French Food Lovers: Help a Burger Boy Learn to Eat Right!
 

Okay, the task is huge, and I need extensive, long-term assistance. But a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step of a huge ultra-white tennis shoe!

Hold the presses - I've started a twelve step program to reduce my dependency on burgers and fries when traveling in Europe.

Here's where you foodies come in - please identify some delicious salads, soup, stews, meats, vegetables and desserts that I would be likely to encounter in many moderately-priced cafes in France.

Remember I'm a simple man, but one not adverse to expanding my horizons as well as my waistline!

I like beef, lamb, veal, chicken and fish, love asparagus, carrots, potatoes, spinach, broccoli, am not afraid to try rabbit or quiche, and always leave room for sweets and peach/cherry tarts.

Please give me the French term with English translation. Suggestions also welcome on travel menus to take along and books to help me get smart. Throw in a favorite recipe and the "litte wife" and I might give it a try in the cabin.

I'm willing to devote the time and effort to learn to walk right past those golden arches and thrust and parry with snippy French waiters! Please arm me well for an epic gastronomic struggle!

Hi Degas,

For a beginner, I suggest 'ris de veau', 'oreille de porc', 'civet de tripes d'oies'and 'bouilliture' as main dishes.

See http://www.day-tripper.net/restaurantsfoodterms.html for a dictionary of cooking terms.

Degas

once you have stopped throwing up at Ira's suggestion (you bad person, you) try a salade de chevre chaud. This is salad with grilled goat's cheese on top and it's delish!

ira, you cruel rascal!

Even not knowing much french, I was "on guard" with just the mere sound of that terrible stuff!

Darlin Degas, Just remember...

Fondant au Chocolate. :)

Vin Rouge

These should make everything else taste fine, no matter what you order~

Looking for food to go along with that new found wine knowledge.

When in Paris, I love ordering dishes I wouldn't normally get at home. A good Lapin or Canard dish gets me every time.

Hi Degas,

Actually 'ris de veau' is quite good, if you don't ask what it is.

I like 'confit de canard' which is duck leg that has been very slowly cooked in duck fat until all the fat has been rendered out and then roasted.

If you will be there in season, the French have excellent shellfish: Clams, oysters, scallops, mussels and periwinkles as well as shrimp, prawns, crab and lobster. Try a chablis or cabernet blanc with them.

'Steak frite', grilled beefsteak with French fries is excellent.

Lots of folks like escargot broiled in the shell with garlic butter.

Terrines (meat loaf) are wonderful, especially with tiny pickles (cornichon) and Dijon mustard.

Also keep in mind that there are about 450 kinds of French cheese.

Just remember who you are dealing with here - What is a lapin or canard dish?

Lapin is rabbit

Canard is duck, unless it is a 'vile canard'.

Hi Degas

Here's a good one: Gratin Dauphinious

Sliced potatoes baked with onions, cheese, cream, cheese and a touch of nutmeg.

Make sure you are wearing your customary baggy sweat pants with the elastic waistband.

I hope someone gives us a good recipe for Biff-bull-yawn!

I'm not an expert on France or on French food, but I think in France, there are great differences in the cooking styles and ingredients used in various regions. I loved just about everything I had in the Dordogne, most of which was quite unfamiliar to me (foie gras, all sorts of foods cooked in goose fat, unusual organ meats, etc.) I disliked most of what I ate in Normandy, and absolutely hated two things that I usually love everyplace else: rabbit, and mussels, both of which were swimming in cream and rather repulsive--to me--though they might've been a favorite for someone else. I liked regional Provençal cooking, except for eggy things. So my suggestion is to try things that are particular to the region you are visiting. You may just happen to dislike it, if you have an aversion to certain ingredients that are a staple in the local cooking, for example, but at least it will probably be the most interesting and best type of food to eat while you're in a particular place. Just as a simple example, I love olive oil and olives, and my food at home is generally olive oil-based and more or less Mediterranean or Italian in style. So in Provence, I would buy olives at markets for lunch, and I'd expect to find olive oil for my salad and Mediterranean-type herbs in many of the dishes. But in the Dordogne, I wouldn't worry about not finding olives, and I'd have wonderful salads with walnuts and walnut oil that I probably would not have at home, and I enjoyed vegetables and potatoes cooked in goose fat instead of olive oil, though I wouldn't even know where to buy goose fat at home.

The French seem to use more different types of mushrooms than Americans. In my opinion the cèpes (porcini in Italian) are the best.

I think all French cheese is wonderful. It's fun to buy it at markets and have it for lunch if you're skipping restaurants.

I agree with the person who suggested order items you can't get at home. I order rabbit quite often in Italy, for example. I haven't been in France that much, but I will order rabbit there, too, just not in Normandy. I ordered a small bird in Paris-don't remember what it was--pigeon, I think, in a wine-herb sauce and very good. Here in the US, we don't generally eat as many different species of animals as in Europe. I'm always willing to try various organ meats, but I already know from experience that I hate tripe because of its texture.

Degas, mon cher, such a coincidence that you should ask this question! My daughter, who attends a tres la de da high school, is immersed in her first year of French. We studied together only this week, in preparation for a big test--on what else but French food! This is what I helped ma petit jeune fille memorize:

le hotdog
le hamburger
la pizza
une omelette
la crepe

Now, we all know that the aim of every la de da high school teaching its students French is merely to send them forth to gay Paree without besmirching the school's reputation by murdering the French language.

Therefore, you can be assured that if you go into any French cafe and order un hamburger with une crepe for dessert, you will be served, and you will not have to endure canard, vile or otherwise.

dln, too funny! And who says the American education system isn't doing a great job? Give that teacher "une F".

Patrick, my daughter's teacher would give you a whithering Gallic sneer for that commment. Can you not see the craftiness of such an approach? The textbooks educate these innocent lambs on the virtues of le hamburger and la pizza. Hey, this French food isn't so bad! think these sweet little freshman. Lulled by a false sense of security, they plow onward into the mysteries of French gastronomy, effortlessly picking up more and more French lingo, and before they've even understood how or why it's happened, they're in a Parisien cafe ordering canard...

I'm about to hop in the pick-up truck and motor on over to the new Piggie-Wiggly grocery store in Magnolia Springs.

Here's what we plan to cook this evening: Chicken Provencale with bell peppers and olives, Potato & Mushroom Galettes, Carrots Vichy, asparagus with lemon vinaigrette, and pear tarts.

What wines are you having?

ira, don't laugh, but a friend is bringing over some White Lambrusco. He's as bad a me with picking cheap wine. I've plenty of beer as a back up, as if I needed an excuse.

I agree (mostly--no organ meats) with the others. I order lots of duck because you don't get that much here (except in la-di-da restaurants). Boeuf en daube or boeuf Bourgignonne are good beef stew-type things. DH ordered lots and lots of lamb (sometimes grilled--cotelettes or noisettes d'agneau, sometimes roasted--gigot d'agneau) because it is so much better over there than here. (I refuse to picture how those little lambs are raised here.)

Veal is also better there (veau). Escalopes (thin slices), cotelettes. Poulet Basquaise is kind of like poulet provencale; coq au vin is good. Wow! I'm getting hungry!

degas, I'm disappointed with your dessert choice. I would have expected you to be a creme brulee man!