French food!

[Frenchie]

Exactement JR, it remains fresh and delicious for 2 or 3 days.

Try it for sandwiches, it is great. [;-)]

[Jonzjob]

What's all htis about traditional French bread and baguettes? The baguette has only been aroung since the 18th century. The trad French bread was baked in the village oven about 3 times a week and after that was done the oven was then used to cook any food that the villagers wanted, like confit or cassolette, that needed long slow coking. The bread was the huge loaves that are seen today as pain  de campagne and was bought by weight in great chunks. This lasted till the next 'bake' but by that time was past its best, but still quite edible. 

It was 'Nappy Baby' (Napolion) who decreed that every Frenchman would have fresh bread every day and so the baggy was born...

I too am a great fan of good French bread and we are lucky enough to live fairly close to what is concidered the best artisan boulanger/pâtisserier in Carcassonne.Their bread doe is made on the premises and not shipped in from some huge central factory that produces some chemical mix that looks like bread as the U.K. supermarkets do, French do that too.. Mind you, the act of cooking the bread on site makes it smell inviting and people will buy it for that alone I suppose?

We to have a lovely selection of brasseries here and can get a very nice lunch from about 11 to 15€. Local, fresh, in season foods that are cooked well. A lot of them have a 'Menu du Jour' with another option if you don't lke what's n the menu. That is why they can keep the price down as they don't have to cater for a huge selection. OK, you don't get yer meat and 3 veg, but that is NOT the French style. A salad to start a main course, cheese and a pud. All that with the wine and a coffee. Some places there is as much wine as you want

We also live within the largest vinyard in the World and the wines here are very good. I can't remember the last time we bought forigne wine, but why the hell should we when we can get organic Carbardies red, white and rose from a producer we know and pay up to 6€ a bottle if we are feeling a bit special. As for 17€, well I would not pay that in a restaurant naver mind in a shop! The Langadoc used to have a reputation for quantity not quality, but over the last 30 or so years they have worked very hard to change that and now I would rate the rich, dark reds against almost anything. I also love the whites and roses. Some mre than others I admit. But as yet we find that we very rarely need to look further than local wines.

Ready prepaired food is OK if you really like a boat load of salt and sugar I suppose, but I prefer good fresh seasonal food that is properly cooked thank you.. Fresh food does not need to take hours to prepair and if you cook 3 or 4 times what you need and then freeze the portions, as has been said, it's even quicker. The BIG plus is that you know what's in it!