If there’s one thing I always learn from Ardeche, it’s that the little things are important. Especially when it comes to food, which I want to believe is at the heart of every culture around the world. Over here, there is nothing particularly fancy. Life is simple, but the nature is rich, beautiful and provides a wonderful way of living for the people in the region. That’s just my opinion anyway. It seems that, hidden within the folds of each mountainside, there are homes that live a rich life, more than anything I have ever experienced.
Rich in the way that time here is not long, but deep. Care is taken to consume things that are of good quality. Good enough to enjoy life, but not too much so that the quality of your life begins to weigh heavily on your heart… as it does with many others. I feel that life is more simple when you are able to live independently of ambition and desperate survival, and it is this way of life that brings us closer to our own definition of happiness.
In Ardeche, there are three things that seem to be important. Potatoes, chestnuts and goats cheese. Of course there is more than that, but I believe that these are the ingredients of the soul food in this region. Especially goats cheese. Whenever I have been invited for a meal at a home in Ardeche, the event always ends with a selection of cheeses. Normally, I’m presented with several little rounds, ranging from soft and white, to firm and grey depending on the age of the cheese.
When I first visited this region, I did not have a taste for it. I found it a little too salty for me, and was disturbed by the older goats cheeses which would make my tongue go numb just like Sichuan peppers. But now, I can’t believe myself as I cut large wedges and eat them accompanied old by a big sip of wine. My taste has changed, and I have changed with it. Even my sister-in-law remarked that in Australia I don’t eat cheese with crackers anymore. It’s one of those little things that seems to have snuck up on me.
But it’s the little things that matter the most. Coming here, I put aside the suite of spices that I had learned to cook with, and began to think about simplicity. I don’t feel pressure to be creative, but rather to just get to the heart of what I want to say. Not only in terms of food. Ardeche has taught me that there is an art to everything, a message you endorse by the way that you live each segment of your life. Over time, we let our beliefs about life shape the manner in which we do things… whether we realise it or not. I’ve discovered that it’s smart to start from the inside, simplify and refine your values and then your art of living will follow along, elegantly floating beside you.
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