Cuisine & Calvados

Cuisine & Calvados

The Normans are notoriously heavy eaters. Between the warm-up and the main course traditionally comes the trou normand (Norman gap), a break for calvados -- apple brandy (a typically Norman riddle asks, "Did the trou normand create calvados, or did calvados create the trou normand?"). Norman food isn't light; many dishes are prepared with cream sauces and apple flavoring -- hence à la normande (with cream sauce or apples). Rich local milk makes excellent cheese: Pont-l'Évêque is made in the Pays d'Auge with milk still warm and creamy; Livarot uses milk that has stood a while -- don't be put off by its pungent smell. Best known of them all is creamy Camembert, invented by a farmer's wife in the late 18th century. Normandy is not a wine-growing area, but produces excellent hard cider (the best comes from the Vallée d'Auge), calvados, and its lighter cousin pommeau, which is two-thirds apple juice and one-third calvados. Local specialties differ from place to place. Rouen is famous for its canard à la rouennaise (duck in blood sauce); Caen, for its tripes à la mode de Caen (tripe cooked with carrots in a seasoned cider stock); Mont-St-Michel, for omelettes Mère Poulard and pré-salé (salt-meadow lamb). Try andouille de Vire, a delicate, smoked chitterling sausage served in thin slices like salami. Fish and seafood lovers can feast on oysters, lobster, shrimp, and sole dieppoise (sole poached in a sauce with cream and mussels).