Eating and drinking in Alsace

Hi Frugalistas!  Friday fotos is a little late this week – but I’m sure it’s still Friday somewhere!  This week I’m off to Alsace, to finish my series on Colmar and the Route de Vins.  Alsace has a very specific traditional cuisine, and of course white wine (typically riesling) rules!  So join me on a culinary tour of this lovely part of France!

Hhhhmmm, what looks good?

Bretzels come plain, salted, with sugar or flavored – yum!

The traditional pot to cook a baeckeoffe

Cafe gourmand, Alsace style, Hotel Rapp

More fabulous seasonal deli delights, this time in Riquewihr

My baeckeoffe ready to eat at the Hotel Rapp. No wonder my waitress wished me “bonne courage”!

A delicious traditional choucrout garni

My first kugelhopf sighting

Plating up the traditional baeckeoffe – different meats, with vegetables cooked in Alsatian wine, at the Hotel Rapp in Colmar

A light and luscious local cremant.

Seasonal chocolates celebrating autumn

Ready made meals, Alsace style

What’s good to eat?  For true Alsatian dining try a choucroute garnie – pickled cabbage served with different types of meat.  If pickled cabbage isn’t your thing (but mind you, it really is delicious), I really can recommend the baeckeoffe (pronounced bake-offer) – a casserole made of beef, pork, lamb and vegetables cooked in local wine.  Chocolate is always a winner, and Alsace does it well!  Other goodies to try?  Bretzels – the delicious bread knots, tarte flambee (sort of like a pizza) or rosti (oven baked potato and cheese).  For dessert it just has to be kugelhopf, the fabulous fluted cake that comes in all sorts of favours and guises (I ate a particularly tasty, but rich one with chocolate sauce and cream for dessert).

White wines rule, and are reasonably priced.  A deliciously light cremant (crem-onn), or sparkling wine, makes a lovely aperatif.  With your meal, go for a riesling or pinot gris and you won’t be disappointed!

Alsace doesn’t look like France, and it’s food is quite different to French food elsewhere.  Eat local, seasonal food, and you won’t be disappointed!

Author’s note:  In Alsace I was a guest of the Hotel Rapp in Colmar, but did pay for my own meal in their restaurant.  I travelled on the Route de Vins with Regioscope at a discounted rate.