Gherkins & Tomatoes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

Main menu

Skip to content
  • 365 Days – Photo-a-Day Gallery
  • About Gherkins & Tomatoes
  • Culinary History Resources
  • RECIPE INDEX

Archives

Show Grid Show List

Post navigation

Ducks Tour d'Argent exterior

La Tour d’argent poinct ne leurre*, or, Pressed Duck, Blood and Guts and All

April 27, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, the duck, the turkey or the guinea hen. ~ Alice B. Toklas The famed, if slightly faded, Parisian restaurant, La Tour d’Argent, embodies the French idea of culinary hegemony. So do ducks. As you stand outside the window, peering into the sanctum sanctorum of the restaurant, traffic clattering behind you on the Quai de la Tournelle, you might not realize […]

Categories: Duck, France, French Cooking • Tags: Canard au Sang, Challandais ducks, Claude Terrail, Ducks, France, Frédéric Delair, French cuisine, Julian Street, Tour d'Argent

French cooks stoned duck

Un vrai canard: Duck and French Culinary Traditions

March 21, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Do you associate ducks, along with snails and frogs, with traditional French cuisine? If so, you’re hardly alone. I do, too. And I often wonder, like many of us who write about food, just how some of these traditions begin. I think the answers might appall or thrill us. Last week, I read an old news story about Michel Rouyer, a French farmer from La Gripperie-Saint-Symphorien who tried to rid his ducks of worms by feeding them marijuana. I couldn’t help but […]

Categories: Cooking, Duck, France, French Cooking • Tags: Ducks, France, French Cooking, Marijuana

1
Foie gras geese 2

Foie Gras and Ties of Tradition in France

November 15, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

With the ban on foie gras in California, I think it’s time to take a closer look at just what foie gras means in French culinary tradition and how it came to be. This post appeared a few years ago, but like tradition, not much has changed, except that some misguided purists want to impose their beliefs on others. Enchanting photos of grey geese and sleek ducks, truffle-hunting dogs and pigs — all signs of autumn in the French countryside. […]

Categories: Agriculture, Cooking, Foie gras, France, French Cooking • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, Ducks, Foie Gras, France, French Cooking, Gavage, Geese, Madeleine Kamman, Recettes, Recipes

7

Idylls of Cuisine, #88

November 14, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Cooking, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Ducks, Foie Gras, Food Photography, France, French Cooking, Geese

Post navigation

Food forms the very essence of life, from the fruit fly to the elephant, with humans in between. So much of what we do revolves around cooking, eating, and the finding of food. Here you'll discover stories, meditations, and photographs celebrating the places that we call home. And, of course, the food that garnishes it all.

My book, due out September 15, 2013

Looking for Something? SEARCH

What’s Cookin’ Here

  • A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
  • “Stew’s so comforting on a rainy day.” *
  • Singkong, Manioc, Mandioca, Mandió, Tapioca, Yuca: Singing the Praises of Manihot esculenta (Cassava)
  • The Promise of Apple Blossoms

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 405 other followers

On the home page, click on the pictures to go to the posts. Or click the little boxes in the upper right-hand corner to display posts and first paragraphs.

What We’re Talkin’ About Here

Africa All Souls' Day American Cooking Art Barack Obama Bibliographies Book Reviews Bread Christmas Cookbooks Cooking Cooks Cuisine Francaise Culinary History Day of the Dead Eggs England English Cooking Fish Food Food History Food Photography France French Cooking French cuisine Gardens Haiti Halloween Herbs India Italian Cooking Italy Julia Child M. F. K. Fisher Monasteries Monks Morocco Mushrooms Paris Photography Provence Recipes Southern cooking Virginia White House

Who’s visiting?

Beautiful Blogger Award

Reader Appreciation Award

Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Customized Gridspace by Graph Paper Press.
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 405 other followers

Powered by WordPress.com