From exquisite oysters smeared with sea-salt butter to a menu based around seaweed, the people of Brittany and its surrounding regions have a long history of bringing land and sea together on a plate
For a taste of the sea, nothing beats an oyster. And an oyster by the sea is even better. Sitting on the beach in France’s ‘oyster capital’, Cancale, with a plate of half-a-dozen huitres balanced on my lap, I look out across the water at the oyster-growing racks that stretch along the beach for half a mile.
In the distance, the tiny tidal island of Mont Saint-Michel pricks the horizon, while behind me, people are buying platters just like mine from the beachfront market.
Earlier, I’d spent an hour wandering out among the racks, squelching around on the sandy mud with my guide, Inga Smyczynski, a former oyster farmer who runs local tour company Ostreika. It was fascinating to learn just how much work goes into producing the oysters, and the experience certainly seems to have worked up a hunger in me. But just as I’m about to tuck in, Inga leans over and stops me from squeezing a lemon over the shucked bivalves. Handing me a round-ended knife and a pat of butter flecked with seaweed flakes, she shows me how to smear it on. This is oyster-eating, Breton-style.
I chew them a little before swallowing, their briny aroma filling my senses, the creamy, salty butter mingling with their slightly sweet, metallic flavour. It’s the ultimate terre et mer (‘land and sea’) combination, a theme that seems to characterise the cuisine of Brittany, whether you’re dining within sight of the sea somewhere along its remarkable, 1,700-mile coastline or eating inland in its cities or among its wild and remote countryside.
The butter on my oyster comes from the port town of Saint-Malo, 11 miles to the west. There, within the mighty sea walls that encircle its old town, I traverse the cobbled streets that weave around towering mansions, galleries and restaurants, as well as a host of foodie boutiques. First, I pick up a selection of spice blends at Épices Roellinger, an Aladdin’s cave of a shop whose stock of spices was once dependent on whatever the town’s sailors had managed to find on their travels. Next, I head to nearby La Maison du Sarrasin, a shop dedicated to buckwheat, another of Brittany’s culinary staples.
Finally, I nip across the road to La Maison du Beurre, home to Le Beurre Bordier, a much-loved French brand created by chef Jean-Yves Bordier that blends top-quality, hand-churned butter with flavours such as Madagascan vanilla, lemon and olive oil and, of course, seaweed — the combination that had so transformed my oysters in Cancale. But while the flavoured varieties are a treat, it’s the traditional blocks
