French Haggis

Last night was my farewell dinner, I imagine it will be a long time before I return to Europe.

I went to my favorite evening restaurant, which specializes in cuisine from the Auvergne region in the southwest of France. Snagged an outside table and watched everyone go by.

I decided to go for the Tripoux d'Agneau (lamb tripe) with aligot, which is a copious concoction of smashed potatoes and cheese, and about 3 lbs of garlic, which is the house specialty.

I am writing this for two reasons:

First, I realized that the meal is symbolic of the William the Conquerer connection between the U.K. and France because the meal was a variation of haggis, with lamb substituted for sheep, and only the stomach included (sincere apologies vegetarians for the gory details. Means you Manoj :-) )

The other thing of note here is that as I feasted, no less than THREE people stopped and asked me what I was eating, was it good, should they eat there, etc. HAHAHAHA. The first guy looked a bit scruffy, I thought he was going to ask me for something, then felt embarrassed that he was sincerely interested and nailed the regional origin of the dish. Impressive.

Then a lady came along and asked what the aligot potato dish was and buzzed off.

Then a very distinguished couple excused themselves profusely and launched into a big Q&A session on the restaurant the dish, asked me where I was from, complimented me on my French, then sought out their own table. They both had really cool glasses, everyone here does. We show off our cars, they show off their glasses haha.

Outta here in a few hours, already job hunting online.

In spite of the obvious downside, it has been a great trip. I have enjoyed it immensely.