A Foodie's Trip Down the Wine Road in Alsace

When I tell friends I'm going to France, everyone assumes Paris is the destination. However, in my view, other parts of France surpass Paris both in atmosphere as well as in their food offerings. One such region is Alsace. Nestled around the Rhine river, near Germany and Switzerland, Alsace combines the best of French cuisine with the heartiness of the German kitchen and wines. It has an enormous concentration of Michelin starred restaurants, most of them with one star and two fork rating, namely excellent food without the fanciness (and high prices) associated with several forks. Alsace chefs keep their feet firmly rooted to their history and tradition, while their heads remain creative. Unlike many Paris kitchens, where the quest to innovate for innovation's sake has taken chefs too far away from what has made them great in the first place, the Alsatian kitchens I visited over the years, and, most recently, this week, can be relied upon not to add one ingredient too many to their dishes, and to remain true to what has made them so great in the first place.

One commonly held falsehood about Alsace and its cuisine is the preponderance and importance of Choucroute. The dish, a combination of several (some offer 12) kinds of smoked meats, cooked often in Riesling wine and other spices and overshadowed by loads of sauerkraut, is indeed an acquired taste. It hit home with sauerkraut aficionados, but those who don't love the stuff should stay away. I found, however, that Alsatian cuisine goes way beyond the Choucroute and into highly seasonal, sophisticated and delicious dishes. In late May, for example, white asparagus, morel mushrooms and rhubarb are at the peak of their short season. I found dishes containing all of the above in every single restaurant we visited. By contrast, in the winter, game dishes reign. You'd be well advised to pick the time of year you visit Alsace by the ingredients you enjoy, but I am yet to have a bad meal in the region, no matter when I go.

One more exciting thing about Alsace is that the residents like their desserts, and they have leant toward their Germanic heritage as they create rich but not cloying tarts, Bavarian creams, puff pastry, crepes, whipped cream and countless other delicacies. For a self proclaimed dessert addict such as myself, it is comforting to know that, at the conclusion of every meal, at least 3 or 4 desserts offering will suit my tastes and will exceed my expectations.

To my palate, the supreme restaurant of Alsace is Buerheisel, located in Strasbourg. The venerable Antoine Westermann and his wife Vivienne personify the principal I described above, combining superb foundations of stock and centuries old traditional recipes with outstanding modern twists on the old themes. For example, the usual frogs legs, a specialty of the region, have been cleverly converted into tiny globules of meat with a handle of bone, resembling a chicken wing in looks but surpassing its taste by a mile. Morels, white asparagus and other spring vegetables amply garnish all dishes, complemented by the purest of sauces, where taste and intensity rule and fat is totally absent.

I'd be remiss if I don't tell you about several other key elements at Beuheisel:

• The bread. I often wonder why we can't get bread that can be tasty all by itself in most domestic restaurants. Here, you can get four kinds of bread at every meal, and all are crusty but not dry, and extremely flavorful.

• The wine. The restaurant has a genius for a sommelier, and the man recommends the perfect wine for any palate. Mine, leaning too much toward the sweet wines, continues to be delighted by Gewirtztraminers that aren't too dry or spicy, and by the local wine that suits me to a tee, Tokay Pinot Gris. Each time I go, I'm introduced to complex and richly tasting wines that I then hunt down (often in vain) when I get back home. In fact, the restaurant has become my source of obscure and perfect wines.

• The dessert. At our dinners this week, we enjoyed many desserts, including a perfectly prepared grapefruit soufflé, but the one that took the cake was a true original. Imagine a meringue ball the size of a silver dollar, with one half filled with fresh strawberry sorbet, and the other with basil sorbet (yes, that herb we call basil). The requisite whipped cream is abound, as is freshly prepared strawberry sauce (as opposed to the prepared and purchased strawberry coulis we find in too many restaurants), accented by a few drops of balsamic vinegar that heighten the strawberries' sweetness. Can you imagine how fabulous this tastes?

• The floating islands. One of my favorite dessert in the world is floating islands, or eggs in the snow. Imagine sweet meringue balls that have been gently poached in milk until cooked while retaining their airy texture, then drizzled with a little caramelized sugar for the crunch. The balls are then placed on a bed of crème anglaise, or vanilla sauce, which can be divine or hellish, depending on who is making it and what vanilla beans they use. Buerheisel's is the best I've ever tasted. My daughter Liat and I ate five portions each of this dessert at the restaurant last year, only to be disappointed the sixth time since they ran out… Suffice it to say, it alone is worth the trip.

• Chef's chicken. One of the house specialties is a chicken cooked in a traditional pot (it resembles Le Crueset) sealed with dough all around its rim to ensure that not one waft of the fabulous aroma escapes the pot prematurely. To call this a mere chicken is a huge misnomer, but words do fail me as I strive to describe this unique fowl, raised only in Bresse, France, and prepared in the most special way by Chef Westermann.

Buerheisel is an expensive restaurant, and it also has three Michelin stars. It is indeed the best in the region, but there are at least a dozen other restaurants where you can eat a dinner for two under $100 with great wine and remember the meal for ages. If you're considering doing that, I recommend you drive from Strasbourg, the center of the region, to Colmar, a picturesque town in the center of the wine road (Route De Vin), a 30 mile winding road among the vineyard covered hills and valleys. Stay at Maison De Tetes, a perfectly located hotel in the heart of Colmar. Don't forget to eat at the hotel at least once, since chef Marc does a great job with local ingredients, and his apple crepe is the most delicate creation of thin crepe, pastry cream and tart apples caramelized to a crunch without being too sweet. His sweetbreads are memorable as well, and he is very flexible if you have any special requests.

From the hotel you can walk and drive to many restaurants in the area. The town itself is a picture to behold, with many half-timbered houses from the 13th and 14th century. My favorite restaurant in town is Au Fer Rouge. It is housed in an ancient building and the chef prepares traditional dishes without overwhelming your stomach. I enjoyed my pigeon with spring vegetables tremendously, and the soufflé Grand Marnier was fabulous as well. Dick's lamb was also well prepared without being too muttony-tasting, and the bread lived up to whatever your dreams are for French bread.

Driving around is easy in this region. The distances are extremely short and the roads well marked. Visit Keyserbourg, another extremely beautiful village which is slightly less on the tourist map than Riquewier (gorgeous as well), and where you can always stop for amazing tarts, éclairs and the like plus a perfect cup of coffee at any one of twenty pastry shops within one square mile.

Like I said, there are many restaurants in the area, some more celebrated than others. But my favorite of the non-three Michelin star lot, and the most original and daring, is Aux Armes Des France in Amichweir. Eric, the friendly maitre d' and his team, will make you feel completely at home within minutes, as well the aromas emanating from every dish that departs the kitchen as it is carried around the dining room. This restaurant bears the distinction of returning its Michelin star to the Michelin people and deciding that it would rather please its customers without the stiffness, tension, higher prices and other accoutrements that sometimes accompany a Michelin rating. Instead, chef Gaertner dishes out amazing local dishes: roast veal, fois gras of the first order, outstanding Presskopf ("pressed head", a traditional and delicious local terrine-style dish), and incredible cherry crepes that are flamed table-side, all at extremely reasonable prices. Also, don't forget to ask Eric about his older Tokay Pinot Gris wines. He has an amazing collection of older vintages that are beyond delicious, provide an experience you can't find elsewhere (those wines are long gone from any purveyor's shelf), and are very reasonably priced. We fell in love with chef Gaertner's food and ambiance, and with his focus on what customers want rather than what food critics want. I am confident you'll be enamored as well.

A trip down the wine road, starting and ending in Strasbourg, is a great way to spend a week (or two, or three...) in a romantic, affordable and totally delicious environment. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as Dick and I did!