Ferment Magazine Restaurant Review
Le Divan
d'Antioche
8 Forum des Cardeurs
13100 Aix-en-Provence
04 42 21 19 38
The following quotation from "The Prophet" of Khalil Gibran appears on the menu of the Divan d'Antioche:
" Who love
beckons to you follow him, though his ways are hard
and steep.
" And when his wings enfold you and you
yield to him, though the sword hidden among his
pinions may wound you
"And when he speaks to you
believe in him, though his voice may shatter your
dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden
"For even as love crowns you shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth, so is he for your
pruning.
"Even as he ascends to your height and
caresses your tender branches that quiver in the sun,
so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in
their clinging to the earth
"Like sheaves of corn
he gathers you unto himself
"He threshes you to
make you naked
"He grinds you to whiteness
"He kneads you until you are pliant. And then he
assigns you to his sacred fire that you may become
sacred bread for God's sacred feast."
The menu also contains interesting information about Antioch:
"Antioch, or Antyaka, is a city
in Turkey on the banks of the Orontes River, near the
Syrian border. It was founded in the 3rd century BC
and became the third largest city in the Roman Empire,
after Rome and Alexandria.
" It was in one of its
grottos that St. Peter, St. Paul, Saint Barnabas and
several other disciples received for the first time
the name of Christians (Act 9, 26) . St. Peter was its
first bishop. It was also the homeland of Livy, the
great teacher of rhetoric whose students included
Saint Basil and St. John Chrysostome.
" From 540
onwards it was occupied in succession by Persians,
Arabs, Byzantines, Turk, French crusaders, and
Mamelukes, remaining always in the territory of
Greater Syria. In 1517 it was annexed by the Ottoman
Empire. Placed under French mandate in 1920, it was
ceded to Turkey in 1939. "
Lunch at the Divan d'Antioche, April 1,2005
(Note: These descriptions should not always be taken literally. Often they represent suggestions that the sight and taste of food gave to the imagination.)
A glass of wine was brought to me immediately. My order was taken and appetizer arrived shortly after my order was taken. It combined 3 rare Oriental savories:
Jajik : Faintly aromatic, this tantalizing delicacy is whipped onto a froth that recalls the wave crests of the Aegean, as seen perhaps by Odysseus on his long route back to Ithaca. It consists of lovely severed slices of cucumber wreathed in a smiling sour cream, garnished with scented Anatolian mint. Relieving the urgency of hunger, it awakened eager expectations of more to follow.
Placed beside it on the charmingly decorated porcelain plate lay an accumulation of thin slices of goat cheese: Berek . My delay in taking up these succulent morsels could only be attributed to my eagerness to devour the Arayess : pita bread stuffed with freshly gleaned parsley, raw tomatoes from the soil of Languedoc and shreds of stoic beef. A glass of rosé gave ease to my heart and unknotted the sinews of my stomach in anticipation of the plat du jour , a pair of brochettes bedded, like a naughty courtesan at Versailles, in a steamy lacery of basmati rice, wild olives, raisins, nuts and pixelated by aromatic spices. The chunks of meat, or Chiche taouk , were marinated chicken breasts. Yet to simply call them "marinated" is to do them a grave injustice! Like the reunion of displaced relatives scattered to the four corners of the earth, this fortuitous blending of condiments inspire the deployment of my powers description to their full capacity: Honeys from the hives of wild bees on Balkan slopes; thyme, oregano, sage from Tuscan peasant domains; a long basting in acrid Chinese roots; pinches of exotic curries from far-off Tamil Nadu; and more besides.
A true gourmet would have spent a quarter of an hour savoring each mouthful. Nor would an entire day have been too long to assimilate the intoxication of this delightful meal.
Liqueurs, rosé , ice cream, coffee. Ah! Wilderness were indeed Paradise enow !
To summarize, the meal was first rate. The Divan d'Antioche comes highly recommended.