Gastronomie Tour

My last day in Nice and I realised that I had forgotten to take my own advise - do some sort of a walking tour to get the lay of the land - only in this case the land was well and truly laid - the tram line was sussed, the buses  and trains, sussed. 

So I quickly looked on line and found a No Diet Club tour, run by Constance who is passionate about Nicoise food. I am embarrassed to admit that until a light switch came on in my head yesterday before the tour, I hadn't clicked that the good old classic Nicoise salad is indeed a classic from Nice. People from Nice are Nicoise. Anyone else want to admit they hadn't clicked to that? anyone? Ok, just me then.

In fact, Nicoise had there own language - Nissart which is from the occitane language - a mixture of French and that ancient language. The language is mainly remembered by grandparents, but there is a concerted effort to bring it back to life.

Constance pointed out that Nicoise do not like to be asked if they are Italian. They are French. Don't ask. Ever.

The first thing that Constance showed us blew me away - I'm not sure whether you can get the full details in the photo, but in Garibaldi Square, there are gorgeous ornate buildings in the beautiful ochre colours - all with terraces and ornate concrete pillars and window details. Turns out that all of the concrete pillars and window surrounds are painted in 3D! Wait, what?? The more I looked the more it blew my mind - this would have been done before the days of scaffolding as we know it, and would have been done 200 years ago at least - I think it is called trompes l'oeil? 

And with my mouth dropped wide open, Constance presented the first of the Nicoise specialities - a sweet chard slice.  Life was a case of making do with what was at hand, and this slice is made with chard, boiled until soft, then with pine nuts and raisins added, with pastry made from chick pea flour (see, using what is available) and sprinkled with icing sugar - it tasted like Christmas? I had two slices...

The origin of chickpeas is unclear - could have been from any one of neighbouring countries given the proximity. The likely origin story is that all of these cities – busy, hungry port cities  like Sardinia, Gibraltar, Algeria and Argentina. – swapped recipes with one another somewhere along the line and forgot to keep track.

The second speciality was the chickpea pancake found from Provence to Liguria. These smoky, satisfying wedges of fried batter, are chopped up unglamorously and doled out among handfuls of napkins, it's called socca, and you eat it doused in olive oil with black pepper and rock salt. Totally satisfying, oily, salty.. and cheap! the dough (pronounced 'doubt' by Constance - love it) is chickpea flour and water. That's it - leave it to bubble, whip it up and cook it in an oily pizza base tray at 500 degrees c. Pretty hot huh?

Moving on - Constance pointed out the duality in languages for all street signs (that old chestnut again) - I'd noticed it and presumed it was French plus Italian, but it is French and Nissart. And mostly it is what the historical name for the street in the old town was, not a translation of the current name - how accomodating.

We visited an Italian family based business  - cold pressed virgin olive oil - we stood around with little spoons and tasted it. So much information - I knew that 'cold pressed' was the best, but didn't know that meant pressed with cold water?And truffles - black (more common although still hell expensive) and the rare white one from Alba. We tasted salt with white truffles - on the back of our hands as though we were doing tequila shots.

On to something called pissaladiere - chick pea base like a focacia (there it is again) with sauteed onions, herbs and anchovie... by now I was feeling like a goose being force fed for fois gras ...

(and that Pan Bagnat is a sandwich -  last night's salade nicoise stuffed into a bun for the fisherman to take it for lunch - smothered in olive oil - we sat in a park and had one each).

Then to one of the few gelato shops in the old town where the gelato is made from scratch, not purchased as a powder and whipped up (apricot and peach) - and finally on to a macaron shop - again, all made on site but with the added flavours of rose and violets - not strictly Nicoise, but artisanal. We all chose one flavour and went down to the beach to eat it. Fabulous day, totally recommend this tour next time you are in Nice!!