Back in the early nineties, Family Growster would plough forth to various spots in France for the cheap, but lovely holiday, cheap but lovely wine, etc, and when the destination was beyond several hours driving, we'd stop off - for family habitual reasons, at a Campanile Hotel, wherever we wanted to go. We liked what they did - most times.
In several of these, over the years, the franchised owners displayed varying qualities in their buffet lunches and dinners, ranging from the pretty normal and uninspired, to the fantastic like at Blois and, believe it or not, Calais.
Because back then the menu was up to the owners of the hotel to do what was best for their business, they had a free rein on what was served up, and Family Growster would readily enjoy the 'included' carafe of wine with every table setting, and usually much more...
And for years, we would enjoy these comestibles, but there was often one particular buffet dish which was never explained, and which we tried and loved, and attempted to work out what it was, and what it was made of.
We never found out!
Recently, since 'Patch Growster' appeared on the diary for next year, we've been planning what to grow. We love celery, and Waldorf Salad is an occasional welcome, especially with our own apples. I tried growing celery years ago, and frankly got fed up with the fiddling about and having to nurture every single stem, and it's only recently that we decided that we'd give celeriac a try next year.
And guess what, just reading Hessayon's book today, he mentions a French recipe for...
...Yup, 'Celeri-rave a la remoulade'!
And now, checking back, Argyllie did a post on it a year back!
We're delighted to see this in writing, and thanks Argyllie; were on the case, (well we will be next year), we're just having a dry run with julienne celery to get the idea, and don't care what it looks like!