The Shame of it All!

[scruffy1]

In Conques tourigrino-ing the Chemin Le Puy, put up in the Albergue Saint Jacques and for dinner. Great hotel great restaurant great expense. Anyone who has walked the Chemin Vezelay has been inundated by offerings of the best prepared, finest quality, world renowned "aligot" at restaurants and one albergue in particular. Much noise and fuss racket and heehaw concerning mashed potatoes and garlic. I am a sucker for anything local, traditional foods, like Grandma once made and have tried them all. Tonight, far far from the Vezelay offerings I enjoyed the best and tastiest aligot yet-something truly beyond the potato puree/garlic expectations. Shame! Conques and Le Puy can show the experts how it should be done!!!

 

[ranthr]

Walking the GR 65 you will be served the aligot day after day after day if you are on demi-pension. I like to taste local food, but the aligot was in my opinion the worst in the lenses, aligot, canard row of local courses. Very high carbo for a
diabetic and often little else to accompany. May be I did not visit the experts.

 

[grayland]

I was underwhelmed by the stuff.

 

[mspath]

To paraphrase Longfellow
"...when it was good it was very good indeed, but when it was bad it was horrid".

 

[Tincatinker]

From Wiki (bless it) with some editing:

Aligot is made from mashed potatoes blended with butter, cream, crushed garlic, and the melted cheese. The dish is ready when it develops a smooth, elastic texture. While recipes vary, the Larousse Gastronomique gives the recipe as 1 kg potatoes, 500 g tomme fraîche, Laguiole, or Cantal cheese, 2 garlic cloves, 30 g butter, salt, pepper.

This dish was originally made using bread by monks, who prepared it for the pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela who stopped for a night in that region.

And presumably to encourage them on their Way...

 

[Tincatinker]

I was underwhelmed by the stuff.

Is there a status of "whelmed"? One can be under'ed or over'ed, easily, but I can only recall eating Aligot and being neither.

 

[grayland]

Hmmmm...?very interesting.

 

[s. brown]

In Conques tourigrino-ing the Chemin Le Puy, put up in the Albergue Saint Jacques and for dinner. Great hotel great restaurant great expense. Anyone who has walked the Chemin Vezelay has been inundated by offerings of the best prepared, finest quality, world renowned "aligot" at restaurants and one albergue in particular. Much noise and fuss racket and heehaw concerning mashed potatoes and garlic. I am a sucker for anything local, traditional foods, like Grandma once made and have tried them all. Tonight, far far from the Vezelay offerings I enjoyed the best and tastiest aligot yet-something truly beyond the potato puree/garlic expectations. Shame! Conques and Le Puy can show the experts how it should be done!!!

Please keep the posts coming! Food commentary is especially wonderful but anything else you care to share is also appreciated.

 

[Kitsambler]

I suspect it's true of any region that, when there is some signature dish, everyone wants to serve it. I recall seven nights of salmon on my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, for example. Along the Le Puy route, after one passes out of the Region Aligot, one enters the Region Canard. I thought I had been served duck every which way there was. Then, one night, I am the only guest at the gite on the edge of town, and Madame prepares dinner for herself and for me. I compliment her on the delicious beef burgundy. No, she says, it's duck hearts. It was still delicious!

 

[billmclaughlin]

Duck hearts! At the resto on the square in Éauze. Just superb. Hard to describe, but if you're expecting something along the lines of liver or kidney you're surprisingly off target.

If you're lucky the waitress will be Charlotte.

Another time I had quail two nights in a row, once with lovely Mme. Theux in Pimbo.