Stamppot

Refuge Dent d'Oche, Haute Savoie, June 30—

 

ONCE AGAIN Ifailed to photograph dinner. I was tired and hungry; the climb to this refuge, about 1300 meters (4000 feet) in just a few kilometers, ending with hand-over-hand stuff, was exhilarating but exhausting. 

No running water here: impossible to clean up before dinner. When it arrived,  for nine guests, it was a clear soup baseed on hazelnuts and carrots, mashed potatoes with the omnipresent Savoyard sausage, biot. This was substantial and tasty and especially suited the four Netherlanders among us, I think. 

And then the pear tart, with an undersalted but satisfying crust involving a hint, I think, of  bacon fat. Well, why not: in an isolated place like this, provisioned by helicopter once a season, waste not, want not!

Red wine en pichet