As French, I always wondered what could be the favorite french dish of foreign people discovering France.
For myself, I particularly love the "Blanquette de veau" (what is really my speciality!).
But I like also "crèpes bretonnes" (britany pancakes), "boeuf bourgignon", "tartiflette" (a Savoyard dish made with potatoes and melted cheese), "mousse au chocolat"... and so many other !
I couldn't say myself what the national french dish, there is so many...
What about you ?
What french dish represent France for you ?
[title spelling corrected for searchability]
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Colleen,
Posts: 15 | Location: Provence, France | Registered: 17 November 2008
If I must choose one representative French dish, it would be gigot pré-salé.
(My hubby poo said: what? Not aiguillettes de canard and pommes salardaises? But this game can go on all night and we will dig up more and more dishes…)
But in general I like carré d'agneau done the French way. (I also like it done the northern Chinese -- Mongol - -way, .)
C'est tout bête. I prefer the fries in France. They are crisp and non-soggy-oily outside, and they taste nice and potato-y inside. Even crappy roadside eateries take their fries seriously.
I am downright "chauvine" about French oysters, either from Brittany or from l'Etang de Thau.
Tomatoes have a strange fate in France. For years they were sooooo tasty. If they were called tomatoes, then what should one call the identical big red perfect-looking but insipid things in the States? However in the last year and a half it seems, tomatoes here too have been off. What's going on?
My fave cheese, hands down, is roquefort papillon.
Sundreen, I also like a blanquette de veau, but more for psychological reasons. It is excellent creature comfort served on red chequered tablecloth, to share with laughing boisterous friends on a cold night.
I'm very happy you like one of the "Burgundian specialities" but I can't help myself from correcting the word which is BourgUignon. You wouldn't say it the right way (like bougie and boogie) Bon appétit!
Americana, judging from my vegetable garden, I'd say I know why the tomatoes are not so good these days. Lousy, damp, chilly weather. Even in the height of tomato season, they weren't good. So what can you expect in the off season?
Blanquette is one of my favorites too. And coq au vin.
My fave would be seared foie gras with anything sweet on the side (fig, cooked apples, sauternes/orange jam, yada, yada). Confit de canard would come in at a very close second.
I think it's impossible to choose one favourite dish - it depends so much (for me, anyway) on where you are, what the weather is like, etc etc... But I've just returned home yesterday from a week in the Savoie alps, just south of Mont Blanc. Up there, in the clean air, sub-zero (centigrade!) temperatures, and after an energetic day's cross-country skiing, those rich, cheesey, hammy/bacony, potato dishes such as tartiflette and raclette really hit the spot
Oh, and a new one on me: croziflette. Just like tartiflette, but with little buckwheat pasta squares instead of the potato.
Jonathan
Posts: 3394 | Location: Stroud, UK | Registered: 18 November 2001
Yes, you're right, there is too many different dishes to choise one !
When I went in USA, (few years ago, then I was I younger cooker !) I used to cook for my friends a simple recipe but it was always succesfull. It was veal cutlet with fresh cream and mushrooms, noodles and floating islands.
I have translated the recipe of veal cutlet (wich can be done with chicken or other poultry meat).
It's a very simple recipe. I found it and I'll post it soon...
And bon appétit alors !
Posts: 15 | Location: Provence, France | Registered: 17 November 2008
I love magret de canard, either simply grilled (a point) or with some sort of a sauce. This isn't something I eat at home, and if I see it on a menu in France, I'm likely to order it.
A close second is daube de boeuf, definitely a hearty dish.
In warmer weather-- salade nicoise (sans les oeufs).
For dessert... I'm not big on chocolate, but I do like mousse au chocolat (with chantilly) and also creme brulee.
My current love is a warm lentil salad from the Auvergne that I ate in Paris and then ran home to recreate while still fresh in my mind. The result I call "La Bomba" for its nuclear mustard qualities. When in Paris I eat a lot of steak tartare. When in Provence mussels fear my approach.
I have thought and thought, because there is so much wonderful food and specific dishes to choose from, but I must profess that it is any dish with a good amount of wild mushrooms. Perhaps second would be venison dishes, particularly those from Alsace and the other alpine regions.
As always, I am amused to consider what my Alsatian ancestors would think to know that their distant relatives keep up their "old world" traditions hundreds of years of later in the "new world". I grew up picking morels in the Pacific Northwest and enjoying hearty venison dishes from my family's hunts.
I like a lot of French dishes - but the most elusive one at present is "Supreme de pintadreau aux olives noires". So far I have been unable to make it here in the Great White North because I've been unable to locate a source for the main ingredient - a young guinea fowl.
Since I am freezing here in Virginia tonight, I'm thinking choucroute. Oh, and cassoulet - I don't think anyone has mentioned that yet.
I love rillettes of any kind.
Foie gras.
I do have a pet peeve when it comes to French food. It's the people who say they don't like it or don't eat it because it's too "heavy" or "rich" or has too many "sauces." Sorry, it just bugs me. The rougets I had in Bayeux were none of the above! I mean, look at them! Does that look heavy? You can't just generalize an entire country's cuisine!
OK, end of rant.
Now I want a crèpe with jambon et fromage.
Posts: 54 | Location: Central Virginia, next big trip to Quebec in the Fall | Registered: 30 October 2008
One dish that I had in Paris years ago greatly inspired me so that I tried it at home the next year on my birthday. I do not eat beef regularly - roast beef, steak do not represent a celebration to me.
However, in a restaurant in the Marais called ChauteauBrian(d?) I am not sure if it was a play on the word, my memory was that it did not actually say Chateaubriand but maybe someone in the know would respond!
Anyhow my first ever real dinner in a Paris restaurant was something called (excuse my spelling) Boucheron avec Roquefort...I am paraphraising...badly. I think Boucheron meant Butcher's Cut..not sure but the Roquefort sauce was absolutely divine and not acrid at all and I have been trying off and on over the years to duplicate it...it always ends up with lots of cream and cheese...so it's never actually WRONG!
Well, it seems that the first meal is usually a ..Croque .. at the cafe just down the street... from the apartment in Paris...from then on...Mussels, and just about anything .. duck breast, just about anything...(even french fries at McDonalds seem better than "here", even if I do have to pay for the ketchup packets)
Daniel and Priscilla in Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 682 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 25 July 2001
It is so hard to be specific there. French cuisine is one of my favorites, but last summer I had a poulet a la provencale in Cassis, simply the best roasted chicken in my life.
Other classics: Confit de canad with aligot, or magret. Carre d'agneau mmmm! Foie gras Truffes escargot a l'ail cheese: bleu, camembert, brie, salt crepes:galette farcie dessert: creme brulee,
.)
(like bougie and boogie)
