food, food, food

Best food in the world ?

I think not. Wake up France, I think you've lost the plot. 

Don't take my word for it, look at what the Roux family (Michelin star chefs who have restaurants in England) think. Quality downhill, and ruddy expensive.

It's no coincidence that I have three friends that own restaurants here, La Belvedere, La Truffiere and Le Perigourdine. I love my food, I'm not a vegan nor am I a vegetarian, so the world is my oyster so to speak, having said that, the last and only time I eat an oyster, I was violently ill from both ends at about 3 o'clock in the morning of Christmas day, nuff said, don't think I'll bother again. The French eat their Christmas dinner on Christmas eve, "En Famille" and part of that ritual are the oysters, brought to the table in a polystyrene boat. We had been invited to a very good friends to share their Christmas dinner, my mate, as it turned out, was as sick as a parrot as well. I suppose the collective need for the whole of France to be able to eat oysters on this special day, necessitates some sellers to look far and wide to obtain these horrors and then they sell them to the unsuspecting public.

I don't like fast food outlets. Would you believe that some people actually believe that "McDoofas" is a restaurant ? 

When I was a kid, we eat seasonally, and we still do. Luckily, we have a garden and try and grow our own fruit and veg. Those things we cannot grow or have all been eaten by the mini beasts we usually find at the village market every Tuesday. There we can find people not unlike ourselves who perhaps have a surfeit of veg, sitting behind a small table with a few eggs, and twenty two courgettes. In season we can find everything we need, and that's how we eat. There is a cheese man, and a meat man (he can tell me which farm his meat comes from). I do not touch, with a barge pole, meat which has been intensively reared. The quality, if you shop like this, is generally very good, BUT bloody expensive here. So, we generally eat less, but better.

I think that the reason that fast food restaurants exist here in France is because they are generally open. The same thing cannot be said for the majority of other eateries. There are some that open only at midday, others, only in the evening and some both midday and evening, hardly none open all day. The knack is knowing which is which before before you arrive. An ability to look into the future wouldn't go amiss here. Midday is 12 till 2, that is finish your meal by 2 o'clock, evening is usually from 7 pm but most French arrive about 8 pm, the only people eating at 7 pm are the English and Dutch. There are exceptions of course, perhaps in the big cities, but I hardly ever go there. Cost wise, in this area midday meals range from about 10 to 15 euro, evening, a lot more, the sky's the limit. The Michelin restaurant in our village start their main course at around 80 euro. Wow, never been there, don't think I'll bother !!!

Went to my friends' restaurant the other day, I will tell you what we had, we sat with the workers for whom the restaurant opens at midday only, everyone eats the same "menu ouvrier" there is no choice in these kind of establishments. 

Soup. (garlic soup) as much as you want.

First course. chicken gizzards on a bed of fresh lettuce, with mushroom sauce. 

Main course. Roast pork AND beef, saute`potatoes and green beans.

Cheese board, a choice of about six different.

Choice of puddings.

Carafe of wine, bread basket refilled when needed.

Coffee. 

Cost ...............14 euro.  Not bad at all, it's no wonder that there isn't that much work done during the afternoons. Having said that, the French do generally take 2 hrs lunch break, gives them time to sleep it off I guess. Civilized isn't it ?

Just goes to show, there are exceptions to the norm, you just have to search them out.