Traveling also means eating – if not drinking – and tasting all these local specialties that sometimes take us very far from our culinary habits and “traditions”. A different world and different tastes to discover, even if you stay in your country from one region to another. Because sometimes the adventure takes place at the bottom of the plate.
So let’s go to Brittany and its gastronomy today.
A meeting between the products of the land and the sea
If there is a French region that has some gastronomic peculiarities, it is Brittany. Here, the kitchen – like many things – is traditionally a “meeting of land and sea”.
Fish and seafood on one side, cereals and starchy foods, crêpes or crêpes, salted butter and Brittany cider on the other… and many other things. In short, you understand that food in Brittany remains a real discovery with things on the menu now familiar to everyone outside the region, but also others a little more local.
Flagship products
Buckwheat
It is in some ways the most emblematic cereal of Brittany. Buckwheat is found in the form of flour for pancakes and fritters, but also in bread and cakes.
Pancakes and Pancakes
Precisely made from flour, they are essential in Breton cuisine. You can eat them plain or garnished with cheese, meat, eggs, seafood, and more generally anything else you want.
Otherwise, to answer the eternal question of the difference between pancakes and crepes, we will simply say that it lies primarily in the flour used and the usual filling.
Pancakes are therefore made from wheat flour (soft wheat) and are thinner and fluffier than pancakes. It is usually eaten sweet with ingredients such as jam, chocolate, sugar, compote, fresh fruit, etc.
Breton pancakes, on the other hand, are made from buckwheat flour (black wheat). They are thicker and more fragile than pancakes. Their color is also grayer. It is eaten spicy with things like ham, cheese, eggs, mushrooms, etc.
Besides… this terminology may also vary by region. In Upper Brittany (Rennes and the East) we often call wheat pancakes “pancakes” and buckwheat pancakes “galettes”. On the other hand, in Lower Brittany (in the West) we can also call wheat pancakes “galettes”.
Salted butter
This is another component necessarily associated with Brittany. Indispensable, it gives Brittany dishes their unique flavor, especially since it is used on everything; from cooking pancakes to preparing sauces.
Fish, meat and dairy products
Brittany benefits from a long coastline and an abundance of seafood, including oysters, mussels, clams, lobster, cod and many more.
As for meat, pork is popular in Brittany and is found in dishes such as kig ha farz, which is a meat and vegetable stew.
Finally, Brittany also produces excellent cheeses which, although less well-known than those from other regions, are worth tasting.
Three things (among many others) to discover
Their names alone refer to Brittany: kig ha farz, kouign-amann AND Far Breton.
Kig ha farz
Here is a specialty originating from the Pays de Léon, which is that part of Brittany near Morlaix to the west of the territory. His name literally means in Breton “meat and farz”, farz is a preparation based on buckwheat flour traditionally cooked in a cloth bag. It is a type of stew that was once considered a “poor man’s food”.
To cook it, we start by making a broth that must be boiled for several hours, mostly with pieces of beef, salted pork shank, vegetables (carrots, leeks, cabbage) and sometimes herbs. As for the farz, we put the flour in a bag and cook it all in the same broth.
The broth then accompanies the meal with bread or wheat pancakes, while farz is served with meat and vegetables. And if we want, we can add another accompaniment like lipig which is a sauce mixture of onions or shallots cooked in salted butter.
Kouign Amann
What is pronounced “kouign-amane” and means “cake (kouign) with butter (amann)” is a symbolic pastry of Brittany cuisine originating from Finistère.
It’s a mixture of a crunchy caramelized exterior and a soft, tender interior.
Its dough needs to be carefully processed, folded into layers, and diamonds verticated on top. All this with a generous addition of semi-salted butter, which, as it caramelizes during cooking, gives the dessert a golden color and crunchiness.
Inside, it’s a bread dough enriched with butter and sugar that gives kouign-amann its soft, melty heart.
Far Breton
The most famous of the three outer “borders”. It is a type of pastry, quite hearty, made of eggs, flour, unsalted butter, sugar and, if you like, rum, prunes or raisins depending on the (many) variations that exist.