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Downsizer Forum Index -> Downsizing abroad

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MarkS

Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 2626

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 07 4:51 pm Post subject:
I had the owner of a restraunt come dashing over to warn us about the special being calf brain last time we were in france.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 07 5:01 pm Post subject:
Tete de veau is the most disgusting dish you can imagine. Until you eat it, it's GREAT.

madmonk

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 835

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 07 5:03 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

Tete de veau is the most disgusting dish you can imagine. Until you eat it, it's GREAT.

That was on the menu as well

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 07 5:04 pm Post subject:
Try it! My local haunt in Calais has a menu, with a handy translation for the non-French speaker. The dish I've yet to try translates as 'Plate of snout'. I'm sure it's very good, it's just, well, you know...

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 07 5:06 pm Post subject:
Fergus Henderson waxes lyrical about the qualities of snout.

wishus

Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 777
Location: Northampton, East Midlands

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 07 6:47 pm Post subject:

I can remember when I did an exchange trp from schol and went to stay with a French family. They took me with them on their annual hoilday to Perpignan, were we stayed in a hexagonal brick chalet in a holiday village. I couldn't believe it when the mother went to all the fuss of cooking pig's trotters for the family... on holiday!! I felt ever so glad at the time about being a veggie. I got an artichoke instead - my first one ever! I hadn't a clue about how to eat it, but it didn't look any trickier than the trotter.

When I told my mom, she got this dreamy, faraway look in her eyes... apparently she used to love eating trotters when she was a kid, but wouldn't contemplate eating one now... not when you can buy real food!

Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 07 5:12 pm Post subject:
Madmonk, I think with French menus sometimes it's best NOT to know what you're ordering ... until you have eaten it! We post-war Brits are far too squeamish about food ...myself included! there are many things that I DO understand on menus, and therefore avoid - only to be told by others that they're "delicious".

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 07 5:21 pm Post subject:

cab wrote:

Hmmm... Trotters... Such a tasty treat. Shame you only get four per pig.

Sometimes mine come with eight, or twelve

And two or three heads & lungs too

Anders

Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 317

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 07 7:14 pm Post subject:
Hi Madmonk, I made a mistake like that too. I had the Tete de veau. It was awful, - I did my best and ate half, then I simply couldn't get more down. It was a murky soupy dish full of grey blubber. Apparently its veals head. Happy anniversary and hopefully we'll see you at some point when we are in France. Cheers Anders

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 07 7:16 pm Post subject:
You back in Blighty now then. Glad you made it back OK. We all look forward to meeting up again next time you are over. S

madmonk

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 835

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 07 7:57 pm Post subject:
No not till the 18th do you need anything?

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 07 8:02 pm Post subject:
Sorry. That last post of mine was to Anders. See above.

Anders

Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 317

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 07 5:19 pm Post subject:
Simon ... Yup, we are running round in London getting stressed. Hmmmm, I know where I'd like to be ....... though we are now close to getting an allotment here. At last. We had a good August in France though and it was great meeting up with some downsizers. We'll have to do it again. Let us know about any meets etc. Cheers Anders

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 07 6:43 am Post subject: Re: I must learn French quicker, I mustlearn French quicker,

madmonk wrote:

Wedding anniversary yesterday ,so went out for a nice meal, understood most of the menu but unsure of other bits, so went for the pork, the dish was called "croustillant de pied de porc" served with pureed potatoes, taste very nice, texture tender but unusual, anyway cleared my plate, got home and decided to do a quick translation, Oops I had apparently eaten "crusty foot of pig"

and yes I would eat it again, but still wondering what I will get next time if my French doesn't improve.

We were in a restuarant last week-end with non french speaking friends and what was on the menu - yep, "croustillant de pied de porc" - they were dead impressed that I could translate it although I am not sure thay actually believed me. As for trying it I have to say I chickened out because it was also served with "Langue". I do not do tongue!! In retrospect maybe I should have been more brave (but I did have a fantastic fish dinner

) And the puddigs - they were to die for..........

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 07 4:32 pm Post subject:

One obvious suggestion for the true beginner is indeed to start with menus.

However, unless one is into restaurants in a big way, it might be more practical, and more often practiced to start with one's own shopping.
Discovering, and using and learning, the right words for the specific things you want. Sure supermarkets breed laziness here, but how nice to be able to ask "Where is the honey?" for example.
Armed with a few phrases (where is, do you have, how much is, etc) and the words for the things you use {plus an understanding of likely simple answers - up, down, left, right, in front, behind, numbers, days of the week, months, etc} you have a framework to build on ...

Here's a question: do your locals (particularly the more senior ones) still talk about money/prices in terms of old francs (not the ones replaced by the Euro, but the ones that deGaulle rationalised into non-existence)?
Vingt mille 'balles' is 20 new francs, so about £2, say €3 ... confuses the hell out of me!

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