Encore Provence: New Adventures in the South of France (Vintage Departures)

There is a furtive undercurrent to the truffle business. Sources of supply are kept secret. Demand is largely fuelled by cash, for which no receipts are given. Safeguards and guarantees don’t exist. Irregularities—sometimes indelicately described as swindles—are not infrequent. And this year, as if to confirm the worst fears of Monsieur Farigoule,

Their generation seems to have escaped the modern affliction of stress, which may be a result of having spent their working lives coping with nature rather than with a capricious boss. Not that nature—with its storms, forest fires, and crop diseases—is either reliable or forgiving as an employer. But at least it’s free from personal malice and the

For some reason, he said, butchers and women often have this affinity, a closeness that goes beyond the simple transaction of buying and selling meat. Who knows why? It might be the sight of all that flesh, the pinkness of it, the slap it makes on the block, the promise of a choice cut. Whatever the reason, it is not unusual for a certain intimacy

“This is special to our region,” he said. “We call it aligot.” I should warn you about aligot. It is wonderfully tasty, with a creamy texture and an impressive substance to it, almost as dense as toffee. It slips down so easily that it seems a crime not to have a second helping. Only sometime later are you aware of the unmistakable sensation that s

To hear a good Provençal storyteller is to hear a performance given by a master of the art of verbal embroidery, a prince of the pregnant pause, the shocked expression, and the belly laugh. Drama is extracted from the most mundane occasions—a trip to the garage, the gutting of a chicken, the discovery of a wasps’ nest under the roof. Coming from th

The Provençal loves to give advice, to impart superior knowledge, to set you straight and save you from the error of your ways.

The flavor of a truffle is the continuation of its scent, complex and earthy, neither mushroom nor meat, but something in between. It tastes, more than anything else I know, of the outdoors, and there is a nicely balanced contrast in the mouth between the crunchy texture of the truffle and the bland smoothness of the eggs. You will find truffles in

It was a museau télescopique, or extendable snout. At one end was an abbreviated mask that covered the nose and mouth, with a wide elastic band to secure it to the head. The mask was attached to a canvas tube, pleated like the bellows of a concertina, and at the far end was the artificial nostril, an aluminum funnel. Using this ingenious extension

Laguiole is a town in the Aveyron region of southern France, a town famous for knives. The ancestor of today’s Laguiole corkscrews originated around 1880, following the invention of the cork.

Unlike many wines, oil doesn’t improve with the years; young is best.