The gourmet's guide to Europe

restaurant is built, are the tanks, through which the salt water flows, in which the fish and oysters are kept. You here get the world-renowned Bouillabaisse in perfection. I suppose it is not necessary for me to give any description of what Bouillabaisse is, or how the Southerners firmly believe that this dish cannot be properly made except of the fish that swim in the Mediterranean ; the rascaz, a little fellow all head and eyes, being an essential in the savoury stew, along with the eel, the lobster, the dory, the mackerel, and the girelle. Thackeray has sung the ballad of the dish as he used to eat it, and his recette , because it is poetry, is accepted, though it is but the fresh-water edition of the stew. If you do not like oil, garlic, and saffron, which all come into its composition, give it a wide berth ; but I should mention that the Bouillabaisse at the Reserve is quite a mild and lady-like stew compared to that one gets at Bregailla’s or the restaurants of the Rue Noailles. The best shell-fish are the praires and the clovisses , about the same size as walnuts or little neck clams ; the clovisses are the largest, and rather take the place of oysters when the latter are not in season, in the same way that the clam does in America ; others are mussels, oysters, and langoustes. Langoustes differ as much as a skinny fowl does from a Poularde de Mans. M. Echenard gets his from Corsica, and you then learn how they can vary. Praires are rather expensive luxuries. They look like marine walnuts. When they are split open the gelatinous morsel inside is well worth the trouble of the preparatory proceed- French ^Provincial Towns 103 ings. M. Echenard serves a Poularde Reserve en Cocotte Raviolis , which is a dish to be remembered ; his Filets de Sole Sauce Cardinale are excellent, for the small fat sole caught between Hyeres and Toulon is not to be despised. If you wish to taste the Bouillabaisse as the Marseillaise themselves eat it, with the saffron and garlic in full force, take tram to L’Estagne. You will have to pass L s agne the Abattoirs, which do not form an appetising sight ; but when you reach L’Estagne, you will find the bon bourgeois and his wife enjoying their fish stew immensely, and you can be sure that the fish you eat has just been caught from the sea. For the curious in such matters, Pascal’s, in a smelly little square to the east of the Vieux Port, will be interesting. Pascal, out of pure blague , pascal’s, adds “ Gargottier” to his name. Here, Place Thiars in what Pascal asserts is its ancient home, you get the Bouillabaisse in its fullest strength. Pascal boasts much of his grillades , which we call grills. To give his customers privacy Pascal at breakfast time lets down a great sun-blind before his restaurant.