Menu Dégustation Specialitées Alsaciennes

I had gone into a Charcuterie (butcher/sausage maker) in Strasbourg and had bought a couple of smoked sausages to bring home with me; unfortunately I left them in the mini-bar fridge of my room in Saverne (along with a nice piece of Munster cheese I had bought). I had six sausages and only got to eat one of them. It was good, but not the price of six good. I didn’t realize it until I was already almost back to Germany.

I got to Saverne a little after 18:00 Saturday evening, and took a room for the night at the Europe Hotel. I was looking for a different hotel, but my GPS system was breaking down. What I mean by that is when you go into some towns the system may not have real good coverage. And if there are insufficient satellites it won’t track your location very well. When this happens it may tell you to turn where there is no turn, and so forth. It’s not that big of a deal because it doesn’t happen too often. Saverne is not that big of a town. I parked my truck and started to walk around, thinking that I could find the hotel. I tried the “Hey Cato, le where is le hotel?” a couple of times to no avail. I found the Europe Hotel and as it turned out, I was parked very close by (I had taken a somewhat tortuous path to get there). It was a bit more expensive than the one I was looking for, but I didn’t have reservations anyway, and they had a room.

And it was just that, a room, a small room. My cubicle at work is bigger than this thing (including the bathroom). It was pretty bare bones, but it was clean and I needed a place to stay. It didn’t even have a bible that was left by le Gideons.

I wandered out into the town for a while and took some photos. The restaurant with the Foie Gras Menu was way up on a hill and outside of town. I realized that if I was going to plop down some serious cash for a meal of fattened goose liver, then by God I was also going to plop down some cash for a bottle of good wine. And if I ate that liver, then by God I was going to drink that wine. QED. I also realized that I really didn’t need to be driving back from a restaurant in a strange town, in and even stranger country, with a belly full of goose liver and a snoot full of wine. So I opted to eat at one of the other fine establishments in town.

I had a couple of recommendations from the internet and had pretty much settled on the Taverne Katz. Now if I could just find the place. Hmmm … it’s on the Grand Rue (Main Street – how am I doing Wilhelm?), shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Ran into a group of gents who were (I assume) out for a bachelor party. The groom is (again I'm assuming) the one with the black face paint, nun habit, devil horns, and the big purple phallus Seemed like a good group.



Where were we? Oh yeah … it shouldn’t be too hard to find, right? Well the Grand Rue was not hard at all to find at all. Now you should probably bear in mind that I am still looking around, taking photos and just kind of half-assed looking for the Taverne, because how hard can it be? I’m on the right street, and I’ve got the building number with me. It’s a small town and I’ll just wander up the street until I find it.

Did I mention that I was in France? Good. Then you won’t be surprised to learn that there street numbering system is a little, oh how shall we say, back asswards. In reality it is a little more sideways than backwards. I knew that the number I was looking for was around eighty something. I was keeping somewhat of an eye on what the numbers were, but not real closely. Last time I looked I was in the 50’s. “Shouldn’t be far.”

At the T-intersection I looked around, “I must have missed it, unless…” I look up the street to the right. Realizing that I’ve been in a pedestrian area for a couple of blocks, and the last sign I saw that said Grand Rue was on a vehicular street. I thought perhaps Grand Rue is a by-pass. So I look at the numbers up the side road. They starts at 1. “That’s pretty far from 80”, I think. It was only a little ways down the road that I saw the number in the 50’s, but this is the end of the road. I look at the address that was in my pocket, 80 Grand Rue. “I must have passed it somehow.” As I head back in the direction I came, I look on my side of the road and realize that the numbers are in the 100’s. “What the hell?”

The numbers on the left side of the road are even, the right side numbers are odd. OK, that’s normal. But then I realize that they are approximately 30 apart. On my left side is 102, on my right it is 73. It continues this way until I find the Taverne Katz...

If this building looks a little familiar to you it is because this was where I saw our Saint in training. “The Lord is be with you.”

The purple phallus must have distracted me enough to miss the Taverne Katz. But then do you see a sign in this picture?

“Are we here?”

It is a neat little place. Lots of wood, the tables were pretty close together, a couple of pretty pictures and nice trinkets, &c hanging around. The girl realizes that I am not French and hands me the English menu. Now I had looked at the menu outside before coming in and realized that this was not the same menu. It’s a law in Germany, and perhaps in France too, that restaurants have to post there menus with prices outside. Now I wasn’t worried about getting ripped off, it was just that the menu outside had more stuff on it. The girl gladly brought me a French menu. I had the Alsatian Specialties menu, or…

Menu Dégustation Specialitées Alsaciennes
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Galletes de Pomme de Terre
“Grumbere Kiechle”
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Kase et Gumbere Knepfles aux Krakele
Panaché de Quenelles deFromage Blanc et Pomme de Terre
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Petit Choux – Petite Charlotte – Petite Raviole
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Trou Alsacien au Pissenlit
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La Timbale de Volaille
Aux Champignons des Bois Sous Croute
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Strudel Aux Pommes
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I ordered a half liter of the house Gewurztraminer, which came out in a neat little stoneware pitcher. I actually liked the pitcher more than the wine.

The starter was a shot glass filled with a Lentil salad. It had a nice subtle vinegar flavor.

The “Galletes de Pomme de Terre” were 2 small potato pancakes served with apple sauce and two salads. One was a regular salad with a nice vinaigrette, the other was an assortment of greens that were stood up with a hollowed out piece of zucchini (kind of used like a napkin ring).

Next was the “Kase et Gumbere Knepfles aux Krakele“. Four extremely light potato dumplings in a slightly sharp cheese sauce. This was very nice, and my only compliant was there was no bread to sop up the sauce.

This was followed by “Les Petits Farçis Alsacien”, which was 3 different Farçis or force meats (or sausages for Wilhelm). The Petit Choux was pork rolled in a flaky dough similar to a nut roll with meat. It was very tasty The Petite Charlotte was a force meat inside of a single piece of cabbage wrapped in a thin slice of prosciutto-like ham. And the Raviole was a small hollowed out potato, filled with pork, topped with a slice of potato and wrapped in bacon. This course was very nice.

The “Trou Alsacien au Pissenlit” was a shot of lemon sorbet in wine. There were bits of zest in the sorbet. As gay as it sounds, this was actually very nice.

When I was enjoying the Trou I was watching the waitress at the next table taking the top off of a soufflé and spooning the insides onto it. While watching this I was a little jealous that I didn’t order this. It looked really good.

Next for me as “La Timbale de Volaille”. Out came a mini soufflé just like the woman at he next table had. It was smaller, but that as OK because it was wonderful. It was served with some spaetzles that were fried in some butter until just a little crunchy on the outside. Fantastic! I ended up pouring the remainder of my soufflé onto the spaetzle. Probably not the most couth thing to do, but I think I still was one up on the devil with the purple penis in the couth department.

The Strudel was almost savory. It has apples, nuts, raisons, cloves, and cinnamon. There was a generous dusting of cinnamon on the scoop of vanilla as well. This was a damn fine dessert. And in the end the wine was actually pretty good too.

I don’t care to remember what I paid for this meal, but it was very good. Since I wasn’t going to get the foie gras, I was just hoping to find a place with a nice big choucroute (Alsacien sauerkraut) plate. As I was finishing up my desert the waitress brought (to another table) a big bowl of sauerkraut, with liver dumplings and various sausages.

As good as my meal was, I was still a little jealous.

One more Saverne entry to come...