We have so many chain “restaurants” in America that
sometimes it is difficult to get the true flavor of the region you are
traveling in. Everywhere you go, there
is (of course) a MacDonalds, a Denny’s, a Shari’s. We try to avoid those at all costs. When we travel to other countries, we also
tend to avoid the big, expensive, well-known restaurants in favor of the
family-run smaller places. We had read
that in Lyon, they were known for just such places – known as “bouchons”. We found several close to the place we were
staying in the Croix Rousse neighborhood and could hardly wait to pop in, have
a seat and order. Everything on the menu
looked good, but we thought we might be reasonable and split a salad before
each ordering our main course. Being in
Lyon, we thought “let’s eat something from this region - why not order a Salade
Lyonnaise”? We could then have plenty
of room to consume the tete de veau and the pork special that were coming up
later. We were wrong. What we had not bothered to read about these
bouchons was that they served portions for the laborers. Huge portions.
This was our “starter salad”. It was immense!
We estimated it had at least half a pound of
bacon lardons on it – almost too much even for my pork-loving Aussie
husband. We gamely finished it (as we
didn’t want to insult this lovely dining establishment) and were then
confronted by these plates.
We could
barely haul ourselves out of our chairs at the end and waddle back to our
apartment.
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