When the days shorten, northern cooking shows its true nature: slow, dark, sweet-and-savoury, built to sustain. Here are the dishes to know and where to find them in Lille.
Flemish carbonade
The region's signature dish: beef simmered for hours in dark beer, with onions, gingerbread spread with mustard and a touch of brown sugar. The result is a thick, faintly sweet sauce with no equivalent elsewhere in France.
Worth knowing: a good carbonade is judged by its sauce, not its meat. If it runs thin, the cooking was cut short.
Potjevleesch
Literally "little pot of meat" in Flemish. Four white meats — rabbit, chicken, veal, pork — set in a tart jelly and served cold with hot chips. The contrast is disconcerting at first, then convincing. It is the most distinctly Flemish item on any estaminet menu.
The endive, queen of the season
The North grows most of France's endives, and autumn is their season. Baked with ham and béchamel, braised as a side, or raw in a salad with walnuts and maroilles cheese: it appears everywhere from October on.
Where to buy, where to eat
To cook at home, Wazemmes market remains the best address: a covered hall open several days a week, with regional producers and a fine range of northern cheeses. The other Lille markets fill in by neighbourhood.
To be served instead, our pages on Lille specialities and restaurants give the useful bearings. And do not overlook local beer: in the North it accompanies the dish as much as it cooks it.