On a cold Tuesday winter night in Lourdes finding something to eat was a challenge. Walking down the street to a place we ate a couple of days ago and just having walked back from doing some laundry we had seen almost this entire part of town shut down for the night. A small sign in what seem to point to an even smaller little street and a tiny little place with a big window caught our attention. We decided to go in just because the place that might be open that was decent was uphill and still another 10 min away.
Wow , talk about a hidden gem. They only had one menu service for 15 Euros;
Menu Garbure:
Salade a Roquefort
Garbure au confit de canard
Cafe Gourmand
Once we met the owner Federico a French man who spoke impecable Spanish we found out it was a salad, soup, and dessert. We were sitting down already and rolled the dice and, winner, winner, duck dinner!!!!!
The salad was freshly cut/crisp romaine lettuce in a light vinaigrette with a ton of Roquefort blue cheese, which is not usually something I eat but the wife loves blue cheese. Federico cut us French baguette and we just had water.
A few minutes later he came back from the upstairs kitchen with a huge bowl of the Garbure of Canard which turned out to be duck winter soup with potatoes, ham, and other vegetables. WOW, wow, wow, first I did not think my wife was going to eat it since we had never had duck and I had mentioned that would be something I wanted to try when we got to France and she had already said she was not going to try it.
So I figured I doubled up since soup had two duck drumsticks but no such luck she ate her entire duck leg.
That soup was absolutely delicious!! We devoured that scrumptious soup with the rest of the baguette and then Federico gave us an expresso served with a little muffin that had a slight anise flavor and a square of what looked like a brownie, those were very good as well. Federico is the owner chef and this is all he was making, not sure if this is what he also sales the rest of the year but seems like this is all he makes and nothing else. To be honest if I would had found this place Sunday night, I would had ate this every day we were here, that's how good I thought it was. I can't wait to get home and try to make this myself.
We spent a while chatting with Federico and he was the nicest, warmest host and we found out a lot about the area. The place is quaint and simple but the food makes up for all that. Very colorful art on the walls and very small place but big on flavor of the one perfect dish they sell. Best soup that I have ever had in a restaurant and only regret is that we leave before they open tomorrow otherwise I would have this again tomorrow. read more