Novocastrian

My favourite pizza is the one with two sunny side up fried eggs staring you in the face. It was called Pizza Sophia Loren. I kid you not. (But this was in Germany not France. Who said Teutonic humour was dead?)

Ewood

I want one! Now!

G-J-B

The rats in the subways aren't bad pickings either.

val50

we really have to get you out of Paris

Le Chant

....or the rats out!

Ewood

Which would be easier? Let me think...

Lorna at Vicenza

I have had some not so nice meals in France. The place where I was dumped by my ex-boss seemed to think that every piece of meat or fish had to be covered in a thick and gooey sauce.

I also started asking for my salads without dressing as even though I like vinegar I couldn't swallow food that had so much of it.

Ka Ora!

Stops them rotting after they Die.

Ewood

Sauces heavily laced with Embalming Fluid perhaps

Andrea50

Ah, the good old days of Pickled Salad Leaves

Ka ora, at least now we know why you had to do the chainsaw course - for cuttin up the meat! Doing a "slice and dice" on a pizza with one of course, is alright till you encounter that Mediterranean Terror - yes, The Olive. You try cutting them up with a chainsaw - tres difficile m8, that's what it is.

Now, as to cuisine (yep, had to look that word up in the dictionary), well, again, I agree with Ka Ora on most of what he said - we had some good stuff and some rather dire stuff but it's no different here - my OH has eaten in some of the best places in England, the Ritz (which I thought was a cracker with cheese), the Savoy (again, thought that was a cabbage of some sort) and even that Gorgon Ramsey place in London. And he reckons it's all over rated and mostly about image and being able to say you've been there when you invite Flash People to Dinner and the fastest way known to man (save for spending on toxic women) to make a gargantuan dent in one's credit card.

The meat thing will always be an issue for me personally, as I can't stand it with veins, gristle, lumps of fat, so undercooked it climbs off the plate, or unidentifiable with tentacles.

Fish, again, Ka is correct, as the French seem to pride themselves on wonderful fish but to me it was always overdone, again, they probably saw a Brit walk in and decided to cremate it to stop us sending it back as Alive Alive-O, and frankly if something on my plate winks at me it's a tad off-putting so I think we largely get what we deserve maybe.

There was one place in the Rue Gambetta in Cahors - a bread shop - open fronted, so the wondrous smell permeated the whole street and really seduced you into buying something even if you weren't hungry. Was totally fab and they did cakes to make Jo Brand salivate and also pizza slices that were Heaven In A Box and some little pastry twisted things with cheese and olives and mashed up asparagus that we used to get 10 of and live on for a while.

The local markets where we were in Lot were ok, but some of the veg had seen better days and I was very put off by crates of little lambs and pretty geese which I thought were there to "lend the place a tone" and were for sale to be killed and eaten. Also, there was a little boy with a crate of tortoises and my wretched ex went up to him and picked one up and stroked it and said "pour manger?" and the poor kid went screaming up the street in Prayssac and we legged it to the cafe to hide before the Gendarmes came.

Largely, methinks you have to "try before you buy" as in have a coffee and a glass of wine and if THAT's good, we generally found the food was good.

And a restaurant at the top of the street in Cahors called Le Bordeaux with a waiter like Lurch from the Adams Family who saw us coming and used to shout "Aha, les cremates" across the whole place, because we always asked for our meat to be "tres sans sang".

All in all though, I preferred it over there as at least you could afford to go out and be disappointed - here, one just dreams about it due to the expense.

Generally our rule of thumb was we stocked up on basics from Lidl and Netto, went to Carrefour for chicken and Sauternes, and bulk bought in Auchan in Montauban for the rest of it, save for filling hand luggage with gravy powder, custard powder and bacon.

Happy Chainsaw-weilding Friday to all.

Ka Ora!

I like my meat to be on the rarer side, When cooked in the correct manner and most importantly cut up in the right Fashion it will melt in your mouth. The human body evolved with uncooked meat the digestive system is suited to it in moderation. Instead of scaring people about so called dangers of undercooked MEAT what they should do is enforce better meat management.

Andrea you mentioned Coffee I forgot to mention that the Coffee in France is probably the worst I have sampled in the world. My biggest pet hate here with coffee is not warming expresso cups up prior to making them, When expresso gets cold it starts to lose it most enjoyable flavors and the same to be said for doubles or large coffees with milk these deep based cups which are usually quite thick pottery have a tendency to make the coffee luke warm before it hits the table (French law dictates that it you get a cold coffee they have to change it). Someone should teach them about the settings on the expresso machines nothing worse than a coffee that has hard scolding water passed through it and you can taste an overwhelming bitterness even with six sugars. Adjust the god dam temperature.

The reasoning behind Frances Lack of ability was due to it's choice on countries that it colonized Cameroon which produces the Robusta Bean being were it got it's coffee from and was far poorer than the Arabica Bean which the Italians used. Italy was not tied to any coffee producing countries and picked the best and those who choose to habit in France suffer to this day on a poor choice of coffee made from the Robusta Beans they are still prone to mixing the beans.

If your ever this way one thing I do recommend you try is the Bread Pudding made with Croissants. That is nice and better than standard Bread and Butter pudding.

Nicest coffee I have ever had was in a Coffee house called Penny Lane in Boulder Colorado, pity its closed down.

Andrea50

Now there's me thinking it's SO gourmet in Paris, you'd catch them rats and serve em as Rat au Vin (or as Baldrick puts it, Rat au Van, as in run over by a van).

As for coffee Ka Ora, well I have to say I have heard many a time the saying "When all else fails lower yer standards" and have lowered mine to the Stygian Pits to manage on very meagre income BUT I have never compromised my coffee. If I was on a desert island and could have three things, one would be Kenco coffee, one would be the cafeteaire and the other two would be half fat cream and sweetners (lots of em). (and yes I know that's four but I never could do Math so what the heck). We knew "something was up" coffee-wise when we saw them serving it to folk complete with a free glass of water.

As for you, Mr Macho Chainsaw weilding, bear-wrestling, armed to the teeth Pyrenees-living species that you are, I am only surprised not to read you like gunpowder in it!!!

Cleri

Can you stop canoodling with my man here please

Ka Ora!

I use my Gunpowder quoter on better things.

Andrea50

Yep, Ka, I reserve mine for blowing up the neighbour's cat as well ......

Cleri, he's all yours sweets, but I'll make you a deal. You have him, I'll get the chainsaw, kango, gunpowder quota and any weaponry .........