La Mirabelle, Casteil

It’s not often that I travel sixty eight kilometres to have dinner, but this was no I ordinary dinner! Last week, three of us took the road from our house down by the Mediterranean, up into the Pyrenees, to the foot of the mountain that we can sometimes see from our bathroom window. Today the sky is clear and snow can still be seen near the summit. Last week that was not possible, the clouds were low and the mists and the rain were sweeping across the lower slopes of the highest peak in these Eastern Pyrenees, Mount Canigou, known locally as the sacred mountain of the Catalans.

Why, you may ask, were we travelling all that way for a meal? Let me explain. A few years ago we got to know the owners of an interesting restaurant on the seafront here in Canet-Plage. Originally from Singapore, Richard and Olga Ling had owned a Michelin starred restaurant in the City of London. When they retired they settled down here in the south of France and opened a small restaurant called Bamboo House, which served fabulous modern French cuisine, with a twist of the Orient. Sadly they closed that restaurant two years ago and bought a small boutique hotel up in the mountains, and introduced their culinary skills in their new hotel restaurant. We wanted to meet up with our friends once again, to see their hotel, to enjoy a meal in their restaurant, and to see a part of this region that we had not been to before.

La Mirabelle is the name of the eight bedroom hotel in the village of Casteil, eight hundred metres above sea level. What a delightful place it was, each of the eight bedrooms being named after a local town or village, and decorated in the style reflecting that location. Our rooms, Maury, the home of a local vin doux naturel or fortified dessert wine, with its Catalan stripes, and Torreilles, a seaside town along the coast from here with its washed wood cladding, were spotlessly clean, comfortably furnished and very welcoming.

Let’s get to the real reason for this visit, the dinner for which we had travelled sixty eight kilometres! We had chosen to have the Discovery Tasting Menu, which is a six course dinner, and we had given Richard and Olga good notice of this, since everything is prepared to order using locally sourced and organic produce. The cost for this Menu Dégustation was fifty five euros, and considering the quality of the ingredients and the culinary skill involved,  was far better value than many of the local restaurants on the seafront here offering inferior fare.

The photograph above shows the menu written out in true French style on a small blackboard, no choices to be made here as with other restaurant menus, everything had been prepared with us in mind.

Olga is the chef in this restaurant, and husband Richard is front of house, although both of them are expert chefs. As in their other restaurants, they bring that oriental twist to their sophisticated French cuisine in this menu. That was immediately brought to our attention with the Japanese influenced Amuse-bouche, a Shitaki Mushroom with Tuna Tataki (seared on the outside but left raw in the middle) and served with a Panna Cotta of Foie Gras with Ginger, and pickles.

This really got our taste buds tingling, as we prepared ourselves for the first of two entrées. This turned out to be my favourite dish of the whole meal and was Ravioli of Goats’ Cheese with a White Truffle Jus topped with a Chorizo and sun-dried tomato crumble.

Whenever we ate at Bamboo House, their former restaurant, the second entrée, Calamars Croustillant was always on the menu. To my mind, Calamars can so often be chewy through over cooking; I knew Olga’s dish would not be, it was delightfully light and tasty, sprinkled with herbs and topped with a Tempura Gambas.

We could tell that Richard’s skilful hand had been at work on the next course. The turbot had been filleted by him, but lightly grilled by Olga and served with a courgette flower stuffed with turbot on a courgette purée and a jus of extract of yuzu, the Japanese lemon, a favoured ingredient in this kitchen.

Organic Charolais Beef was the principal ingredient in the second main dish, which was a Beef Wellington revisited with an emulsion of jus de Foie Gras with Smoked Cep Mushrooms and Sichuan Pepper, served with a potato, butternut squash and Cheddar mash.

Then came dessert! All three of us love chocolate, but two of us are chocoholics! This rich Brazilian chocolate dessert with the citrus flavours of mandarin, kumquat and Grand Marnier in the Chantilly Cream, the candied fruits and the ice cream was a fitting and filling end to a glorious journey of tastes and textures from around the world, a real discovery as the menu title described.

With dinner we enjoyed a fairly local red wine a Côtes Catalanes from a vineyard in Trouillas just south of Perpignan, La Domaine de la Perdrix, and after dinner we were offered a glass of Maury sweet dessert wine. The whole evening had been a really wonderful experience, obviously not something to be undertaken on a regular basis, but as a special treat to mark a special event, it will stand out clearly in the memory. Olga and Richard work hard to make their guests feel special, and to offer them a wonderful culinary experience. They are passionate about the quality and presentation of their food, and passionate too about their craft. In our turn, we are delighted to know them, to call them our friends, and to have the privilege of tasting and enjoying such wonderful food.