Eat Like Ushi

There isn't many food review sites online (perhaps just not in English) for many of the little towns in Brittany. That means Tripadvisor really comes into prominence in the region. I was surprised to see #1 in Rochefort-en-Terre was a gaufre (or waffle) place.

In the morning after a walk around and purchasing some local Breton cider for the road, the wait was successful until 12pm when Voyage Gaufre opened. The building and exterior is absolutely cute and gorgeous and so typical of what made Rochefort-en-Terre the best voted village in France for 2016.

The menu has savoury and sweet gaufres. How could I go past La Bretonne (noix de St. Jacques cuisinees, fondue de poireaux) €12 whilst in Brittany? Beautifully plump scallops sauteed in butter came on top of leeks cooked in butter and served on a waffle with crisp outside and soft and very buttery inside. It was butter in extremes and delicious as a result. The watercress on the side also had melted butter drizzled on it just to be compatible.

For the less buttery, there are also sweet gaufres and some reasonable sounding salads too.

I can see why this is #1. I didn't have another gaufre but I'm happy I had it once here.

Surprisingly on a Thursday night in early summer, many of the town restaurants and cafes were closed in the evening. It seemed a bit strange. Given this and the only place I had marked was a creperie Cafe Breton that was also closed, the options came down to what was open at the east entrance to town - Les Adoisieres or L'Ancolie. L'Ancolie was a bit more expensive and Les Adoisieres seemed busier so the decision was easy in the end.

I had some difficulty reading the menu even with the help of my phone translator. The wait staff did speak some English but I didn't want to burden them.

- Choucrete de la mer €14 - a wonderfully cooked fillets of white fish, medium sized but very strong flavoured (especially the heads) prawns, potatoes in a buttery creamy sauce;
- Surprise de bouef, sauce poivre, frites et salade €14 - a medium-rare (I ordered rare but it's ok) steak which had reasonable tenderness and flavour, buttery pepper sauce and served with some nice crisp fries.

The staff are friendly and stepping back out into the sunset lighting above the venue is a wonderful time.

Next time I would order the choucrete again and probably try the jarret de porc braise (I think this is the meat casserole dish I saw another person eating that I actually wanted). The beef is decent but not a local specialty and I can get that anywhere.

The quintessential pastry of France may be the croissant, but in Brittany the local specialty is Kouign Amann (still unclear how to pronounce that properly).

The smells wafting from this small bakery in the corner of the plaza in Rochefort-en-Terre leant itself to being the first thing I ate in Brittany. And wow was it special - a honey coated exterior turned crisp housing a layered chewy buttery and sweet pastry centre. There's only so many of these you could eat (before sugar overload or diabetes or heart disease) but it is to be savoured.

The also served Far Breton which is more of a custard tart/flan that was nice too.