-faceted region of France, deeply connected with the Celtic traditions of the nearby British Isles, yet unmistakably French.
And unabashedly rural: Central Brittany, where Gouarec is located, is far away from the coastal towns that bring in the largest share of tourist Euros.
We've chosen this region -- not out of any family connection (as some might who tour the Emerald Isle) -- or out of a desire to visit vineyards (there are none), but quite simply because of Geoff and Kate, and their ability to plan and provision our week here.
Leave the close atmosphere of Paris on a hot summer day by the TGV for Saint Brieuc, and in a few hours, you begin to unwind as the hour-long taxi ride to Gouarec passes by fields, forests, and lakes.
"We came to Brittany because it's a cycling destination," said Geoff. Without a pause, Kate finishes, "...and we stayed because, well, look around!"
Gouarec is auspiciously situated for biking on the Nantes-Brest canal, a 145km long lazy waterway which the department has turned into a biking and walking haven, complete with rest stops along the old tow path.
History has provided the Cotes d'Armor, and the neighboring department of Morbihan, with a network of small towns along the canal, as well as along the roads and lanes that stretch out from it in a harlequin-like pattern north and south.
It's usually no more than 10km to the next town, and every one has at least one highlight: a cafe, a ruined abbey, or that most Breton of establishments, the creperie.
Geoff explains: "This part of Brittany is cycle-sized. In Normandy, you may go 50km to get to the next village." Here, you can take a 5km wobble to the delightfully-named Bon Repos and down une boleé of the local cider, a perfect complement to the ubiquitous crepes.
Breton Bikes offers traditional cycling vacations with a pre-planned route of hotel reservations or campsites, but what attracted us was their gîte-based "fixed centre" tours.
Apprehensive as we were about our kids' ability to keep up (or, as they approach the teenage years, even to wake up), we liked the freedom to choose a new route each day, with the ease of a home base -- complete with kitchen and laundry facilities, and plenty of room for relaxation and reading in the long, relaxing evenings.
The clock runs two hours ahead of the sun, so a good cycling day is still ahead after a simple breakfast of a baguette, Breton butter, and jam or Nutella. We easily had time to finish coffee and pick our route for the day each morning. Most of the choices are in the 25km range, and so we based our decisions on destination and terrain.
On the second day, we compare the lists of creperies, restaurants, and cafes and picke a route passing through rolling hills and farmland to arrive at the village of Plouvénez-Quintin, which features a price fixe restaurant offering a five course meal for 11E.
The interior is plain but decorated to local taste with red-checkered tablecloths, a bottle of water, and a bottle of red vin de pays on each table. The choice of the day was Pilons de Poulet, and we felt like trying the Vercingetorixk, with the huge free-range leg and mound of frites.
Our waitress was disappointed we didn't have farmers' appetites, so we made a note to save further restaurant dinners for later in the week when we had climbed a few more hills.
After our lunch, we were thankful that almost all of the routes are downhill on the return, and glided easily in to Gouarec, making a quick stop for a few supplies at the local market before heading to our gîte, whre we toasted the day with lemonade and cider, and relaxed as village life unfolded among the brick and stone buildings, orchards, and window-boxes of Gouarec.
Twilight extended well past 10:00, and yet our day of biking had us ready to close the shutters and dream of baguettes and brioche and perhaps a new creperie just over the next hill. It'll be dead easy.
The Fine Art of Txikiteo in San Sebastian, Spain
Serving Pintxos in Gandarias
Photos and article by William and Carol Pendergast
Food, wine and vast sandy beaches are the highlight of a visit to San Sebastian, a jewelbox of a city in the Basque region of Spain near the French border.
Visiting in mid September, we were initiated into the tradition of “txikiteo,” an evening “pintxos walk” from bar to bar to sample the Basque version of tapas, washed down with a succession of wines or local cider.
More complex than traditional Spanish tapas, such as patatas bravas, fried eggplant, zucchini, or anchovies, pintxos are layered creations on slices of French baguettes, mounded into pastry cups, or served on skewers.
We sampled cod bathed in a creamy tomato sauce, slivers of red and green pimento on French bread, topped by fresh anchovies and a sort of salsa. Fresh anchovies are a mainstay of pintxos and are quite unlike the salty tinned variety sold in US stores.
At the bar Goiz Argui (above ), standout pintxos include grilled squid, sliced and served in a delicious lemon-oil sauce, and their famous grilled skewered shrimp. Pastry cups filled with wild mushrooms and topped with a sauce and crispy ham were a specialty at Gandarias.
Pintxos, or Basque Tapas
The atmosphere in a popular pintxos bar resembles barely controlled chaos. People mass four or five deep before a bar laden with platters of delicacies. You are expected to belly up to the bar, place your order and then retreat to the rear to eat, drink and converse in the din. A team of bartenders orchestrates the chaos, taking orders, barking commands to the grill, pouring drinks and keeping track of tabs.
Basque wines match the pintxos in quality and interest. Txakolina, a distinctive Basque light white produced in the regions of Getaria, Bizkaya, or Alava, is worth noting, since it has begun to appear on the wine lists in the US. Txakolina, made principally from the hondarribi grape, is traditionally fermented in foudres ( old, large oak barrels), largely replaced today by stainless steel vats.
Pouring Txakolina, Basque Style
Most txakoli is grown in the fertile, hilly Atlantic areas of the Basque Country characterized by high rainfall and cool weather, with some frost. The quality varies with the terrain. Until the 1980s txakoli was a home-distilled wine, drunk almost exclusively in the Basque Country and almost in danger of dying out towards the middle of the 19th century. But since some varieties of txakoli managed to achieve Denominación de Origen certification from 1994 onwards, its quality, spread and appeal have increased.
Txakolina is a light white wine, often a bit cloudy, with a high acidity and light fizz. It is generally consumed as an aperitif before a meal or to accompany pintxos. In a pintxos bar, the bartender (above) pours the wine into a large cup from a height of about three feet, a dramatic custom that activates the fizz into a bubbly head. Occasionally an unsteady aim means that it takes a couple of tries.
Recently in San Francisco we sampled a delicious Txakolina from the region of Vizcaya (Bizkaiko Txakolina). Two of the txakolis produced in this area, Gurrutxaga 2009 and Uriondo 2009, have received international recognition for quality.