La Belle France! Lets face it who doesn’t love it? All those Francophobes obvs!
We don’t need to mention the food which is of course fabulous! But I’m going to because in my attempt to bring harmony and understanding to the world (despite everything!) there are some Stranglings* who would not think the food is fabulous. These include:
- Vegetarian Stranglings (not catered for unless you like industrial quantities of cheese)
- Vegan Stranglings (not catered for at all. The French don’t get it)
- Duck hating Stranglings
- Pork and pork products hating Stranglings
- Offal hating Stranglings
French cuisine, particularly in rural areas, can rely heavily on animal fat and lots of specialities are duck or pork based. Neither of which particularly appeal to me. If done well they can taste divine. If done badly they can be both tasteless and heavy on the stomach. They also use less garlic in their cooking than you would think. But when they do use it they use it!
Don’t waste time being either a vegetarian or a vegan in France. They just don’t get it. Unless you are in very big cities or Paris you won’t find small region restaurants giving you the time of day. Even vinaigrette will be made with raw egg so be careful out there is you’re trying to live a plant based eating regime. It’s a shame because they have lovely fresh vegetables on sale in every market. But they do like to serve it with a large lump of meat.
Seafood is of course a staple in France and they eat a far wider range of fish and seafood than we do. At Christmas a “fruit de mer” platter is very popular made up of winkles, cockles, whelks, prawns, crab and some langoustines. Often ordered from supermarkets in a polystyrene boat which can look like this
I make no comment about how well this looks. Lets hope we all like a big wedge of lemon.
Or maybe you just fancy a plain…
Steak frites is of course both a staple and a classic on a menu. it is elegantly simple yet tasty but can be a little bit heavy mid day.
Or maybe you just like a piece of tasty, well cooked chicken…
Chicken should never be tough given the age of the birds we eat. However, it so often is. It does take flavours well though possibly because we have bred all the taste out of a farm reared chicken so as not to offend our taste buds. The nearest thing to a tasty chicken now is either a free range organic chicken or guinea fowl which tastes like chicken used to.
Washed down with this…
Or perhaps you’d prefer this!
*Devotees of the world of Darkling Strange