The French and their food
Only the French could be so arrogant and ignorant at the same time about food.
They believe they do everything best. Food is just one small example. What they are good at is promoting themselves, but it's mostly hot air (they did invent the hot air balloon after all!)
In France you get the same boring overpriced dross served up with a scowl in nearly all the restaurants unless you go to either an ethnic place, or one of the top price ones where they look down their noses at you if you give the keys of anything less than a Lamborghini to the parking valet.
Anorexic portions of poor quality food tarted up and disguised by fancy sauces and names, on attractive plates, obviously fool most of the people most of the time, despite (or because of?) the exorbitant prices. Mediocre French wines are presented with reverence and pride to people unaware that at least 6 other countries produce far better wines at a fraction of the price.
Perhaps they are just misled by the one thing that the French really are good at, which is marketing themselves and their products.
I'm sorry France, rest on your faded laurels like an aging whore if you want to, but the rest of the world realises that not everyone wants to eat slugs, diseased cirrhotic goose livers and raw mince meat ..... sorry that would be ‘escargots’, ‘pate de foie gras’ and ‘steak tartare’, saying it with a French accent doesn't make it any less repulsive.
A snail is only a slug with a shell, and the way foie gras is made involves the most appalling cruelty.
By: MikeP
Comments from visitors
casu marzu is a sheep' milk cheese that has been deliberately infested by a Piophila casei, the "cheese fly." The result is a maggot-ridden, weeping stink bomb in an advanced state of decomposition.
And balut are duck eggs that have been incubated until the fetus is all feathery and beaky, and then boiled alive.
No it is not! I have seen far more appetising dishes in Spain and Portugal that are MUCH better than that watered down s**te you call "food".For example:
.Escargots:They look and taste disgusting! You dare call that food?!
.Foie gras:Made by stuffing a mixture of corn and fat down the duck/goose's gullet,and keeping it in a filthy cage so it cannot even spread its wings!
.Frogs legs:Possibly the most hideous dish ever created.[next to casu marzu,escamoles,lutefisk,baby mice wine,pacha and a balut egg]
It's a matter of personal opinion. At no point in my original posting did I compare French food to British, but you are all so narrow-minded, insular, and parochial that you drew an immediate, and incorrect assumption.
As it there is plenty of good food available in Britain, if you know where to get it, but you are probably using Little Chefs and Burger Kings as the yardstick.
To me, the problem is that most of stranger people go to touristic areas where the food is not so good and expensive. But I, as a french living in France, know the good hiden (or not) restaurants. And for the record, the brasseries are still very popular and presents in France !
On the other hand, I love other foods like chinese food, indian food, and mainly italian food. To tell the truth, I do think that we are a people with a huge gastronomy and that's part of our culture. But it doesn't mean I am close-minded to all the food in other countries. I think in England you have the luck to have a very strong culture which, even if it dosen't implicate great food, is a great pleasure to me everytime I go in this beautiful country.
I think, as usual, that all this debate is based on hard feelings about France. But trust me, in the country where there is the higher rate of tourists, we better like to share and to receive foreigner. Don't forget that before being french or english, we are human. I wish you a very good day and look forward to see you in France, and who knows ? Maybe you will try one or two snails and change your mind on it :)
I have read lots of comments and especialy those of MikeP and it's not the first time I see a website anti-french people, food, politic... I don't really understand where all this anger comes from. You know, french people, like english people are like every people in the world : they are not all the same. So yes we have a bad reputation in some ways but we certainly aren't all arogant (off course some are, like in any country), we do clean ourselves everyday (well, at least all the french people I have know took a shower everyday) and yes we are kind a proud of our food. But seriously I never hear a french guy saying our food is the best. We eat very fewer snails (I just have once in my life, and most of the people I know too...) and even fewer frogs... It's only for big events and few restaurant have a menu with frogs or snails.
I didn’t defend anyone; I pointed out the stupidity of telling people to keep their opinions to themselves on a site entirely devoted to opinion.
Beats a pile of slugs any day!
sugar and spice - 3-Nov-10 23:38
Whatever you think about French food ( I prefer Italian ) isn't it a bit pointless to tell people to keep their opinions to themselves on a site that is devoted entirely to opinions?
grumpyoldwoman - 22-Aug-10 18:55
Stop fooling around. MikeP has already realised he was too hasty to judge French food and has even apologised, which is rare for him. So stop trying to perpetuate it by impersonating him to rekindle the gripe.
I stand by my original comments about French food and did not write the comment at 0904.





