Lyonnais Cuisine and Its Specialties | Aga Marchewka

Lyonnais Cuisine and Its Specialties 

Find out what inhabitants of the Capital of the Gastronomy eat with EW Contributor Aga Marchewka.

I am sure you have already heard that the Capital of Food, the French and World Gastronomy, is the lovely city of Lyon. It is truly the Capital of gastronomy because of its history and its access to the top quality regional products. The reasons? It is because of the top chefs, bakers and chocolatiers who live and practice here; the Pope of the French Cuisine and because of over 2000 very good restaurants. The lists of reasons behind Lyon’s capital title seems endless!

Have you ever been curious what people who live in such a place, do eat? Have you ever thought of how those people appreciate food, celebrate it and how their meals look like?

Since I moved here I have started to explore and I can tell that the Lyonnais people love their food. However, what has surprised me the most is the meats the French people eat. When it comes to Lyonnais, they are even more adventurous in their meals. I have discovered about their Specialties , tried out a number already and will tell you about the highlights of Lyonnais Specialties . It is always a very good experience and the after meal feeling is even better than you would expect when looking at the names of the dishes. 

Lyonnais Cuisine and Its Specialties

Meat

Lets start with the meat, which is very important for Lyonnais. They love meat and they are proud of their sausages, which come in different forms-- cooked, not cooked and cured. The most famous Lyonnais sausages are Cervelas (broad, short sausage, filled with the pure pork, sometimes with pistachios or truffles); Jésus de Lyon (the dry pork sausage with a shape of the pear; it is filled with square bacon and dark red stuffing; the Rosette (lager sized dry sausages in a shape of spindle, made of the pink tail and filled with the coarser) and the very well know one - Saucisson de Lyonis (a large sausage stuffed with minced beef and diced bacon). More very famous sausages are: the Sabodet –has a very strong smell and is made of the pigs’ head and rind, it is favoured with brandy; Andouille— yet to be cooked pork tripe sausage made of the pig's entire gastrointestinal system and finally the best one for the grill – the Andouillette – pork made of the intestines or chitterlings, pepper, wine, onions, and seasonings. So as you can see plenty of them to choose from.

Cheese

The same is the case with the French's beloved cheese! In Lyon, only you will get their local, typical and very famous ‘fromages’-- the Saint-Marcellin, which is a soft French cheese made from cow's milk with a mottled creamy-white exterior. It is usually small (about 80 grams) and has 50% fat. Saint-Félicien, which is also a cow's milk cheese but it was originally made from goat's milk. It has very creamy interior, arranged in a flower-style (fleurie) casing. Both these cheeses come from nearby Isère. Other very popular Lyonnais cheeses are:  Mont D'or Lyonnais and Galette Lyonnaise. My favourite one is Bresse Bleu. You simply cannot resist it!

Wine

Now it is a high time for Lyonnais Wine Specialties . Luckily for the city, Lyon is located next to the best French vineyards: the North and South Côtes du Rhone and the Beaujolais & Burgundy wine. They supply Lyon with the very famous wines of the region. The Beaujolais wines produce a light-bodied wine, mostly reds and made from Gamay grapes. The Côtes du Rhône wines are more various as they can come from several grape varietals of grapes. Their flavors will range from flowery to dessert sweet and so they will not only produce the red ones but also the very good white ones and rosé.

Desserts and Sweets

Finally, my favourite part – desserts and sweets. Lyonnais have many of them as well. Let’s start with Pralines, which are made of almonds and covered in pick sugar. Some people eat them on its own but they are pretty hard and very sweet so mostly they are used for baking. Thanks to them you get the very typical Lyonnais Tarte aux pralines (Pralines tart), which you can buy of the best quality at Jocteur Boulangerie. Then Lyonnais boulangeries will serve you with Brioche aux pralines (Pralines brioche) and other cakes’ pralines varieties. Lyonnais people also love their chocolate. They are proud of their own Voisin, which offers the top 3 only Lyon Specialties such as Coussin de Lyon: a green, pillow shaped sweet composed of chocolate and marzipan and flavoured with curacao, my favourite Quenelle de Lyon, which are chocolate pralines covered with white chocolate with a sprinkle of mocca. And lastly, Sarment du Beaujolais, chocolate sweets filled with alcohol …just to name a few and give you a rough idea but there are plenty more!

The city has its own own brewery so when you are here make sure you try their local beer Ninkasi.

So put Lyon on the list of places you want to visit and so you will be sure to get the best Food Feast! Appreciate the taste and be adventures with Lyonnais Specialties …all worth the comforting feeling the Lyonnais meals will give you! Bon appetite!

Contributed by Aga Marchewka for ExpatWoman

About Aga

My name is Aga and I am addicted to shopping! So I have become ShopaholicFromHome who loves to shop from home. But this is not all. I have thousands of ideas per minute, per hour, per day…recently I have moved to Lyon in France! That’s why my main goal now is to explore France, experience French way of living, learn the language and eat a lot of cheese, baguettes, some snails and French frogs, drink wine and wear berets (apparently so French) but also I would love to introduce a bit of Polish culture and mentality into French lives.

If you have any questions, comments, do not hesitate to contact me. I would love to hear from you! Visit my blog for more information and check out on what I have been up to on my J'adore Lyon by Shopaholicfromhome FB Page.