Fine Food & Entertalnment00
Times Foreign Correspondent Ashley Herrick
tries some French fondue while researching food
• French food
FROM PAGE A-1
cialty store) window in France
and you'll see whole, lifeless
chickens, cleaned, orderly dis-
played, and gazing through the
store-front window.
Order fresh lake fish at a
restaurant and you may just
find hundreds of minnow-sized
black eyes staring back at you
through fried bread-crumbs (I
experienced this surprise dur-
ing my first week in the Alps).
Steaks are meant to be a bit
bloody here, and do not even
think about asking for ketchup
(a major insult to any French
chef). But don't let these de-
scriptions scare you away from
traveling to France and div-
ing into its exquisite cuisine. If
you're worried about what the
food looks like on your plate,
just close your eyes and let your
tastebuds do the talking.
They won't be disappointed.
That said, life in France is
much easier if you keep an open
mind regarding food. Since I
fall somewhere in between the
squeamish American who can't
stand to eat a chicken that
still looks like a chicken, and
the stubborn Frenchman who
wants to see exactly where his
food came from, I've learned to
be adventurous.
So when I heard about a near-
by farm restaurant positioned
over the cattle it houses, and
that customers could actually
watch the animals below while
they dined, I was immediately
intrigued. Here's a short sum-
mary of what happe,ed when
an eager American dragged
three somewhat reluctant Brit-
ish and German assistants to
this cow and cheese farm high
in the French Alps.
The Short Story
We drove up the windy
mountain road at dusk with the
fairytale silhouette of the Cha-
teau de Menthon perched near-
by. La Ferme de la Charbon-
nitre (the farm restaurant) was
just 10 minutes away from the
bustling streets of Annecy, but
by the looks of things we were
clearly in the countryside.
As soon as I stepped out of
the car, the strong, slightly un-
pleasant odor of animals and
hay greeted my wary nose. "Uh
oh," I thought. My friends' gri-
maces told me they were not
entirely thrilled by the stench
either.
"Please let this turn out well,"
I prayed, worrying particularly
about Monika, a vegetarian,
who was already voicing her
opinion of the smell.
We hesitantly stepped into
the large wooden barn/farm-
house and walked down a hall-
way toward the restaurant. One
wall consisted of decade's worth
of photographs documenting ev-
erything from the change of sea-
sons (farm in green rolling hills;
farm under 10 feet of snow) to
cow-milking and cheese mak-
ing. A glance toward the other
wall revealed a large line of
glass windows running the
length of the hallway. The view
was not one of gorgeous moun-
tain peaks in the distance, but
of a large, two-storied barn with
at least 50 feeding cows in four
rows below.
We were the first customers
of the evening and were greeted
by the entire restaurant staff: a
middle-aged man and woman,
casually dressed, and welcom-
ing. They showed us to the
2nd-story dining room which
was tiny compared to the barn
below. The tables were long and
wooden with bench-style seat-
ing.
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I crawled into the corner and
glanced out over the cows. Yep,
this would certainly be interest-
ing, I realized.
The restaurant menu consist-
ed of several staples: charcute-
rie (various types of deli meats),
bread and cornichon (little pick-
les), salad with lardons (bacon
squares), and a rotating entr6e
of traditional Savoyard dishes
like cheese fondue, tartiflette,
or raclette. Since it was still
cold outside, we chose fondue for
four, and extra salad for Moni-
ka who would not be eating any
meat (Side note: It's not very
common to find vegetarians in
France, so we weren't surprised
when the lady looked strangely
at us when we explained this.
It's probably even more uncom-
mon that a vegetarian wouldn't
mind staring at cows while ev-
eryone around her eats meat).
The food was good - nothing
too unusual. There were some
rather large cobwebs, however,
that freaked me out a bit. It's
one thing to know that they
were behind glass, high in the
barn's ceiling. It's another thing
to see a spider staring hungrily
from its web (as if I was fatten-
ing myself up to be HIS dinner).
Refusing to follow in the clas-
sic nursery rhyme footsteps of
little Miss Muffet, I decided to
ignore him and concentrated
on my food. And by the time we
had made it halfway through
the meal, our noses had become
accustomed to the odd cow-ma-
nure/hay smell.
Everything was rather nor-
mal- as normal as they could be
at least - until the fondue. We
were all laughing, joking and
having a good time, and I was
dipping a piece of bread in the
fondue pot, when all of a sud-
den we heard a strange sound.
Several customers at nearby
tables perked up in their seats
and glanced out the big glass
window.
I, too, looked down into the
barn to see an unusual sight:
one of the cows was giving birth
about 40 feet away. We were
all a bit shocked and couldn't
help but stare in awe at this
somewhat gross, yet special ex-
perience. When the new-born
calf was finally out and on the
ground, a farm-hand tied a rope
around his two front legs and
dragged him away from the
hooves of all the other cows so
that he could try standing up on
his own.
Everyone breathed a sigh of
relief, and I turned to gauge
my friend's reactions. Thank-
fully, instead of disgusted fac-
es, I saw smiles. We happily
finished off the fondue (with a
bit of a change in subject), and
I decided I had finally discov-
ered the best approach to eat-
ing in France: always be ready
to experience the unexpected,
because anytime food is con-
cerned, you never know what
you're going to get.
Germaine Bazzle - part
of the 3 woman Tribute
to Juanita Brooks
(Times Photo by Landis
McMahon)
THE PONCHATOULA TIMES, APRIL 29 , PAGE A-3
Parish Champion 1964 PHS Green Wave
In 1964 Ponchatoula took the parish basketball championship, coached by Bill Johnson,
the legendary Ponchatoula coach. Thanks to the memory of player Buddy Pugh, the team
was identified thus: (Back row, left to right) Coach Johnson, Jay Le Bourgeois, Buddy
Pugh, Dilton Hutchinson, the late John Vitter, Mike Rogers, Larry Watts, Jerry Gardner,
(front row, left to right) Walter Ordoyne, Erwin Jenkins, Lewis Edwards, Ron Jenkins,
the late John Turner, William Johnson, and Ron Matthews. Johnson also coached PHS
Football 1955-60.
• Victor00A00E A_ 1
team ran a Carnival record time
of 37.9 for the 4x100. Bolt's bril-
liant burst for the last split was
timed in an astounding 8.79
seconds.
Senior LSU pole-vaulter
Josh Dominguez enjoyed an
outstanding performance in
the field events as he snapped
a six-year drought with LSU's
first championship in the men's
pole-vault championships since
2004 at the Penn Relays.
Dominguez was impressive
as he cleared the bar at heights
of 16-6 ¾ and 17-0 % on his first
attempts. He then stayed alive
in the competition with a clear-
ance at 17-4 ½ on his third at-
tempt before clearing the bar at
17-8 ½ on his first attempt for a
new personal record.
Dominguez was eliminated
from the event with a trio of
misses at 18-0 ½ but not before
becoming the fourth Tiger to
win the event at the Penn Re-
,lays.
Former LSU standout Daniel
Trosclair was the last to win the
Penn Relays pole vault in 2004,
while Tiger great Russ Buller
captured a pair of titles in 1997
and 2000.
With his performance,
Dominguez moves into the No.
6 spot on LSU's all-time per-
formance list outdoors and has
now cleared 17-5 four times this
season. He was ranked 10th in
the National College Men's Per-
formance list before the Penn
Competition.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers
have now wrapped up the regu-
lar season and will prepare for
their trip to the 2010 South-
eastern Conference Outdoor
Track & Field Championships
to be held from May 13-16 at
Tom Black Track at LaPorte
Stadium at the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville.
Theresa Andersson
(Times Photo by Landis
McMahon)
CLARIFICATION
In the April 22 edition, a page one photograph illustrated
a story first reported in The Ponchatoula Times,'that the
Louisiana Garden Club Federation had awarded the Pon-
chatoula Rotary Club for its solid support of the Ponchatou-
la Library. As originally reported, that award came as the
result of the Ponchatoula Gardenettes nominating the Ro-
tary Club.
Restaurant in France
(Times Photo by Ashley Herrick)
2for1
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$1.50
Bucket of 5 Beer Domestic
$10.00
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Sell or Buy Anything You want Just $6.49 for 20 words -- Ask about Statewide Classifieds -- Call 985/386-2877 or editor@ponchatoula.com
