Back when I was at university it was ham, egg and chips in the pub. A few years later at law school I couldn’t survive without a weekly madras in the local curry house. Now living in deepest darkest Provence my choice of comfort food is the confit d’agneau at the Restaurant d’Etang.....
Gourmands go next door to La Petite Maison, and they’re right. L’Etang is not for food snobs. Every plate is a bit of an impressionists feast, with smudges of colour everywhere and plenty of dollops of tapenade. I wouldn’t be surprised if the chef, Patrick, didn’t have some olive paste on his toast in the morning. The choice of vegetables is always the same - a roughly mashed potato with a little garlic, and a courgette baked with provencal herbs. None of it is very subtle, or original, but it is authentic. Fillet steak comes topped with a Buoux goat’s cheese - as a combination it’s not up there with a nice peppercorn sauce, but you can’t fault the local roots. Then there’s the view, which is nothing short of spectacular. Sitting under some of the tallest plane trees in Provence, next to the gentle lapping waters of the etang, and with the Luberon mountains visible in the background, quibbling about an over reliance on tapenade as a garnish seems a little churlish. The main reason to go is the confit d’agneau. Shredded from the bone and then compacted and served under a topping of mash potato and cheese with an accompanying sauce, it’s the type of dish you look forward to for weeks. When it arrives, it never disappoints, it’s a classic that could easily grace the menu of somewhere like The Ivy. Which brings me onto the restaurant Bastidon in Lourmarin, set in the grounds of the Hotel Bastide. The Hotel is uber trendy. It has themed rooms, sunken baths and cool lounge music. Most of the time it hits the mark (the office themed room is an exception, who wants to sleep in a room filled with filing cabinets and utilitarian desks?) and would not be out of place in London, New York or Paris. But designing rooms is easy because the objects in them tend to be static. In restaurants the staff and the food have to match the surroundings. The Bastidon’s fusion menu of French classics with an oriental twist aspires to be as hip and happening as the hotel, and the waiters flow around in baggy white garments which make them look like they’re in a religious order. Unfortunately none if works that well. The French classics suffer by comparison with other more focused restaurants, and with noodles rather than fragrant rice the Thai green chicken curry was disappointing. Still over coffee we figured out a use for the office room - a one night stand with your secretary.
Comments