Sunday Brunch

Every season in France has a corresponding pastry and for January we have the Galette des Rois.

Sunday brunch in Canada usually means a late big breakfast enjoyed sometime in the late morning to early afternoon. In France, Sunday brunch as Mindy and I found out this past weekend is an all-day event where the goal is to make sure it is your only meal of the day. At least that was our interpretation after accepting an invitation by our friends, Robert and Corinne, to come over for "lunch" this past weekend. In addition to Mindy and I, Andronik & Anne-Julie, Tommi, and Paul also attended to round out the international contingent. Representing France were our loyal supporters Marc and Jocelyn, who had us over for dinner in the fall. It ended up being a fabulous day with great friends and fantastic food.

The meal started with appetizers of bread stuffed with goat cheese and ham, together with a hot cream cheese dish that Corinne whipped up. I would have been satisfied with this as the main meal, but being an experienced dinner in France, I have learnt about pacing yourself when eating. We then sat down for Beef Bourgeon with potatoes and once again Corinne proved her talent for cooking as the meat absolutely melted in your mouth. Robert was of course very helpful in choosing the appropriate wine for each course as a red was selected for the main course.

After eating a sizable serving of beef, it was time to move on to the cheese. Corinne produced a round bloc of cheese (unfortunately I can't remember the name) with a blade on a centre pole that produces rosettes of cheese. Of course a wine was required as you can see below.

The designated cheese cutter. The cheese wheel is little harder to use then it looks.

Robert, Corinne, Marc, & Jocelyn look amused by my efforts to work the cheese wheel and produce the perfect cheese rosette.

Mindy finally had to demonstrate the proper technique.

After we finished with the cheese, it was time for dessert, and we had the opportunity to try Galette des Rois, which is an almond flavoured pastry that is consumed in January in France to celebrate the coming of the Three Wise Men to visit the Baby Jesus. The tradition with the Galette des Rois is that each cake has a ceramic figure inside. The person who finds it is designated the King or Queen for the evening and must wear a crown. We dove into the cake, which proved to be delicious, and Anne-Julie was the lucky lady to find the ceramic princess.

Corinne cuts careful slices of the Galette des Rois.

Anne-Julie found the ceramic princess and chose Andro as her prince.