In less than two weeks, we will be hosting a 17 year old boy from Salency, France. We’re really looking forward to it, but like a typical mother (of a 17 year old), I’m wondering what this kid will eat. I know how Hallboy eats (and how much), but I have absolutely no clue what a 17 year old boy from France will eat.
(And, yes, we’ve emailed him, but in the mean time, I was thinking I could get some ideas from fellow Dopers.) Hallboy said that they have a great dish in France…it’s called, “Whatever the hostmother fixes”.
Mods, my apologies if this isn’t the correct place.
I don’t know off-hand where Salency (sp?) is. He eats French … never mind.
He’ll eat anything – give him McDonald’s and he’ll love it. Basic home cooking, with lots of macronutrients like carbs and some good looking sauce.
He’s a teenage boy! He’ll eat anything, and he’ll love it, and he’ll eat the shit-stain off your toilet if you introduce him to a nice girl who lives next door.
(OK, that last was over the top, but it’s not far off!)
I think the point of the exchange is so that they can be fully immersed in the culture. Have him eat what everyone else is eating and don’t worry about it, is my advice. If you want to give him a treat once in a while, make French toast, French fries, or French silk pie.
Plenty of the things we eat either have origins in France or are common enough that they’d be familiar territory, like roast beef, roast chicken, soups, stews, etc. I doubt he’d be expecting Coq Au Vin or Duck Terrine or anything. I’m sure pizza and hamburgers would be fine, as well. Maybe keeping around some baguettes, cheese and fruit would be a good idea.
(Back when the earth’s crust was still cooling*) when I was a teenager, we hosted a 16/17-year-old French boy as part of a cultural exchange. IIRC, he ate whatever my mom cooked, and enjoyed it. My mother is a Southern cook to the core, so meals included stuff like grits, fried chicken, pimiento cheese, and so forth. Plus hamburgers, pizza, basically whatever she fed her own kids. If you’re worried about hosting a picky eater, keep some extra fruit, yogurt, cheese, and bread around, but you’re probably worried about nothing. 17-year-old boys are notoriously unpicky eaters.
*Okay, 1985 or so. I vividly remember trying to understand what Christophe was searching for on a shopping trip. His kid sister wanted a trendy toy that was apparently hard to find in Saumur… a Popple. I finally just took him to the nearest decent-sized mall (60 miles away) and trekked around till he recognized it. Honestly he was more flabbergasted by the fact that I, at 16, could just load up the car and go than about any of the foods he was offered.
Pre-fast foods, when I spent 2 years in France many years ago, they expressed surprise/concern about our practice of putting mostly all of the meal’s courses on the same plate at the same time.
We had a French exchange student stay with us for a month several years ago. He mentioned this as well. He was younger - probably around 14 - but he didn’t have any complaints about the food Mom made for him. Whether or not he loved all of it, he definitely didn’t go hungry.
Also, he was confused and entertained by Jello. Do they not have Jello in Europe? He poked at his dessert saying “I’m not sure it’s dead yet”. Obviously joking, but you could tell he was weirded out by it.
My sister has a penpal from France who was around that age when she came over to spend a couple of weeks here.
She wasn’t picky at all. I’d try to introduce her to as many things as possible. She really came to love peanut butter M&Ms of all things, sounds like they don’t have them back home. What she was really surprised/put off by is the fact that people snack so much between meals, so you may want to be prepared for that type of reaction from him.
When my relatives from Hungary came to visit us in Florida, they basically wanted to eat Trans-Fat crap everyday. I was jonesin’ for steamed veggies by the time that vaycay ended. You goto France, you want baguettes. You goto America? Hardee’s thickburgers and frappucinos, apparently!
The girl on exchange from Lyon in my grad program last year, she also seem to follow this pattern of “when in Rome, do ass the fatass Romans do!”
We just hosted a German girl for two weeks. It was a great experience. We tried to make “American” foods but it was complicated by her being a vegetarian. That was hard as so many stereotypical American foods are meat based. She seemed to enjoy vegetarian chili and burritos. Vegetable lasagna was a big hit.
For a kid with no restrictions, I would suggest a grilled meal, going to a good barbeque joint, and some Tex-Mex. Maybe some old-school meals, a pancake breakfast and the fried chicken dinner come to mind. Whatever traditional meals that your family has.
For experiences, we took her to a pro football game (I don’t know how much she enjoyed the game but it was an “American” event), horseback riding, the mall, the movies, and a couple of sleepovers with my daughters friends. The group had organized trips to museums, an amusement park, a corn maze, and they took part in all the school’s homecoming events.
It will be a great experience for both parties. Enjoy.
I spent three weeks with a family in Marseille in the summer of 2000, and they fed me more fast food in those three weeks than I had had in three months at home. And one night, when the parents were going out, they made their son and I the grand French meal of… fish sticks and buttered noodles. (Not that it wasn’t tasty.) In short, there was very little that they ate that I couldn’t or wouldn’t eat, and I’m sure whatever you normally feed your kids will be just fine for your exchange student.
Ok, but where are you located in the States (the only thing I saw about Salency is that is a village of less than 1000 ha in Picardie)?
Unless you end up with a particularly obnoxious or annoying teen, he’ll want to try the local food and general iconic US food.
I did one of those trips in the States, I really enjoyed the turkey sandwich (had been in the US before but never tried one of those, turkey’s more of a Christmas treat/meal over here).
QFT. I wouldn’t go as far as baguettes and cheese, though – IME those are either “traditional” old man “French” food or just plain not that good in US.
I like the froggy chow, though! (get away from her, you bitch!) People in France eat very, very similarly to people in US, whatever region. Plus, the teenage boy, and the teenage poon (excuse my French) he’s likely to get, is going to set him to maintain his vital fluids using whatever means necessary. IME French are not picky eaters, and they’re usually pretty polite, even when in those troublesome teen years. I wouldn’t worry about wine – some mineral water would be nice, though. It’d be nice for any houseguest to be offered a special drink, and IME the French pick up on the extra-niceties as a rule more than reg yanks. Maybe as a treat some Orangina or Coca-Cola in small bottles. Do report back – this should be fun for everyone.
ETA by “extra” niceties – simple things, like making an omelette rather than fried eggs – same ingredients, just different measures of effort given is appreciated IME. Good bread will always be appreciated. “I don’t know this Merle, I don’t know what he does, I don’t know what he lives on!” You’ll have fun sniffing out the good bread in the French style wherever you live, and he’ll probably meet a compatriote or two.
We had a 17 year old boy from France stay with us for a month in 1990. It was good fun and I thoroughly enjoyed introducing him to White Castles, snow cones, Taco Bell, and all the other fabulous foods of suburban America. However, around week 3, during a college-visiting road trip, we went to yet another pizza restaurant, and Etienne was heard to mutter, “Pizza and hamburgers! That’s all you eat!” just before he ordered a pasta dish.
I am not now and have never been a teenaged boy, but I did get sent to France as a mini-exchange student (it was just for the summer, not the school year), and the whole point is to experience another culture.
What I learned: The french don’t have peanut butter. You can’t get a PB&J in france! But they will let you drink wine even if you are only 16!
Maybe he would like to try the new experience of a PB&J (and maybe I’m hopelessly oldfashioend and they have peanut butter in France these days).
I would just worry about having plenty of food. I think teenaged boys are the least picky eaters of anyone. When he gets here you can ask him if there’s anything he’d like to try.
