Eating out in France
This time, getting to know the French restos started with a little deception disappointment. The first restaurant we dropped in somewhere in a provincial town served us a meat dish (for 10€ - not the cheapest one) and a an enormous plate of salad, but both contained more lettuce than anything else. Neither of us is a cow to enjoy eating so much “grass”. Besides, you have a very unpleasant feeling to be cheated like this. I think it was the first time when I found out that all French restaurants are not excellent. Fortunately, it is not my first travel here, and it was far from being the only experience. What strange conclusions can we make sometimes at the first sight! ;)
Another surprise was to discover sandwiches. French sandwiches have nothing to do with the hamburgers, and those which we have eaten proved to be simple, tasty and quite wholesome food! Fresh bread (the delicious French baguettes), some cheese, chicken, sausage, fish or ham: I don't know how it can possibly do harm to one's health. No ketchup is imposed: the salesmen normally ask which sauce you prefer, or you may refuse it. If you add to it a fruit shake, absolutely delicious and natural at 100% (but not sold too often), you have just a very nice snack.
As for McDonald's... I was happy to see how my daughter changed her mind about it :) You maybe know that children - both Russian and French - love it dearly, and I guess mostly because of... little toys that are put in the bags of “Happy Meals”. But spoiling the stomach because of a small Chinese toy... There are many McDonald's in France, everywhere. Seeing one on the board of the avenue, she always started to cry out: “Let's go there! Please, please!” Oh hell, coming to France to eat there... Well, we did it twice. But some time later, we found another chain of restaurants, even two: “Hippopotamus” and “Buffalo Grill”. There too, she received little presents, but! What a difference of food! What quality! What a choice of everything! And the meat? It is the slogan of their company: “Pour l'amour de la viande” - “For the love of meat”. Yeah, they do know how to prepare it!
Aaaah, what feast, the joy of the abdomen, the French cuisine! To put it in short: towards the end of our sojourn, her idea about the best place to dine at became the “Hippopotamus”. I asked her, slyly: “And McDonald's ?” - “No more, thanks a lot!”
Ufff! At last, she arrived at the conclusion that I had had long before my first trip to France ;) Yet... French children do love les Mc'Dos. Why...
I guess, the reason is the difference in prices. Sure: a meal in a “Hippopotamus” will be more than twice more expensive than that in McDonald's. That is the only possible explanation, to my mind.
It is the French fries that unite all restaurants. All, without exception. But: in a good one, you will be proposed, for example, baked potatoes instead. In some others, no. It is often taken as natural that you possibly can't wish any other garnish. On the menu, they may mention only a meat or fish dish, but don't grumble if it will be accompanied with French fries. You should be simply prepared to it. :-/
As for specialties, I remember especially those of Lyon and Marseilles: in the first, les grattons that you can easily prepare at home, if you wish (which I doubt strong): collect the fat of roast pork (the firm parts), let it cool down.... and serve with wine. A very strange thing. Not really disgusting, but... I've never known that it may be served as a dish in a restaurant! And it must be extremely harmful, I guess.
In Marseilles, it was la bouillabaisse which we ordered in the evening of our stay there. A fish soup, to drop out a detailed description, but a very special one. My personal note (as well as that of Antonio): middling. But on the following day, Antonio's friends explained to us that a good bouillabaisse was very expensive. And like any fish dish, it may be bad - but then, very unsavory; otherwise, excellent: all depends on the fish.
To finish with it, I cannot avoid mentioning again the croissants and all the viennoiseries. This was the first thing to eat I had been missing between all my travels to France! What nice paste imbibed with fresh butter, mmm... You should have seen my child eat them the first days - I was merely afraid that she would bite at her fingers :)) Still, it is not what is advised to eat every day - the croissants from the bakeries - they are far from being cheap. In supermarkets, they are sold at more democratic prices, but there, they are poorer in quality.
PS: I've found a “Hippopotamus” in Moscow, yessss! But it seems to be the only one... And its placement is far from being advantageous :(
Another surprise was to discover sandwiches. French sandwiches have nothing to do with the hamburgers, and those which we have eaten proved to be simple, tasty and quite wholesome food! Fresh bread (the delicious French baguettes), some cheese, chicken, sausage, fish or ham: I don't know how it can possibly do harm to one's health. No ketchup is imposed: the salesmen normally ask which sauce you prefer, or you may refuse it. If you add to it a fruit shake, absolutely delicious and natural at 100% (but not sold too often), you have just a very nice snack.
As for McDonald's... I was happy to see how my daughter changed her mind about it :) You maybe know that children - both Russian and French - love it dearly, and I guess mostly because of... little toys that are put in the bags of “Happy Meals”. But spoiling the stomach because of a small Chinese toy... There are many McDonald's in France, everywhere. Seeing one on the board of the avenue, she always started to cry out: “Let's go there! Please, please!” Oh hell, coming to France to eat there... Well, we did it twice. But some time later, we found another chain of restaurants, even two: “Hippopotamus” and “Buffalo Grill”. There too, she received little presents, but! What a difference of food! What quality! What a choice of everything! And the meat? It is the slogan of their company: “Pour l'amour de la viande” - “For the love of meat”. Yeah, they do know how to prepare it!
Aaaah, what feast, the joy of the abdomen, the French cuisine! To put it in short: towards the end of our sojourn, her idea about the best place to dine at became the “Hippopotamus”. I asked her, slyly: “And McDonald's ?” - “No more, thanks a lot!”
Ufff! At last, she arrived at the conclusion that I had had long before my first trip to France ;) Yet... French children do love les Mc'Dos. Why...
I guess, the reason is the difference in prices. Sure: a meal in a “Hippopotamus” will be more than twice more expensive than that in McDonald's. That is the only possible explanation, to my mind.
It is the French fries that unite all restaurants. All, without exception. But: in a good one, you will be proposed, for example, baked potatoes instead. In some others, no. It is often taken as natural that you possibly can't wish any other garnish. On the menu, they may mention only a meat or fish dish, but don't grumble if it will be accompanied with French fries. You should be simply prepared to it. :-/
As for specialties, I remember especially those of Lyon and Marseilles: in the first, les grattons that you can easily prepare at home, if you wish (which I doubt strong): collect the fat of roast pork (the firm parts), let it cool down.... and serve with wine. A very strange thing. Not really disgusting, but... I've never known that it may be served as a dish in a restaurant! And it must be extremely harmful, I guess.
In Marseilles, it was la bouillabaisse which we ordered in the evening of our stay there. A fish soup, to drop out a detailed description, but a very special one. My personal note (as well as that of Antonio): middling. But on the following day, Antonio's friends explained to us that a good bouillabaisse was very expensive. And like any fish dish, it may be bad - but then, very unsavory; otherwise, excellent: all depends on the fish.
To finish with it, I cannot avoid mentioning again the croissants and all the viennoiseries. This was the first thing to eat I had been missing between all my travels to France! What nice paste imbibed with fresh butter, mmm... You should have seen my child eat them the first days - I was merely afraid that she would bite at her fingers :)) Still, it is not what is advised to eat every day - the croissants from the bakeries - they are far from being cheap. In supermarkets, they are sold at more democratic prices, but there, they are poorer in quality.
PS: I've found a “Hippopotamus” in Moscow, yessss! But it seems to be the only one... And its placement is far from being advantageous :(