PalenqueBob

PLEASE PASS THE BISKITS!
Like most have never seen cheese and biscuits in France. My French inlaw family always offers cheese after the last course, with of course, French bread. They however, serve dessert after the cheese plate comes around.

norween

I'm often in Italy and Spain, i'm a cheese eater and the only time i saw crackers with cheese was in Marbella (in a place where 50% or more of the guests were Brits)

RufusTFirefly

Cheese and crackers as a dinner course would be very unusual even in a USA restaurant. Cheese and crackers would normally be something you'd get just with drinks or maybe a light lunch in some places.

Tulips

Rufus; I'm sure they serve cheese as a dessert in the USA?
Anyway, as I understand it, in France they have cheese, then dessert, so you can finish up your red wine with your cheese, before moving on to a dessert wine (Chateau d'Yquem would do!), which makes sense to me. In the UK you get pudding first, then cheese. I love the British oat biscuits with cheese (the ones from Duchy of Cornwall).

RufusTFirefly

Cheese as a dessert? Only if it has plenty of sugar in it.

LJ

Both my grandmothers (English and Scots) would refer to cheese and biscuits or pudding as options for what they referred to as "afters". I don't believe they would have used the word "dessert".

BTW, they do have crackers, or savoury biscuits if you prefer ,on offer in contemporary Italian households, but tend to think of that as breakfast offering and which is found mostly in areas where German tourism is abundant.

Christina

I think it is true that in restaurants where I live in the US, some have a cheese course you can order, and it can be after dinner, but they may not specifically call that "dessert". It's just dessert in the sense that it is after the meal, and some people who don't want to eat too much (like me) may order only one or the other.

Not always, though, in some places cheeses are just listed under the "dessert" section of the menu. I just looked at the menu of one fancy schmancy French restaurant in DC (Citronelle), and they definitely list cheeses on the menu under "desserts". In their 3 course prix fixe, you are allowed an entree, a main dish, and something under the "dessert" course list, which is either cheese or sweets. HOwever, if you look at the regular menu, you don't see cheese under the desserts heading. That's probably where I've gotten the idea of calling it dessert, from a limited prix fixe menu in France where you are allowed to choose one item under that course section.

Now I was served crackers all the time when in Spain with dinner or tapas, at least in Seville. They were very small tasteless snack-type crackers, cylindrically-shaped. I think in Seville they were called cannules or something that indicated their small cannon-like shape. They were usually served with ham. They would serve that either with tapas, or as an appetizer for regular dinner. I really didn't like them, they were totally tasteless (they were basically unleavened bread crackers). I think in Jerez they were called picos.

kerouac

In France, most standard restaurants have the choice of "fromage ou dessert" for the final course of . When you go up in price, it becomes "fromage et dessert."

kerouac

..."for the final course of a set price meal"... is what I was trying to add when my finger strayed.