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Ducks served with warm welcome
You are in Trianon but, if you closed your eyes, you could just as well be in France… The Maison du Canard is like a typical little grocery-shop in a small French village. The warm welcome, the stories that the shop-owner relates, the family atmosphere and the ducks wandering outside, are all there to encourage customers to enjoy the various delicacies made by Mrs Rambert.
This lady, whose native land is Belgium, is of the fourth generation of a family of butchers. Her grandfather’s sabots are proudly displayed behind the counter as a proof – if ever it were needed – that her shop has a certain history and know-how. “People in Belgium still go to feed their animals wearing sabots like these. They make so much noise that the animals hear them coming…” With such a background – and so much devotion to their work – the little grocery-shop can only grow...
The Maison du Canard is actually a small family company where a husband and wife have decided to do their own thing… They had experience of the job in Europe and Reunion before coming to open their own business in Mauritius.
Their work is separate and they each know what they stand: Mr Rambert deals with the farming side and hands over to his wife as soon as the ducks arrive in the kitchen. “Of course, it demands a lot of energy and long hours but we work together and manage to keep some time for ourselves and our family.”
Signal to start festivities</B>
The ducks, which arrive from France when they are hardly two days old, have to be fed every morning and evening at 6 o’clock. “There has to be twelve hours between their two meals to give them time to digest the corn,” explains Mr Rambert.
After some time in the fields, the ducks are brought back to the farm where they are ‘force-fed’. It is only when they have reached a weight of around seven kg that they will be slaughtered. The plucking is definitely a special moment. It is like a signal to start activities… not to say festivities.
The ducks are plucked in a little store with a whole family at work. Mimosa, the leader, her mother, sisters and sister-in-law all seem to enjoy the job. It takes about 15 minutes for the plucking process to be completed and the duck is then sent to the kitchen, which is so clean that it looks more like a laboratory - it is as if the place were brand new. “We spend a lot of time cleaning and clearing up everything after a hard day’s work.”
This is undoubtedly Mrs Rambert’s territory. She is the “mistress of the premises” assisted by her helper, Dave. As soon as she gets the ducks, she opens them up to take out the liver. “Be careful, she can be in a very bad mood if the liver is not big enough… She is becoming more and more demanding,” says her husband. The satisfaction she feels at the sight of a “nice foie gras” is contagious…
Subtle aroma of spices and wine</B>
Always the same gesture, the same movement… it has become natural to Mrs Rambert. She first cuts the neck with an energetic movement of her knife, then she removes the breasts and cuts into the carcass to get to the liver. Her hand naturally caresses the liver before she takes it out as if she needs to feel it to make sure it will come out in all its perfection.
As the ducks are carefully cut up, a nice smell floats around. The potted meat has started to unveil its subtle aroma that seems to be a mixture of spices and wine but we’ll never really know as the chef will never give away her secrets. Neither does she reveal the recipe of her appetizing onion jam or her cassoulet…
As a secret has to remain a secret, we prefer to go back to the little shop and choose something nice for dinner. So we leave Mrs Rambert to her task in hand – starting to prepare her stock for the end-of-year festivities – and help ourselves from the shelves. “I know what it is to be a busy woman who doesn’t always have time to cook for the evening meal. So I like to prepare some quick dishes that people can keep at home like a tomato sauce that will go perfectly with pasta. I also sell organic vegetables and special types of bread…” Customers can thus benefit from a shop where both basic and elaborate foods are available as well as the warmth of its welcome.
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