27 July, 2007

thecuisine

France is famous for its food, so it's appropriate that i mention our experiences with it here. we weren't exactly dining on haute cuisine the whole time we were there, so lucky for us there was plenty of good stuff to be had without breaking the bank. perhaps in large part due to a very protectionist agricultural policy, France is still heavily invested in farming despite being such a commercial and industrial giant as well. it shows, with fresh fruits and vegetables everywhere you look, and bread and all manner of wonderful cheeses to be had all over the place. even after accounting for less-than-favorable exchange rates though, many of the greens and fruits weren't as affordable as such heavily subsidized stuff should be. no matter, i would have happily subsisted on Camembert and baguettes the whole time we were there--those things were plentiful and cheap.



food in France, clockwise from top left: fruit and vegetables on stands outside shops everywhere; enjoying Camembert baguettes in the open air; more looking-at-but-not-buying fairly high priced produce on the streets; and the breakfast (and maybe even lunch and dinner) of champions: petite madeleines--small, shell-shaped cakes--and baguettes with a whole round of Camembert cheese and a large bottle of Orangina, possible the best drink in the world. below, France may be the happiest food place on Earth: instead of life-sized Mickey and Minnie, there's a giant Orangina.



we found the legends of a Paris being littered with streetside cafés to be largely true, though we didn't really visit many of these as they were usually either packed or closed. we did try the French version of McDonald's, which is named Quick and should be avoided at all costs for reasons of poor customer service and really quite awful food (yes, probably even worse than Mickey D's). we also had some great Turkish food and even an excellent Indian curry at a pretty swanky place that appeared to be frequented by Japanese businessmen. it was quite surreal to be ordering Indian food in French, within view of the Eiffel Tower, all while listening to the now-comforting jabber of a language we thought we had just left behind. a world city indeed. still, i always came back to my baguettes and my cheese, though it, unfortunately, didn't always come back to me. i had bought another four-inch wheel of Camembert shortly before we left, and put it (in its wood case) in the large pocket of my cargo pants. because of the staples in the case, it set the magnetic wand off as i was going through airport security on the way back to London, and the several staff there were totally nonplussed about what to do about it. i would have thought they'd have been happy to be exporting more French cheese, but after x-raying it and several minutes of very confused consultation they made me throw my half-eaten cheese away. i consoled myself with the fact that we were flying Air France, and they were bound to serve up some decent fare, but disappointment struck again: those looking for signs of American dominance in their culture wars against France will be happy to know i only got a lousy pack of cookies.

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