The Question Everyone is Asking....

How is the food????

The answer is, well, delicious. There is more to it than that, however. When one thinks of French cuisine, thoughts of aging cheeses, foie gras, and garlicky snails still in their shells. While this is indeed a part of French cuisine, there are many different regional specialties that I have only recently learned about.

Starting in Picardy, well, to be honest, we aren't known for much in the culinary world. We have a few dishes of our own. First, we have ficelles picards, which are crêpes, filled with ham and gruyère and mushrooms, and finally covered with Bechamel. I have yet to try these, but they do sound tasty. We also claim to have invented the infamous 'French Macaron', however, I am not sure this is plausible, because we have a macaron here, and it is completely different to those that one sees in patisserie windows. The ones here are made with almond paste and are little golden mounds, rather than the sandwich macarons everywhere else.

In my French civiisation course we have gone over important foods region by region...so I have just decided to copy my notes here, just to make it easier.

Regions and their Cuisine (Starting from the North)
Nord-Pas-de-Calais----Moules Frites (Mussels and Fries)
Normandy----Apples, Pork, Oysters and Calvados
Brittany---Crêpes, Seafood
Paris--Mushrooms, and Brie
Bordeaux---Wine, of course!
Savoie---Tartiflettes and fondue
Alsace---Sauerkraut
Bourgogne or Burgundy---Escargot Dijon mustard,and foie gras (arguably the most stereotypically 'French' of all regions!)
Provence---Seafood, ratatouille, bouillabaisse

As you can see, France has such a vast array of different types of cuisines. Don't even get me started on cheeses and their regions! There are too many to count!

While there are so many different types of food in this country, there are stereotypes that are based in fact. Fact: French people love baguettes, and yes, they carry them under their arm on the way home. Fact: French people love cheese. Seriously, there are two aisles in my enormous supermarket dedicated to cheese. It makes my head spin whenever I walk through there...I don't know where to start! Fact: French people eat 'strange' things like horse, and pigs intestines. The French are much more hesitant to let things go to waste than we are, and aren't squeamish when it comes to eating something that would make an American cringe. I feel as thought because I am here, I should probably taste some of these things, even if I don't end up liking it. But yes, it is not surprising to see fully skinned rabbits, or sausages made from pigs intestines here. The one thing that makes me cringe a bit is 'Boudin Noir' or blood sausage. No thank you. I say no thank you to that in England, too.

So, I have learned how to correctly choose my baguette at the shop and I have tasted rabbit (kidney's intact) in a dijon mustard sauce. In the weeks coming up I would like to taste raclette (a cheese that is grilled fireside, and the melted bit is slowly scraped onto potatos and sausage...its name comes from the French verb for scrape, racler) I would also like to try andouillettes. In spite of all of the Anglophone people I have ever spoken to saying they taste horrible, I feel I should give it a go. Andouillettes are pigs intestines sausages, and in fact they are really popular around here and sold at all the street fairs.

I have this idea, that I will try any sort of new French food, and review it on here, if somebody suggests it. So, I would love to hear from you either in the comment box or send me an email!!

Also, keep an eye out at www.flickr.com/photos/ebamiens for photos from my upcoming trip to the so called 'Gastronomic capital of the World', Lyon.