Eating Savoie

As I was leaving home, my friend Murphy asked me to write about the food. We have eaten in a few restaurants, but tend to stay in, eating the local foods in our temporary home. Twice a week, there is an open air market in Meribel. Although many shops sell the same regional products, the cheerful open canvas booths make us feel like we are participating in something special.

The cheese and sausage booth displays abundance. Large flat wheels of cheese are stacked offset, making small shelves with small cubes for sampling. The dry casing on the aged cheese pulls up and peels like the bark of a birch tree. Other, smaller wheels are darkened blue and mottled. Softer, fresh cheeses form wrapped and labeled circles. We sample several of the aged, harder cheeses, their flavors range from very mild to sharp and nutty. These yellowed cheeses are firm and a little grainy from age, yet not crumbly. Perfect for melting or pairing slices with baguette.

We select some Beaufort and Comte. They sit in large wheels so big I could not reach around them. The cheese seller uses a small wire with handles on each end to slice through in one move and wraps and weighs our selection. He throws in a small wheel of Tomme de Montagne, a soft milk cheese that is white and creamy, and mild.

Stacks of cured sausage sit between the cheeses, dried into misshapen tubes tied of on the ends. Smokey fume, Beaufort with powdery white casings, others crusted with pepper, and bumpy pure porc fill the spaces between wheels. All are wonderful sliced with a little mustard on the crusty fresh baked breads from the bakery up the street.

Another booth up the hill sells wine along with other cheeses and sausages. An abundance of producers make red and white Vin de Savoy, Beaujolais, and Cote de Rhone. We select a couple of bottles at random to complement the cheese and sausages we will eat later, as we sit in the living room with our family and friends who have joined us here. Sharing stories of skiing and past adventures.