Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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June 22, 2009 By cheryl

Mont-Saint-Michel: One Ancient Omelette


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We had heard about The Omelette, of course.

About how Annette Boutiaut, a late-19th Century innkeeper in Mont-Saint-Michel, had begun keeping eggs in store to whip together quick omelettes for hungry guests waiting for their dinner. We knew it was a key component of the town’s history — one that has thrived over the decades as a big tourist trap draw. 

Even so, as we approached Mont-Saint-Michel and marveled at its imposing medieval abbey on a mount rising from the water and towering over a vast expanse of grayish blue, it seemed like there should be more. 

If this grande dame of a town had to have a gastronomic one-trick pony, shouldn’t it be something more than a trifling breakfast dish masqeurading as dinner?

But there it was in every restaurant — most notably as the main course on a 55 Euro set menu at La Mère Poulard, where Annette’s omelettes first appeared. 

What could possibly be so special about a bunch of beaten eggs fried in a pan?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Breakfast, France, Restaurants, Tales From the Road Tagged With: Annette Boutiaut, Brittany, La Mère Poulard, Le Mouton Blanc, Mont Saint Michel, Omelette, Souffle

June 20, 2009 By cheryl

When Brittany Was Our Oyster


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The rain was coming down, not hard, not gently — just with enough of a tap-tap-tap firmness to make us think more than twice of not stopping at all when we spotted the little oyster shacks by the Cancale bay. 

This being June, we knew we were technically in the wrong month for oysters — if you still believe the “you should only eat oysters in months with ‘R’ in their names” theory. But we were in Brittany, which reportedly produces a quarter of France’s oysters every year.

These oysters, they had to be tried.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: France, Snacks, Tales From the Road Tagged With: Brittany, Cancale, France, Oysters, Portland, The Oregonian

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