to think that the French can't cook?

[Idratherbemuckingout]

I base this on experience, as I live in France. Okay, they have lovely restaurants, but the general public CANNOT cook.
My friend Dominique has just told my husband that she has bought a turkey for her family. She is going to boil it. He explained how the english cook theirs, but she thought it sounded too complicated.
Hmmm.
In the supermarkets you can of course buy fresh food, but having stood behind french people at the till countless times and seen their mountains of ready prepared meals, I doubt that many of them actually BUY the fresh food. Or if they do, that they cook anything interesting out of it.
I have a friend called Isabelle who is quite mad. We asked her once if she liked spicy food, thinking to cook her a curry. She declared that she did, but that she would bring us her signature dish. Chocolate Chicken. Yes, I kid you not, it was like chicken in chocolate sauce and it was NOT very spicy.
She also once asked us if we liked eating snails, and foolishly we said yes. "Ah," she said, "I 'ave a secret recipe zat I will cook for you. I shall collect snails in my garden (!!!!) and put zem in my snail 'otel and feed them special food and zen we will eat them together."
Well, the first year they died (silent sighs of relief) but the second year she did it again, and we were duly invited to her house. The kids refused point blank to go. DH tried to but I made him come with me. She had cooked us 200 snails. TBH they tasted much like all the other snails I have eaten - snaily. Not enough garlic in my opinion. That wouldn't have been so bad, but she followed it up with duck with apricots (very rich too) and then American Peach Pie. We had indigestion for days.
ANd they can't make coffee either. Never have I been to a french house and had a decent cup of coffee, or tea either if it comes to that.
They don't seem to possess kettles you see, so they heat the water in the microwave, to not boiling point. Then they give you the cup of hot water and a sachet (I kid you not) of instant coffee to stir into it, or a teabag to dunk.
My DS was at the local primary school and after the Christmas (not) spectacular, we stayed for the buffet meal. Poo Sausage was the highlight. You know you are mixing with peasants when the offal is high on the menu.
Poo Sausage (my DH called it that)is actually called Andouille, and is a bit like chitterlings, should any of you know what those are - ie made of some horrible bit of the insides of an animal.

I could go on, but I won't or this is going to look like an essay.

... but only in France could I have eaten a fresh-from-the-oven-hot, buttery, individual galette des rois for lunch from my local bakery that was utterly, divinely delicious

I haven't been to a Waitrose in years and I do flying visits to the others to stock up on baked beans, Marmite etc. The only difference I've noticed is that there seem to be more foods with characters on the packaging and that the cereal and crisp aisles have more choice.

What do you get in British supermarkets to help dual working parent families that you don't get in French supermarkets?

Ooooh Bonsoir I just had some galette des rois myself

I honestly feel like I'm in some alternate universe reading this thread. I must have accidentally landed in the one part of France where people can cook, the restaurants are good, and the supermarkets are large and well-stocked!

FWIW the large LeClerc and Auchan in our neck of the woods are far better than any of the Tescos or Sainsburys I used in London.

Have just come back from Christmas in France. Some excellent food, but God, they do like their boiled vegetables, don't they? Couldn't get away with them in the UK any more.

Have to laugh at the complaints about tea, though. British tea is only liked by people who have grown up with it and had no choice. I am totally in accord with the vast majority of the world's population who are baffled and repelled by it.

I don't get the obsession with Waitrose. The co-op is far far better in every way. Especially for English apples, lovely cakes, and cheeses.

The best food I have ever eaten was Italian; tiny bowls of pasta with fresh sardines, melt in the mouth venison, tomatoes with layers of flavour, little lemony biscuits.
I don't know about the French knowing how to cook or not but they have nothing on the Italians.

mooncupI live in Switzerland and have many friends and colleagues asking for proper English black tea when I come hom. Same for my German friends and workmates.

I think they are marketed with Twinnings teas which to me don't taste flavoursome enough, when I shared my Yorkshire tea and Taylors of Harrogate they love it. Infact it's difficult to guage whether one mum from my ds school comes to see me or just for the tea

In one of our local shops there is a 'Tea' section and an 'English tea' section

Actually I have just remembered something nasty I've had here -- thyme tea. My MIL always wants me to have some when I'm sick. It is so, so disgusting, it is literally just like thyme-flavoured hot water. Blech.

But otherwise I really like a lot of the herbal teas here.

On tea, what about Mariages Freres? My dh is a teadrinker and he adores their teas. And I too loathe English tea - it's so WEAK.

I am devoted to Clipper everyday tea now. Nothing else will do. I take bags of it with me wherever I go.

Mariage Frères teas are heaven, but super expensive so only for moderate consumption. I am working my way through a canister of Mariage Frères Noël tea right now... delicious!

I have been to France (various regions) 30+ times and have lived and worked there for short periods. I'm veggie though so have eaten many many omlettes and chips . I have to say I think the food improves the further south you go and although i hate to admit it, by the higher percentage of british/american/other non nationals people there are living in a particular area.

Where we go on holiday (south west near La Rochelle) it's very fishy but I've had some lovely, if simple meals there, mozarella and tomato salad, tarte paysanne etc. Normandy was grim, plain pasta with ready grated processed cheese in a bowl by the side, horrible.

I also hate intermarche and eleclerc, isles and isles of biscuits and other salty, processed, artificial crap and awful clothes and toiletries. Found the same in Spanish supermarkets and restaurants really really processed. I found Italy to be the best food experience wise. We stay in a gite in France and do most of the cooking ourselves, try to buy from local markets. I also find the rigidity of times re eating in the French countryside v irritating, getting the cold shoulder in restaurants if you sit down and 2 to eat, which is one of the reasons why although I love it for a holiday destination I'd never live there

I've had some amazing meals here and at the restaurant in Calanque Sormiou. And, future MIL and future GMILs are amazing, amazing cooks. MIL makes cake for breakfast - FOR BREAKFAST. It really is a wonder.

And the cheese in French supermarkets is much better than anything you get in the UK, even the President Brie.

You need to come home OP. It sounds like you've been traumatised by the snails.

Yes, Bonsoir, agree about the luxury price, but worth it for occasional treats. Perhaps though this might be symptomatic? I mean, pay peanuts, get monkeys... if people aren't willing to pay for a good meal they are likely to get a poor one, and the same is true in London and New York.

I just had to post an update after going shopping on Monday. I really wished I'd had a camera.
We were in a supermarket, buying a big bag of dog mixer only.
We found it right by the till, and found ourselves behind a singularly well dressed gentleman, very dapper in long dark wool coat, floppy fringe (can't have been a Breton, too good looking!).
We had the chance to peruse his shopping. He had picked up the same 10kg bag of dog food as us.
We overheard him ask for NINE more bags of dog food. Now, we have nine dogs, and one bag is enough for us. I was itching to ask him how many dogs he had, but I refrained.
Then I noticed the rest of the trolley.
He had a crate, yes, a crate, of large tins of cassoulet. Ready prepared stew.
He had about four large nets of potatoes, and various other bits and pieces.
My DH thought he might be a restauranteur.
If it was for his own consumption, it seemed a bit ott.
But what on earth was he going to do with 100kg of dog mixer biscuits?
I so wanted to ask him, but manners kept my mouth shut, sadly.
I sorely wished I'd had my camera.

OP, I agree about the food in France not being great. That would be fine, if they didn't have this attitude about French food being the best.

I am not British, but I do think food in UK is superior to French food, on average. Plus as someone else mentioned, there is just so much variety and cusines which are served in an authentic manner.

What irritates me most about the French, is their pride in not being able to eat spicy food. To the French - FFS, you are not children and perhaps you should stop coating your mouth with butter and heavy sauces so you can cleanse your palate for more adult tastes and eat a proper Thai green curry and vindaloo.

There! I am sure I have offended with my generalisations but it feels so good to get it out

I don't know whether to agree with you or not, but its a great reaction to the book "French Children Don't Throw Food" - made me cross did that, and I've not even read it. The retort can now be, French Children Don't Throw Food because French Food is shit.

You know you are mixing with peasants when the offal is high on the menu

The polite term is "regional specialities" :o

YANBU in that DS2 went on an exchange trip to France and was very disappointed to be given pasta and sauce every night.

YABU in that even the rudest French cafe serves marvellous food and their supermarkets are filled with nicer things than British ones.

IMO therefore some French can't cook, but more can and appreciate good food than in the UK.