‘Nice’ Holiday

Nice is a small, lovely city that looks well after its visitors, serving them fresh salty breezes the Mediterranean way, French pebbled beaches, festive celebrations with a carnival touch, and really exciting museums – such a corner of paradise should indeed offer special dishes.

Do expect the meals to be light.

Don’t expect large chunks of beef or pork to served on your plates. The food you will be served in Nice is good for both your health and for your taste buds, and the meat served on top might be either mutton, poultry or some small game. It’s the historical and geographical circumstances that have influenced the Nicoise cuisine, like the short intervals of heavy rain not suited for managing pasturelands or large vegetable patches. As the result, the dishes that people from here are used to eat are more or less frugal and as they have done so for such a long time, their cuisine eventually developed a remarkable range of delicious nuances and tastes, always prepared in the same light, and easy way. Well, it’s unlikely that you think of all that while enjoying a sandwich filled with a Provençal type of mixture, having for example, fresh basil, goat cheese, olive oil (used by the Nicois for centuries instead of butter) and mesclun (a local salad mix); or, a Swiss chard tart, or a socca (made of chick-pea flour, water, olive oil and onions). Now that you have some recipes that you might want to try out, you should also know that, also due to the geo-culinary considerations mentioned above, the menus equally offer seafood and Italian pasta (the Italian cuisine is quite related to that of Nice).

Cheers and enjoy your meal!