Well, under $6 really ($5.70 at today’s rate). That’s on the real cheap end of a reasonable lunch here in Chicago for me, unless I’m eating off the value menus at McD’s or Wendy’s or whatnot.
One of the things that impressed me about Paris is that I simply couldn’t find bad food. For example. the baguette and butter that was included in my breakfast at the cheap-ass (under $40/night) hotel I stayed at in Paris was an epiphany for me. I never knew bread and butter good taste that good. That honestly was the beginning of my days as a truly enthusiastic eater.
That’s by exchange rate, which is not a good way to compare affordability. And 4 euros is actually more than I ever paid for a crepe or a panini sandwich. I can’t think of any food product in Paris that’s less than 2 euros. It’s still cheaper than McDonald’s in Paris.
It’s not that French portions are too small, it’s that US portions are way too big. The typical French meals I’ve had were a few ounces smaller than a US entree portion. The difference was that the French food was far more flavorful than US entrees, where blandness is the rule. You eat more slowly with French food because the flavor is so intense that you want to savor it.
Having lived in the country, I know quite a few Belgians would have a lot to say about the idea that fries or steamed mussels were a French dish. Sure, the french serve them, and enjoy them, but the brits like curry and nobody claims that its their food…
And yes, the term “French fries” is wrong. Or rather the idea is supposed to come from the language “French” (spoken in half of Belgium) rather than the nationality “French”.
It’s not ingredients, or quality control, or anything like that which makes French food so famous. What makes it famous is that the French were really the first to make the preparation of good food an art form, and formalize the preparation as well.
That’s why so many cooking terms and techniques and kitchen jobs have French names.
Prior to this, there were plenty of great dishes all over the world, but they were just whatever your mother and grandmother cooked using the local ingredients, instead of being something invented and perfected for the express purpose of being delicious and interesting.
That being said, many classic French dishes are really good, but the execution can be spotty. Like all things, 95% is crap, so you’re more likely to get bad French food than good, but the good is REALLY good. I’ve had some of the most terrible and some of the best food I’ve ever eaten in Paris.
Pretentious French cooking is just as bad as pretentious American cooking. That’s why I specified “rustic” in my previous post. Once you get away from the “Food Is High Art” mooks and find the cooks that love cooking, you will get the best meal on the planet in the countryside of France.
