Day/Country #8 -- New Caledonia

New Caledonian Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 18,576km²

Population: ~256,000

Capital: Montevideo

GDP (nominal) per capita: $38,921

Official Language: French

Known For: Kagu bird, Kanak communities,
Grand Terre's immense lagoon

Moving closer to home, today we 'went' to New Caledonia to try tropical oceanic cuisine with a French twist.

Though popular dishes include bat soup, and variations on raw fish and bananas, in the absence of readily available edible bats and having had a recent glut of raw fish and bananas, Mum decided to try a popular dish at the higher end of the French-influenced New Caledonian spectrum.

(For those of you keeping track, yes Mum is cooking twice in a row so I owe her one).


Today Mum created a delicious dish of Vol Au Vent aux Fruites de Mer (seafood-filled pastry cases) served with mango and chilli salsa.

We used bought vol au vent cases and filled them with prawns, squid, poached hoki and red onion with a creamy sauce made from shop-bought bechemel sauce fortified with butter, cream, dijon mustard and nutmeg.  To give a touch of colour (and a gourmet finish) the vol au vent were garnished with bright red salmon caviar.

In short, c'était délicieux!  Served warm (not hot!) the vol au vent were a lovely fresh and summery dish and having the fruity salsa on the side gave the meal a nice tangy twist.  There were supposed to be two spare vol au vents (they weren't small) but...er...there wasn't--it was so yummy we ate the lot!

Having a special drink with our international meals has rapidly become a tradition and today we enjoyed Kir Royale: creme de cassis (a liqueur made from black currants and red wine--homemade!) and champagne.  If you're the sort of person who thinks plopping a juicy strawberry in a champagne glass is a great idea then you have to try this sweet, fruity, bubbly treat!


Rating (out of 5):

Vol Au Vent aux Fruites de Mer 4.5/5

Mango & Chilli Salsa 4/5
Kir Royale 4/5