Ken Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 Here in the Pays Basque, living so close to the frontier with Spain, I take advantage of it. Spanish prices are invariably cheaper, from meat through to petrol and other everyday items. Restaurants at the frontier are incredibly cheap and usually I go across, perhaps, once a month for lunch, filling up my gas guzzling car at the same time. Throughout the year the restaurants are usually well attended by locals, French locals that is with the clientele very much Basque. Short stocky people, reasonably dressed and convivial. Today off I went to the frontier and had a very reasonable 3-course lunch; a huge platter of calamar, Chicken with the inevitable chips, and gateau Basque and cream for pudding and bread rolls all for a grand sum of 11 euros!! The pleasant surprise? Well I think it's well documented here of my love for fat, scruffy Brits and their manners. The pleasant surprise is that their are many Frenchmen in the same category! Fat seems to be the norm and scruffy enters a new dimension! It is now the tourist season down here and these apparitions descend for their annual holiday. The attraction of the frontier restaurants is as I have said above, incredibly cheap but the food is very good and plenty of it. I usually avoid the frontier during the season as it is extremely busy and confine myself to a cheap lunch or two during the rest of the year. As I sat munching my squid I simply cannot understand how people, Brits or French have so little respect for themselves that they present themselves in public with huge guts bulging, tattoos everywhere and 'popping' out for a fag between courses. That was the women!! The men were worse!!! My imagination runs riot when I think that these 'people' get undressed and go to bed together, what a sight that must be!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 18 hours ago, Ken said: Brits or French have so little respect for themselves that they present themselves in public with huge guts bulging, Society is in the process of normalising this appearance. No Doctor I have heard of (we have 3 in the families) ever says "you are fat and need to do something about it" to patients (indeed one GP in the family is heavily over weight, eats massive meals and has already had one heart attack!) Hospitals etc have fat people seats, as do the buses here in Nantes. Try confronting someone in this state and see how far you get (if you survive) People are not stupid, they know the relationship with food and on their health (people still smoke!!) is the line most experts trot out before trying to give advice. The very reason you go to Spain is also a contribution to the problem - cheap food. The worse the food is for you, the cheaper it is. The more people buy it and eat it. Governments make too much tax profit from cheap food and the lobbyist's want to keep it this way. The IQ 86 effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 1 hour ago, Lehaut said: Society is in the process of normalising this appearance. No Doctor I have heard of (we have 3 in the families) ever says "you are fat and need to do something about it" to patients (indeed one GP in the family is heavily over weight, eats massive meals and has already had one heart attack!) Hospitals etc have fat people seats, as do the buses here in Nantes. Try confronting someone in this state and see how far you get (if you survive) People are not stupid, they know the relationship with food and on their health (people still smoke!!) is the line most experts trot out before trying to give advice. The very reason you go to Spain is also a contribution to the problem - cheap food. The worse the food is for you, the cheaper it is. The more people buy it and eat it. Governments make too much tax profit from cheap food and the lobbyist's want to keep it this way. The IQ 86 effect. You really shouldn't try and equate your I.Q with that of others!!! The restaurants are cheaper I said, not that the food is cheap!!! A chicken in Spain I would suggest is not so different to a chicken in France neither in protein, fat or carbohydrates; probably not in price either!! I go to the Spanish frontier for economic reasons, the restaurants are cheaper as are many other products. Even someone with a low I.Q. could understand that! I also buy fuel there, am I therefore contributing to global warming or am I taking advantage of the economic difference? No you are wrong on most counts: People are stupid, they eat too much and get fat; having a degree in Medicine doesn't give you wisdom! A heart attack and continuing in the same lifestyle, isn't that stupid? And finally, of course, it's the government to blame isn't it? Personal responsibility isn't even a consideration; always someone else's fault!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 Mmmmm Gâteau Basque.🍒 🥧. Slightly warm with just a hint of Crème Anglaise as an accompaniment. 😘😘😘 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 1 hour ago, DaveLister said: Mmmmm Gâteau Basque.🍒 🥧. Slightly warm with just a hint of Crème Anglaise. 😘😘😘 Crème Anglaise!!! Perish the thought! I love custard and can eat it (or drink it!!)by the pint but it isn't in gateau Basque. It is simply creme, to a recipe of course. It is almond that gives the gateau its distinctive taste and of course it comes in two varieties, crème and cerise. The pastry, if from a patisserie and not a mass produced gateau, is out of this world!!! Relatively they are quite expensive too!! The mass produced gateau Basque found in supermarkets is o.k. but for a gateau that is really superb it should be bought from a local patisserie which it makes on site. Gateau bought this way will almost certainly have the distinctive almond aroma of that particular patisserie, in other words they vary ever so slightly from patisserie to patisserie. Personally I prefer the cerise but have never been known to refuse a crème. There is also a gateau Basque museum just outside Sare which gives , not only the history and way of producing the gateau, but usually lots of 'samples' at the end! I first eat a gateau Basque some 25 years ago when I walked across the Pyrenees. A cold, wet very early morning breakfast from a little patisserie in Bidarray, kept me going for days!!! I have eaten a few since!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssomon Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 12 hours ago, Lehaut said: The IQ 86 effect. You're being very generous in your assessment😄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 Talking of this regions food and drink, for all you cocktail drinkers out there, I can recommend the Mojito Basque. It's basically a standard Mojito with green Izarra replacing the rum. Very refreshing on a warm summer evening as my guests last night will attest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 Hey, DL, I tasted that apple wine you talked about and, yes, I agree, it is not nectar for the gods, is it? Thank goodness, it was only a thimbleful for tasting. Plus I didn't find a convenient pot plant to tip it into! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 10 hours ago, menthe said: Hey, DL, I tasted that apple wine you talked about and, yes, I agree, it is not nectar for the gods, is it? Yes, one wonders why it's no longer produced 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 But it IS still produced! I revisited a pig farm near Banka (nearly always go to see the pigs) and this stuff was given to us to taste. So, together with the paté and chacuterie, we got a thimbleful of apple wine. When I used to drink, I enjoyed Calvados and cider, both Brittany and Normandy cider. But apple WINE is an entirely different thing altogether, don't you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 43 minutes ago, menthe said: But apple WINE is an entirely different thing altogether, don't you think? Are you sure it was a wine? The Golden's Ger I remember was a liqueur like this https://whiskyauctioneer.com/lot/43527/goldens-ger-crystal-special-liqueur The only use I ever found for it was to add some oomph to apple sorbet. I too enjoy a good calvo. A dearly departed friend used to distill his own. He was happy to do straight swaps for bottles of whiskey.😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 What somebody actually paid TWO euros for that😂 Well yes, it did say Gers on the bottle but it was a "normal" looking white wine bottle, green with the long neck. I THINK it was 11° though I didn't look too closely because I wouldn't have accepted even a free bottle. Perhaps they are producing it under a different guise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted July 23, 2023 Share Posted July 23, 2023 23 hours ago, DaveLister said: Are you sure it was a wine? The Golden's Ger I remember was a liqueur like this https://whiskyauctioneer.com/lot/43527/goldens-ger-crystal-special-liqueur The only use I ever found for it was to add some oomph to apple sorbet. I too enjoy a good calvo. A dearly departed friend used to distill his own. He was happy to do straight swaps for bottles of whiskey.😉 DL, no, it's not the same. But, if you looked at the selection of wines on the website you gave me, you'd see it clearly listed, at just under 7€. Wouldn't give 7 centimes for it. I don't have enough experience of Calvados (more's the pity) but whisky was my preferred drink in winter. No need for the single malt stuff, any old blend would do me just fine😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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