Help! I am intimidated by French food!
 

I love to eat, and I love good food. However, the more I am seeing and reading about French food, the more nervous I am becoming for our trip in May!!

First, I can't read the language,so if I get a menu that is not translated, I will have to wing it.

Second, I wouldn't say I'm picky, although I don't care for anything lamb/mutton or goat cheese, or very rare meat. I hear all of this is fairly common fare in France. I typically prefer all things beef, poultry, pork, or seafood.

I have never tried escargot, but thought I'd be adventurous... however, I saw a picture someone posted, and they were green! (perhaps how they're cooked, rather than the color of the snails - I hope??)

I wouldn't even begin to know how to use one of those tongs to remove the snail, or a particular way to oder wine from a menu (carafe, bottle, etc), or any other small little detail that is not normally done in the U.S. or is done in a different way that I am accustomed to.

As I said, the more I look into it, the more nervous I become.

Do I just be adventurous, order what is on the menu, and look it up later so I can know what I ate (and possibly be quite proud of myself)?

Do I go only to restaraunts that have an English translation? (I don't really want to do this)

Do I carry a discreet menu translation sheet with me into the restaurant, or perhaps try to learn some key 'food' terms prior to departure?

At the price of food in Paris and other places, I hate to risk ordering something only to not care for it.

As you can see, this has been weighing on me. Food is a big part of any vacation, and as much as I love to eat, I hope to do a lot of it!

Any suggestions, comments, thoughts, experiences?

Merci Beaucoup!!

I would think basic foods and restaurant dishes would be in any phrase book, which you could easily have in a handbag.

Or buy the Marling Menu-Master for France. It's 6.1 x 4 x 0.3 inches
and weighs 2.9 ounces.

Just tell it to your waiter and you'll be force fed with all the beautiful things french cuisine has to offer.

Sorry, but I'm just watching "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!".
Has the show reached the US by now?

Just take a little menu translator & try to learn a few basic terms for food. Poulet = chicken, etc.

The green you saw was herbs.

In November we were armed with pages of food translations and a Marlings Menu Master as we don't speak much French. I quickly found that I didn't need them. Many times the menus were only in French but each time there was someone who spoke English and translated for us. We never got stuck not knowing what we were ordering.

I wrote a report mainly of restaurants in the seventh in Paris. If you click on my name you will find it. (Reluctant husband......)

We loved the food and I'm sure you will as well. Have a wonderful trip!

I'm half drunk, so I will be honest. The fact of the matter is that you are picky. If you won't eat lamb or goat cheese or rare meat, then you are picky. If you have never had escargots and can't get around the fact that they are not much different from mussels, then you are picky.

To my mind, you have two choices:

1) Go with what you know or can know and eat at English language menus or easily translateable menus.

or

2) take a chance. If you can't commit to 2, then you can't commit to French Food and should go with plan 1.

The green you noticed with the snails was most likely from the herbed butter that had been applied to them. The tongs aren't for removing the snails from their shells, but for holding the shell so that you can use your fork or a toothpick or something similar to spear them and pull them out.

In any case, stop worrying. French food is, in fact, some of the least adventurous food around. Lots of roast chicken with french fries, steak with mashed potatoes, etc. From the content of your post it's clear that you actually know quite a bit about food, and you'll have no problem avoiding things that you don't like. A small bilingual menu guide will help, and if it doesn't the staff will be happy to clarify (using your guide if they speak absolutely no English whatsoever).

If you search here, I've seen a couple of threads with recommendations for menu translators.

Most restaurants will post their menu outside, so you can translate before going in.

Since Paris is very much a tourist mecca, I think you will find that restaurants are used to serving people who do not speak french. As a courtesy, it's not a bad idea to have a few basic words in the language in order to at least start a conversation. People here can help with that.

At a restaurant you will have 'menu and the 'carte'. The menu will be ~pre-packaged meals. There may be several plans at different price levels. You pick an appatizer/main/desert from the plan at your price level. Usually a good deal. The carte would be the full selection of food to choose from.

I've seen a rule of thumb to not go to restos that have English menus. True or false, IMHO I'd still think it is best to go to places that are not so overun by english tourists that they've gone to the trouble to print up menus.

If you look at trip reports here, almost everyone , even people who rent appartments, will go out to restaurants...and I'd guess most here are not bilingual. You'll do fine.

For the truly terrified, there's always Flunch.

nbbrown, first you have to relax and not anticipate problems where they are unlikely to exist.

you sound like you are doing your research on the trip and you will get more comfortable with the PLEASURES you will find regarding French foods as you become familiar with the food language.

there will be lots of opportunity to enjoy beef pork and chicken while you are in France. I love lamb so always look for it on the menu. Just learn a few words of what you really want to try and what you really want to avoid.

Be a little adventurous, you may discover some new pleasures in life.

I think every time I go to a country for the first time I have a little food anxiety. In Italy it was how can I possibly eat so many courses at each meal? With our upcoming trip to Spain its, how can I ever enjoy at dinner that doesn't start until midnight and will I be able to know what's in the tapas I'm ordering? ;;)

I try to go to a different region in France every year and enjoy knowing that good food awaits me.

Have a great trip, Deborah

I have to agree with many of the above posters. Why wouldn't you be able to take a dictionary along?

If you have satellite, watch it on RTL right now. :D Yummy.

I think you are overdoing it in terms of worrying, and if you don't even like lamb or goat cheese (??? very unusual to me to not like those, neither is that strong or unusual a flavor), no reason to get worried about eating snails.

I'm not that picky, had snails once, never again. I didn't like them, am not that interested in eating garden pests, that's my opinion. I don't like mussels that much, either, actually, but I do like clams a lot. I don't remember them being green at all, but it's been a while.

If you don't even know how to order wine, I am not sure about that. Why do you say it isn't done in the US, people order wine in the US all the time. It's the exact same method -- you look at the menu and order what you want, either a bottle, or a glass.

Even a very tiny and light-weight dictionary will have most/ all phrases re. food. If there is no menu outside, why should you be shy to take out the dictionary at the table, and find out what you want?
Many tourists from many countries visit France, and even us worldly Europeans are not all masters of the French language -- and we all have to eat and survive ;-)

I agree with the others. We were in the Loire Valley 2 years ago. If a restaurant did not have an English menu, someone spoke English and could help. It's actually fun, you'll enjoy it.

We went to a Pizza place one night and no one spoke much English. Pizza is pizza, right? I couldn't figure out a lot of the toppings, and oeuf kept confusing me. I kept thinking boeuf (beef) When I asked the waitress ( boeuf does sound something like beef) she kept shaking her head trying to figure out a way to explain. Finally she held up a finger signaling us to wait, went running into the kitchen and came back with an egg (oeuf)

Get a good translation book for menus and read several times before you go. You'll be amazed how much you remember when you get there.

And do be adventurous, that's part of the fun of being in another country. I have ordered more food in the U.S that I didn't care for ( mostly because it was too salty) then in Germany, Austria, England, Wales, France and Switzerland where we have visited.

And my husband had a wonderful dish at a small village restaurant in Austria, it was delicious ~ and we still don't know what it was!

Just have fun, and enjoy!

Why not stick to the american imports in Paris, you can't go wrong with McDonald and BK. Do avoid the Quick burger as it is not as good as the american joints. <):)

steak frites or anything poulet should get you through the trip...

Get a phrase book that has a few pages with restaurant words included.

Just because you are in Paris, no reason you have to eat snails!

Heck you don't even have to eat French food... there's Italian, Greek, etc.

And even in the French restaurants you'll always find chicken, steak, etc. on the menu.

You are worrying for no reason.

suze

I have ALWAYS been of the impression that if you did not have the special snail eating stamp on you passport when you tried to leave France, the authorities detained you until you ate one in front of them. Since airport food is not usually the best on the planet, one was well advised to eat snails in some form of restaurant or bistro.