French food!

[KathyC]

[quote user="Will"]

Don't forget that you can get a perfectly acceptable - sometimes even good - lunch for £8 or less in Britain, even in the expensive south.

 

[/quote]

Depends what you mean by lunch. If you mean just a main course, then that's often true, although you'd still have to be selective where you chose. If you mean lunch as in 2/3 courses and wine, then I really don't think it's possible. Even in Wetherspoons, which are about as cheap as you can get, you'd pay far more than £8 for a meal with several courses and a drink.

[NormanH]

On the square near my flat today I looked at 6 restaurants.

All are of reasonable quality.

1)  (a Café) Plat de jour 'Daube de boeuf ' 11 euros...without wine coffee or desert or starter. Un quart de vin 3 euros, coffee 1,50

2) Eastern European menu 12,50 stuffed cabbage leaves, glass of wine coffee. (Serbian cooking)

3) Very good standard ' nouvelle cuisine' restaurant : menu 22 euros no coffee or wine included. Plat de jour alone 12 euros

4) More 'branché'  that is to say aimed at a young set: choice of menu at 26 euros or 'assiette de jour' at 14 euros. No wine or coffee.

5) Café that specialises in local traditional recipes ( and sells ready made versions) 'Formule' at 14 euros either starter + main or main + pudding . No coffee or wine

6) Gay resto: no menu, all 'à la carte'.

This is possibly the best  value for money area. There are other 'Michelin' places, or   some places that offer a menu between 12 and 15 euros but they are as I described previously .

Even a couscous is between 11 and 16 euros.

I remember places such as described by others, but that was in the 70s.

Now the most popular are Buffalo Grill, Flunch, and Quick..or the drive in McDo[:)]

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="Frenchie"]Like what ?[/quote]

Our local Chinese restaurant does a lunchtime menu for £8.50, and it is very good. The Thai restaurant is £9 or so. The lunchtime special from the chip shop is £2.95, and is actually excellent (Haddock, not Cod). That is three places within 100m.

[Casper Slides]

[quote user="Philouis"]

I have lived in France for five years and have loved every minute of it! But what do I miss most from my earlier life in England? Compared with even the humblest supermarket in the UK, the standard of the packet ready prepared food bears no comparison! I had the mistaken idea that France, as the gourmet country of the world, would be supreme in this department! Unfortunately this is not the case.

Whilst I am on my hobby horse; what would I give to be able to get an nice crusty granary loaf or a delicious bread roll from Marks & Spencr?  In France; other than their white sticks, the rest of the breads are so hard and unappetising when you buy them.  So I have purchased a bread making machine to see if I can remedy the situation! But I don't think I can buy granary flour over here! So I am back to square one!

I know that others will say that I should cook my own meals which I do, but it would be nice and very easy to be able to slip a really appetising dish into the microwave when time is at the essence!

Does anyone else feel this way?

[/quote]

 

This is surely a joke post. The bread in France is the best in the world. I live in a small medieval village of a hundred houses and we have three boulangeries where the bread is far superior to anything that I would have been able to buy in England. And why would you want ready meals? I would never have considered buying processed microwavable crap in the UK and I certainly wouldn't expect to do that here where the raw ingredients are far superior to anything that you could buy in Britain.    

[Daniel5791]

I agree completely. The bread is France is unbeatable. On a recent holiday I gorged on bread, cheese and red wine in various French locations and upon return to the UK, the difference was very clear. Now back in Australia I long once again  for those French breads and patisserie items all the time.

[Dick Smith]

I am diabetic, and my blood glucose levels always fall after a couple of weeks in France. I am certain that part of this is because French bread contains very little sugar compared to processed breads such as Hovis.

However, a lot of other French products contain massive amounts of sugars...

[Frenchie]

[quote user="Daniel5791"]I agree completely. The bread is France is unbeatable. On a recent holiday I gorged on bread, cheese and red wine in various French locations and upon return to the UK, the difference was very clear. Now back in Australia I long once again  for those French breads and patisserie items all the time.
[/quote]

 

At last someone who s on my side !! [:D]

Welcome to France Daniel   [;-)]

[Bugsy]

French bread is simply the best, especially when compared to the average, bleach-washed, three hundred year shelf life, chemical filled UK offerings anyway.

.

[Frenchie]

Bugs, a man with a taste .. [;-)]

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Frenchie"]Bugs, a man with a taste .. [;-)][/quote]

[kiss][kiss][;-)]

.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="Frenchie"]

[quote user="Daniel5791"]I agree completely. The bread is France is unbeatable. On a recent holiday I gorged on bread, cheese and red wine in various French locations and upon return to the UK, the difference was very clear. Now back in Australia I long once again  for those French breads and patisserie items all the time.

[/quote]

 

At last someone who s on my side !! [:D]

Welcome to France Daniel   [;-)]

[/quote]

Absolutely Daniel! Australia's bread is simply bland, tasteless and awful.

Lynda's daughter is over here at present and she asked me if I missed Australian bread. A resounding no was my answer.

French bread is superior in every way.

[Fay]

I thought that too, Casperslides...

Not least because it was posted in a more 'high profile' place than the actual food and drink section. Interesting that the OP has not joined back in.

Still, it has provoked an interesting debate!

[powerdesal]

Each to his own.  Everyones opinion is as valid as everyone else's.

I disagree with the praise of French bread.

I happen to like 'plastic' English bread (well, mostly) in its right place, ie toast or chip butties. Perhaps that comment will result in "your taste is not sophisticated" (been there, had the comment !) but no-one has yet defined "sophisticated taste" to my satisfaction.

The same 'put-down' comment has been made about my taste in wine (not on this forum) but having just finished a chip butty washed down with Californian white grenache from a box.......I dont actually care!

[Benjamin]

[quote user="powerdesal"]

 washed down with Californian white grenache from a box.......I dont actually care!

[/quote]

Straight from the box eh?

Is there no end to this man's talents?

Incidentally I agree with you about English bread in it's place. Thick sliced white toasted, nothing beats it!

[powerdesal]

[:D][quote user="Benjamin"][quote user="powerdesal"]

 washed down with Californian white grenache from a box.......I dont actually care!

[/quote]

Straight from the box eh?

Is there no end to this man's talents?

Incidentally I agree with you about English bread in it's place. Thick sliced white toasted, nothing beats it!

[/quote]

[:D][:D][:D]...............................[:P]

[mint]

Better than toasted, Steve, is thick, sliced and FRIED!

Bacon, fried eggs, and fried bread with CHUTNEY.............. have had it with chutney since Delia (the sainted SM) said that that is the only way to eat fried bread! 

 

[Bugsy]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Better than toasted, Steve, is thick, sliced and FRIED!

Bacon, fried eggs, and fried bread with CHUTNEY.............. have had it with chutney since Delia (the sainted SM) said that that is the only way to eat fried bread! 

 

[/quote]

Followed by a Rennie or two ?

[:P]

[powerdesal]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Better than toasted, Steve, is thick, sliced and FRIED!

Bacon, fried eggs, and fried bread with CHUTNEY.............. have had it with chutney since Delia (the sainted SM) said that that is the only way to eat fried bread! 

 

[/quote]

Sorry Sweet, CHUTNEY........YUK ( even Saint Delia is not always right)

Fried bread has to be in dripping, after the meat is done.

I might just go the bacon and egg breakfast route tomorrow, havn't had a fry up since leaving home 5 weeks ago. Fried tomatoes of course, but no mushrooms, I am out of mushrooms at the moment.

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="Bugsy"][quote user="sweet 17"]

Better than toasted, Steve, is thick, sliced and FRIED!

Bacon, fried eggs, and fried bread with CHUTNEY.............. have had it with chutney since Delia (the sainted SM) said that that is the only way to eat fried bread! 

 

[/quote]

Followed by a Rennie or two ?

[:P]

[/quote]

Now where's that thread on statins?

[Cendrillon]

"The same 'put-down' comment has been made about my taste in wine (not

on this forum) but having just finished a chip butty washed down with

Californian white grenache from a box.......I dont actually care!"

powerdesal

I can see you have very refined taste[8-|][:)]

[powerdesal]

Thank you Cendrillon, I think I do.

Unfortunately the chips were not done in dripping, but were 'french fries' from room service together with three skewers of 'shish tawouk', but hey... you cant expect refinement and sophistication all the time. [:P]

[Frenchie]

Un bon bout de baguette paysanne trempée dans le café !!

La belle vie !! [:P]

[powerdesal]

I suppose thats one way of making a door stop edible [:)]

[Frenchie]

[Chancer]

[quote user="Frenchie"]

Un bon bout de baguette paysanne trempée dans le café !!

La belle vie !! [:P]

[/quote]

I guess I must be lucky to have an artisan boulangerie/patisserie that offers a great choice of breads, so many in fact that I have only just discovered the pleasures of baguette paysanne, it is by far and away my favorite and seems to retain its properties better le lendemain.