Val D'Isere Part II

After 5 months of being absent from the kitchen Deme pulls out all the stops with tarajin with porcini and tiny ravioli, called agnolotti with fresh tomato sauce. He still has his pasta touch. Enzo provided the wonderful steaks for dinner, grilled to perfection in the fireplace and the next night Claire provided the beef fondu. Food with family, and/or friends always taste better, this old Chinese saying hold true every time. Thank you Enzo and Claire for a tiny peek into your alpine refuge.



Deme makes us fresh tarajin and porcini pasta.



Here's my serving. The rich egg-yolk only noodles go well with the meaty and earthy flavors of the porcini, which we picked up at a market in Torino before heading off.


Boeuf Fondu=Beef Fondu Very lean chunks of beef are skewered and dipped into the fondu pot, which contains hot oil. The beef is cooked to you specifications then eaten with a variety of sauces such as bernaise, tartar, dijon mustard, curry sauce and my favorite a sauce made from spicy Malaysian pepper. I've had many other kinds of fondu in the past. The Chinese Hot Pot is a kind of fondu with the liquid being a concentrated broth. We cook shellfish, tofu, veggies, chicken anything actually in the broth and fish out the goodies little with copper baskets. This was my first time eating an "oil fondu?"



In the little town of Val D'Isere there is a fantastic bakery that sells baguettes, eclairs and croissants of the highest quality. The master baker of "Chevallot" has won acclaim as a master artisan baker aka Meilleur Ouvrier de France . His baguettes are so good that even in Paris, no better baguette can be found. Now I have never been to Paris but Deme, Claire and Claire's sister Valerie, both women are French, swear by these breads and pastries. After baguettes at breakfast, lunch and dinner, I am now a convert. The baguettes are airy, light, lightly tangy, very crisp on the outside and downright fantastic.