Bonjour French Market Friends,
French Municipal elections are into the 2nd round this week, after support in the first voting round for both hard Right and hard Left was split with the Centrists squashed in the middle. This week sees the negotiations between all the smaller parties and the 2 larger parties, in return for gaining positions and power in the Municipalities. It is complicated, what has clearly emerged is voter apathy with 44% voter abstention which is a big concern (Results map attached courtesy of Reddit).
Across the world this month of Francophonie, the celebration of the French language and Culture, was shared with 400milllion French speakers in 5 continents. In our beautiful city we hosted nearly 5000 visitors to the Francophonie Festival at the Belgian Embassy in Newlands. It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves with French Arts and Culture from regions across Africa and the Indian Ocean. The fact that we had a queue at our French Market stand the entire day shows how popular French cheese remains. (This image was taken at set up, overlooked by the King and Queen of Belgium)
The most popular cheese on our stall was the Marcel Petite Comte aged for more than 15 months in the Fort St Antoine, the second was the Roquefort aged in the caves that dominante the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. Which is where the farmers stored their cheese in ancient times, and the famous Penicillium roqueforti blue mould was discovered on the cheese. If you have not tasted them yet, then come in and try some, they are exceptional. All our other cheeses are amazing too, but those two were the top of the list which is just as well as I have just imported 80kgs of Roquefort. That’s the minimum order quantity now.
Recently we have seen a surge in clients requesting fresh truffles and caviar. I think there must be “Influencers” or famous Chefs talking about these products and generating enquiries. All the products are 
listed on our site as “on request” as the stock is kept in JNB and we courier it from there around the country.
We have several different types of caviar from Northern Italy where the pure freshwater farms are a peaceful setting to raise the sturgeon. Each type of sturgeon produces a different size roe which have subtle differences in flavour and colour. The Beluga caviar is the most famous as the roe are
the largest in size and flavour. To eat the caviar, we recommend using a mother of pearl spoon as the caviar does not work with metal. For serving caviar, you can eat it “natural” with no other flavours distracting your taste buds from the delicate taste of the caviar. Another way is to serve it on top of boiled potatoes or hard-boiled eggs. For cocktails, people often serve caviar on blinis (mini pancakes) with crème fraiche.
We have started getting mini blinis made for us locally (as we cannot get any 
from France at present). The size varies from 2 to 3cm. Let me know if you wish to order and we will organise them for you. We can supply any quantity, but we need 2 to 3 day’s notice. We can also supply the mother of pearl spoons, or a gift box containing the caviar with a spoon and a Zwilling glass bowl that you fill with ice and place the caviar on top.
For the fresh Italian truffles we are nearing the end of the Black winter season in the next couple of weeks. These coal black truffles have white veins inside and have the strongest aroma. The simplest way to serve them is thinly sliced over fre
sh tagliatelle tossed in a cream sauce or on a slice of freshly baked bread lavishly spread with some of our traditionally churned Echire butter.
If you have never tried to make pasta, now is the time to try, I have made it once and it’s a lot more work than just opening up a packet of dried pasta, but…it’s infinitely better. If you prefer to buy pasta, I can recommend our stock of truffle flavoured pasta and the black squid ink pasta we get in from Italy.
I hope you enjoy our Human Rights holiday on Saturday 21st when we remember the Sharpeville massacre and celebrate the freedom we have achieved through our democratic system.
Regards