Marseille

 If you read my previous post, you’ve heard about Jean-Claude Izzo’s Marseille Trilogy.  Critics compare him with Raymond Chandler and his portrayal of Los Angeles in his hard-boiled detective fiction.  My grandpa Bill suggested reading Chandler’s books after I had pretty much read all the Erle Stanley Gardner mysteries.  That was when I was in junior high school in the early 1960s and you could buy 10 paperbacks for $1 at a used bookstore on Pico Blvd in LA, several blocks from my grandparents’ home.  I think Chandler was too hard-boiled for me at the time but, reading Chandler’s biography, I can understand why he appealed to Bill.  

Izzo’s Fabio Montale fits the hard-boiled character perfectly:  « The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933) and its aftermath, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself ».  Izzo, of course, was writing in the 1990s and things may have changed in Marseille since then but the tourists and the tourist industry still stay away from Marseille.  Except for people like Anthony Bourdain.

I must also admit that Rick Steves encourages visiting Marseille:  « …it would be a shame to come to the south of France and not experience the region’s leading city and namesake of the French national anthem ».  (Note:  the Marsellais anthem was written by Claude Joseph Roget de Lisle in Strasbourg for the Army of the Rhine.  It was just that the army from Marseille was the group that kept singing it.)

The Guardian has a reading, watching, listening list for Marseille from 2021:  Marseille: a virtual tour through books, film, food and music that is a good starting point for understanding the city and its people.  It includes the 2 season Netflix series from 2018 called Marseille (what else) with Gerard Depardieu (no less).  Naturally it is their food recommendations that I like most:  Culinary Backstreets: Marseille State of the Stomach.

Finally, as if they knew we were going to Provence, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh ordered A La Table de La Bonne Mere: Recettes Provençales d’une cuisiniere Marseillaise. In French, no less!  The author, Maheva Angelmann, runs several Italian pizza restaurants in Marseille along with her Neapolitan husband and there are lots of Italian dishes in the collection.  But that is what they say about Marseille.  It is more Mediterranean than French.  At the moment, there are no holds on the book so I’ll keep it as long as I can.  Along with Rosa Jackson’s Niçoise.  I better at least cook a few recipes from them!

Books I have read…

 I better start keeping track of the books about Provence I have read or I’ll start rereading them by mistake.  

Because I’d like to visit Marseille, I’ve been reading the Marseille Trilogy by Jean-Claude Izzo.  Now this isn’t the classic Marseille Trilogy by Marcel Pagnol.  It’s a gritty set of mysteries featuring a cop and then ex-cop, Fabio Montale, who drinks and smokes too much.  Like many Marsellais, Montale comes from an immigrant Italian family and grew up with immigrants from Spain and Algeria.  

Marseille has always been a major port on the Mediterranean with a very diverse population.  In the three books, Total Chaos, Chourmo, and Solea, Izzo delves into the problems of 1990s Marseille and talks about its various neighborhoods (one of the characters even attends the university in Aix-en-Provence).  

 Montale at the time of the Trilogy, lives down the coast from central Marseille in Les Goudes, a coastal village.  Eating, especially fish, is very important for him, and that’s lucky for me!  This is a great book for learning about Marseille, its population, its problems, and what they eat.  To learn more about Marseille, see the Guadian’s 2021 article Marseille: a virtual tour through books, film, food and music.

I also checked out a couple of books from the Library by Georgeanne Brennan, who spent the 1970s in Provence pretty much as a hippy:  raising goats and making cheese.  She has returned to Provence pretty much every summer since then, alternating between that and Winters, Northern California.  The first one, Discover Provence:  A Shopping, Wine, Antiques, and Festivals Guide to the South of France, is a very quick read and nice introduction to the area, without listing a lot of specific stores or festivals.  It’s a general outline of the region.

The second book by Brennan, My Culinary Journey:  Food and Fetes of Provence with recipes, contains the narrative of a previous book, A Pig in Provence, to which Brennan has added photos (with very little relation to the text) and recipes.  Unfortunately our library system doesn’t have the older book.  Both recount her life living in Provence as a goat raiser/cheese maker in the 1970s along with her husband and young daughter.  One gets the impression that things have really changed since then:  fewer farmers now and more tourists.

Foods of Provence A to N

 I have a list of foods to try in my notes but not with an explanation of what they are, and sometimes even I forget.  So here I’m going to elaborate on them.  Naturally they are in alphabetical order and this is an ongoing post.  Of course, numbers come first.

13 Desserts de Provence

The photo above from the Maison Mirabeau winery is one of the best illustrations of the «treize desserts» that are eaten on Christmas Eve in Provence standing for Christ and his 12 apostles.  They are Almonds, Walnuts, Raisins and Figs representing 4 mendicant orders; Dates representing the east and the wise men, Fruit pastes put up in the summer, notably quince; Black and White nougat representing winter or evil and summer or good; olives, fresh fruit (apples, pears, or citrus), Calissons, Navettes and Pompe a l’Huile (breads).

Affligen beer:  OK this is really a Belgian ale but I found it on a menu along with Mort Subite Kriek, a Belgian cherry lambic, and I want to make sure I don’t get a lager…

Aioli: A mayonnaise-like sauce made by emulsifying pounded garlic with olive oil, salt and sometimes lemon juice.  Traditionally it didn’t have egg in it but NY Times Cooking adds an egg yolk and ATK adds egg yolk and sugar…

Agneau au lait:  This is suckling lamb which is available only in spring time.  Fernando should get his fill of lamb in Provence.

Artichauts violet de Provence:  These are pretty purple artichokes that are supposed to be very common in Provence.  April and May are prime artichoke season and I’ll need to try them thinly sliced raw as a salad.

Artichauts à la Barigoule: Serious Eats has an explanation of how these artichokes are named after a mushroom that they apparently were  substitutes for.  They are peeled down to the stalk and heart and cooked with vegetables, stock and white wine, and served with a butter parsley sauce.

Beignets de Fleurs de Courgettes:  These are summer squash flowers that are battered and fried, sometimes stuffed.  Usually they use male flowers but sometimes you will find baby zucchini attached to them (more expensive that way).  Julie Andrieu, who has a France.tv show that you can watch on YouTube, has a recipe for them.  Her channel is in French of course and she speaks very fast.  Sometimes there are subtitles (in English, French or Spanish) but you know how those are…

Berlingots:  These are traditional fruit-flavored hard candies in a pillow shape with white stripes.  These handmade artisan products are naturally flavored and colored and have a long history, perhaps all the way back to Avignon Pope Clement V in 1313.  You can read about them in The Connexion.  One of the centers of production is in Carpentras, 97 km north of Aix-en-Provence, 2-3 hours by public transportation.  If you want to see how they are made, it’s easier to watch this YouTube video.

Bouillabaisse:  This is the iconic fish stew from Marseille that used to be a dish of poor fishermen using the unsold fish that they caught.  Now it has been civilized with additions of saffron and shellfish and the price has risen as well (up to 80€ per person).  Peter Mayle recommends going to Le Peron restaurant in Marseille for their bouillabaise (73€) and the view of the sea.

Bourride:  Bourride is a fish stew typically made with lotte (monkfish) and potatoes and covered with an aioli sauce.

Brandade de Morue:  A dish of pulverized salt cod with olive oil and garlic, and sometimes with potatoes mashed in with it.  It is also eaten in Italy (baccalà mantecato) and in Spain (brandada de bacalao).  If you want to learn more check out Serious Eats.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape:  These are the famous red wines from outside of Avignon, north of Aix.  Translated it means the new castle of the Pope, as in when the popes relocated to Avignon.  Daddy once sent me to buy a case of it with Nana (I was 20) because the May Company advertised the case in the LA Times at an incredibly low price.  It turned out to be a missprint but they sold it to us at the price anyway.  I’m not sure if we’ll be able to afford it these days.

Coquillages:  Shellfish, of which there are a lot, although some say the shellfish from the cold waters of France’s north coast are better than those of the Mediterranean.  In any case I promise I will slurp down a raw oyster…

Daube de Boeuf Provençal:  This is the Provençal boeuf bourguignon but it has orange peel in it and its vegetables are mainly onion and carrots.  It gets its name from the daubiére earthenware pot that it was traditionally cooked in.  The photo of it at the left is from an article in Craftsmanship Magazine about Paula Wolfert and her clay pots.  It includes an article by Wolfert:  The Magic of the French Daubière.

Fougasse:  Related to the Italian focaccia and other flat breads of the Mediterranean, fougasse is usually slashed to resemble a stalk of wheat. Unlike focaccia, it is not slathered with oil but can have savory additions like garlic, olives or anchovies.  Here’s a recipe from Domaine Mirabeau.  Naturally it goes well with one of their Rosés.

Gardiane de Taureau:  Also known as daube camarguaise, this is a beef stew using the black bulls from the Camargue region west of Marseille.  Julie Andreiu has a recipe for this as well, along with a short video.  It includes orange peel, chocolate and olives, as well as red wine and vegetables.  She serves it with the red rice of the Camargue that you see in the photo.

Huitres de Bouzigues:  Bouzigues is on the southwest French Mediterranean coast to the west of the Camargue and Montpellier.  They are supposed to be the best if you can find them.  You know I am swearing to eat an oyster raw.

Miel de Lavande, de Chêne et de Châtaignier:   Lavender, Oak and Chestnut honey.  We have 6 weeks to use up 3 jars of honey as I don’t think I would risk bringing it home in a suitcase.  Or we could just buy it from The Honey of Kings (so much for the French Revolution) or just have a taste of each at the marché.

Navettes:  These are dry cookies in the shape of small boats that are flavored with orange blossom water and traditionally prepared for Candlemas (Feb. 2), especially in Marseille.  Le Grand Pastis has a list of where to buy them.  Le Grand Pastis reports on the Food Scene in Marseille in case you want to read more.  In French.

There is also a navette bakery in Aix:  Les Navettes Aixoises.

Waiting 13 Months isn’t so long…

 I’ve been worrying that waiting 13 months until we go to Provence is awfully long.  Then I reviewed my blog posts and realized that we waited 17 month to go on our Sicily trip.  We switched our OAT September 2020 reservations for Machu Picchu to November 2021 reservations for Sicily in June of 2020, the height of COVID.  So that was 17 months of preparation and I made use of every minute of it.  13 months will allow me to do almost as much for Provence!

Already I’ve read the Provence and Cote d’Azur/Nice chapters in Daddy’s copy of Waverley Root’s The Food of France.  Granted it was published in 1966, almost 60 years ago, but it should give me a good idea of what food was traditional.  However, Waverley is not always the best informed:  he didn’t know what a loquat was.  But then he came from New England, not California, and this was before Alice Waters.  He doesn’t have much to say about Aix-en-Provence but he does have nice things to say about Nice, probably because it is on the coast and heavily influenced by Italy.

Now I’ll get back to reading M.F.K. Fisher’s Two Towns in Provence: Map of Another Town and A Considerable Town, which covers Aix-en-Provence and Marseille.  My copy is a Kindle book and I have an inborn resistance to reading it online.  Not that I don’t read loads of things online but a book I like to touch and hold in my hands.  You can’t thumb through an online book like you do the print edition, looking for things to skip and checking how many pages are left to read in a chapter…  My edition was published in 1978 although the first edition is from 1964 so again we are looking at an Aix and a Marseille from 50 years ago.  At the time, Aix had a population of 50,000, now it has 150,000.  And Marseille, the Considerable Town, is undoubtedly « considerably » larger now with more than 800 thousand.  However, compared to cities in China, that’s hardly a drop in the bucket, is it?

Yes, I’m looking at more recently published books too.  I just picked up Rosa Jackson’s Niçoise, Market-Inspired Cooking from France’s Sunniest City. Who’s Rosa Jackson you say?  She doesn’t sound French at all, or even Italian!  However, she’s been running a cooking school, Les Petits Farcis, in Nice for over 20 years and the recipes look  authentic to me.  I’ll have to try the socca and the pissaladière.  Afterall, I have 13 more months to go!