We're almost bidding 'au revoir' to May - French May. The Gallic community here claims the month as its own, and it strikes me that the French love of food permeates all aspects of their culture.
I attended a cheese and wine seminar organised by SOPEXA, who promote French food and drink. As the wine breathed next to me and the cheeses oozed, wine expert Daniele Raulet-Reynaud explained the intricacies of making cheese, and matching cheeses and wines.
After two hours the torture of waiting to eat made it hard to concentrate; but what I did glean early on in the afternoon was that cheese and wine are both fermented products so taste best when consumed with another fermented product ... bread. Such is the French passion for their food that cheeses, like wines, are labelled Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC). If you are buying French cheese you should look for the AOC stamp, which guarantees not only the shape and origin of the cheese but practically which cow produced it.
When we were eventually allowed to taste I discovered a match made in heaven: Sancerre Comte Lafonde 1996, available from Corks, 7 Staunton Street, and Remy Fine Wine Shops, at $211, teamed with a light goat's cheese, Valencay, both from the Loire Valley, at $24 for 100g from city'super, Times Square.
Nor can the French be accused of keeping their cuisine to themselves. I recently visited Laos, surrounded by Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Burma, and part of French Indochina until 1941. The French influence is most evident at breakfast, where baskets of freshly baked bread, butter and jam are served with freshly squeezed, sweet orange juice and hot, strong coffee. The coffee, grown in Laos, is drunk by pouring hot water though a small 'windsock' containing roughly ground coffee beans, the dark liquid seeping through the muslin cloth. It is served with sweet condensed milk, which balances the acidity of the coffee.
To recreate Laotian evenings of dining by sunset over the Mekong river, I invited some friends, also Laos veterans, round for supper. Lao cooks are hot on ginger, mint, coriander, lemongrass and coconut. I was inspired by the book Traditional Recipes Of Laos, published by Prospect Books (1995). The 30-year-old recipes are those of royal chef Phia Sing and are very pre-Delia Smith, going along the lines of, 'First catch your chicken/buffalo, gut it and roast it over an open fire.' I adapted one recipe to recreate my favourite Lao dish: chicken in ginger and coconut milk. For six people, whizz in a blender three sticks of lemongrass, chopped fresh ginger, one fresh chilli, four shallots and a good slosh of tinned coconut milk to make a paste. Fry the paste in several tablespoons of vegetable oil to release the flavours. Fry six chicken thighs with skin in the cooked paste, add more coconut milk to make a sauce and cook for about 45 minutes. Serve with rice.