June 5 - Dinner on the Route du vin

Warning: This entry contains a great excess of food, with a lot of meat, mostly trayf.

The crowds of tourists in Riquewihr made the dinner seem less exciting than it might have, but Michelin had this recommendation:

It's definitely worth venturing into the forest to this old 17C hermitage. You will be rewarded with simple authentic dishes, such as vegetable soup, choucroute and fruit tarts, made from local farm produce.

No address, only "6km W of Riquewihr on minor road and forest track." We had a good roadmap (Michelin too), and it indicated only one road heading west. It was very much daylight, so we figured we could gamble for, say, 8km. The road went through forest lands, no signs of houses or towns, but finally there was a small sign for "St Alexis," not Auberge or Restaurant or anything, pointing down a narrow dirt road to the left. The road, which intersected hiking trails, led to an ivy-covered farmhouse, with tables on a terrace and more inside, and a small chapel and gardens in front.




There were patrons, but not so very many, especially considering that it was Saturday night and we were very near the very crowded towns of Kayserberg and Riquewihr.













I had the #3, Jimmy, the #4. They do not waste words on descriptions. As for prices, figure about $1.25 to the euro. The wines are local - not because they make a great effort to serve local wines, but because we were in the heart of the Alsatian wine country.












We looked at each other as the meal began. Michelin had earned its keep. The effort of planning the trip was rewarded. This was One of Those Perfect Places.




We ate an absolutely enormous open-air meal as the full daylight faded.
The potage, delicious vegetable puree soup, came in a tureen and could easily have fed six people. My meal had one more course than Jimmy's.



By now I was used to the wonderful crudités plate, but this one, with ham and a plain omelette, surely was overkill.

Choucroute garnie is one of the signature dishes of Alsace. Jimmy remembers his sister Jill making it at home. Choucroute is sauerkraut; and it is garnished, all right, not only with potatoes, but with a required minimum of four meats. This one had smoked pork and three kinds of sausage, all wonderful, and served with excellent strong mustard. Perhaps the quantity and type of food makes more sense when it is cold and dark outside, or after putting in long hours during the grape harvest. I thought only American restaurants overfed their patrons, but this was place was up there with the Hungry Heifer.

By the time my coq fermier arrived, I wasn't hungry, but keeping Jane & Michael Stern in mind, I made an attempt. The dish was like coq au vin made with riesling, and loaded with mushroom. It came with a plate of roast potatoes, carrots and peas, and spaetzle. Jimmy isn't a big chicken eater, but he agreed it was the best dish of dinner.

They served us each three desserts - assortments of rhubarb, apple, currant (all very popular there), and a kind of cake. Like the rest of the meal, what dessert lacked in refinement, in made up in freshness, simplicity, directness, and, it must be said again, quantity.


It was still twilight when we left - a long midsummer day.










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