Part five of our culinary “Tour de France”
The east region is by far the largest of all regions of France starting from Lyon it goes up towards Germany and flirts with Italy and Switzerland, it also regroups Rhone wines, Burgundy wines, Alsatians wines, it also follow the road from the Roman Empire to Paris , road used by traders. Lugdunum (Lyon) used to be administrative capital of the Roman Empire while Lutetia (Paris) was just a regional administration, Lyon is known in France to be THE cured meat and sausage city especially with its Saucisson sec and and Petit Jesus (dry sausages)
Local ingredients in cuisine
- Cheese and more cheese
- Mushrooms (morels and ceps)
- Mustard
- Pork (cured meat, sausages and stews)
- Potatoes
Local drinks
- Genepi liqueur (wormwood’s flower based)
- Vin jaune
- Champagne
- Alsatian wines (Riesling, Gewurztraminer…)
- Burgundy wines (Chablis, Pouilly, Maconais…)
- Rhône wines (Crozes-hermitage, Côtes-du-rhône; Clairette)
And here are some very local dishes
- Frogs legs
- Bouchon Lyonnais
- Quenelles
- Poulet de Bresse (the Rolls Royce of chicken)
- Fondue Savoyarde (Cheese) or Bourguignonne (Meat)
- Tartiflette, Raclette (molten cheese with tatoes and cured meats)
- Creuset (tiny square pastas with tomme cheese)
- Escargots
- La flammekueche (thin crust pizza like with crême fraiche, lards and onions)
- Choucroute
Desserts or sweets
- Les coussins Lyonnais (marzipan, chocolate and curaçao)
- La praline rose and the St Genix (praline cake)
- Les bugnes (angel wings donuts)
- Chocolate truffles
- Le kougelhopf (Alsacian brioche with almonds and rum flavouring)
As part of our introduction to French gastronomy our award wining Food Tours always contain some regional flavouring.