We spent a perfect afternoon in New York City at the French restaurant, OCabanon, located at 245 West 29th Street, which was the charming venue for Taste France™ Pop-Up Marché presented by Edible Manhattan and Taste France™ on Saturday, September 28, 2024, where patrons had the opportunity to experience a sampling of French wines, cocktails, French cuisine, and even experience a class on how to make a baguette.
Taste France Pop-Up Marché – Wine Tasting
We began our oh-so French experience at the OCabanon bar by sampling glasses of La Vielle Ferme wines, Rouge, Rosé, and Sparkling, made by Famille Perrin in the Southern Rhone region, in Orange, France. It was the perfect way to begin our afternoon of experiencing French wine and cuisine.
Maison Perrier, the off shoot of the iconic Perrier brand from the South of France, brought a delectable assortment of their new sparkling FOREVER mineral waters including plain, Forever Lime, Forever Grapefruit, and Forever Blackberry. While delicious on their own, they also paired well when used in cocktails made with the Premium award-winning vodka, Belle Chasse, made in Cognac, France.
Taste France Pop-Up Marché – Sample Bornibus products
Of course, it was not all wine and cocktails, there was also delicious food to experience including Président butter and cheeses served alongside French baguettes, Société Roquefort cheese, and Valbreso cheese presented by Lactalis, a third- generation family-owned company. Bornibus, makers of fine French condiments since 1855, brought delicious tastes from France with samples of their Sweet Garlic (Ail doux), and various mustards served on baguettes.
Kiwi Berries
One of the many interesting things we tried and loved, were Nergi® kiwi berry from the Astinida asrguta species also known as the Siberian kiwi or kiwi berry, presented by Interfel, which were small, round, fuzz-less kiwis. What we learned about this interesting, and delicious fruit is that it is a thousand-years-old, that flowers in mid-May and its fruit grows in clusters during the summer. Whether they were eaten on their own, or paired with other food, they were delicious. For the event, they were presented as Baby Kiwi, Pear, and Mint Salad in a Verrine (bowl); Fromage Blanc (White Cheese), Baby Kiwi, and Granola in a Verrine (bowl); and Shrimp and Baby Kiwi on a Skewer with Coconut.
Also nice was the caramelized shallots on puff pastry, reminding us that all delicious things do not necessarily need to be hard or time consuming to make. On that note, we loved the baguette making class presented by La French Baguette. While (Edward) is the bread baker and enjoys the exacting process of making bread from scratch, for the rest of us, if you love baguettes, yet would never attempt making them on your own, La French Baguette kit is outstanding.
La French Baguette – Empty package to bowl, add water, salt, mix
The La French Baguette class showed participants that with their baguette kit, anyone can easily make a baguette as it contained all ingredients, except for warm water and salt, to make one baguette. The only extras we needed was a small bowl, a scissor to cut the bag of ingredients, warm water, salt, and a baking sheet.
While we had the added advantage of having a baker instructor, the instructions provided on the inside lid of the box were easy to follow with both written and pictorial instructions. After emptying the dry ingredients into the bowl, we simply added warm water to the fill mark on the plastic bag and added a small spoon of salt.
La French Baguette – Ready to be baked
We next mixed the ingredients together with our hands to create a smooth, round, dough. The kit included a sheet of parchment paper, which we used to roll out the dough into a rectangular shape, then rolled it away from us to create a log shape. With the seam side up, we folded the parchment paper over the shaped dough, and it was ready to be baked.
Edward F. Nesta & La French Baguette Instructor
Baking our own baguettes was fun, easy, and after baking them in the OCabanon oven, we brought our baguettes home to enjoy the next day. What a perfect idea for a party or family dinner, to have everyone make their own baguette.
Until next time, Bon Appetit!
To learn more about Taste France™ and for French recipes, please visit the website: www.tastefrance.com or their Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/tastefrancemagazine/
For more information on Edible Manhattan, please visit the website: https://www.ediblemanhattan.com or their Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/ediblemanhattan/
For more information on the French restaurant, OCabanon in New York City, please visit their website: https://www.ocabanon.com/
OCabanon Cave à Manger Hours: The restaurant is open Monday through Friday from 12:00 pm until 11:00 pm, and Saturday from 4:00 pm until 11:00 pm. Le Boutique is open Monday through Saturday from 12:00 pm until 8:00 pm.
OCabanon Cave à Manger
245 West 29th Street
New York, New York 10001
Telephone: +1-646-669-7879
Email: contact@ocabanon.com
Website: https://www.ocabanon.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OCabanon/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ocabanon/
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