Flammekueche in Alsatian: a paper-thin bread dough spread with fromage blanc and cream, scattered with onion and smoked lardons, then blasted in a wood oven until the edges char.
Tarte flambee began as a farmer's trick, a thin round of dough slid into the wood oven to test its heat before the week's bread went in. Topped with cream, onion and bacon, it became a treat eaten with the fingers and washed down with beer or a glass of Edelzwicker. The Kochersberg countryside around Strasbourg claims it, and it reached the city's restaurant tables in force during the 1960s. Today it is the casual counterpart to choucroute, eaten in rounds and shared.
