Bordeaux and the Wine Country Restaurants

While countryside Médoc eateries are few, the city of Bordeaux is jammed with restaurants (especially around Place du Parlement) and many cafés (in the Quartier St-Pierre especially) and bars (Place de la Victoire and Cours de la Somme). Not surprisingly, the wines of the region are often used as a base for regional food specialties. Lamprey, a good local fish, is often served in a red wine sauce as lamproie à la Bordelaise, and another, in a white wine, as esturgeon à la Libournaise, or sturgeon cooked Libourne-style. As for meat, the lamb from Pauillac and the beef from Bazas and Aquitaine are rightly famous, as is the wood pigeon (palombe). And Bordeaux has spectacular desserts, such as fanchonnette bordelaise (puff pastry in custard covered by meringue), the cannelé de Bordeaux (small cakes made in fluted molds that can only be found here), and the famed macaroons from Saint-Émilion, invented there by the town's Ursuline nuns in the 17th century.