Eating in Cannes: Tumbleweeds are yummy!

I'm at the Cannes Film Festival. It's the eighth time I've been here, but my first since I launched The Knife.

People told me, "Isn't that great? Now you'll be able to write about all the incredible restaurants!" And I thought, "Well, isn't that great. I'll be able to write about all the incredible restaurants."

And tumbleweeds have been blowing through my blog ever since.

Welcome to Cannes.

This is the first second entry I've written since arriving in Cannes, nine days ago. I can blame my non-food freneticism (aka my job), but it's more complicated than that.

I didn't attend Cannes last year. And I somehow forgot one of the festival's most basic facts: Eating well in Cannes isn't a given because eating isn't a given. For two weeks, most of your nutrition comes from rose' wine. That and random bits of cocktail-party puff pastry.

We have an editor who's a Cannes virgin and, after five days, he was genuinely confused. "I seem to be having hors d'oeuvres every night," he said. "I can't get the hang of dinner." Show me someone who sits down for dinner most nights in Cannes and I'll show you someone who's not doing his job.

Please understand (for I've often been accused of this, and rightfully so): I'm not complaining. It's just the facts. If you're on deadline, festival dining is opportunistic. It's whatever's at hand and/or most easily available; in Cannes, that can mean a lot dubious paninis, pizzas and pastas (it's very much a tourist town) and fancy things on toothpicks that can be fairly awful (see: Majestic Hotel, Cannes' oxymoron by the sea).

If you have a little time to plan, there's some very good pizza here (Cannes isn't far from the Italian border). However, time is a problem. I've heard about a place that makes extraordinary bouilliabase, but you have to order it a day ahead. For me, it might as well be available only by parachute.

However. There are exceptions. Here's the best things I've eaten in Cannes this year (and a few other years as well):

* La Cave.  My old editor introduced me to this place eight years ago; I ate there last night and it's still some of the best dining in Cannes. Provencal food, nothing too fancy -- fried zucchini flowers, stuffed vegetables, roasted peppers in olive oil, veal with morels, lamb with anchoiade. Tiny space holds maybe 50 people, tops, and it's packed every night.

* Bacon. I haven't been here since 2000, but it stands as one of the most memorable meals of my life. It's on Cap D'Antibes, about a half hour outside Cannes. You go for the bouilliabase. The fish are local. The soup is extraordinary and they take only cash, and a lot of it. No regrets. (Also the first place I ever had frais des bois, or wild strawberries. When ripe, they taste like candy. Now I grow them in my front yard.)

* The Farmers' Market. It's open most days until 1 pm or so and it's just five minutes from the office. We've gone here for raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes and, more than anything else, relief. Walking through French markets is a balm, but overindulgence brings on depression; all those purple-green artichokes and rounded zucchinis I can't cook. 

* The bakeries. Obvious, but what I really love are the savory tarts -- quiches with spinach and goat cheese, or with ham and potato. (Ham, cream, cheese, something starchy and lots of black pepper -- it's pasta carbonara that melts in your mouth, not in your hand.)

* Kebabs. A copy editor pointed me toward this place across from the market. It's classic street food -- slices of doner kebab chicken (or veal) carved from a vertical spit, wrapped in flatbread (a Turkish tortilla) with shredded lettuce, tomato, onion and squirts of garlic and hot sauces. They'll also throw in a handful of French fries on request. Very salty, totally addictive.

* Vesuvio. Best pizza I've had in Cannes. It comes out of a wood-fired beehive oven and it's thin, blistered and delicious. Unfortunately, most people in Cannes have their pizza defined by La Pizza, a cavernous restaurant at the other end of the Croisette. (That's a good half-hour's walk.) Unlike Vesuvio, Le Pizza caters to the festival crowd with always-easy seating and fast service. And the pizza that ranges from pretty good to lame, depending on how quickly yours was rushed out of the oven. 

* Le Maschou. I don't think I'll make it here this year, which is my loss. The Maschou menu is prix fixe, family style and doesn't change, ever. First there's the sangria; then a dip of fromage blanc and fresh herbs, served with an overstuffed basket of fresh vegetables that looks like someone harvested the entire garden all at once. Then a platter of proscuitto with ripe melon, followed by lamb chops or beef or chicken, all of which are roasted in the fireplace. Throw in the side dishes and desserts and, for 44 Euros, it's a bargain.

And now, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to go home.

Comments

[Anne]

i love a blog that can describe pizza as having the capacity to be "lame". i absolutely know what you mean about the outdoor markets in france -- embarrassingly, my vice is the bakeries. i always want to pop into every one, inevitably getting in the way of all the women who just want some bread.

god, enjoy cannes!

- anne, menuism.com intern
and inept french speaker

[Mike]

Don't know if you're still there, but if you are, you have to eat at La Merenda in the vielle ville of Nice. There is no phone so don't try to call. It is the (not so anymore) hidden gem of the Cote d'Azur. Special are based on what is freshest at the markets. Don't miss. bon chance!