Arles

So many tellines used to be bought in Arles that the peoples of that town became Known as telliniers. And the little bivalves are still as popular at the Arles restaurant Le Vaccarès, where chef & patron Bernard Dumas serves them, dry-fried with lots of garlic, whenever they are available (this isn’t often, & as they never appear on the menu, it’s best to ask). He is a chef’s chef, what his colleagues call ‘sérieux’-very genuine about his work. He feels traditional dishes are worth serving, admittedly with his own touch, “Because they are an expression of popular culture-& besides that, they taste good! sometimes the distinction between subtlety and blandness in modern cooking is too subtle even for the experts,” Le Vaccarès overlooks the Place du Forum, where Van Gogh painted his ‘Starry, starry night’ café (now a furniture store-what price fame?). From the restaurant balcony the remnants of the Forum’s Roman, columns, embedded in the walls of the Hotel Nord-pinus, are only Clam-hurling distance away; but the clams at Le Vaccarès are too salty & delicious to waste.