Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive! En Urbana, Illinois!
What started as a local festival in one region of France quickly spread, and is now truly international.
(See my earlier post, Building up for Beaujolais, October 7, 2008)
On Friday November 21 we celebrated Beaujolais Nouveau here in Urbana at our house. It was a very lively gathering and all the friends hope that we’ve started a new tradition—I feel sure that we’ll be happy to oblige!
A kir to start off, French style, and in the background our different CDs of French music, the favorite being Edith Piaf.
Our local bottle stores were able to offer 3 different kinds of BJ Nouveau, reasonably-priced at $12.99 and $14.99. The verdict: all very pleasant, and very drinkable—our group had no trouble polishing off many bottles, over the whole evening. I was also able to get a couple of posters to make the dining room more festive.
We served food buffet-style, all very casual.
The menu:
—plates of various sausages
—a couple of pâtés
—camembert, brie, morbier, and chevre cheese
—plenty of breads and crackers
—ham and cheese salad
—goat cheese and tomato tart
—potato, leek and ham casserole
—pear tart
—apple cake
—fresh apples and pears
Nothing like a cheese platter to set off a few bottles of Bo-Jolly! Not so sure about the sweets, though … they tend to spoil the flavour of the wine for me.
How about some walnuts and dried apricots, though? Ever since they were served with the cheese-board last September, I’ve thought they were just made to go with wine?
Walnuts and dried apricots sound good.
I too don’t really like the sweets stuff, but for a whole meal (which we served) those were the desserts suggested.