I don't like.....

[Jon 1]

[quote]I actually think French cooking is grossly over-rated( usually by themselves!!).The World has moved on culinary-wise but many in France are stuck in a time warp!! When you have one of those "menu of t...[/quote]

I could not agree more.  There is such a mythology around so many things French, and as you say largely perpetuated by the French themselves.  We have returned after a six month absence and yet again I am very disappointed with what is on offer at most of the non gastronomique restaurants.  Perhaps I am a little more jaundiced than usual (literally) as I am recovering from a 'gastro', experienced within my first week back.  I never have these in the UK and my previous one was also within my first week of returning to France.  Apart from the restaurants we also find the quality of produce in the small and large supermarkets very disappointing as is that in the local indoor market.  They all tend to keep their produce to a greater degree of putrification than in the UK.  My wife is fed up with wilted celery and abyssmal potatoes etc etc.  I really dislike how they keep spraying all the fruit and veg with water of dubious quality.  Unfortunately the mythology of good food, fresh and lovely tasting vegetables is perpetuated on L.F.  Give me M&S and Tescos any time!

Unrelatedly I also get irritated by the myth of how chic the French are when it comes to clothes and decor.  Grungier and mismatched clothing styles I have yet to see in Western Europe.  The interior of many of their homes is a throw back to the post war period.

I could go on about some of the other myths but have to run........if you pardon the expression.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

[quote]I don't think anyone in the UK really eats boiled cabbage any more do they?! The appalling kids' menus are unfortunately rife here too. In ordinary restaurant chains (and I'm not talking McDonald's) ...[/quote]

"boiled cabbage" - I think there are still people who do eat it. We steam it in the wok these days and it is delicious. But I expect my mother-in-law still boils it for 90 minutes! Whereas when I used to boil it it had 20 minutes max and you could still taste it. As TU says, boiling veg is OK as long as you don't overdo it. I think I steered clear of cooking English meals for many years because it really is so difficult to get all the veg co-ordinated with each other and the meat. It is easy if you are French. The salade/entree can just sit, the dessert/cheese are cold, and you only have one veg to match to your meet and in more old fashioned households they are served separately anyway. I love steamed cabbage - the greener the better. Also those "greens" that the French probably give to the rabbits. Spinach is excellent too. I had a magnificent crepe in St Pierre sur Dives recently - full of spinach, gruyere and noix st Jacques. Mmm! No, I couldn't eat raw egg either, but egg with a cheese and spinach sauce is very good. Spinach with a little creme fraiche - mmm!

The thing someone was saying about the French eating everything, I don't believe it is true. From my experience with French families, I have found that children will eat some of the courses that they like and none of the courses which they don't like. For example, many of my French friends serve Haricots verts regularly - but their children don't eat them! But they will eat the salade and the other things. I've hosted many French BOYS who will not eat anything green (doesn't that sound like a lot of English boys - sorry to stereotype). I've also found that many French children will only eat pasta plain with grated cheese and won't eat any traditional italian sauces with them.

I served a meal to several French friends recently and after 30 something years, found that one of them doesn't like cooked carrots - but I don't think her mother ever served cooked carrots to me either and I have spent a considerable time chez eux. So, much as I adore the French, they can get off their high horses about eating everything, because it isn't the case - they are as picky as many English people can be. Deep down we are all the same and have our own likes and dislikes. Some English people have an open mind about trying other things, so do some French people, but the ones who won't budge exist in both countries. A French friend once told me that her brother-in-law ate steak and chips twice a day every day and went mad if his wife served him anything else. Now that is sad!

[Loiseau]

One of my favurite French friends won't eat any vegetable beginning with "C".

My own pet hate - apart from andouille - is gésiers.  People are always telling me that the gésiers *they* prepare themselves are quite different, and that I am bound to like them . . . but nothing can persuade me that chicken gizzards are remotely worthy of eating.

Angela