Maison Vauron

Today's post will show you a French Deli/Restaurant/Wine Cellar in Newmarket that I came across on a walk several months ago. Jeanne and I took Dianne to it while she was visiting but Allie and the boys had never been there. I thought that since the boys were on school holiday, it would be a good time for all of us to go to lunch there. 

I told the boys to look at this trip today to Maison Vauron as today's Grandpa School.*  I asked them to be open to trying new things and patient, because having lunch in a French Cafe sometimes takes a little longer than stopping at your typical Kiwi takeaway joint. 

This is the entrance from the street. Its presence is not overwhelming. But come inside. Do you have your ears attuned to a French accent? I hope so, because these folks are the genuine article. And the food proves it.   

Nothing fancy by the looks of it, but then, wait until you start looking at what's offerred. 

That is a serious cheese cooler. 

A 198 lb. wheel of cheese. 

Chaumes, the real

Permit me to make it cheese.

Mellow and rich in flavor. 

(To anyone who speaks French, forgive me for a possibly bad translation)

Cheeses, pates, canned, boxed and bottled delights.  

It would take a long time to try every cheese, and sausage available.

The place was jumping despite, or maybe because of the terrible weather today. It was a bit crowded downstairs so we got tables on the second floor. That's also where the wine 'cellar' is located.  

Let's go explore upstairs.

(2nd floor)   The Tour de France is on so they have a bicycle motiff going on.

This is the first time I've seen a wine 'cellar' that's on the 2nd floor. The wine is arranged on the shelves and around the room based the regions of France. 

 The waiter serving our table was happy to also act as sommelier, and took me back into the rows of shelves to show me the wines he thought would compliment our meals. That's the first time I've ever done that, but it was very pleasant.  

Wagyu beef, potatoes and  cheese

We started with a cheese, sausage, and duck pate platter that also had pickles and jam on it and came with lots of bread. 

Jeanne and I had a glass of wine, but because Allie was driving, she stuck with water. 

The boys also had hot chocolates.
We discovered that it's crowded because of it's food. No more expensive than any Kiwi cafe, but wow. 

 Oxtail and Onion soup

I've had this once. I am addicted. 

Poached eggs, potatoes and duck sausage

It was definitely a learning experience for the boys. Arram especially found it a bit hard to take. His idea of fine dining after all is chicken nuggets so even his crusty cheese sandwich was weird. Nevertheless, he hung in there and was very patient. Amiri showed great maturity in his table manners and willingness to try new foods. He tried salmon rillettes. My hat is off to both boys. 

When you step through the door of Maison Vouron, it's like you are transported to France. Traveling to foreign countries is not always easy I told the boys, but you'll find that you never forget the experience. I think if nothing else, they'd agree that the French know how to make a good cup of hot chocolate.  

And a good lemon pie. (scrap of dark chocolate pie also seen) 

* Grandpa school.  During holidays from school, I hold a little learning session most weekdays with the boys. The lesson lasts about 10 minutes so it is very easy. (on us both)   While the boys sometimes roll their eyes and moan when I call for grandpa school to start, they have also sometimes reminded me, if I'm slow to start it, that it's time.

I want them to know as much about American history, culture, and  accomplishments as possible. Current events too. They see many of the photos from various space probes that are out there. We talk about science, math and literature. (Amiri recently discovered that one of his favorite books is a first edition. He now understands what that means and was excited)  

The point is not so much to make them learn things, and there are no quizes or tests to worry about, but to keep ideas floating around in their very active minds. Even if some topics mentioned are too advanced for them to learn in detail about now, such as knowing for example, about the single largest machine in the world, the Large Hadron Collider, and the sub-atomic particles it researches, is good for them. And they do seem to enjoy it.

* Some of the food shown here was actually photographed at a later date.  -djf

Into the wild places (photographed in N.Z. at the end of January 2017)

Okay, I admit it. I'm not really venturing into a remote and truly wild area of New Zealand. I'm in a scenic reserve. But it's one that is about as close to the wild state as one finds around here. There is a bit of a trail at the entrance to the reserve, but that quickly fades away until it is just the memory of a trace of a trail. Often times I had to stand and really study the ground before proceeding. Obviously, not many people visit this reserve. Someone though, who came this way and found the trail to be lacking, apparently had some yellow tape in his pocket, because he left markers as he went along. I thought his trail was as good as any. 

I made lots of trails through the hardwoods and cedar swamps that covered the 130 acres Jeanne and I once owned. I loved doing it. So it was no real problem for me when I found this reserve to be lacking in lanes and bereft of byways. This bit of 'wild' NZ is actually just a postage stamp section of not much more than my 130 acres and it is bordered on one side by the Opanuku and on the other by a steep hill.  It would be impossible to get lost in it or even turned around. 

And since this post is about 'the wilds,' I have also included a special treat (for me).  Some pictures from 'the land,' our 130 acres in Wilson that I took during 2008 and 2009. Compare the two types of vegetation. I hope you enjoy all these pictures. 

This part of the Opanuku  is about a mile upstream from the section that I've shown you in the past. This little reserve stands at the border between suburbia and farmland.

Not much of a path. Single file only. (sorry about the focus on this one)

I think the boys would like this see-through tree. 

Another 'see-through' tree, but on a grander scale.

This one is in a cedar swamp back home.

See what I mean? The trail is becoming camouflaged. 

My hunting blind is about 40 feet to the left of the camera in this picture. 

Ferns are everywhere here. 

The trail on top of the drumlin on my 'hunting 40.'

In these NZ wilds, the trees themselves support other layers of life.

The opening in woods and my blind. These Michigan wilds supported a fantastic number of wildlife species. 
The New Zealand bush is almost devoid of mammals.  (our part, anyway)

Here's the Opanuku, smaller since we're upstream, and it's been dry lately. 

Climbing down to it. 

It's cool down here and the sound of water across the rocks is peaceful.  The wind follows up the channel and adds a little movement to the greenery.  I think I'll follow the stream bed for a ways.

I've come to a little pool that I can't walk around. Time to climb back up and see what's up there. 

No trail, no problem

A dense part of the cedar swamp during the season when a swamp is most accessible and pleasant to be in. 

This is classed as a temperate rain forest. It feels jungle-like to me though.  I could be miles from the nearest human. 

My trail-cam watching over the game trails and my baiting area.

A convergence of three game trails (or four, depending on how you count them) 
I wasn't far from humanity here, any more than I am in NZ,  but it often felt like I was.

I'm back to the stream again and at an opening in the canopy of trees. I see an open field.   

Civilization was never very far away after all.  

Thanks for hiking with me today, through both of my worlds.    -djf

Fruit hunters, part 2

I told you toward the end of my Fruit Hunters post that Fred and McKenzie told me recently about a savory discovery they had made. They found a can of barbequed jackfruit at Trader Joe's in the twin cities. They said it was very good. That it was meat-like. 

Now, If they tell me that a bbq'd product is good, I'm going to believe it. Fred makes gallons of a bbq sauce every year that is second to none. And if anyone knows meat, it's Fred. The steak he cooked me at their summer place last year proves it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4RmnxmR6XI

I decided that I would like to try the bbq jackfruit idea myself. I have never seen bbq'd jackfruit in cans. I found this jackfruit easily enough though and I used Jeanne's bbq sauce. I think that it also is world-class, especially because it uses Suka Pinakurat, my favorite spiced vinegar.

This is the contents of the can in a little oil. I'm going to fry it a bit.

This is made from fermented coconut nectar. Amazing stuff. 
Yeah, I know the best before date is long past. This is a bottle I had put away in our pantry. Jeanne used some current stuff for the sauce. Besides, I think that most 'best by' or 'use by' dates are mostly bogus anyway. And this is Vinegar. There aren't going to be bugs growing in this stuff. 

In this shot I'm pulling the jackfruit apart. It has been cooking in the sauce for about 10 minutes now and I'm going to return the pulled jf to the sauce and let it simmer.

Low in calories, but tasty. It was very acceptable as a meat substitute sandwich filling. Thank you Fred and Mckenzie.  

As you can see, I also bought some frozen jackfruit. I made a batch with these ingredients as well. It was sweeter than the canned-in-brine variety and I didn't like the finished product nearly as well. 

If you want to taste jackfruit though, and you see the frozen product somewhere, it's not a bad way to sample it.  

The sauce I bought to go with it was okay, but barely. We do not find many good bbq sauces over here. Thank goodness for Jeanne's. 

Now,  lets look at another new fruit that I came across recently.  This one wins a prize! It's rather nice to look at, right? Great color. 

 This is a monkey apple tree, Syzygium smithii, also called a lilly pilly, that I found on Sturges Road. I was taking this picture when a couple of ladies, who looked like mother and daughter, came walking along. I asked them if they knew what it was. They told me, and added that the fruit is not poisonous, but that no one eats them. I soon learned why. When I tried one, I found that they have the consistancy of light styrofoam and have no taste, whatsoever. They win, in my estimation, the award for the 'most boring fruit in the world.'  They are actually berries, not quite ping pong ball in size. They are classed as being 'an unwanted organism' in New Zealand. 

And now, here are a few fruits from our local markets...

A tamarillo. Relative to a tomato. I'm giving this one a pass from now on...Weird taste.

They call them paw-paws here. They are actually papayas. Not my favorite. Bland and fibrous. It can stay on the shelf with the tamarillo. I suppose I should try a few more to make sure it's not just this one. 

When you get a good one of these drinking coconuts, you have a real treat. 

These are young coconuts. The 'meat' of the nut hasn't turned hard yet. After you drink the water, you can scrape the insides with a spoon and eat a sort of thick coconut pudding. One of these days, I might have to do a post on just coconuts. 

(Some of you may remember when first discovered 'gelatinous mutant coconut' for sale.)

Those are pineapple cookies and something, as you see, called a love letter. which reminds me of a very thin pizzelle folded up.

What I really wanted you to see in this picture was the durian paste. It has a fairly strong flavor. 

This is a choko, a member, believe it or not, of the pumpkin familly. It is a fruit that is often thought of as a vegetable. I just might give it a try with bbq sauce and see how it does against the jackfruit. We have used it in stir fries. We like it. 

(Mangoes are on the counter)

There are full-sized bananas, the next size down, known as Bobby-bananas, and then these little finger-sized ones. They have a more concentrated banana flavor and seem a little denser in texture to me as well. 

Rambutan fruits stuffed with pineapple chunks, all in a light syrup. 

Figs are amazing. A fig is not a true fruit. The round hollow outside portion is called the syconium and it is lined with flowers that bloom inside. I have often cut them in half as you see and scooped out the flowers to eat with a spoon. Crunchy and sweet. When you eat a fig, you have a mouth full of flowers. 
Those are guavas with the fig. 

I showed you a picture of feijoas in the last fruit post. This is our favorite way to eat them. I call it a feijoa party popper. It has a handy holder. Easy to pop into your mouth. I think they have a texture similar to a pear but with some softer bits too. I've heard the taste compared to all sorts of combinations of fruits. I don't agree. They have a taste I've never tasted before. 

I've talked for sometime now about this new fruit and that new fruit. I guess that it's natural that the new and unusual and exotic and sometimes bizarre fruits should attract me. All are worthy of knowing, all are interesting and some are positively amazing, and delicious. I intend to redouble my efforts to seek them out and try them. 

BUT, I can't forget old, old friends that I grew up with and who have gladdened my heart and taste buds for so much of my life. Therefore, I leave you with pictures of these old, dear friends of mine. 

I photographed these chokecherries on one of my walks during the summer of 2016 from our house on 551 down to the bridge by the church. 

Like purple pearls



And speaking of pearls...

I admit this is not a fruit, but it Is the fruiting body of a fungus. Close enough in my book.  This has been a treasure that I have sometimes found in amazing abundance. As much as I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy meeting, greeting and eating new fruits, finding such 'pearls of great price' has been a joy I've known for a large part of my life and remains the highpoint of my fruit hunting career.