Food

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Russethouse"]That's a bit harsh .
[/quote]Harsh?  Norman?  Heaven forfend....

[NormanH]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"][quote user="Etoile"]........ Certainly here in the Charente all the restaurant food is much of a muchness, that is if you can attract the attention of a member of staff willing to serve you. One of the problems is that France is so hard up now - even the supposedly smart restaurants are pushing the eleven Euro three course lunch. My last meal out was moules and you could hardly find the little buggers in the shells. When you buy mussels in the UK they fill the shells. [/quote]

Norman: I'm as close to bilingual as I'm possibly ever going to be, which still leaves scope for learning and improvement, but there's one bloke in our village I have real trouble understanding, even after seeing him regularly for over seven years. Should I sell up?

[/quote]

No, but don't blame him either.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Etoile"] The supermarkets here, particularly Intermarche, are experts at confusing/trick special offers and out of date food, but are not experts at cleaning, tidyness, nor especially mopping up water spills in the frozen food area. [/quote]

Aint that the truth!

Whenever there is a discussion of French versus UK food everyone always bangs on about the variety of food available from all corners of the world and all the foreign influences in UK cuisine and the great variety of ethnic restaurants.

All very true and a good enough reason to entice any French person to visit England but none of these are English food, so in a comparison, (real) English food/cuisine versus French food/cuisine then for me France wins hands down, but then for heavens sake why does everything have to be a competition or comparison?

Whilst I miss the variety available in the UK, France has many regional specialties and all of them to me are outstanding, the average Frenchman will know all of these, have tried them all and will argue passionately with his peers about who had the best cassoulet or whatever and where.

Moreover a passionate discussion like this seems obligatory whenever people sit down to eat, I dread it because I know what comes next, they ask me to describe all the regional specialties in England [:(] "Err, Yorkshire Pudding, Sussex Pond pudding............" I am always so embarrassed to know so few.

I tell French people about the diverse variety of current day UK food and that they should go there for a low cost culinary tour de monde but it is very difficult to promote the UK to them in the terms that you could of France

[Judith]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]

 but I have almost given up eating UK tomatoes as they are a triumph of cosmetic appearance over flavour. French ones are usually tomato-flavoured.

[/quote]

I have quite the opposite experience.  I could buy all manner of tomatoes with much flavour in my local (small) Waitrose back in London and well priced.  Here I can get horrible tasteless spanish ones, or (and yes more tasty but expensive), vine tomatoes.  What I cannot get is what I want, which is Marmande tomatoes - now those do taste good.  Never seen them here - and it's only a two hour drive.  But when Spain is less than hour, I suppose that says it all.

[Patf]

A slight deviation - french people cooking "à l'anglais":

The fête comittee in our commune did an english meal last week. They found the recipes on the internet and served soupe au petits pois, chicken pie, home made baked beans, and banoffee pudding. Accompanied by Guiness and a cup of tea after.

I thought they were going to get the meal catered, but no, these ladies cooked it all themselves. The pies were prepared in the hall, then sent to private ovens to be baked. Everything else was made on the tiny cooker. My friend and I helped.

There was a good turnout and everyone enjoyed the food so they said they would do it again next year.

There were supplementary alcoholic drinks mind, to make a jollier atmosphere.

[Jonzjob]

Marmande tomatoes? The last time we had those was a couple of weeks back, straight out of the garden!! We have also had them from the local s/markets. If you can grow your own they are in the jardineries inthe spring time..

The meal sounded very good Pat, but without the Guinness thank you! Anyway, what had that got to do with the U.K.? It's from S Ireland!

[Richard51]

Real traditional British cooking is excellent - just not found very often.  You only have to pick up a tome of Mrs Beeton's to see how many recipes were used (many very time consuming) and how substantial and complex the meals were pre the first world war. The war years and utilitarian / budget cooking had a huge impact on British cuisine.  Pre the war years, meals often ran to 12 courses - making the French 5 courses pale in comparison.  The problem is, most Brits are ignorant about traditional British cooking and ingredients.  Cheeses have already been mentioned as a French 'plus' yet Britain has more varieties of cheese than France.

I would be interested to know how many of those who rave about French markets actually visit their local farmers markets in the UK?  I'm guessing many use their local Sainsbury's / Tesco and only frequent local markets when in France?

Mrs R51

[Jonzjob]

Sainsburys, Tescos! How dare you sir! Waitrose for us before we moved over, oh, and the starter of the recent spread of farmers markets, the Stroud farmers market if you please...

I once went into the Tescos in Stroud just after it opened. I started talking to one of the manageresses and I said to her that she was very fortunate to work in there. She agreed, but asked why I had asked? My reply was that by working in there she didn't have to stand outside and look at such a building that should have NEVER been built in Stroud! She went very red and said nowt!

The late, great Alan Corren once said on a Radio 4 quiz game that he had realised that he had found the reason for Sainsburys  existence. It was to keep the rif-raf out of Waitrose.. I fell about laughing!

[Braco]

A very interesting question. . I would say that in general the quality of food in France is a little higher than the UK.

We live in a town in Hertfordshire which has two bakers mainly catering to the lunch time sandwich trade. Pezenas which is the third of the size has at least fifteen. I exclude supermarkets as I feel that even Waitrose cannot produce bread.

[NormanH]

[quote user="Braco"]A very interesting question. . I would say that in general the quality of food in France is a little higher than the UK.

We live in a town in Hertfordshire which has two bakers mainly catering to the lunch time sandwich trade. Pezenas which is the third of the size has at least fifteen. I exclude supermarkets as I feel that even Waitrose cannot produce bread.[/quote]

I know Pezenas well having worked there for quite a while.

I can't recall 15 bakers catering to the lunch time sandwich trade, even if I taught some of them to mangle English back in the 90s.

Can you name them?

[Braco]

My comment was that the bakers in Herts concentrate on selling sandwiches as opposed to bread. I for one would never buy a ready made sandwich.

[idun]

England is just so good at assimilating words and foods from other places. These things just intergrate, comme ça!

I have to say that in my bit of the Rhone Alps it was darned hard to find decent restos, even the expensive ones often left something to be desired.

I never forget that fundamental thing about food the childhood memory of it. I couldn't eat a baguette with a bar of dark chocolate stuffed into it, how dry and frankly revolting, I enjoy baguettes and chocolate, but not together like that. And yet I could still eat childhood favourites of mine like a treacle sandwich(that is what we call Golden Syrup in the NE of England) or even a banana sandwich. We simply grow up with some things that we have fond memories of and can eat with relish and take delight in, even as adults.

[Gardengirl]

Idun, that took me back! I first had baguette stuffed with chocolate at the age of 13 on my very first visit to France. I was on a school exchange from the NE to St Nazaire, and couldn't believe what we were eating; at home it would have been rather damp salad sandwiches complete with sand in them and 'seaside tea'. Chocolate-stuffed baguette seemed to fit the sunshine of Le Croisic, Carnac etc - and all the days really were summer!  [:D]

I also met an amazing variety of fruit and veg I'd never seen before, even in seed catalogues - my family's father was a fruit wholesaler. I'd never imagined that you could take a good-sized vegetable, pull a few bits off, suck a bit of each of those off - and throw the rest away!! We only ate what veg my father grew in the garden, and artichokes didn't exist in his mind, never mind in his wonderful soil!

I was also introduced to oysters and mussels - still feeling a bit seasick and very wobbly after a long coach journey from NE to Southampton, followed by a very rough night-time crossing spent throwing up, and then 2 trains down to St Nazaire. I didn't take to them then, and still can't eat them!

[5-element]

[quote user="idun"] I couldn't eat a baguette with a bar of dark chocolate stuffed into it, how dry and frankly revolting, I enjoy baguettes and chocolate, but not together like that. We simply grow up with some things that we have fond memories of and can eat with relish and take delight in, even as adults.[/quote]

Yes, comfort food is very idiosyncratic. One woman's meat is another woman's poison, and vice-versa![:D]

 

Slightly different angle, but this is very topical to this thread:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/is-french-cuisine-dead-2098620.html

[Judith]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]Marmande tomatoes? The last time we had those was a couple of weeks back, straight out of the garden!! We have also had them from the local s/markets. If you can grow your own they are in the jardineries inthe spring time..

[/quote]

Agreed, home grown (whatever variety) will always taste better,  but we were talking about from shops. 

They may have got as far as Carcasonne, but I;ve yet to see them in the shops I use in and around Narbonne.  My point was that they ship in tomatoes from Spain instead of from other parts of France.  The same 'food miles' argument we use to talk about in the UK, but in this case with an (IMHO) an inferior product.

[Judith]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]Sainsburys, Tescos!

The late, great Alan Corren once said on a Radio 4 quiz game that he had realised that he had found the reason for Sainsburys  existence. It was to keep the rif-raf out of Waitrose.. I fell about laughing!

[/quote]

Yes, I remember that one ..... it's great!!  BTW - his name is spelt Coren