# Foods the French just don't understand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 23, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646 "2003-12-23T14:36:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zazie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Zazie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zazie)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/21 "2003-12-24T17:23:36Z")
I am French and I am used to see the egg in the middle of a pizza. I don’t like it as I don’t like my eggs runny but it doesn’t chock me. It just depends what you were introduced to when growing up. I like the French pizzas. I see them completly different that the American ones, that I like a lot as well. The French pizzas you actually eat with a knife and fork as they are super thin and won’t “hold” in your hand! It’s just different. I agree we don’t have any good Mexican food… But before I got some in the US, I didn’t know ours was so bad! and it’s quite understandable being so much farther from Mexico. I think we know spicy but it’s not the same spices. Some dishes will have some hot hot peppers, kind of like chili peppers. But in general, it is true that don’t spice up that much. Hot spices that is. As far as Hamburgers go, well the US have the best. No doubt about this. Oh and it’s so funny as Chinese food in France, and Chinese food in the US are the most different things you ever seen… ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/22 "2003-12-24T17:45:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hypnoboth \* > \*\*All right, I took my wife to Paris, and I gained ten pounds. I admit the French rule in food. The kings and queens of cuisine. In almost everything. But there are some foods that they just do not understand. Some things that just escape the French food brain. There are some foods that the French simply do not understand. > > Like pizza. > > They have whole restaurants dedicated to pizza. But French pizza is an oxymoron. It is horrible. Putrid. The worst Pizza Hut monstrosity is better than the best attempt at pizza in Paris. Really. > > The crust (what they call crust) is thin, dry, and lackluster. Toppings are sparse. The cheese is good cheese (the French do understand cheese), but they choose the stuff that is too oily, and the oil collects in little puddles. And for some God unknown reason, they seem to love to crack an egg and put it in the middle of the pizza. Yes, an egg. Sunny side up. It stares at you. Like an eye. Zontar, the Pizza Thing from Venus. > > The French simply do not understand pizza. > > Anyone else have other foods that the French simply do not understand, in spite of general culinary excellence? \*\* I’m no defender of the Frogs, but I think the quality of the pizza in France depends on where you are. I never ate any while in Paris, but in Nice I had wonderful pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/23 "2003-12-24T17:46:33Z")
Chocolate chip cookies. Or so says my friend Laurent. Every time I’ve visited him, he’s begged me to bring Toll House cookies. I keep telling him they’re very simple to make, but he insists that the ingredients are all wrong: French flour, brown sugar, and chocolate chips are somehow different. Of course, with all the other great pastry in France, I don’t quite understand why he feels deprived, but in the interest of international understanding, I’m happy to bake some cookies. Besides, then I get to lick the spoon. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/24 "2003-12-24T18:55:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > Peanut butter seems to be a universally misunderstood food outside the US. Food? _Food?_ **FOOD?**. I’ve had good pizza in France. Some of the best places have ovens heated by burning logs, giving a smoky flavour. MMmmm. And I’ve had terrible pizza in the US. Mostly that sponge cake thing with topping that is at Pizza Hut. I don’t get that about stuffing hot dogs in a baguette, that’s the way the French eat hat dags, so why would they be flabbergasted. Strangely, they don’t understand French Fries in France. it’s almost always soggy, even in the best restaurants. Oh, and most pasta I’ve had in the US was awful. Always over cooked. And I want to add that Chinese food is different in every country I’ve been. Not having been to China myself, I can only quote a friend: “Never have Chinese food in China.” ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/25 "2003-12-24T19:03:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > Chocolate chip cookies. Or so says my friend Laurent. Every time I’ve visited him, he’s begged me to bring Toll House cookies. Bring Entenman’s next time. They’re the best. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/26 "2003-12-24T19:10:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Gaspode \* > \*\*Bring Entenman’s next time. They’re the best. \*\* Are you dissing my baking skills? I will put up my home-baked, preservative-free Toll House cookies against those impostor, chemical-laden, mass-produced abominations any day! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/27 "2003-12-24T19:30:25Z")
Put your dough where your mouth is, **Eva**. And I’ll lick your spoon! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/28 "2003-12-24T19:40:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Gaspode \* > \*\*Put your dough where your mouth is, **Eva**. > And I’ll lick your spoon! > 😛 \*\* Huh? Have you started a bit early on the Yuletide glogg? Or is this a challenge? If so, what kind of challenge? And you can have my spoon when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/29 "2003-12-24T19:47:02Z")
The big day for being with families, here in Sweden, is today. Shops open again tomorrow, for the post-Christmas sales, but I haven’t had anything to drink, yet. Anything w/alcohol, that is! And I’m not gonna take your spon, I only want to lick it. Unfortunately, geography is working against a serious challenge, but I \*do[7i] like Entenman’s, b/c there a bit chewey! ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/30 "2003-12-24T19:52:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Gaspode \* > And I’m not gonna take your spon, I only want to lick it. > > Unfortunately, geography is working against a serious challenge, but I \*do[7i] like Entenman’s, b/c there a bit chewey! \*\* Well, if you want to lick my spoon without taking it, geography will seemingly make that a bit difficult as well. ‘Cause I ain’t giving it up, and it would be a bit crusty and unappetizing by the time it reached Sweden anyway. However, Entenmann’s chocolate-chip cookies are plentiful around here, so if you’re in the neighborhood in a quest for my spoon, you can satisfy your craving. And I live in a formerly Swedish neighborhood, so you can even have glogg with your cookies…although the best glogg in the neighborhood at this point is served by a Lebanese restaurant. Yay multiculturalism! [hijack] Have a good glogg recipe you want to share? The “Swedish” delis near me sell the bottled stuff, but I’m a purist who believes in making things, especially traditional things, from scratch. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/31 "2003-12-24T19:52:29Z")
And if I could code and spell and preview, then I’d be believed when saying I haven’t had a drink yet. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/32 "2003-12-24T20:02:21Z")
[continuing hijack] I do, actually: Note, all spices must be whole, not powdered/ground 1 pint of vodka 1 bottle of dry red wine 1 bottle of Martini Rosso (or vermouth of choice) 5 whole seeds of cardamom 5 whole cloves a chunk of cinnamon the peel of seville orange a piece of ginger Mix it all together and let sit to absorb all the spices. At least over night, but if you’ve got a week, that’s good. Cover the bowl with saran wrap. Strain the spices. Use a filter from a coffee maker, so it gets as clear as possible. Heat, but do not boil. A microwave is great. Experiment so find the right time/effect for desired results. Some people think that one should add raisins and chopped almonds in the cup, as it’s served. I don’t. I don’t want to eat it, I want to drink it. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/33 "2003-12-24T20:04:08Z")
wups: Forgot. Add half a cup of sugar to the mix, more if you want it really sweet. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/34 "2003-12-24T20:06:49Z")
Vermouth? That’s a new one! I’ve seen recipes with brandy, but never vermouth. And the Seville oranges may be a bit of a challenge. What’s the next best substitute? And how much ginger is “a piece”? A 1” chunk or so? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/35 "2003-12-24T20:21:55Z")
I like my glögg not to be too sweet. If it gets sticky and syrupey it’s too much. Redvermouth is sweetish, but not overly so.To up the alcohol, I use vodka, which is neutral. Peels of seville oranges are sold dried here in just about every well stocked supermarket. Just throw in a normal orange peel. And a piece is… well you know… a piece! About 1" sounds right. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/36 "2003-12-24T20:33:19Z")
What about less sugar, but brandy instead of vermouth? Saves me buying a bottle of vermouth, which I won’t use for anything else. Or is that not authentic? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/37 "2003-12-24T20:38:25Z")
And of course, the one, the only…Toll House Cookie recipe! Nothing else compares. [http://www.verybestbaking.com/Recipes/Search/RecipeCard.asp?RecipeID=18476&BrandSiteID=2](http://www.verybestbaking.com/Recipes/Search/RecipeCard.asp?RecipeID=18476&BrandSiteID=2) You’re on your own for the metric conversions, though, because I’m lazy. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/38 "2003-12-24T21:00:53Z")
ah, but you use all of the vermouth, which is less pricey (no?) than brandy. And with the vodka, it could get too strong. I’d go with the vermouth. Thanks for the link, and converting is no problem. A cup is (roughly) two deciliters and that’s about it, for converting. For recipies, we use tablespoons and teaspoons too. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/39 "2003-12-24T21:05:55Z")
Well, I give up trying to remember which Europeans use metric for which measurements. The French seem to measure almost everything (or at least all non-liquid) ingredients by weight, but well, I’ve never cooked with a Swede. And the Brits are just plain confused. I have no clue re: the price of vermouth, never having bought a bottle. Maybe I’ll use less sugar, more brandy, and less vodka. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646/40 "2003-12-24T23:24:02Z")
[$7.45](http://www.abc.state.va.us/Pricelist/VERMOUTH%20(IMPORTED).html). 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-the-french-just-dont-understand/220646.md?page=3)