French Food Adventures: La Ficelle Picarde

A little daytrip to Amiens, north of Paris, and we ascertain that the local specialty is La Ficelle Picarde. Wikipedia (should we trust Wikipedia?) says ‘its origins appear based in Amiens’ l’hôtel du Commerce where a chef developed it in 1950, notwithstanding some legends stating the dish originated in the era of Louis XIV.’

I kind of love that you can go to different towns and cities in France and they all claim local specialties which may not be that different than other types of food. On the other hand, we’d never tried this local delicacy. We went to the humble Square Cafe, with a lovely view onto the Place with a gorgeous flowering cherry blossom tree. Spring cometh! They played contemporary music videos, reminding how terrible some of today’s music is, and the service was cheery amusing. We asked for a lunch menu, and the waiter said, ‘I’m the menu’ before he told us what we could order.

So, the local specialty is a crêpe, rolled up, with ham and mushrooms, a lovely bit of cheese melted crisply on top, and swimming in cream. What’s not to love?

It looks like the bar devolves into a raucous drinking hole in the evenings, as there was a Jagermeister dispensing machine, numerous beer specials posted behind the bar, and in front, possibly, patrons from the night before? It was 1pm. They were really drunk. Local food, local flavour, we enjoyed it! In fact, my better half was particularly taken my the Ficelle Picarde. Oh my god… was his compliment.