The old saying “you are what you eat” certainly applies to the Nord-pas de Calais region which has developed a warm and welcoming comforting style of food, doubtlessly influenced by their Flemish, British and Picard neighbours. Endive and shallots, ratte du Touquet potatoes, fresh or smoked garlic, Avesnois apples, cauliflower from the St-Omer marshes and juicy strawberries from the village of Samer are just a few of the products which grow in the region’s northern climate.
Although the region still has twenty vineyards producing well-rounded white wines, beer of course is king. Pale, amber, brown and even white can be found.
Genever gin is a fermented cousin of barley beer, which when distilled becomes white alcohol flavoured with juniper berries. It was an early morning alcohol, before confronting the burning furnaces of the steel industry or before going down to tear coal from the bowels of the earth, drunk in a strong homemade coffee.