Lanslebourg, Savoie, October 26, 2010—
SOME OF YOU WONDERED about the video I uploaded to Facebook a few hours ago, Street Cows. (It's also on YouTube, but I don't know how to tell you where exactly.)
There are cows in Savoie, and their job is to eat grass (and flowers when they find them), and to give milk. They go to work in the morning and come home in the evening, and that's when I made the video of them yesterday.
The milk is made into cheese: Reblochon, Tomme, Beaufort. And more ordinary cheeses, perhaps at this time of year when pasturage isn't nearly as fragrant.
Tonight we had Raclette, the other main dish of Savoie — the first being Tartiflette, as far as I'm concerned its superior. Tartiflette is one of my Hundred Plates, though I can't tag it properly until I'm back at a computer; Raclette is amusing, substantial, pleasing on a cold night, but not one of the Hundred Plates.
After a generous serving of mixed salad and charcuterie Madame the hotelkeeper brought steamed potatoes and a platter of cheese — three kinds: Tomme de Savoie, something she said was not Reblochon but very like Reblochon, and Raclette, probably a quite ordinary cheese suitable for cooking. (Of course what's quite ordinary here would cost a pretty penny at home in California.)
Also on the table was a curious flat disc held up by three legs. It was plugged in, which required our moving from last night's table to another closer to a socket. We put slices of cheese on its non-stick surface, watched them bubble, paddled them around with little wooden sticks, and took them up with forkfuls of potato or slices of baguette. They were, of course, delicious.
Roussette de Savoie, "Altesse", Edmond Jaquin et fils, 2009
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