The secret ingredient

Besides using the freshest ingredients available there is one other thing I have noticed about all of my meals here in Provence.  A fanatastic ingredient that the French are not afraid to use and don't skimp on is the fat.

Whether it be the morning crossiant that must each contain a pound of butter to make them taste so yummy or the dips like aioli that is based with oil.  The other evening we had dinner at Leopold's in Aix en Provence, where I ordered the duck confit.  Confit is essentially the slow cooking of the duck in its own fat.   There was even a nice tasty drizzle of this fat on my plate that I happily sopped up.

Then there are the desserts.  This evening when we were out for a stroll we stopped in at Béchard, one of the top pastry shops in Aix (or so I have read). The smell in the shop alone is enough to make your mouth water and want to order one of everything.  I settled on a mini Tarte Tropézienne.  From the first nibble of cream you could tell that there were no low fat ingredients used in making this pastry. The cream was wonderful and the puff pastry part again must have had a pound of the best butter. 

After eating all these yummy full fat foods for a month it has done a number on my waist line. I wish I could figure out the French secret of how they eat all these yummy foods and still stay slim.