Last week, to celebrate Annemarie's birthday, a group of eleven of us went out to eat. We made a reservation at the restaurant d'application at her school, which is also a vocational school like mine. Our meal was completely prepared and served by students who are learning to be cooks and waiters. They are supervised by some of their professors, but working here gives them hands-on practice for their future profession.
The head chef teacher was generous enough to let us all walk through the kitchen as he described the preparations for the meal.
Our first course was "fillets de rouget avec son mesclun et tapenade" which is fillets of red mullet (?) fish served cold over a mixed green salad with black olive and anchovy tapenade.
The main course of the evening was "carre d'agneau avec ratatouille" which is rack of lamb! I have only had lamb a couple of times before this and it was delicious! The ratatouille is composed of tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and onion.
We were then served with a cheese plate which had Pelardon, a soft goat's cheese which is made in our region, and Roquefort, the sheep's milk blue cheese that is well-known for being extremely strong!Our dessert course was composed of "peches flambees" and some type of green, flavorless melon, and a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
It was really fun to eat a traditional meal from our region, and as always, our group had a great time together.Rachel, Martha, Britt, Annemarie, and I leave on Saturday morning to start our February vacation. We will go first to Dublin, then Berlin, Venice, and Sardinia before returning to Beziers/Sete on February 26th. We will only have sporadic access to email and internet. I will email my parents when I can, so if you would like an update you are welcome to contact them!
