alittlebitfrench Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) How highly do you rate French food ? I give it four stars. It is good in places but mostly expensive and horrible and generally a rip off of other countries food. What do you think ? Edited January 4 by alittlebitfrench Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 If we are talking home cooking then French cooking on a par with British but less adventurous, the staple diet being pizza or bad meat. British medium priced restaurants are much more adventurous and varied than French though both are expensive these days. Belgian is pricey but very very goood. Of course, IMVWIO! (Just so members know there is irony there and an attempt to get healthy discussion going.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I agree with the notion that French home cooking tends to be less adventurous than other European countries. I only ever eat out when traveling and, in general, prefer French food to it's British equivalent. The British seem to want to jazz up everything whereas the French are confident to let the ingredients speak for themselves. Having said all that I've eaten three 'posh' home cooked meals over Christmas and the one cooked by a Belgian couple wiped the floor with both the French one and my own offering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 My bête noir - in both countries, plates overloaded with meat and potato - or the inevitable frites, with little or no appearance of vegetables. Plonked one of top of the other .. confusion to the palate and the eye all round. Portion sizes either huge, or tiny, you can never tell which until they arrive - again in both countries. Restaurants show up the worse for this .. French home cooking I cannot report recently about .. but given the preponderance of kebab shops, the busyness of MacD's when passing, and the pizza places .. I think it's not what it once was. I travel quite a lot in both countries, staying in hotels a reasonable amount, and wish they would make allowance for those with lighter appetites, by offering by something tasty, but different and of a medium size. The decoration of a tiny bit of salad on a place and calling that the vegetable. The lack of a decent non-alcoholic drink which properly accompanies a meal .. plenty of non alcoholic wines around now ... but they don't make the profit wine does of course. The coke and other soft drinks they offer as a non alcoholic replacment are far too sweet to drink with a meal .. I could go on, but won't! PS the last is because I have to avoid alcohol now as much as possible, due to medication conflicts, but can find nothing to taste right with a meal, and water on its own gets so boring! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hectorsdad Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Just a quick reply for now though I do have much more waiting in my head for later. We had a meal out after Christmas with friends at a cheaper end restaurant where I normally have a pint of Guinness while the others order wine. As a driver, I decided to try zero alcohol Guinness for the first time. It had a similar taste to the real thing but lacked the usual body. I will avoid it in the future. So that’s another choice gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hectorsdad Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 18 hours ago, alittlebitfrench said: How highly do you rate French food ? I give it four stars. It is good in places but mostly expensive and horrible and generally a rip off of other countries food. What do you think ? What is the range of your star rating? Four out of five is pretty good. I would give three out of five. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) 1 hour ago, Hectorsdad said: Just a quick reply for now though I do have much more waiting in my head for later. We had a meal out after Christmas with friends at a cheaper end restaurant where I normally have a pint of Guinness while the others order wine. As a driver, I decided to try zero alcohol Guinness for the first time. It had a similar taste to the real thing but lacked the usual body. I will avoid it in the future. So that’s another choice gone. That's sort of my experience with the no alcohol wine, lacks that je ne sais quoi! The red tastes like grape guice, the white is a bit thin (I like a hefty white with body) and the rosé, well that's the only semi reasonable one I am finding .. so far. I'm drinking stuff I brought back from the UK (Tesco's offerings) in October, but with luck are going to investigate a vineyard close to here which offers only non-alcohol stuff next week. Could be interesting. Edited January 5 by Judith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Judith, have you tried the Le Petit Béret range of alcohol free wines? They are the first ones I've found that actually taste like the real thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 32 minutes ago, DaveLister said: Judith, have you tried the Le Petit Béret range of alcohol free wines? They are the first ones I've found that actually taste like the real thing. Dave, that's <exactly> the place we are going to find next week... about 30 minutes from us! Going to make it a nice day out too, with some lunch, somewhere!! If you say they are good, that's most encouraging as I must admit I do find I am better without the alcohol, but do so miss a decent tasting alternative! Though during this festive season I have found a glass of blanquette works well, as an occasionaly treat such as Christmas Day, but that's not for every day, of course! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 Judith, I'd be really interested in your opinion after your visit. I've only been able to find it once locally and a trip to Béziers would entail an overnight stop. Like you, I'd really like to cut down the ubiquitous use of alcohol with every meal but the normal supermarket offerings just don't do it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betise Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 They deliver free for orders over 65€ . https://lepetitberet.com/en/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 58 minutes ago, betise said: They deliver free for orders over 65€ . https://lepetitberet.com/en/ Yes, I know, but I'd like to taste it first. As Dave says, the supermarket offerings do little for me, and as they are so close it seems worth a small detour (well it's hardly that, in fact, just not my usual way to get to Beziers .. ie a minor change of route!! I'll tel you know what I think, Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hectorsdad Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 In yesterday’s Times there was an article covering alcohol free or low alcohol wines, spirits and beers. They thought my Guinness is very good so I’m not sure if I should pay any attention to their findings. The best no or low-alcohol beers, according to our expert https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/367162ae-01b1-4980-98a2-91997311eaec?shareToken=6e3d25485194b615caaead9100e9c626 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssomon Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 The only time I've drunk non-alcoholic beer was when I was in Saudi. It was excellent - provided it was fermented in a large container with yeast and sugar, and, after a week or so, when it had cleared, cooled, and mixed 50:50 with fresh cold bottles of the same 🙂 Otherwise, it was revolting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 I had a very low alcohol beer (0.4%) whilst was in the UK .. in the village pub where y sister lives, brewed by Carlsberg, as it happened and called a hoppy beer. That was pretty acceptable to me, but I don't drink a huge amunt of beer (ie lager) here in France and I always did prefer the hoppiness of beer when I did use to drink it. I was working for Whitbread when they brewed the first (I believe) - mid 80's - low or non-alcoholic beer, which I think would be a lager type to us, and I gather it was regarded quite highly for taste ..was it called Barbican? - I didn't drink it then, as I was not then "banned" from drinking alcohol!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 This is a ridiculous question: it is difficult to defines "French" food since there is such a large range of regional dishes; and personal taste affects the idea of 'rating'. In this area there are strong influences from Catalan/Spanish and Italian cooking, and hints of North Africa in some of the seasoning. There are restaurants serving everything from Vegan dishes to ribs of beef; seafood platters with oysters, raw mussels 'bulots' and whole crab; and traditional fare such as "Pot au feu", seasonal soups (potiron in October, or "vélouté de champignons " more recently since we finally had a little rain so there were some mushrooms). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 13 minutes ago, NormanH said: This is a ridiculous question Unfair Norman. The question was broad enough to generate a discussion which drifted, as these things do, to the merits of alcohol free drinks. So, to quote ALBF " I give it four stars ". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 On 06/01/2024 at 15:07, Hectorsdad said: In yesterday’s Times there was an article covering alcohol free or low alcohol wines, spirits and beers. They thought my Guinness is very good so I’m not sure if I should pay any attention to their findings. The best no or low-alcohol beers, according to our expert https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/367162ae-01b1-4980-98a2-91997311eaec?shareToken=6e3d25485194b615caaead9100e9c626 When we go to out to a party with friends I always take a couple of non-alcohol beers with me. This is because i will not drink and drive, not just on responsibility grounds, but if I lost my licence at my advanced age I shudder to think what my car insurance would be. So my favoured beer is 1664 Zero, over the holiday period while in the UK I tasted the Guinness Zero and it was very good. As for French food there is good and bad, but I now don't believe the old saying that France is the gourmet Capital of the world, It might have been years ago, but others have caught up and even surpassed it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 4 hours ago, NormanH said: This is a ridiculous question: it is difficult to defines "French" food since there is such a large range of regional dishes; and personal taste affects the idea of 'rating' Who eats that though ? Who can afford it ? The staple diet of most around ere (which is representative France) is Pizza, Kabab, Sushi, Bagal…and Lidl frozen food made….not in France. Pizza out of a wall not a restaurant btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 12 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said: The staple diet of most around ere (which is representative France) is Pizza, Kabab, Sushi, Bagal…and Lidl frozen food made….not in France. I could say the same about most towns in the UK (in addition to the ubiquitous Thai). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 5 hours ago, DaveLister said: Unfair Norman. The question was broad enough to generate a discussion which drifted, as these things do, to the merits of alcohol free drinks. So, to quote ALBF " I give it four stars ". I was replying to the original question, not to the "drift" 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 On 05/01/2024 at 16:45, DaveLister said: Judith, have you tried the Le Petit Béret range of alcohol free wines? They are the first ones I've found that actually taste like the real thing. On 06/01/2024 at 08:12, DaveLister said: Judith, I'd be really interested in your opinion after your visit. I've only been able to find it once locally and a trip to Béziers would entail an overnight stop. Like you, I'd really like to cut down the ubiquitous use of alcohol with every meal but the normal supermarket offerings just don't do it for me. Dave, currently not able to report success in tasting. Managed, eventually, to find the vineyard, though it would be difficult to find at the best of times, as very badly signposted, but with a time constraint because we'd had traffic and other problems getting there, plus it was pouring down with rain, and cold, but could not find out they were open, even though the web site, and facbook pages were saying it is "open now". How they expect to sell any wine I really do not know!! Our phone call got into a "press this no" etc, which did not pick it up, so we abandoned the idea for that day, had a nice lunch in the nearby town, then went to the hospital on the way back for the appointment which was the reason for setting off at all. We'll try again when the weather improves, but will be telling them what we think of their marketing approach when we do. I had a French speaker with me, though I manage OK, she is an expert (retired teacher of French). We'll certainly making our point of view felt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Thanks Judith for the feedback. I certainly won't be making an expedition anytime soon. Sounds like a typically French operation.😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 18 minutes ago, DaveLister said: Thanks Judith for the feedback. I certainly won't be making an expedition anytime soon. Sounds like a typically French operation.😀 Indeed, and they close for lunch too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Château Milhau - Petit Béret Route de Cazedarnes 34620 PUISSERGUIER Le Petit Béret France Just outside the town on the way to St Chinian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now