23 March 2016

Where we ate in Montrichard: La Villa

It's been a week already. Last Wednesday, we went over to Montrichard and had lunch. Our original plan was to have hamburgers, but the new burger joint we had read about turned out to be exactly that. It's mostly a carry-out place, apparently.

Here is the signboard outside on the sidewalk that advertises the daily special. The price is 13.50 euros, as you see. That's about $15 (U.S.). Noontime menus are often called "formulas" in France — this is the formula that will be your lunch solution today.

It's made up of a first course of a "shirred" or baked egg with bacon (the word lard in French means bacon or pork belly, and poitrine [breast] is a synonym — the meat is often smoked or fumé). A shirred egg might also be called an egg en cocotte; it's baked in a ramekin. The verb is "to shirr."

The second course is a French classic, Blanquette de Veau. That's a white veal stew. (My recipe is unconventional because I put carrots in it. You can leave them out.) First you simmer the veal for a couple of hours with aromatic vegetables in white wine, and then you make a white sauce with that liquid, some butter, and some flour. At the end you put the veal back into the white sauce, add some button mushrooms and cooked pearl onions, and then squeeze in some fresh lemon juice to perk it all up. It's often eaten with rice, but potatoes or pasta are not unusual with a blanquette. At La Villa, the side dish is pommes boulangère, which is what we call in plain English "scalloped" or "au gratin" potatoes — probably without cheese. ("Scalloped" means thin-sliced.)

The dessert of the day is a slice of cream pie called a Flan Pâtissier. I've posted the recipe here before. I've never been able to make a flan as good as the ones you get in pastry shops or restaurant, however. The secret must be gelatin.


Anyway, here's the restaurant. La Villa has a full offering of French dishes on its carte, which means "menu" in English. You can have the formule or you can order à la carte. I just looked it up on Trip Advisor, and there it is rated as the no. 1 restaurant in Montrichard. It was very good, including the atmosphere and the service, which was friendly and fast, but not brusque. The couple who run the place (and maybe own it) both speak very good English.


So what did we end up eating? Remember the fancy burger menu I posted a few days ago? Well, three of us let ourselves be tempted and had a La Villa hamburger for lunch, with ice cream for dessert. There's my hamburger above. It's the one called the Viennois on the signboard and came with slow-roasted onion slices, some shavings of Parmesan cheese, and a black-pepper sauce. It was cooked very rare. In France, it's normal to eat your hamburger with a knife and fork. The fries were house-made and good. Pain viennois is tender, Viennese-style bread made with milk, butter, and a pinch of sugar — that was the bun. For the price of the burger, we could have had the three-course lunch menu. Oh well.

15 comments:

  1. Your burger is so rare it almosts looks like steak tartare in a bun!!
    The bun would put me off... although I'd probably give it a try... but the chips look really tasty...except there is no mayo to dip them in.
    I wouldn't say you let yourselves be tempted...after all, you went out for a burger!!
    Would "pommes boulangère" be a dish that goes back to the days when people used to prepare food and get it cooked in the residual heat from the bakers' wood ovens?

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    1. Why would the bun put you off? It's the standard U.S. style hamburger bun, made with flour, milk, eggs, butter, a pinch of sugar, and yeast. That's what a petit pain viennois, a.k.a. a petit pain au lait, is all about. The hamburger at La Villa was very rare. I probably should have asked for it cooked à point (medium).

      Yes for your thought about the pommes boulangère...

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    2. Now I know why I detest burger buns...
      They are just too sweet for me, like English milk loaf...just not savoury enough!!
      As I grew up burgers came in a floured bap...as did ham & salad, tuna salad, egg mayo...et cetera, et cetera!

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    3. What is "floured bap"? I guess I should look it up. In pain viennois or pain au lait, there's just enough sugar to get the yeast going, not to taste. The bread doesn't go through a long rise the way other breads do. The bun needs to be tender and not too floury.

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    4. I looked it up. Industrial versions of the buns might be too sweet, but if you make them yourself you can either put in a pinch of sugar or a tiny bit of honey for the same effect. The buns at La Villa appeared to me to be made by a boulanger, not in a factory.

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  2. I don't eat meat but the bun looks good ! lol ... I have a love for french fries .. it really has to be a bad batch for me not to eat them all. Good thing I don't make them myself :)
    If someone takes me out for my birthday today, I will have a plate of fries :)

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  3. Thanks for the comment about the pommes boulangere- I was scratching my head about that one. That burger is way to rare for me, but I bet it tasted good.

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    1. It turned out to be a little too rare for me too, but it was delicious.

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  4. <3 Merci ... I expect to be high on chocolate by the afternoon.

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  5. The meal looks delicious. How do you think the restaurant would handle you sending back the meat to be cooked further? I supect the flan issue is all about the top being carmelized with a mini-torch, but I could be worng.

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    1. I'm sure I could have sent the burger back, but as I said it was delicious. It was only afterward, the next day, that I realized my system doesn't deal as well with rare beef as it used to. Enough said...

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  6. After reading the menu board and your explanation of the various items, I was quietly drooling onto the keyboard, expecting lovely pictures of your three-course luncheon.
    Oops.
    The fries look very good, but that burger is too pink for me. What did the fourth member of your party have?

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    1. We have those three course meals at home all the time. It's fun to have something different when we go out to a restaurant.

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    2. Emm, I'm sorry I never answered your question about our fourth for lunch. He had a braised lamb shank with vegetables. He said it was very good.

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