I’m sure the French will be weeping into their coffee over your absence.
Fuck 'em. The Italians, and even the Germans, make far better coffee anyways.
rolls around the floor in floods of laughter Germans make better coffee than the French? Yeah bloody right. The Italians, yeah, but every time I’ve been in Germany (and there’s been quite a few), German coffee’s been crap.
You actually believe French coffee is better than German? Are you insane? Or has living amongst the enemy done something to your taste buds?
All French cuisine, especially the coffee, is based on pride and poverty - they didn’t have the money to buy good ingredients, and refused to be seen to be bad at anything, so had to attempt to make good food with crap. It explains a lot about the nation, really - they eat crap that most other nations would throw away as offal and think it’s ambrosia.
ETA - corrected spelling.
Fuck the French? OK.
May I start with Mélissa Theuriau? I wouldn’t care if she had wookee pit hair, smelled of garlic and hadn’t washed her feet in 10 days - this woman would still be the sexiest thing smokin’.
I think you’re out of your mind. You’ve completely and utterly lost it. Or else you’re so blinded by rage that you can no longer think straight, taste straight or anything. Pan fried duck breast with honey sauce is crap? Fondant au chocolat is crap? For fucks sake get a grip. I honestly don’t think I’ve had a bad food experience in France (except in the work canteen, but its Sodhexo so what do you expect). I have, on the other hand had bad food experiences in Germany. The coffee in Germany is barely palatable IME (and I say this as someone who drinks black coffee). The coffee in France, even coffee I’ve had from a vending machine for all of 30c at work is actually drinkable.
Last time I checked the French aren’t the enemy. And maybe that’s why I manage to get on with the French. I’m not full of hostility that’s simmering just under the surface. :rolleyes:
I thought WWI made us even for the Revolutionary War and we had WWII and Vietnam to trump the French with. Thank god they still share Johny Depp with us. We need a better scoring system.
You give me one semi-attractive* French Bird - I give you 4 spielerfrauen football fans!
I’d take German girls over French ones any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
- = because she is French, of course
Tripe. Pate.
'Nuff said.
Pate? As in pasta? That’s Italian mate.
Paté, now paté on the other hand… How the holy hell can you say that paté de foie gras is disgusting??? :dubious:
And tripe? Hell, the Brits traditionally eat tripe too. You going to start on them now too?
Fucks sake, yeah you had some bad experiences. I’m sorry about that, but for crying out loud there’s no need to slam an entire fucking nation.
I’ve only been to Paris once - and not for a very long time. I found most people nice, friendly, kind to a non-French speaking tourist.
Except the people who worked in restaurants. I’ve heard that food in France is delicious, but damned if I know. After 5 or 6 restaurants, I just gave up trying to get in and sit down somewhere. The people at the hotel swore there were no magic words or phrases or secret hand signals and that I wasn’t doing anything so weird that of course I wouldn’t be allowed inside a restaurant. But, I think they were hoping I would just starve to death.
Mmmmm! I happen to love German women. But Mélissa is still utterly delectable.
The Brits at least never claimed to be the world masters of cuisine, so their eating of tripe (along with black pudding shudder) can be forgiven. Barely. And paté is quite disgusting to me. It’s liver, created in one of the most cruel ways imaginable, so yeah I find that pretty disgusting. It also tastes like cold mud. My girlfriend occasionally eats paté sandwiches, and I’ve actually been known to ask her to brush her teeth afterwards, as the taste is so manky. If the French truly liked good food, they would use fresh ingredients and make food in a refreshing way rather than load everything with cheese, butter, preserved meat, and cream then drink loads of wine and hope for the best.
The best food to be found in France is Vietnamese. Or possibly Italian. Although the Mexican I ate at Les Arcs wasn’t too bad.
Why not? This is the Pit, isn’t it? Am I not allowed to vent my frustrations here, rational or not? Besides - you might care to note I did say France was great except for the French. So you might say I am not slamming an entire nation, just the citizens of it.
Cheerio! 
Except she’s French. I can almost imagine the whine now.
At the risk of polluting this wild ride with a factual question … I understand that the French are pickier than Americans regarding attire. I wonder if restaurants expect you to change into “dining” clothes to dine even if the restaurant is at a ski resort? Or at the very least change out of your boots?
An acquaintance of mine lived in Hong Kong for some time and she said that while she was living there, if she was going to the gym, she would have to carry her shorts and sneakers with her, because it was unacceptable to be dressed in gym clothes on the street. And the standard for “street” clothes was pretty stringent … posh dresses and high heels.
Could this be an issue?
According to Anthony Bourdain, all good cooking originates with having to make do with cheap and available ingredients. 'Course, his father was French, so …
They were probably either Belgians imported for the tourist locations or other foreigners who lived in Paris. That would be just like the sneaky Frenchies.
So Paris is great unless you want to sit down and eat? 
If it was evening, or if this was a posh restaurant or some such, then I would tend to agree with you. But it was a ski resort, called 1950 because it is at 1950 meters high in the Alps, and it was lunchtime. it’s ski-in ski-out. I seriously doubt even the French would be so stupid as to expect a lunchtime crowd at a ski resort to make a reservation, go back to their hotel to change out of ski gear, go to the restaurant, eat, then change back into ski gear to go back out and ski. Unless I missed the sign saying ‘skiers not welcome’.
I wouldn’t trust that drugged-up freak as far as I can throw him. His rep is entirely unearned due to his cooking skills in my opinion; he’s just the current bad-boy celebrity chef.
Very funny. I lived in Frankfurt for three years, and dealing with the German admin assistant in one department was utterly painful. After I got to know her (it took about two years to break through the ice dam), she told me: “Vell, you know I am from Hamburg, and we are a very reserved people.” No shit? Half the consulate was scared to talk to her.
Your ignorance on the subject is showing. Yes, some aspects of French cuisine are based on poverty, but not all of it. Not nearly as many as those of Italian cuisine, anyway.
Besides, you say that as if it is a bad thing. Most ethnic culinary traditions are derived from poverty, so saying that the French food suffers because of it is just silly.
And your claim that the French don’t emphasize fresh ingredients is laughable.
This doesn’t answer my question, Gomi. Actually I think it would take someone a bit more acculturated to France to say so. It seems not unlikely that you might be expected to change out of your ski kit to have lunch. As I said, in Hong Kong it’s considered unacceptable to walk to the gym in your gym kit. As an outsider, I don’t think you can make assumptions about cultural norms.
You’ve eaten his cooking?
Actually, though, his current reputation is as a gourmand and a writer, not as a cook. I don’t think it necessarily takes a good cook to understand and evaluate good food.
Yeah, I’m in Germany right now and I gotta agree with that. The coffee sucks. The beer on the other hand…