Gastro-Podium

To content | To menu | To search

Wednesday, November 14 2012

5 American Foods the French can't stand (and vice-versa)

 Taste is one thing separating the French from the Americans: the French like food more bland /natural; less sweet, less spicy and less salty than Americans.  In the USA we want food to have a 'clean' texture and smell, but we don't mind if it smells plasticky, such as chemical-fake vanilla or artificial raspberry smurf.  Only children like those flavors on their candy in France. The French are far more tolerant of 'barnyard pungency' in their food. . . especially where cheese and meats are concerned.  Americans are far more tolerant of 'artificial zestiness' in their edibles.  To illustrate the difference in this perception, let's compare three foods from either side that 90% of the other nationality just can't stand. . .

1/ Jell-o

2/ rootbeer

3/ cinnamon toast crunch cereal

4/ strawberry quik milk mix

5/ cottage cheese

 

 

1/Andouillette sausage and other ways of eating tripe

2/smelly cheeses:  vieux boulogne, pont l'eveque, munster, livarot, etc *

3/ Horsemeat steaks

4/"variety meats", i.e. braised lamb kidneys, beef tongue, or calf sweetbreads

5/snails

*{http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/nov/26/research.highereducation}

 

            What strikes me in these two lists is that the French are more likely to dislike processed, artificial foods that have a spicy taste or, in the case of cottage cheese or rootbeer, taste different from expectations.  Cottage cheese to the French eye looks like 'fromage blanc', and so it should be sweet and silky, not salty and chunky. There is just about universal dislike for cottage cheese served with fruit, since the French don't like any salty-sugary combination, such as chocolate covered pretzels. When I bake cottage cheese in lasagna, the French like it fine.

            Rootbeer resembles cola but to French tastes it smells like cough syrup, with a spicy, herbal or medicinal aroma.

            Cinnamon is ubiquitous in the USA, but I never realized until I went to France and started missing it.  I even brought back packs of 'big red' cinnamon gum.  The French don't use cinnamon to season food, and it's considered more of a potpourri ingredient, useful for home freshener spray or Christmas candles. It's used a bit in Alsace-Lorraine, in cookies or apple pies, but the rest of France is pretty much a cinnamon-free zone. I'll never forget how horrified my husband was when he ordered an espresso coffee in a fancy Rochester,NY restaurant and it arrived sprinkled with cinnamon.  "It's ruined!" he wailed, and insisted the waitress bring him a new, virgin coffee.

             Jell-o, like a lot of American foods, is just too sickly sweet for French tastes, and while they are used to eating gelatin in savory aspic, the idea of sweet gelatin seems to them inappropriate. The French prefer desserts that while rich, are just slightly sweet;  bordering on the acidic and fruity rather than sugary-filling.

            The American gross-me-out factor has more to do with smells and a food's place of origin, within an animal's body or within our category of edible-non-edible.  Is it a magnificent creature that we consider a pet, like a horse?  Does it crawl on its own trail of slime, like a snaiL?  Does it come from a baby cow's skull (sweetbreads) or does it smell just like baby poop (cheese, tripe)?  I have met French people who liked Jell-O and rootbeer, and lots of Americans slurp down snails and enjoy smelly cheese (I myself love Roquefort and Epoisses, but I just can't stand camembert, livarot or Maroilles because of their odor!)  But overall, we just don't see tongue to tongue on these foods.

*For some cool facts about stinky cheese check out :http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/nov/26/research.highereducation

Wednesday, November 7 2012

Do French women really not get fat?

            "French Women Don't Get Fat". Is it true? In France there is enormous peer pressure to stay slim. Overindulgence is socially incorrect. Snacks between meals are for children only. Eating in the street is about as socially correct as peeing on a public wall--which is to say drunks and little kids can do it, but not responsible adults. Portions are much smaller not only in restaurants but at home. People eat slowly, and meals are a social event with conversation.

            I'm not going to re-write Mireille Guiliano's bestselling book, summed up in this excellent blog posting: {http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/content/everyday-eating}

            She describes the average French person's attitude to meals and food. However, I have to say that Mrs. Guiliano belongs to a class of wealthy, sophisticated urbanites. She paints an optimistic picture of the French, implying there are no overweight people, and that everyone in France enjoys moderate portions of food and wine while watching their weight and health. This is far from universally true. She describes the perfect specimen of a certain upper-middle class French woman. French people with modest incomes do not necessarily eat healthy diets, and French children are beginning to consume too much soda, snacks and sweets. The younger French generation has developed a taste for cocktails instead of wine with dinner.

            There are overweight women here in France, and lots of French people don't have truly healthy lifestyles. French overweight people still tend to be less fat than your average heavy American, so I suppose it looks better when you get off the plane from Chicago. But diabetes and heart disease are still two of the biggest killers in France, and lots of French adults are carrying too many pounds. My French women friends are more concerned about their looks than their health. If they take gym classes to stay fit, they actually worry about exercising too much. They don't want to develop big arm or leg muscles, which they consider ugly and un-feminine.

           My French women friends don't count calories but they control portions and they avoid 'white foods' (sugar, bread, pasta, potatoes).  They aren't always eating a healthy diet of varied foods, but they definitely eat less sugar than my American friends. The French diet is not ideal; nearly every French person I know eats too much meat. They eat meat every day; primarily red meat. When I go grocery shopping I peek to see what other people are buying. My cart is mostly filled with fruit, veggies, cheese, pasta, beans, and olive oil. When I look in the average French shopping cart, I see loads of junk food, sodas, tins of prepared food, frozen convenience foods and sugary treats including candy, cookies and snacks. I'm appalled by the amount of 'charcuterie' (pork sausages and patés) in the average shopping cart. Are they eating saucisson at every meal?? I'm sorry Mrs. Guiliano; France is not a paradise of slim, healthy adults. That would be Japan.

            To conclude on a positive note, let me whip out the French woman's secret weapon for staying fit: the simple vegetable soup or  "potage aux legumes".  This is what we eat for evening meal once a week, all winter.  With just a slice of cheese and bread (no butter) and fruit for dessert, this is the typical dinner meal my French women friends use to maintain their slim figure.

potage aux legumes - simple winter veg soup - serves 2

2 tsp olive oil

1 leek OR 1 onion + 1 clove garlic

1 carrot

1 potato

1/2 bay leaf

1 sprig parsley OR tiny branch of celery with leaves

1 sprig fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried thyme

2 cups water

salt, pepper

1/ In a saucepan, sauté the chopped leeks or onions + garlic in the olive oil 5 minutes until transparent.

2/ Add everything else, cover and bring to simmer.  Cook for 30 minutes.

3/ Run through a food mill on medium setting or blend with immersion blender for 30 seconds.

Wednesday, October 31 2012

A Food and Wine Blog in Burgundy

What's it like to live and eat in Chalon-sur-Saone?

            Gastro-Podium:  a platform on which to discuss gastronomy: the production and preparation of food and wine.  Gastropoda:  snails, escargots!

            I'm writing this blog for fun, and to share my love of French food and wine.  I want to write about trends, French attitudes towards eating and preparing food, how French people organize their meals, and how food and socializing go together.  An important topic is terroir:  the sense of place imparted to food or wine by the  climate, soil, and other variables determined by where it is grown and made.  A Bresse chicken is special because of where it lives.  That chicken can be flown to Tokyo, but it retains the terroir of the village near Simandre where it ran around outside in a pasture, feasting on insects, snails, worms and locally-grown cereals and dairy products.  That chicken also has a genetic background that was in part determined by where its ancestors evolved.

            I've lived in Burgundy now for almost 15 years:  in Southern Burgundy to be precise, in the river port town of Chalon-sur-Saone.  The Saone connects to just about everywhere in France by a series of canals, and barges can travel all the way from Le Havre on the Atlantic coast to Paris, and then south to Chalon, on to Lyon, taking the Rhone river to Marseille where the Mediterranean sea begins.  Chalon-sur-Saone is a town that has always been a sort of hub for travelers and goods.  The Roman roads from Italia to Britannia ran through this town.  Trucks still pass near Chalon on the A6 between Spain or Italy and Northern Europe.  The Saone is busy with barges and enormous river cruise boats full of Dutch, German and American tourists bound south for Avignon.  We are only 15 minutes from Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy, and a stone's throw from the most prestigious vineyards in the world, the finest poultry to the south, and smack in the center of Charolais beef cattle country. St Marcel, a suburb of Chalon, is a large producer of vegetables, and fields of leeks, cabbages, and rows of greenhouses stretch for miles, alternating with fields of chickens or fish ponds.

            The area is rich with history. Despite a neo-gothic cathedral, half-timbered medieval buildings, and one of the finest photography museums in the world, Chalon still can't seem to pry the tourists away from nearby Cluny and the Beaune Hospices.  It's sad really, like a Jane Austen younger sister whose prettier older siblings get all the attention.  I like living here because while we are close to beautiful dramatic landscapes like the Jura or the  Morvan for recreation, we also have daily TGV connections to Paris and Nice. Only an hour drive away is the Lyon airport with connections to Amsterdam, and Geneva is a 2 hour drive.  The nearest ocean is a bit further :-).

            Try to be a locavore, try partial vegetarianism, follow a modified paleo-mediterranean-diet, eat a little of everything, avoid palm oil and high fructose corn syrup, use fresh, varied ingredients, try new things!  Those are a few of my guiding principles for diet. I have strong opinions about food and wine, but I realize we live in the real world and must adapt. I love animals, but I like an occasional steak and I don't think I could forego fish or poultry permanently. . . and I don't want to be dogmatic.  Vegetarianism is better for our planet, but meat has a rich history in cooking and culture.

I love Burgundy wines, especially the lesser-known more reasonably priced ones.  My favorite white wine is Pouilly-Fuissé, grown under the Roche de Solutré south of Macon.  My favorite red wine is Jean-Yves Devevey's Beaune 1er Cru Pertuisots.

            Above all, I try to remember how lucky I am and maintain a sense of perspective. . . my ancestors in Denmark, Germany, Holland or Ireland did not have access to such a variety of high quality foods and beverages.

page 2 of 2 -