The essence of the region’s gastronomy is found in its waters. The Loire and its tributaries provide salmon, trout, carp, shad and pike, served grilled in a salt crust, or with a beurre nantais (butter, shallots and wine sauce). The Atlantic coast spoils visitors with its superb shellfish: oysters, mussels, prawns, lobsters and clams can be savored at any time of day––and with any sauce––in the restaurants fronting local fishing ports. Around Guérande, the ocean offers its fleur de sel, an all-natural unprocessed salt that gives a new meaning to seasoning.
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Mushroom Growing Country.
Inland Maine district has for centuries been the land of the choicest grain-fed poultry: chapon du Mans and poulet de Loué are in demand by the best chefs. Le Mans is famous for its rillettes, a paté of pork, herbs and spices that is served cold, while Vendée serves a local jambon (ham). Game is also popular and includes wild duck and hare served in rich red wine sauces. In the limestone caves near Saumur, mushroom growing is big business: 42% of the national production comes from there. At Saut-aux-Loups one can visit a 15th-century maze of underground galleries where all kinds of mushrooms are grown and where galipettes (stuffed mushrooms) are served.
Regional cheeses are usually made from cow’s milk, although Crémet d’Anjou, a goat-milk cheese whose crust has been rubbed with a wine-soaked cloth, has become a favorite. Deserts include tarte tatin, a caramelized apple upside-down tart that can also be made with pears, gâteau nantais, made with almonds and rum, or a fruit salad generously doused with wine and accompanied by sablés, the shortbread cookies from Sablé-sur-Sarthe.
Delightful White and Rosé Wines.
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Pays-de-Loire’s claim to gastronomic fame also resides in its wines. Around Nantes, the dry wines of Muscadet are the perfect partners to all kinds of seafood. Anjou is associated more with the sweeter rosés such as Rosé de Loire, while Saumur produces fresh and light red, rosé and white wines as well as white and rosé sparkling wines that are more affordable alternatives to champagne. For an after-dinner drink, the local specialty is Cointreau, the liqueur made with sweet and bitter orange extracts that has been made in Angers since 1849.
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