Southern Fried French

How the French Really Eat: An Interview with Five Lyon Ladies

PHOTO:  We're off to Lyon to delve into the French daily diet.

You just haven’t lived until five French femmes make a meal just for you.

Here’s how it came to pass:  Our châtelaine Nicole has, for 20 odd years, been teaching English to a group of chic, well-traveled women who live in Lyon, where Nicole worked before she retired.  They now are great friends, and in addition to meeting weekly for language class and to catch up with each others lives, they travel together frequently.  I call them the Lyon Ladies.  Once a year they come to the château as a group for a potluck, and I never miss it because the food is divine and the ladies delightful.   

I asked Nicole if the Lyon Ladies might help me with a post on how the French eating habits.  Clever of me, n’est pas?  They promptly invited me to one of their weekly sessions in Lyon, and they would fix a lunch, all soup and salads with light ingredients.  

I arrived with an appetite, and lots of questions.   

Meet our cast of characters:  Nicole of course, and Catherine, a cute redhead; the elegant Eliane; Monique, with a twinkle in her eye; Gisèle, who hosted us at her lovely Lyon home; and one male interloper, Gisèle’s charming husband Bernard, who stuck around, I suspect, because of lunch.  Before we ate, we chatted about the French diet over champagne in Giselle’s living room.  Photo, left to right: Monique, Gisèle, me, Eliane, Nicole, Catherine.

Now it should be said that none of the Lyon Ladies, -- all, like me, of a certain age-- can truly be called thin.  Like most women over 50, they’ve put on a few pounds over the years.  But none are obese, either, obesity being a rarity in France. 

Q:  It seems that Americans are getting heavier by the day.  Obesity is a huge problem.  What about the French?

“Sadly, the French were slowly getting fatter too”, they admitted.  Creeping Americanism?  It’s the usual dilemma, they explained:  more women are working, time is short, there’s less real cooking going on, and more reliance on prepared foods.  They’re quite concerned about the problem.  Still, obesity is not nearly the problem it is in the states. 

Q:  So, why are the French thinner than Americans?

The ladies spoke almost in unison. “We don’t snack.  Ever!  We eat 3 real meals a day”.  Eliane said, “We NEVER drink sodas.”   They all shook their heads in distaste.  “We drink WATER.”  “Or champagne!”  Added Catherine.

Ten of them travel abroad together every year.  “You must understand", said Gisèle, “We all travel together, and even on a trip, we do not snack!” 

If you eat a big, serious meal, at lunch for example, what’s your other meal like--what would you then have for dinner? 

“Soup in winter, salad in summer” was the general response.  “If the meal was  really big, we eat just a yogurt or some fruit."  Over and over I heard, “We don’t NEED to eat, after a big meal!”   Monique says she eats very little in the evening anyway---maybe a piece of fruit.  Nicole said, “We eat nothing in the evening after a big lunch.”

What about breakfast? 

This question got them really animated, which surprised me, because breakfast seems such a non-event in France (you never ‘go out for breakfast’ here) that I‘ve always seen it as an afterthought.   

Eliane was adamant.  “It’s the most important meal of the day!"  There were strong nods of agreement.  Monique added, “ You must take your time, to start your day right.  At least 30 minutes."  “Oh, at least!”, they all agreed.  Even if you have a career, a family?  “Oh yes, so important.  It’s good to begin the day well.” 

What do you eat for breakfast?   

‘We start with tea or coffee,” they told me.  “A tartine (a split baguette, with butter or jam) and fruit, or a container of yogurt."  

One exception:  “On  our trips”, Catherine said, “some days we will indulge and have an 'English breakfast' (bacon, eggs , the works).  But if we do, we’ll just have fruit for lunch."   It’s all, it seems,  about balance.

Do you diet?   

“Well yes, sometimes”, they said with a shrug.  “You put on a little weight with age” said Monique.  “C’est normal."   

If you go en regime to lost weight, do you go on any sort of special diet? 

“No’s” all around.  “We eat everything, but less.”

And so we had our light lunch, and everyone brought something.  We started with Gisèle’s lovely shrimp soup, Nicole’s yummy pumpkin soup and Eliane’s soup made from zucchini and radish leaves (delicious!).  Then on to endive salads, one with ham and one with Roquefort.  There were Catherine’s beautiful tomatoes stuffed with tuna salad.  It sort of went downhill at dessert time; there was a fresh fruit salad, and pineapple, but I, playing the American spoiler, showed up with a couple of tarts (but hey, they were fruit tarts!).    

Here is Gisèle’s recipe for Soupe de Crevettes, a French recipe that any southerner would especially love.  And mille mercis to the Ladies of Lyon.

 

RECIPE:  Gisèle’s Soup de Crevettes (shrimp bisque) 

Serves 2 as a light meal, 4  as a starter

• 2/3 lb. (300 grams) cooked shrimp  
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• olive oil
• 4 cups (1 liter) water
• 3 or 4 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 3 or 4 tablespoons of light cream
• salt, pepper, and saffron

• bread cubes
• butter
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• parmesan cheese, grated

Peel the shrimp and chop, putting shells, and heads if you have them, aside for the broth.  Sauté the onion in olive oil for about 5 minutes.  Add the shrimp shells  the water, the tomato paste, and salt and pepper.  Simmer about 12 minutes. Now you do something really different: you put this whole mixture, shells and all, into a food processor and blend it well, then you pass it through a chinois.  Discard solids and return liquid to processor along with the peeled shrimp. Pulse mixture with a pinch of saffron and the cream until smooth.  Return to pot and reheat without letting it boil.  Sauteé bread cubes in garlic  and butter until crisp, and serve the croutons and grated parmesan cheese alongside the soup to add as you go. (NOTE: in France, they sell shrimp pre-cooked.  Raw is better; simmer them 3-4 minutes in the 4 cups of water, then use that as your liquid.  Cool shrimp and peel, then proceed with recipe).

A  Chinois is one of the best kitchen tools that I’ve discovered in France.  It’s a conical strainer with small holes, and a hook on it so you can put it right on top of a bowl while you pour something through it.  I’ve bought a fine mesh  Strainer in the same shape and with that clever hook.   A wooden  Pestle, shaped to fit, is also handy for pressing on the solids.  Click on the links to order.

Favorite Reads:  Sarah Leah Chase is one of my favorite cookbook authors.  Want to take off some pounds?  Then try her Pedaling Through Burgundy Cookbook or her Pedaling Through Provence Cookbook. Both areas are beautiful for cyclying and she gives  you both bike routes and great recipes along the way.  

In the comments:  Cynthia's husband adds a new dimension to flea market shopping with Krispy Kremes and beer and has earned honary membership in the guys group here.  Gloria, thanks for checking in.  It's a good start, but hope you'll work on that French! 

How to Get a Guy to Go Shopping

PHOTO:  for many macho types, flea market shopping can be deadly boring.

Ladies, gather your market baskets, make your lists, and be sure you're flush with cash.  It's Sunday morning, and every Sunday we all hit les marchés des puces (flea markets) or vide greniers (‘empty attic’ sales). Most every village in the countryside has one annually, with vendors  and villagers selling their vastly assorted wares on makeshift tables.  Going ‘pucing’ is THE Sunday social activity, and a good excuse to lunch at the nearest restaurant.

Most of the girls love to shop, but what do the BOYS do at les puces?  There are a few guys in our crowd who like to peruse the treasures, and it’s true there are many typical ‘guy things’ to look at.  Besides antiques there are tons of tools, used DVD’s and CD’s and all manner of hardware for bricolage (handyman stuff).  But most  of them choose to wander over to the buvette, where the wine and coffee are flowing, and stand around this outdoor bar, mostly populated with les mecs, (the guys), until it's time to gather the troops and find a restaurant.

Ron and his copains have a great idea, which they are threatening to execute:  They will rent a table at the vide grenier we’re all attending that week.  They will place one single item in the center of the table, something unlikely to sell, maybe a broken car part.  They will bring lots of folding chairs, a nice big parasol for shade, a monster thermos of café cognac, baguettes, saucissons, and wine. In this manner they will while away the morning together, poseurs with no intention of making a sale, but with a great spot to people watch and bavarder (chat, and probably tell a few lies). 

Our friend Rudy, an antique dealer who scours the puces for business, has taken this idea one step further.  At the biggest outdoor market of the year, he rents a couple of vendor spaces and parks his vans there, where he can load up his finds.  He then sets up long tables and umbrellas, brings a grill, invites toute le monde, and we all have a huge pique nique in the middle of, and during, the market.  PHOTO above:  Rudy and Ellen's perfect picnic.

Though most of the other vendors set up their own little table for two for lunch under their colorful parasols, Rudy and his wife Ellen’s pique nique is in another league.  It inspires envious glances from the shoppers and the other vendors, some of whom try to wrangle an invite or a glass of wine.  With the smell of sausages sizzling on the grill and an expanse of beautiful salads and desserts, what man would turn down a day of shopping like this?  

PHOTO: Stoke up the grill, Mate:  Sausages amidst the purchases.

So of course we need a good salad recipe to bring along to la pique nique.  AND, all you need to know on how to find the French flea markets, below.

 

RECIPE:  Monique's Classic French Endive Salad

 

There are many versions of endive salad in France, and we really like our French friend Monique's recipe, which she has graciously consented to share with us.  Endive (chicory in the UK) is a favorite vegetable here, and with its mild taste and light crunch, it's a great place to add flavors.

For salad:

• 6 small bunches of endive
• 2 apples, chopped 
• 1 thick slice of ham (1/4 lb., 110 grams)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 6 oz. (170 grams) comté, chopped (or use gruyère, or swiss)
• lamb's lettuce

For dressing:  

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• snipped chives
• sea salt and ground pepper

Wash and dry endive then chop it.  Mix all salad ingredients together except lettuce.  Whisk dressing ingredients together, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Toss dressing with salad mixture and greens seperately. Serve salad on a bed of the dressed greens.  

 

HOW TO FIND THE FLEA MARKETS:  Here’s how to find the weekly marchés des puces if you’re traveling in France.  The local paper should have a list of the weekly ones in the classifieds. Bookstores sell the little booklet “L’adenda des Brocantes”, published annually.  This website also lists them: http://vide-greniers.org/. For the bigger antique markets,  here are some great books that will give you all the scoop:  The Flea Markets of France rates 30 big markets by region, with bargaining tips to boot.  If you're thinking Paris, Markets of Paris: Food, Antiques, Artisanal Crafts, Books & More, with Restaurant Recommendations covers not just antique markets but every market you can think of.

In the Comments:  Cynthia talks about the European love of white asparagus.  Is it better?  And Mark is perfecting his asparagus soup.  Hope you've found Mark's site---he's the 'Head Groundskeeper' at Your Garden Show, THE best spot on the web for plant lovers.

Life in Wine World

Photo:  A street in Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy

Every year in Beaune they hold a very famous wine auction, attended by the true pros, who are savvy and also flush with euros. No, we’re not invited to that, but at the same time, they have an exposition of all the wine merchants in Burgundy, open to the common folk.  Ron and a couple of friends went up one year to do some serious tasting. 

Each merchant at the expo had a booth, displaying their wines, and glasses for tasting.  How many booths were there?  Hundreds. How many wines were there? 1400.  1400!  And those were just BURGUNDY wines!  How many booths did Ron and company make it to before they were sipped out and done in?  Maybe three. 

So you think we’re going to become Burgundy wine mavens?  Not in this lifetime. We can’t even taste them all.  But that won’t stop us from making a valiant effort.  

I’m going to attempt to give you a one-minute crash course in Burgundy wines.  Red wines in La Bourgogne are principally made from Pinot Noir grapes.  Burgundy reds in general are very fine, and trés chere; the inexpensive Burgundy reds are not so intéressant, as the French would say. The fine reds are generally made in the  Côte d’Or, north of us, around Beaune.  

Most of the white wines in southern Burgundy, on the other hand, are marvelous and affordable.  They make great ones in our neighborhood, in the Mâconnais and the Chalonnais, where the cépage (grape) is Chardonnay.  Photo of our friend Joan: wine's a hot commodity around here.

Here is an interesting factoid about France:  you buy wines in the region where they’re made.  In the local stores you can find the odd bottle from another region (and the very odd bottle from another country), but to stock your cave---and most everyone has one--you go to that region to get it or you have it shipped to you.   

Now about that house wine.  Our Burgundy house white wine needs to be affordable, versatile,  and available in the area.  Choosing a house wine is a topic of much discussion and tasting.  Often folks buy their house white from a cave coopérative, which buys grapes from local growers and adds their wine-making expertise to the bottling and marketing.   Ron passes some of them on his daily bike rides:  Viré Clessé, Charnay-les-Mâcons, Buxy.   You have to taste many to find your favorite wines at your chosen price point;  and since these are agricultural products, your answer this year may not be the answer next year. We choose our house red from the Côtes du Rhône, a great wine region just south of us with fabulous, good value, reds.

Thirsty yet?  Coming up in this occasional series, posts on blind tastings and stocking the cave. Meanwhile, to go with your white Burgundy:

RECIPE:  Roasted Asparagus Soup

Makes soup for two, or for 4-6 if serving with aperatifs.

• 1 bunch green asparagus, trimmed
• 1 medium potato, peeled and cut in small pieces
• 1 small onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• milk or light cream
• chicken broth
• white wine
• cayenne pepper 

Heat oven to 350 degrees (175 C).  Put asparagus and potato in a roasting pan and toss with olive oil.  Add onion, season with sea salt and pepper.  Roast until vegetables are tender, 20 to 30 minutes. 

Put vegetables in a saucepan and add cream and/or milk to cover.  Purée with an immersion blender.*  Thin as needed with some chicken broth and a generous splash of white wine or lemon juice.  Add a dash of cayenne pepper, taste to correct seasonings.  Serve cold or hot, garnished with sour cream or creme frâiche. 

 

 

*Those clever French cooks are onto something:  nearly all of them have an immersion blender,especially important since they prefer their soups puréed.  Forget pouring everything in batches into a blender or food processor; this is a wand that you just stick in the soup pot, and press a button to blend. The blade pops off and goes right into the dishwasher.  Tellement facile!  Here's a good one: Cuisinart CSB-76BC SmartStick 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome. Click on the link for info.

Interested in staying at the château?  Nicole and Pierre have now fixed up a couple of extra bedrooms as a gîte. Nicole will give language lessons on request too.  Go to http://www.lessaveursduchateau.fr/. 

If you want to stay in a charming little  stone dollhouse in the countryside, try my friend Sabine’s gîte near Cluny, http://www.maisonpomme.net/.

Favorite Reads:  Burgundy wine lovers who want the definitive word on the subject will want to get Clive Coates The Wines of Burgundy.  If you want a handy reference guide to French wines and a great travel companion, we really like Robert Joseph's book, French Wine (Eyewitness Companion)which includes driving tours of all the regions, plus all you need to know about French vineyards and the major wines. 

In the Comments this week:  Don't miss Julie's Ode to Strawberries, fabulous!  And Thea, thanks for the reminder about David Sedaris, whose book about learning French, Me Talk Pretty One Day is the funniest ever (that chapter on explaining Christianity to the foreign students in his French class gives me the giggles as we speak). On another note, the flea market season has begun here, and there's so much pretty vintage silver on display. Our frequent commenter Nancy at Silver Magpies collects it and sells it on-line, so it's a must-see if you're a fan.

Unless otherwise attributed, all POSTS, PHOTOS and RECIPES on this blog copyright ©2010 Lynn McBride.  All Rights Reserved. 

 

 

Lost In Translation, but in the Neighborhood

C'est what?  Photo, a shop in Paris

You probably know about those pesky faux amis, ‘false friends’ that sound like an English word but mean something that will get you in a heap of trouble.  The best known one is of course the French preservatifs, which is the word for condom.  If you say le tampon you may fall into the same hole, so to speak, since it is not a necessarily a feminine hygiene product but most commonly refers to a rubber stamp. 

But what about those other words that are not false friends, but kissing cousins?  There are many words whose meanings are subtly different, which can leave you bewildered just the same.  There are LOTS of them, land mines in the language field. 

Case in point:  I hired a carpenter who worked for us for several days.  I asked him if he’d like to stop by and pick up his check one afternoon.  Eventuellement he said.  Eventually?  Have you EVER known a contractor to say ‘eventually’ when offered a check?  I tried again: Could he stop by around 2:00? Again, éventuellement.  

Puzzled, I ran for the dictionary. Aha. It does not mean ‘eventually’ but ‘possibly’.   Nicole has since told me that the misuse of this word is one of the most common mistakes that Anglophones make when speaking French.

Here is a list of some other ‘Close, but No Cigar’ words:

 

propre:  not proper, but clean (proper=correct)

évidemment:  not evidently, but obviously (evidently=apparemment)

special:  This one’s particularly dangerous.  Used for an object, it means the same.  But if a person is special, s/he is eccentric, odd, strange.

finalement:  not finally but ‘in the end’ (finally=enfin)

arriver:  to arrive, but also to happen.  ('What happened?'  Qu’est qui est arrivé?)

intéressant:  a subtle difference here.  Can mean interesting, but most often used (and used a lot) to mean worthwhile, favorable, valuable. 'Can you offer me a price that’s plus intéressant?'

actuellement: not actually, but currently (actually=en fait)

chance :  not an opportunity, but luck (chance=hasard. Oops, there’s another one! hazard=risque)

inviter means to invite but also to treat, as in to pick up the tab.  This one can cost you! 

assister: not to assist but  to attend 

 

Don’t even get me started on those French words that are spelled differently but sound the same, since the French love to throw away perfectly good letters.  My friend Pete has a great story to illustrate this.  His elderly neighbor, Madame Mugnier, was forever chatting away to him in rapid-fire French over the garden wall.  He caught only a little.  “I think she’s very ill,” he said, “she’s always going on about her liver” (le foie).  I speculated that she could be talking about religion:  la foi means faith.  We were both wrong:  turns out she was using the French exclamation Ma foi!  which translates as 'Good Lord!', or 'Oh my Goodness!'  At least we THINK that’s what she’s saying. Eventuellement...

Confused yet?  Must be time for lunch.  Beautiful French strawberries are showing up at the market now, signs of spring.  Pour yourself a glass of wine, slice some brie and a baguette, pull  up a chair in the garden, and it’s like a mini-vacation to La France.

RECIPE:  Spring Berry Salad with Walnuts 

This salad has some peppery radi and celery for crunch.  Make it special with sautéed walnuts.

for 4:

• a head of butter lettuce
• fresh strawberries, sliced
• radishes, sliced
• stalk of celery, sliced
• slices of brie, camambert or Délice de Bourgogne
• crackers, and/or a baguette

For the dressing: 

• ¼ cup (60 ml) walnut oil
• 2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar (or balsamic)
• pinch of sugar
• a couple of teaspoons of minced shallot

• walnuts, or pecans
• butter 

Arrange radishes and celery on lettuce on 4 plates.  Sprinkle with sea salt.    Put slices of cheese on salad. Add berries and fresh ground pepper.

Whisk dressing ingredients together and drizzle over salad.  Sauté walnuts in a little butter, sea salt and pepper until they begin to brown, about 2 or 3 minutes.  Add to salad and serve with crackers. 

Merci beaucoup to the folks at Online Classes.org, who included Southern Fried French in their list of 50 best blogs for Francophiles and French Majors. It's a great article, check it out!  http://www.onlineclasses.org/2011/04/04/the-50-best-blogs-for-french-majors-francophiles/

Favorite Reads: Today, our very favorite French learning methods.  Ron, whose linguistic skills are not his strong suit, loves the French for Dummies book, great for beginners or intermediate level students. His favorite DVD/CD Roms are the  Rosetta Stone  series (choice of 5 levels) and Michel Thomas Method. In fact, many of our ex-pat friends prefer these last two programs.  I'm fond of the text Mot a Mot: New Advanced French Vocabulary  (just out last year), which emphasizes conversational phrases.  For multi-media, I've always liked the Berlitz series.  The French Deluxe Language Pack has books, CD's and quiz cards; there are various programs for every level, even 'travel French'. 

In the Comments this past week:  A big welcome to Lael and Sandra, who are dreaming of Nice, and to Quintessence.  Mirana is seriously into anchovies and grew up eating bagna cauda.  Have fun surfing around some of our reader's blogs:  The Educated Palate, The Daily Basics, Quintessence, Silver Magpies.