Tour De France

Presenting a Gastronomic Tour de France
at Marcel's Bistro

For the past twenty four years, Marcel's has been taking the time to introduce its customers to uncommonly good, authentic French food; nothing pretentious, just fine food coupled with fine wines. Now "The Bistro Upstairs" is traveling France in a new way and we invite you to share this experience in the best way possible, gastronomically. Starting the second Tuesday of every month, for two weeks, we will feature authentic dishes, appetizers, main courses and deserts, from a different region of France, each with its own distinctive gastronomic flavour. Of course, specially selected wines to compliment the region and the dish will be available by the glass or by the bottle.

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BEAUJOLAIS REGION
From November 21st to the 29th

Burgundy can justly claim to be the place where good French eating began. Starting in the 14th century, when Philip the Bold extended his Duchy by marrying Marguerite of Flanders, the Burgundian court at Dijon became a center for all the arts. A century later the reigning duke added a stupendous kitchen to his palace, to better serve his guests. Its ample construction, featuring an octagonal chamber with four stone fireplaces leading to a single chimney, prompted the gastronome Curnonsky to exclaim, “Some have built a hearth in their kitchen, but the dukes of Burgundy, they made a kitchen from their hearth”. In Lyon itself the art of eating is taken just as seriously at home as in restaurants. The delicacies provided by the rôtisseurs, incorporated in the city in 1688, and the charcutiers, founded in 1543, are still in great demand. On home ground both the Lyonnais and Burgundians are adventurous about their food. As well as stocking a dozen kinds of sausage of more or less attributable origin, charcuteries sell a huge range of pâtés, terrines and quenelles (a great Lyon favourite) as well as the hams and bacon which flavour so many regional dishes. Fish markets routinely offer baby eels and fresh crayfish, and it is a poor greengrocer who does not display salad greens such as “mâche” (lamb lettuce) and “roquette”, with its bitter purple leaves, as well as root artichokes, “cardoons” or “crosnes”, curly little roots also known as Chinese artichokes. Cheese shops appear equally versatile, if somewhat dominated by goat cheese, a taste that goes hand in hand with the kid meat sold in many markets.

Roughly half the Gamay vines in France grow in Beaujolais. The Gamay grape left to itself, produce wine that is rather dull. It used to be widely planted on the Côte d’Or until it was banned because of its total inferiority in that area to the Pinot Noir. The Gamay grape and the Beaujolais region have proved such a remarkably successful combination partly because of the soil in Beaujolais, which is granite-based and thus completely different from that of Burgundy proper, and partly because of carbonic maceration, which is a winemaking technique designed to extract all the fruit and all the aroma from the grapes, but virtually none of the tannin. It produces a wine that is immediately appealing, even to people who do not terribly like the taste of other wines, and its clean, fresh taste is such that it slips down easily in large quantities. And it has made possible one of the greatest wine marketing success stories ever, that of Beaujolais Nouveau.


Not all Beaujolais are Nouveau, in spite of the impression that could be gained from the annual late-November hype. In fact, roughly half the annual Beaujolais crop goes into Nouveau. It means some fast work at the wineries: fermentation must not take too long, and the wine must be clarified and stabilized in time to get it bottled, shipped, and into the shops by Nouveau day. This used to be 15 November, as regular as clockwork, but now it has been changed to the third Thursday in November to give everyone a bit longer to get organized. We do hope that this years’ Nouveau will we be a success once again.

But enough written about the region, we wish you a
“Bon Appétit” and of course Santé…

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BEAUJOLAIS REGION
LUNCH MENU

Gratinée à l’oignon Lyonnaise
French onion soup ‘Lyonnaise’
$ 7.25

Salade tiède “Beaujolaise” aux foies blond
Warm salad with sautéed chicken liver and poached egg
 $ 9.50

Filet d’omble chevalier façon “Nantua”,
julienne de légumes et pommes vapeur
Pan seared artic char with shrimp bisque sauce, julienne vegetables and steamed potatoes
$ 18.95

Filet mignon grillé et sa sauce aux échalotes confites
au cassis et vin de Gamay Noir,
 légumes d’automne et gratin Dauphinois
Grilled filet mignon with reduction of shallots,
cassis and Gamay Noir wine,
 fall vegetables and gratin potatoes
$ 22.95

Tarte tatin aux poires et pommes rôties au miel,
coulis de cerises au vin rouge
Tarte tatin with honey sautéed apples & pears,
cherry red wine coulis
$ 6.50

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BEAUJOLAIS REGION
DINNER MENU

Tourain Périgourdin aux amandes
Onion & garlic soup with almonds
$6.25

Salade de magret de canard fumé, vinaigrette a l’huile de truffe et son flan aux cèpes
Smoked duck breast on baby greens with truffle oil vinaigrette and a porcini mushroom flan
$11.50

Filet de Turbot de l’Atlantique, sauce au vin rouge, riz à la tomate et légumes
Turbot filet with red wine tomato sauce served with pepper, tomato, onion & garlic rice ‘stew’
and seasonal vegetables
$23.75

Carré d’agneau ‘de Pauillac’ à la crème d’ail, haricots verts à la Landaise et pommes Sarladaise
 Rack of Lamb  with garlic cream sauce served with green beans and scallop potato
$29.75

Tarte aux  pruneaux, crème Anglaise à l’Armagnac
Plum tart served with an Armagnac, crème Anglaise
$7.00

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Notre sélection de Vins de BEAUJOLAIS

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Upcoming Regions

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