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European holiday food shopping

52 replies

earplugged · 04/08/2018 16:58

I'm doing the first few days of cooking at a villa myself, my boyfriend and several of his friends are staying at in France next week. They're all major foodies (nice way of saying they are very snobby Grin) and so I'm wondering if I can ask what would you look for at French supermarkets, local markets etc. It's very hot there at the moment so I want to do fresh and delicious and local and ideally a bit sophisticated (and lots of wine obvs). I'm thinking fresh salads, charcuterie, local fresh breads, cheeses, will do a couple of BBQ's, make some sorbets...

What do you buy when abroad for delicious home cooked meals?

OP posts:
Mustd0somethings00n · 04/08/2018 22:30

Red wine, white wine, champagne and some nibbles !

LeMesmer · 04/08/2018 22:40

I’m a bit horrified OP that your ‘holiday’ will consist of so much time shopping and cooking for the ‘foodie’ friends, even if the work is all shared out. I live in the south of France, and whilst I understand that you want to eat some local food it is just too hot here just now to be in the kitchen for any length of time. We go to the beach, the pool, and spend as little time as possible cooking. We are now having a very nice bottle of wine, DH with a slice of ham and some cheese, me with a packet of crisps 😀. DS had a pot noodle and an ice cream (in the winter we eat more healthily). You might not want to go to that extreme but don’t waste your holiday shopping and cooking.

More practically if you do feel you have to cook. Things that are easy - confit de canard, just put in the oven, with sarlaidais potatoes from freezer section, seafood platter, very easy and always impressive, if you have a barbecue there are loads of ready made brochettes which are very nice, depending on where you are fish soup, courgettes, artichokes and peppers roasted with olive oil, steak is usually good here and takes a minute to cook, as you have said, charcuterie and cheese, fish (especially salmon) with fondent de poireaux, most supermarkets especially Monoprix have a selection of take away meals ( not pre packed ready made stuff - at the delicatessen counter).

Or you could just serve crisps.

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