I am currently on a summer course in the French town of Tours, and this evening two newfound Japanese friends and I headed out to dinner. Along the pedestrianised Rue Colbert by the main cathedral St. Gatien, where most of the good restaurants are located away from the main square's tourist traps, we stumbled upon this particularly crowded bistro Le Turon, and went in trusting our gut feelings about the place.
The atmosphere is quaint, with ancient walls and timbre ceiling structures still intact. The bistro offers a prix-fixe menu at dinner with ample options for each course, and prices are extremely reasonable, at €21.50 for 2 courses or €27.50 for 3 courses. The cooking is hearty and homely, offering French classics such as foie gras, duck breast, and molten chocolate cake. Service is efficient and no-nonsense, typical of French bistros.
Starter 1: eggs poached in Chinon wine, with a slice of homemade foie gras.
This was a luxurious start to any meal. The homemade foie gras was utterly smooth and creamy with a rich musky flavour. Regional characteristics could be inferred from the generous pool of Chinon wine sauce, made from a full-bodied, tannic and mildly spicy red wine of the Touraine region (somewhat unusual for typically white Loire Valley wines). The soft-poached runny eggs contributed further flavours and a substantial creaminess when mixed together with the excellent sauce. One just couldn't help mopping it all up with the bread provided! All in all, really bold flavours and textures which packed a good punch.
Starter 2: monkfish tartare marinated with chives, lime, passion fruit and ginger, with slices of grapefruit and a passion fruit-ginger reduction.
The raw monkfish was fresh and firm, and the marinade was well-intentioned, but I found the latter overpoweringly acidic - not helped either by the grapefruit and more passion fruit reduction (which itself has a very strong and distinctive flavour)! To the kitchen's credit, chives and ginger were truly lovely touches, contributing delicate aromas and spiciness to enhance the gentle sweet taste of the fish, but the overall flavour balance or fish-condiment proportion could have been better adjusted, I thought.
Starter 3: Homemade terrine of duck foie gras with pear chutney and vanilla.
Similar to but less heavy than the previous foie gras dish, this was deliciously paired with a mildly spicy pear chutney and a touches of high-quality balsamico, sea salt, Espelette pepper and vanilla pod powder. Sweet, sour, salty, spicy and aromatic all at once, working effectively to enhance the rich musky flavour of foie gras. A simple and classic composition of which one never tires.
Main course 1: entrecôte steak with a sauce of farm-churned St. Maure goat's cheese, with roasted potatoes and a broccoli and cumin purée.
The steak was tender and succulent, and its strong flavour was very well complemented by the creamy sauce made from an unpasteurised full-fat goat's cheese of the Touraine region. The roast potatoes and broccoli purée were rather more insipid. The potatoes in particular lacked a certain crispness and fluffiness; they felt somewhat greasy and heavy. On the whole though, the dish was still extremely enjoyable on account of the excellent steak and its sauce.
Main course 2: skewer of duck breast, with apricots and rosemary.
Another excellent meat dish; the duck breast was incredibly tender and juicy, with a rich gamey flavour. This isn't just any ordinary breast meat; in France, only the Mulard breed of ducks are selected for this dish, and they must be force-fed not only to produce foie gras but also to fatten up generally, which makes their breast meat unusually succulent, unlike the dry and fatless meat that we normally associate with this part of an animal. The sauce, made of roasting juices mixed with apricot juice and infused with rosemary, offered another dimension to the duck breast, with the perfect sweet-savoury balance and a fresh pine-like aroma.
Dessert 1: rose wine nectarine soup, with Grand Marnier chantilly cream, cinnamon powder and mint.
A refreshing way to end, with sweet juicy slices of nectarine submerged in a pool of nectarine and rose wine soup, and topped with whipped cream infused with orange liqueur. The extensive use of alcohol in this dessert enhanced the freshness and overall taste of the ingredients while lightening things up significantly, almost like a digestif. Cinnamon powder and a single mint leaf provided further pleasant aromas.
Dessert 2: moelleux au chocolat (chef's recipe) and vanilla ice-cream.
One of the staples of French desserts, this indulgent chocolate cake has a molten chocolate centre that oozes out when you cut into it. The one before me now was extremely intense; having barely made a slit in the fluffy baked layer, viscous chocolatey goodness started gushing out. The chocolate itself had a deep bitter taste and was obviously of high quality. Balancing and complementing the chocolate cake were two sweeter accompaniments; first, vanilla custard to be paired at will with the chocolate cake, then a vanilla ice-cream that was really smooth, creamy and aromatic (nothing beats using real crushed vanilla pods!). Very comforting and satisfying indeed. I think all three of us agreed that this was the best meal we've had since arriving here a week ago.
While Tours might not seem an obvious choice for tourism despite its rich history and proximity to Paris, as the birthplace of standard French pronunciation, as well as the base from which the beautiful Loire Valley may be explored, it is certainly worth a visit - and do drop by this lovely bistro if you are in town!
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