Cuisine Française

Living with a French family for a week allowed me the opportunity to see what French food is like, beyond the frogs' legs and escargot stereotype.

The first day there we went to an Hypermarché (pronounced 'ipermarshay), which in American terms is like a SuperWalmart or in Australian terms is like a Big W and a Woolies combined. Most of the stuff seemed pretty normal. There was plenty of Nestlé chocolate, which is hard to find in the USA, and Cindy was able to stock up on Kinder; Milka seemed to be the most popular but there was none of that disgusting Hersheys. It was the fresh produce section that was significantly different. Snails, horse meat, and the moldiest most disgusting cheeses I have ever seen.

Cheese really is a big thing in France; there's always a cheese course for any large meal. Mostly the large meals are in the middle of the day. And just about every restaurant offers set menus so that you get an entrée, main and then either cheese or dessert. (In Italy, too, there's a lot of set menus with pasta for first course then a meatier main.) And there's always a small, strong black coffee after lunch (but never after dinner). Yet coffee at breakfast time is always weak and milky - café au lait. The weirdest thing is the way they eat breakfast. Yes, a continental breakfast is coffee and pastries but at home they eat in in a funny way. They serve the coffee (or hot chocolate) in a bowl and then dip their croissants, brioche or toasted baguette into it. And Cindy's father, after he's had enough bread, he adds muesli to the remainder of his coffee!

I got to try tons of typical French dishes: various cheeses, traditional crêpes and galettes (a savoury buckwheat crêpe), ratatouille, pastis, cheval and foie gras. That last one was probably the only scary one. They just cut this whole lump of foie gras into quaters for everyone to have a great chunk. I only tried a little bit (partly because it's typically French, partly because it's becoming illegal in many parts of the US), not wanting to force myself to eat something so expensive that someone else would actually enjoy. It was a little better than normal pâté, which I don't like, but not much.