Let's eat!

Saturday morning I headed out looking to pick up a couple of shirts.  As often happens on my travels (and travails), I got a little sidetracked.  First, there was the need for some café and a croissant.  What I really wanted was some fat-back with grits and eggs.  It's amazing what you want when you know you can't have it; but I couldn't, so café and a croissant was the thing, both from an availability and a good sense standpoint.

The food thing taken care of I went walking looking for a shirt store.  I was walking around just looking in shop windows hoping to stumble upon what I wanted when I found myself in the Talensac area.  In the early 1800s this area was " La tuerie aux bestiaux, " the killing place for animals, i.e. slaughterhouse.  I don't know where they're killing them now, but the area is one of my favorites.  It has lots of neat stores, restaurants, and "Tobac" stores and, for some reason, perhaps because it's not as crowded and cloistered as the "Commerce" area, I've grown to really like it.  It represents, for me, the real people of Nantes, not just a bunch of tourists in shorts (like me).

As I walked I noticed a rather large, flat building with a bustling crowd going in and out.  I immediately guessed, "Saturday market!"  And it was.  I went back to the car, moved it to the Talensac parking garage, and grabbed the camera.   I figure it's time we ate.  But first we have to shop for our meal.

The picture gremlin evidently ate my shot of the building from the outside front.  But, hey, feces occurs.

Just outside the rear of the market is a vendor selling flowers.  We need to pick up some to decorate the table a little.

We'll need some vegetables for a nice salad, of course.

Plenty to choose from.

And, since they're right here next to the vegetables, we should pick up some sauces, honey, and other sweet stuff.

Some paté for our appetizers

Olives make great appetizers

 Oh, and some shrimp, too.  You gotta have shrimp cocktail for an appetizer.







Now...for our main courses some ideas.

Lobster would be nice.  But there's some excellent looking flounder and great Red Snapper.

And some of the "nameless"

Paul, these are for you.  I know how much you love them.

Or, perhaps, you prefer a big, juicy one.

 Some beef for the meat eaters among us.

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

(This is why I can't be Jewish or Muslim.  I just love pig!)

 And plenty of wine to go with all courses, of courses.

Oh...and some fromage for desert, or appetizer, or the hell of it whatever.  These folks know cheese.

A little fruit to clear the palate.

And, might I suggest, for desert?

For you:  To good friends, good food, and good times.  May they always be yours.