French Food? Do you like it?

[Cujet]

In my aviation career, I've enjoyed great food all over the world. But I generally dislike French food. Despite the near universal opinion that French food is fantastic, and that there is nothing better than a French restaurant, it's not for me.

Do you love it, like it or hate it?

Beef bourguignon for example. Beef cooked in red wine. Bitter and nasty.
Foie gras. Liver from fattened duck. A delicacy? Not a chance, it is waste food and belongs in kibble.
Snails... Well that one needs no explanation. 0.003 grams of protein, that can only be tolerated with spices galore.
Baguettes con jambon y fromage. Ham n cheese sandwich. Sorry but my jaw muscles fatigue out before I can finish that tough monster.
Crepes, well this one is half OK. Even so, they can't seem to make pancakes correctly...

I'm not a steak and potatoes guy. I tend to like fresh, basic meals, especially fish, that are not processed to the Nth degree.


Nope:

Something I really like, local grilled fish over a fresh salad, with local fruits and local FL avocado.

 

[rijndael]

Love French bakeries and pastry shops. No to most of the other stuff.

 

[burbguy82]

french fries are good

 

[Jetronic]

love escargots!

prefer crepes over pancakes by far.

 

[Kira]

This topic has just awakened me to the fact that I know very little about French cuisine.

I have made excellent Beef Boulonnais and Dear Mom made a Vichyssoise fit for a king.

 

[Passport1]

I'm not a huge fan of French cooking but I have made a couple of Chef Jean-Pierre's recipes and they turned out well enough. He is a genuine French cook and his videos are very entertaining.

Chef Jean-Pierre Brehier

 

[Pablo]

French country food is fine but Italian food in Italy is way better

IMHO

 

[4WD]

Love French bakeries and pastry shops. No to most of the other stuff.

This ^ eat that bread with Italian food

 

[4WD]

French country food is fine but Italian food in Italy is way better

IMHO

Ha, typed at the same time

 

[JohnnyG]

I hear English and Scottish food is pretty bad too. I just avoid French all together, except for the dressing.

 

[4WD]

I hear English and Scottish food is pretty bad too. I just avoid French all together, except for the dressing.

I normally just get breakfast at UK airports - don’t fancy much else …

 

[Pablo]

I hear English and Scottish food is pretty bad too. I just avoid French all together, except for the dressing.

Scottish apparently have no power or ovens during the day. Everything cold.

English pub food can be pretty decent. But the English varieties of Italian and Chinese and other countries is typically piss poor execution. I thought their Indian might be ok, nope. Everything laced with way too many ground up cashews.

 

[Pablo]

I normally just get breakfast at UK airports - don’t fancy much else …

You want your beef cooked for 7 or 8 days?

 

[4WD]

Scottish apparently have no power or ovens during the day. Everything cold.

English pub food can be pretty decent. But the English varieties of Italian and Chinese and other countries is typically piss poor execution. I thought their Indian might be ok, nope. Everything laced with way too many ground up cashews.

Sometimes ya gotta rough it with smoked salmon

 

[Pablo]

Sometimes ya gotta rough it with smoked salmon

I had some at a distillery that was awesome!

 

[4WD]

You want your beef cooked for 7 or 8 days?

 

[goblin]

Let's say that if you didn't pay attention to what you eat and would eat what is typically served to you without giving it a second thought, you'll live way longer in France than in the US. A bit puzzling, to be honest, to see "French food" and "Ultra processed" put together, in a sentence in English

The thing about French food is not that much about the individual parts of it (escargots or oysters - bleh), but how the individual parts of a meal are put together (or never put together). They have started caring about it, documenting it, studying it and certfifying it in the early 19th century. This is what makes it mostly famous. I personally, for a long time, thought it's a big load of bull secondary byproduct, till I actually looked into it. It's about what acid or whatever in food A will combine and react with what other thingamajinga is in food B. It started as empirical science, then science came to confirm it.

And for the individual parts - there's always something that would fit all palates, just have to find it.

As for baguettes and crepes - there's nothing that can beat these when compared to any of their "equivalents". It's just that, like with everything else, most good things need the bad things to be flushed first to be appreciated.

 

[wavinwayne]

In the town where I work (Huntsville, AL), we have a nice restaurant called The Bottle that serves French inspired Southern cuisine. It's very good, but $$$ pricey. I like everything I've ever had there.

 

[Pablo]

View attachment 293102

England = Overcooked meat but runny eggs

 

[SC Maintenance]

I have had French food in many places in far eastern France. It’s all been great. I know better than to order anything beef in Europe. Braised chicken in whatever wine sauce, quiche, pastries. All Yummy.