Picnics

American friends, picture this: a worn wooden cutting board, a well-patinaed Opinal knife, and a rustic French salami. Perhaps another board with a cheese course featuring a French style home-made Boursin style cheese. Sliced to perfection, there is a simple joy to the custom of stirring the appetite by serving thinly (the thinner the better with salumi) sliced cuts of peat. This little ritual could be repeated daily on the fly fishing streams of France. And it followed by some serious cooking from French asado to pates, and more.

Whether it’s tailgating after a polo match, having a lunch afield or a stream, it’s important to put on a proper picnic. Some of our favorite picnic recipes, include:

Deviled Eggs

Green Bean Salade or Skillet Asparagus

Lentils ala Cheverny

Pate`

Pears and cheese

Jamon and Pan con Tomat

Choripanes

Or, no time to assemble a picnic, at least make the best sandwich you will ever have, inspired by Parisian Bakery Alain Miam Miam

The Ultimate Field Picnic

I was sent a copy of this article on the ultimate picnic party wagon, which is a proper English wooden trailer converted for tailgating for polo matches. Polo Magazine- Party Wagon Article. I then discovered Christy’s auction of Patricia Kluge’s estate in Virginia, and found that after the Kluge divorce, John Kluge remarried and built another house nearby. This incredible picnic hamper is the piece de resistance of the auction. click article from the New York Times which appeared in December 2005.

Apparently in the 1980’s by the Kluges commissioned the London firm of Asprey, jewelers and silversmith to the British Royal Family, to fashion this picnic hamper containing a full service for sixteen. The wicker trailer holds some 15 wicker cases, each fitted with brass handles and leather straps, with battery-powered hot and cold boxes and a water pump, cases for Bernardaud Limoges china, Baccarat crystal, Asprey silver cutlery, a staghorn bar service, two folding mahogany tables and 16 chairs, complete with the “K” monogram. The set was estimated at $20,000 to $30,000 and sold for some $144,000.

Although wicker carryalls have been used since the 1700s, the picnic basket was born in 1901, when British luxury-goods retailers like Asprey started stocking hampers filled with tableware for motorists to enjoy on country drives. See more at http://driven.urbandaddy.com/2011/08/17/meals-on-wheels/ and http://www.finesse-fine-art.com/Picnic/PicnicArticle.htm.