2018 ST. JOAN OF ARC FRENCH MARKET MENU AND WINE LIST
                                           (BASED ON $1.00 TICKETS)

                                       CARRY OUT AVAILABLE (except wine and beer)

Appetizers

Escargot en Croute (4)                                                   5 tickets     Escargot (land snails) are a French classic.  They’re also very healthy at 15% protein, only 2% fat and 80% water.  But who wants healthy at the French Market?  So French Market chefs cook them in garlic butter and, instead of returning the snails to their shells, we put them in a puff pastry shell with cheese!  French Market escargot (5 tickets) are excellent with a glass of dry white wine (4 tickets) like the Chateau la Graviere Blanc.  Having a little trouble with idea of eating a snail?  Drink the glass of wine first, to loosen up your French twist!



Plate of Assorted, Bread, Cheese & Fruit               7 tickets     The St Joan of Arc French Market offers an incredible array of French foods prepared on site by our volunteer chefs.  It can be difficult to decide what to have, so our chefs suggest that you relax with a glass of wine and our Plat du Fromage--an assortment of cheeses with fruit and bread--while you make up your mind.  This year, the Plat du Fromage (5 tickets) features five cheeses carefully selected by our picky and argumentative group of cheese snobs (les snobets’ du fromage):  Smoked Gouda, Brie, English White Stilton with Mango and Ginger, Cambozola and a Colby Jack.

Oysters Rockefeller                                                  5 tickets

Tarte Flambé Gratinee                                               7 tickets     When the French bread bakers in Alsace needed to test the temperature of their wood-fired ovens, they’d roll out a piece of bread dough to a very thin circle and cover it with crème fraiche, onions, bacon and Gruyere.  When the oven was at its hottest, it was perfect for the tarte flambee gratinee!  Only after that was it suitable for boules and baguettes.  This is one of the most popular items on the French Market menu.  The lines will be long, so take your glass of Chateau d'Bon Ami with you and make some new friends.

Stuffed Mushrooms (4)                                              5 tickets

Charcuterie Plate                                                           8 tickets      A chef-selected sampling of fine smoked and cured meats, cheeses.  Perfect with a Chateau Bel Air LaClotte or Chardonnay
 

Soup

Ratatouille with Bread & Basil Butter                          5 tickets    French Market Ratatouille is a vegetarian stew made from tomatoes, garlic, onions zucchini, red bell pepper, eggplant, olive oil and herbes de Provence.  It probably originated in Italy and came to France when Nice was an Italian colony, until 1860.  French Market Ratatouille is served with bread and basil butter.  Our basil butter is made in our kitchen from softened real butter and hand-picked, home-grown chopped basil--it’s so good I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that I’ve eaten it with a spoon right out of the cup. 

Entrees

Seafood Crepes with grapes, bread & basil butter      8 tickets

Quiche Lorraine & Fruit                                                 6 tickets     Quiche has somehow been maligned as un-masculine, as in “real men don’t eat it”. Well, maybe not that prissy California quiche but real men actually fight bare-chested over French Market quiche.  Last year we had to physically separate two brawny brutes in berets who were struggling for last piece of quiche!  French Market Quiche Lorraine (6 tickets) is from the Lorraine region of Northeastern France.  But quiche is actually from nearby Germany (the German word for cake is Kuchen).  French Market Quiche Lorraine is made with eggs, cream, onions, Swiss cheese and BACON!  How can it possibly be un-masculine if it has bacon in it?

Quarter Rotisserie Chicken with bread & basil butter  7 tickets     One of the most popular dinner items on the French Market menu board, the French Market Rotisserie Chicken dinner (7 tickets) sells out quickly.  Like the Barbecued Ribs, Rotisserie Chicken is perfectly cooked in our smoky, charcoal-flamed, revolving grill.

Boeuf Bourguignon with pasta, bread & basil butter  10 tickets
     
BBQ Ribs or Rib Tips                                                       7 tickets     While fire-cooked meat has been around as long as we have, what we now call “Barbecue” seems to have come from the Arawak people of the Caribbean islands.  The Arawaks and Tainos cooked on a wooden framework of sticks where the flames and smoke gave the meat “a certain flavor”.  The first English use of the word “barbecue” was in Edmund Hickeringill’s 1661 book, Jamaica Viewed.  The Indians apparently were angered by the invasion of their island by the English and, referring to Brit sailors, “some are slain, and their flesh forthwith Barbacu’d and eat”.  French Market Barbecued Ribs or Tips (7 tickets) are 100% American Midwestern pork grilled over charcoal, chopped as you watch and best with the Chateau d'Bon Ami, the Chatuea Bel Air LaClotte or beer.    

Crawfish Etouffee with rice, bread & basil butter          9 tickets     In Indiana, a crawdad is an insect-like creature living in ditches and creeks that kids catch for fun.  (They swim backwards and the big ones can pinch hard enough to draw blood!) In Cajun French Louisiana they’re raised on farms and are a big part of their traditional Easter dinners, like ham or lamb is here.  Even though Louisiana produces 90% of the world supply of crawfish, if you can find them in a US grocery store they’re probably from China.  French Market mudbugs are 100% from Louisiana, cooked by our chefs into a New Orleans etouffe, served over rice and best with any of our French Market white wines.

Sandwiches

French Dip Roast Beef                                                 8 tickets      Slow-cooked, thinly sliced roast beef is layered onto a crusty French roll and dressed with pan juices fortified with red wine, garlic, bay leaf and black pepper. Of course you can have extra juice!  Best with a red wine.  8 tickets

Desserts

    
Cream Puff (Profiterole)                                   4 tickets    Profiteroles, or cream puffs, are made from French choux pastry dough.  Choux has a very high moisture content so, when it is baked, the steam generated puffs the dough, creating a large pocket inside that begs to be filled with whipped cream or custard.  Choux was invented in France by an Italian named Pantarelli after he left Florence in 1540 with Catherine de Medici.  Pantarelli used choux to make popelins, small cakes in the shape of women’s breasts.  Later, a man named Avice used the dough to make somewhat larger pastries that he called choux or, in French, cabbages!  The French are just weird.
French Market cream puffs are made by Kim’s Kakery, Bakery and Café, an award-winning bakery at 5452 Madison Avenue in Indianapolis.  How about a profiterole from Kim’s for dessert at a birthday dinner, with a café au lait or a cognac?

Chocolate Éclair                                                4 tickets     Eclairs au Chocolat, Chocolate Eclairs, are made from the same choux pastry as Profiteroles but the dough is piped into an elongated oval.  Choux pastry is boiled water, butter and flour with eggs beaten in after it’s cooled.  Because it’s a very wet dough the hot oven creates steam that makes a large pocket in the center , which is then filled with pastry cream and iced with chocolate ganache.
The éclair originated in France in the 19^th century and was called “pain a la Duchesse”.  The Duchesse of where we don’t know, but she must have made them disappear quickly because “éclair” in French means “a flash of lightning”.
French Market chocolate eclairs are made by Kim’s Kakery, Bakery and Café, a spectacular bakery at 5452 Madison Avenue in Indianapolis.  How about chocolate eclairs from Kim’s at your next event, with an expresso or crème de cacao? http://www.kimskbc.com

Madeleines (3)                                                   3 tickets     Madeleines are small French cakes baked in sea-shell shaped pans.  French Market madeleines (3 tickets) are made especially for us by a local baker and are wonderful with some Café du Monde chicory coffee (3 tickets) or dipped in Pacific Rim Reisling (5 tickets).  Their spongey quality relies on well-beaten egg, not chemical leavening.  The name comes from someone in the 17^th century named Madeleine who baked in the Lorraine region of France.   It could have been Madeleine, a cook for rebel Cardinal Paul de Gondi who had a castle in Commercy.  Or it could have been Madeleine Paulmier, a cook for Stanislaus the First, Duke of Lorraine in the 18^th century.  Merci beau coup, Madeleine, whoever you were.

Cheesecake or Layer Cake                               4 tickets

Gelato                                                                 4 tickets    NEW THIS YEAR at the French Market—GELATO!  OK, Gelato is Italian.  But it could have been French.  Frozen cream desserts were made in Roman times, using snow and ice brought down from mountains and stored underground.  True gelato was first made during the Renaissance by Buontalenti in Florence for the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medicii.  Today, most gelato shops in Florence still sell a “Buontalenti” flavor.  Gelato for the French Market is produced in Fennville, Michigan by Pete Palazzolo’s company, Palazzolo’s Artisan Gelato (http://4gelato.com).  This year’s flavors are:  Mango, Tahitian Vanilla or Extra-rich Chocolate and includes a special spoon!  Try the vanilla with a glass of Nicolas Chardonnay or the chocolate with some Chateau Tarin.

Beverages

Soft Drinks or Bottled Water                                        2 tickets
Iced Tea                                                                         2 tickets
Fleur de Lis Punch                                                       3 tickets
Beer                                                                                6 tickets
Wine                                                                               5 tickets
Wine by the Bottle                                                      25 tickets


2018 FRENCH MARKET WINE LIST  (5 tickets for a glass, 25 tickets for the bottle)

FRONTERA MALBEC                                      ROUGE
CHATEAU LA GRAVIERE BLANC                  BLANC
CHATEAU D’BON AMI                                     ROUGE
CHATEAU TARIN                                             ROUGE
CHATEAU BEL AIR LACLOTTE                      ROUGE
MOVENDO MOSCATO                                     BLANC
NICOLAS SAUVIGNON BLANC                      BLANC
NICOLAS CHARDONNAY                                BLANC
PLACIDO PINOT GRIGIO                                ROUGE
PACIFIC RIM RIESLING                                   BLANC
CES ANGES ROSE D’PROVENCE                 ROSE
JULES BERTIER CHAMPAGNE                     CHAMPAGNE