Before I continue any further, I must start off by saying that mainly based on my many years of residence in France, I am totally bias towards French cuisine and to all that is French which is even remotely edible and drinkable. The impressively extensive specialities both in the form of classic as well as regional dishes, the fresh produce in the form of meats, fish and seafood, the 500-odd cheeses and of course and above all the range of outstanding wines – all pure culinary bliss. It should suffice to say that words such as cuisine, gastronomy and restaurant are all derived from French.

So after many days of culinary limbo, gastronomic purgatory and holiday hell, and in spite of the many interesting and beautiful places we had visited, we were more than longing to cross into France, to finally have the first and by now well deserved, excellent meal of hopefully many more to come.

We therefore hastened our arrival in Strasbourg, ensuring that we would be well in time for dinner after locating and settling in at our central hotel. So we set off early in the general direction of La Petite France – the stunningly pretty central quarter where many of the restaurants may be found.

And many restaurants we did indeed find. The number of dining establishments alone, all lined up next to each other, one in every street corner and several in between, already made a very clear statement on the importance of food. This is typical of all French cities and starkly contrasts the cities we had just visited in Germany, where the concentration of eateries pales in comparison.

Now for those who are not too familiar with Alsace, this is the easternmost region in France lying directly on the German border and actually having been passed successively between France and Germany several times in its history. Although today Alsace is resoundingly French, the German influence there is still very evident, not least in their cuisine.

Their main traditional dish is in fact choucroute – which is pure and simply sauerkraut in French! Now I have had many a lovely choucroute à l’alsacienne in the past, which in spite of its Germanic ancestry, has been largely exposed to massive French improvement. But after having been force fed plain sauerkraut for days on end until it was virtually coming out of our ears, there was no way on Earth that we felt even remotely tempted. After all, even in Alsace the majority of restaurants sported classic French fare in all its glory, with all of the delicious old favorites on offer.

Although we were spoilt for choice we quickly decided on a small, intimate and rather chic looking establishment. It only offered an extremely limited menu, which is already not a bad thing in itself, plus it also featured many of our favourites such as foie gras, oysters, confit de canard, tournedos… all pure bliss and music to our ears and senses. The menu itself foretold stories of grandeur and included hints of gastronomic mastery.

At this point it is opportune to remind you that this is eastern France in January and the temperature outside was exactly one degree Celsius. So without further ado we tried to get into the restaurant. However although we could see people inside, the door seemed to be locked. After several failed attempts to get in, one of the waitresses finally came and opened the door, only to inform us very curtly that they opened at seven, which was exactly in five minutes time!

I suppressed my initial reaction of giving her a good piece of my mind and quickly forced myself into ‘don’t let this little incident spoil your entire evening’ mode. So I took a deep breath, rose above it and managed to let it go. I proceeded to politely ask her to keep a table for us and rather awkwardly told her that we would see her again in exactly five minutes.

So we marched around the block several times desperately trying to stave away the otherwise inevitable hypothermia, while looking constantly at our watches. These were amongst the longest five minutes I have ever had the misfortune to endure. When they finally passed, with an extra three or four minutes for good measure, as we were finally approaching the restaurant we saw another couple entering before us. Oh great, we thought, they must therefore surely be open now. However when we got to the door just moments after, this was still locked and we were once again unable to enter.

After waiting politely for the door to be opened for us, I finally caught the attention of the same waitress inside, however incredulously rather than coming to open the door for us, she simply ignored us and went off to serve the couple who had just been let in.

Unable to even believe that this was really happening and expecting someone to come rushing to the door at any moment with an astounding explanation and an even more fitting apology, we actually lingered at the door a good while longer. But no, to our ghastly horror we were actually left there like miserable beggars – hungry, undesired and cold!

We finally turned away, in total disbelief and silently headed away, anywhere, as far as possible, desperately in search of some solace in the form of a good meal.