Baeckoffe Stew and Eau de Vie

Today, my last day in Strasbourg, I headed to an area called la Petit France, known for its half-timbered houses and cobblestone roads, to find a restaurant called Le Baeckeoffe d’Alsace.  While planning this trip, I had read about two things unique to this region – Baeckoffe stew and Eau de Vie – and I had been looking forward to trying both, but somehow three days had gone by and I hadn’t managed to get either!  So, when I saw an ad for this restaurant saying they have traditional Baeckoffe stew and are a winstub, it seemed like the perfect place to have both and I decided to go try it.

When I got there, I learned that they had several kinds of Baeckeoff (made with various types of meat) and I wished Paul was with me so I could try more than one (one of the many benefits of not travelling alone is you get to sample more food!).  I decided to order traditional Baeckeoffe, which is beef, pork, and lamb cooked in an oven with potatoes and onions.  Overall I was quite disappointed with the dish – the meat was pretty tender but it lacked flavour and there was way more potato than meat.  After eating, I ordered the Gewurztraminer flavoured Eau de Vie (which is a clear fruit brandy sweetened entirely by fruit) and was shocked at how strong and Ouzo-like it tasted (I couldn’t taste the Gewurztraminer at all)!  Turns out I’m not much of a brandy drinker, and the Alsatian version is pretty extreme – with my weak alcohol tolerance I probably should have stopped at half the glass, but it was an 6 euro drink so I couldn’t let it go to waste

I left lunch in a tipsy state and decided to walk off the alcohol by heading to a flea market  I had read about which only happens on Wednesdays.  Following the map, I started in the right direction, but on the next street when I needed to turn there were three homeless-looking guys arguing loudly and I decided not to walk in their direction.  This meant I had to keep going straight and look for somewhere else to turn back, and since the street went forever without another turn, I ended up getting totally lost – my navigation skills just aren’t that good!  After walking about 5 blocks, I gave up on finding the flea market and went back to Place Kléber, which is easy to find because you just look for the huge church steeple of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg and walk towards it. 

The rest of my last day in Strasbourg was spent shopping at Galleries Lafayette, a huge department store chain similar to Holt Renfre/The Bay which is quite popular in France.  I’m happy to report that I resisted the urge to buy anything, although it was extra tempting without Paul there telling me “no!”