Bonjour French Market Friends,
In France the centrist government led by PM Lecornu managed to get their budget finally approved, after months of negotiations and the resignations of 2 previous incumbents due to no-confidence votes. The budget is trying to reduce France’s debt. Concessions were made to the Socialists including funding for the Euro scholarship students’ meals at specific University restaurants. These meals include 3 courses with a choice. I bet cheese is one of the options. I think this is great support for bright students with limited means (Image courtesy of SLFacebook).
My French Film Festival-Best of Shorts, Season 1 has just been released online, this is a free global access Festival, running over 3 periods. You can see it on YouTube “MyFrenchStories”. Viewers are asked to post reviews.
Here in Cape Town our scholars are back at school and Varsity and the traffic is already jammed up. Monday sees the start of the African Mining Indaba, with gold seemingly on an unstoppable rise, the conference will be well attended. Plus we have SONA when our President tells us what is possibly in store for the coming year. The city is filling up with some serious business delegates and the entire Diplomatic corps. Luckily, we have just flown in several hundred kilos of cheese so there will be plenty for all the after-parties.
We have new stock of the delicious Tomme des Croquants which is the medium firm textured mountain cheese with a dryish crust that is washed with the liqueur of walnuts and tastes amazing. We also have the St Julien au noix, a soft cream cheese layered with walnut cream cheese. We have wheels of Camembert, handcrafted Brie, Triple cream Delice, Vacherousse, Raclette and Morbier, kilos of aged Comte, Stilton and Le Gruyere to mention just a few.
As we countdown to Valentine’s Day on next Friday we have organised some mini red Valentines gift bags containing Italian chocolates and a couple of fun ideas. We also have boxes of Italian Baci chocolates and bottles of Champagne from the leading Champagne houses such as Louis Roederer and Pol Roger which will really impress your partner. We are having some heart shaped Valentine’s cakes made, there will be a limited stock so please message me if you want to order.
If you are thinking of spoiling you partner with a romantic picnic, we can make up a cheese and charcuterie platter for you, with fresh baguettes, a couple of candles and a Laurent Perrier Champagne gift box which contains a bottle of La Cuvee Champagne and 2 glasses. This champagne has been aged for a minimum of 4 years, a blend predominantly of Chardonnay, plus Pinot Noir and small percentage of Pinot Meunier. A really great gift for Valentine’s Day. We can even chill the champagne. All you need to do is pre-order from me.
For my recipe this week I decided to share my favourite dish that I always have on my first night in Singapore. Satay is a local, Singapore / Malaysian traditional street market dish of thin slices of meat on skewers that has been marinated in a spicy sauce, then braaied over a wood fire. The grilled meat is served with a traditional spicy peanut sauce and chunks of cucumber, raw onions and small balls of rice. Its quite a long process but really worth the effort, and I recommend serving this with a glass of Gustave Lorentz Gewürztraminer (Image courtesy of Pang’s Satay Singapore).
I hope you have a great weekend and look forward to seeing you again in our shop.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team