Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Provençal Food & Wine
With copious amounts of garlic and olive oil, abundant seafood, fruit and vegetables burst-
ing with flavour and perfectly-chilled rosé, Provençal cuisine is every gourmet's dream.
For tips on making the best of it,
Click here
.
Sunny Gastronomy
Olive Oil
Olive oil is the keystone to Mediterranean cuisine. It moistens every salad, drizzles
croutons and cheeses, fries fish and onions, and bakes summer fruit.
There are dozens of varieties, many of which are protected
by
Appellation d'Origine Protégée
(AOP), a label protecting re-
gional know-how and products. There are seven AOPs for
olives and olive oil across Provence-Côte d'Azur: Nyons,
Baux-de-Provence, Nice, Aix-en-Provence, Nîmes, Haute-
Provence and Provence.
Each oil has a distinctive colour, flavour and texture, which
can be attributed to the olive variety but also the pressing tech-
niques and maturing processes used.
Olives are picked from November to February. Table olives
are harvested first; olives destined to be pressed come last. On
average, it takes 5kg of olives to yield 1L of oil.
Tasting Olive
Oil
»Domaine Saint-Joseph,
Tourrettes-sur-Loup
»Moulin à Huile d'Olive Alzi-
ari, Nice
»Moulin de Callas, Callas
»Les Olives: Huiles du
Monde/Le Monde de la Truffe,
St-Rémy de Provence
Fruit of the Sea
Provençal cuisine is often described as Mediterranean, and so it's no surprise that a cuisine
named after a sea should feature plenty of seafood.
Typical Mediterranean catches include
merlan
(whiting),
St-
Pierre
(John Dory),
galinette
(tub gurnard),
daurade
(sea
bream) and
rascasse
(scorpion fish). One of the finest however
is
loup
, also known as
bar
(sea bass). The local speciality is to
cook it
en croûte de sel
(in salt crust - the result is surprisingly unsalty).
