Believe it or not, I just got home from a date! Just in case that doesn’t make you turn green with envy, I’d like to add our dinner took us to a small French restaurant and my taste buds are now in satiated ecstasy.
The funny thing about our French cullinary experience is that everything on the menu freaked me out. They had a mushroom pasta that used the word “funghi” in it’s name and that was scary, Lizard ate a dish with wild boar. I had steak but it was covered in a crazy sauce… the butter was infused with lime and our after dinner dessert was a raspberry marshmallow!
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?! But even though the tastes were varied and slightly shocking the meal (and company!) was amazing!
In honor of my full and happy tummy, it’s time for a 10 Spot Ramble: French Food.
1. The French aren’t fat. Researchers are still trying to explain the ‘French paradox’ – low rate of chronic heart disease despite high saturated fat diet; some explanations include their consumption of red wine, the French style of eating and/or the saturated fats being mostly from dairy.
2. The French are cheesy. The French consume enough cheese to provide a little over 55 pounds of cheese per person, making them the largest cheese consumers in the world and capable of eating the cheese equivalent of my six-year-old.
3. The French are REALLY cheesy. There are more than 300 kinds of cheese made in France. That a lot of cheese – more cheese varieties, in fact, than persons in my high school graduating class!
4. Control the gaseous emissions. The belch is considered extremely rude. Don’t ever belch in front of any French as they prefer you to fart than belch.
5. Hidden winners! Around new year’s the French serve up a cake called “galette de Rois” made of puff pastry, flour, egg, rum and almond powder. A small plastic animal or little toy is hidden in each cake. When family members share the cake, whoever finds the little animal in his or her slice of cake is the lucky one.
6. Liquid courage. The French are happy to augment their courage with an ample supply of red wines. In fact, in 2004, France produced 56.6 millions hectoliters of wine. That’s a log of wine! French people are the second biggest consumers of alcohol per capita in the Western world – after Luxembourg.
7. Not found under your toenails. A key French ingredient is the truffle. Not to be confused as chocolate confections, the truffle is actually a type of an aromatic fungi. These fungi grow in the wild and the French use pigs and dogs to find them as these animals can smell them quite distinctly, they smell a little like sunflower seeds.
8. Old habits die hard. The animousity between the English and French may have been smoothed over during the World Wars, but the French still have a bit of a mean streak in them; The French people call the English people les rosbifs, meaning “the roast beefs”!
9. Friend to the slimy beings. In France, they eat snails (les escargots), frogs’ legs (les cuisses de grenouille) and horse meat (la viande de cheval). In fact, the traditional French Christmas menu consists of raw oysters, escargots, fois gras, smoked salmon, scallops and Champagne.When in France, if confronted with such meal options, I’d suggest swallowing whole. It’s safer that way.
10. Creepy crepes. France is the birthplace of crepes; almost at every street corner hosts small crepes kiosks serving salty (with cheese and ham) or sweet (with chocolate cream, marmalade or just a bit of sugar) crepes. So yummy!
There are my 10 simple French food facts. What more would you like to add?