REGIONAL SPECIALTIES
The goats’ cheeses of Poitou-Charentes owe their reputation to age-old know-how. The Chabichou du Poitou, awarded with an AOC - Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée- quality label, is an essential component of any regional cheese board. This full-flavor cheese is just one of several goats’ cheeses produced in the area, but you’ll find other varieties made from cows’ and sheep’s milk too.
The oyster-farming region of the Marennes-Oléron basin is a unique landscape spanning both the ile d’Oléron and the mainland around the Seudre estuary. Some 6,000 tons of oysters are sold from here every year, around 45 per cent of the total French production. Oysters can be eaten throughout the year, either raw and freshly opened, served with a drop of lemon juice and vinegar with chopped shallots, or warn with a cream sauce.
Salt from Ré Island is known around the world for its delicate taste of the sea. Today, sixty producers harvest a total of 2 to 3,000 tons of salt per year. The salt is still produced the traditional way – the summer dries the salt in the pans, with the pure top layer, called Fleur de Sel (flower of salt) harvested first.
These highly prized, delicate salt crystals are collected by hand, carefully scraped off the top of the greyer Sel Gris below which is colored by the clay and is rich in minerals.
French and foreign gourmets know this traditional butter produced since the early 20th century. The cultured butter from the Poitou-Charentes region (in Échiré or Surgères) is paler, firmer and slightly brittle in texture, and more consistent in quality and color. It also has lower moisture content, making it the preferred choice of French pastry chefs.
This Poitou-Charentes food jewel has been granted an AOC label for its authenticity and exceptional taste and flavor.
Poitou-Charentes macarons are very different from their Parisian macaron cousins! Poitou-Charentes macarons are smaller, chunkier biscuits with a soft, succulent almond center (and by the way, nothing like the coconut macaroons that Grandma used to make!).
Poitou-Charentes is home to scrumptious traditional recipes such as broyé du Poitou, a sweet butter biscuit decorated with sliced almonds, and tourteau fromager, a soft cake set in crisp pastry crust. Made with fresh goat’s cheese, it’s easy to spot with its ‘burnt’ domed top.
