French school meals

[AuxArmesCitoyens]

My kids went back this week (bog standard state primary, rural France). They were moaning about the canteen so I thought I'd check out the menu. Tomorrow they're having a melon starter, free range chicken tajine with raisins and organic couscous, a cheese course and apple and quince puree for dessert 🤯 sign me up please! Makes me feel better about giving them dippers for tea tonight, anyway.

My biggest complaint with French school dinners is that unless you have a Drs prescription, you can't take a packed lunch. So, no choice.

Autistics?! Fucking hell I'm glad I don't know anyone like you in real life.

My partner is French. The school lunches may be better in some cases, but that’s about it. My partner would never have wanted our children to be brought up in France. His siblings and a lot of his friends have also left France.

@7Worfs The first few times I went to lots of effort preparing lots of different things in the hope there would be at least something they'd try but it's only ever the plain jam sandwiches and crisps that get eaten, so disheartening!

DC are still quite little though, maybe I'll have more luck late primary/secondary!

I'll keep trying to fight the junk food culture, one carrot stick at a time 😂

@InvincibleInvisibility I'm curious now about where you currently are! Is it Reunion?

@BoohooWoohoo omg!!! Yes!!!! That is it. I am speechless you named it. Thank you so much.

in my head it is heaven in a bowl so I’m going to find somewhere to try it and then maybe leave it in a hot held oven for an hour to make it school authentic.

thank you!!!

Out of curiosity, why does he say this? My dh is French. We live in the uk and he has no issue albeit dd at 15 is very much entrenched in the British system.

@InvincibleInvisibility

My 15 yo dd would rather starve than eat some foods on that menu. I know you can go home for lunch in France though. Lamb and fish are a no. She has always been mega fussy. This started as a baby and I had to work very hard for her to eat a larger range of foods. Obviously missing the French gene, dh will eat pretty much anything… am not surprised with this sort of menu. As I said upthread, I did eat the canteen food from time to time at the school I was at for a year. I didn’t like some of it very much, very traditionally French at the time. It was about 30 years ago.

To be fair my daughters state primary school (England) has quite a decent menu. Today was
Roasted gammon with crushed new potatoes, broccoli cauliflower cheese and Yorkshire pudding followed by lemon biscuit with vanilla ice cream and seasonal fruits.
Yesterday was Asian stir fired noodles followed by chocolate and banana brownie and mixed berries.

When I was in primary in the uk it was processed pork, pasta, or boiled potatoes, tinned tomatoes followed by some weird cobbler with custard. Rancid it was.

I'm dutch. It's true that a lot of people see apple sauce as a vegetable and serve it a lot to kids.

I hate the taste and texture of apple sauce and fail to see how that sugary slush is healthy.

I hate the taste and texture of apple sauce and fail to see how that sugary slush is healthy.

Fair enough. Best not eat it then. I don't think I claimed it was healthy.
I quite liked it the way the family I stayed with cooked it. Very little sugar and not slushy - consistency more like a pureed vegetable than the apple sauce I'd make to go with pork. The family I stayed with were very proud of the apples as they got them from their own orchard and they were a variety that went pink when cooked.

What I didn't get was Vla and how it's definitely not custard. Imo, it definitely is.
Also, oliebollen (sorry if the spelling is wrong). My friend always used to tell me how special Dutch New Year is with examples like "We cook something special for dinner like a really good steak or something" or "We have fireworks!".
I'd counter with "Well, so do we".
Eventually, it boiled down to "We have oliebollen!".
So, doughnuts then.
A friend married a Dutch chap and she and I got round to talking about New Year. "Does he mention olibollen?" I asked. Barely got to the end of the sentence before she said "Oh, those bloody ollie-bollies! He's always on about them!".

Have to say, I really enjoyed the times I spent there and think the food is generally lovely, but maybe I was spoiled by the people I stayed with.

I had to check what olliebollen are.
Not doughnuts exactly, their equivalents are:
France/US - beignets
Eastern Europe - buhti/ostipci

So they are a big deal in that they are very tasty, but are eaten very often as Sunday breakfast, not specifically NYE, and considered quite common. 🤭

My Parisian neice and nephew still have apple puree every day and they are 9 and 11. My sister says everyone eats so much bread in France that they are always constipated and forever discussing their bowels. It's like a constant national conversation. Not sure if that's true!

Anyway - I can second the amazing school lunches! We could learn a lot from them in our UK schools.

I think often these meals can sound nicer than they actually are. My son was at boarding school for 18 months and the menus sounded amazing- son (who was not fussy) assured me they were edible but not great

Lol at the idea that French kids are all slim. They most definitely aren't. Neither are the adults.

I live in Switzerland and my kids (local state primary) get a 3-course locally sourced organic lunch every day!