Vincent Vega: Do you know what a quarter-pound cheeseburger is called in Paris?
Jules: What, they don't call him a quarter-pound cheeseburger?
Vincent: They have a metric system there. They generally don’t understand what a quarter pound is.
Jules: And what do they call him?
Vincent: They call him Royal Cheeseburger.
Jules: Royal Cheeseburger? But what then are they calling Big Mac?
Vincent: “Big Mac” is “Big Mac”, only they call it “Le Big Mac”.

(Pulp Fiction, directed by Quentin Tarantino)

Breakfast:
  The French eat an exceptionally sweet breakfast. Cereals, croissant (a real French croissant - a croissant without filling and butter puff pastry), a puff pastry roll with chocolate, a piece of baguette with nutella, butter, or jam (either one or the other, and not both together. Although I still believe that butter + jam \u003d success). Croissants and buns are best bought at boulangerie! This is a great pastry. In boulangerie it is better not to go on an empty stomach - the abundance of cakes will not leave you indifferent. They drink coffee, much less often tea, and very often - hot chocolate, which has nothing to do with hot chocolate, which is made in Russia, thick and rich, but rather is what we call cocoa from milk and Nesquik. Drinks are drunk from the bowls, dipping into them everything they eat, whether it is a baguette or a croissant. It looks disgusting. But so really tastier

Lunch (from about 11.30 to 14.00):
  Dinner was the biggest surprise for me. For lunch, the French eat ... sandwiches. More precisely, one long sandwich, consisting of half a baguette, cut in the middle, with butter and ham inside - canonical jambon-beurre (ham-butter). There are, of course, a lot of variations on the theme - with cheese, salami, gherkins, chicken, etc. Here's a sandwich, dessert, drink - together cost from 7-10 euros. Of course, on Sunday, mom or dad can cook quiche or pizza, but this happens very rarely.

Afternoon snack (16: 00-17: 00):
  At this time, the children return home from school and are immediately flushed with biscuits and juices. Because…

Dinner will be only at 19.30-21.00:
  Late, of course. There are various combinations of dishes. For example, dinner consists of 3 dishes: entrée (sandwiches with pate, and sometimes on New Year's Eve and foie gras :), plât (actually the dish + salad salad) and dessert.
For dessert, often "served" ... yogurt. Yes, yes, if you didn’t know, yogurt is a dessert, and it turns out to be harmful in the morning, as the Russians do all their conscious life!
  Here is what plat was:
  Quiche Lorraine is a great classic of French cuisine. How could I explain it with his words? Open bacon omelette cake? Omelet with bacon in the dough? In general, see photo number 2. The main thing is that cooking is immensely facilitated in all respects: the dough is bought ready-made, round, bacon - chopped, grated cheese. Unless you have to mix eggs with cream yourself.

  Gatelttes de sarrasin - this dish is usually eaten only in winter, because, according to the French, it is quite fatty. So, this is a pancake made of dark (buckwheat) flour, in which grated cheese, a slice of ham (thin as paper) and ordinary fried eggs are wrapped. For Russians, this is more like a standard breakfast.

  Cassoulet is another winter dish. Beans with sausages and slices of duck. It is often bought ready-made in a huge tin can.

  Also for dinner, sometimes there are: pumpkin puree soup, meat and green beans, chicken breast and green beans, meatballs (prepared and frozen) and green beans. Sometimes there were pasta instead of beans. And always a little bite with a salad of lettuce. Speaking of salad dressing, here is her recipe: 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of mustard, salt, pepper, all mixed until smooth. Done!
  For dessert, as already mentioned, there has always been yogurt.
  In restaurants you can find all the same, plus french fries, raw minced meat with raw eggs, burgers, oysters, pizza.

If you take meat you must specify how well it should be fried (bleu / raw-saignant / with blood - à point / semi-fried - bien cuit / well-fried). Nobody takes the latter, for it is considered too harsh. Well, standard desserts: a cheese plate, tiramisu, a chocolate cake with a liquid center and an open apple pie, which is prepared like this: put apples cut into thin dough, put it in the oven for 20 minutes - it's done!

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This topic has not only matured on my blog, but also managed to overripe. Joke.

The French and the food ... it's like the Russians and the cap with ear flaps, the Americans and Al Qaeda, the Germans and the war. In short, these two are one, closely intertwined and practically inseparable from each other. This is part and style of French life, their reality, their reality, their habits, their everyday life.

And I will try to uncover the theme of French gastronomic everyday life and give my dear readers the answer to the question “What do the French eat?”

(About what the French DO NOT eat - I wrote)

Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch ...

What does the day for most of us begin with? Of course with breakfast. I already wrote about the French breakfast but   and therefore I will not repeat myself. I only note that if the Frenchman does not have time to have breakfast at home, he does it in the buffet at the enterprise, in a cafe or bistro. Often quickly, on the run.

DinnerAs a rule, the French also celebrate at home, or less often, as an exception, in a restaurant or bistro. It usually consists of something light vegetable for the first, and in the cold season it is often hot soups, a small main dish and dessert or cheese to finish. In the evening, the French try not to overload themselves.

Dinner. This is already serious. Although this topic is also on my blog, today I will dwell on some typical or even template details.

French Lunch Ingredients

So, if a typical French lunch consists of several parts (main course, main course, dessert), then many allow themselves to step back from the classics and order one thing at once - either a salad, or a dish, or a sandwich.

But what about the soup? Although the soup loses its position, it is still popular in France as an input dish ("in the first" in our opinion).

Typical french soups?

Well, well, you know not? Well, did you hear that? Well, as stereotypical as frog legs! Yes, bravo, you guessed right -   onion soup (soupe d’oignon).  He is still in the lead. The company makes him a soup of white cabbage. Not to be confused with cabbage soup, although very similar).

Onion soup - aka folk soup

Other popular French soups are mashed or potage de légumes. And among the most popular - from leek, just vegetable, Parmantier (leek + potatoes), Saint-Germain (aka from young peas).

Often you can buy such a miracle in a package for juice in a supermarket and just reheat in the microwave. But this is horror and harm.

Recently, the French stomachs began to conquer the cold Spanish gazpacho soup. Although, why don't we try to promote okroshka on their market? Oh yes, you won’t pack it in a bottle or bag, and the shelf life again ...

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Traditional french meal

We touch on such topics as a French lunch at home, on a day off, or even with inviting guests. What does it look like?

✔ An aperitif is served first

Most often it is either strong wine / vermouth (martini, chinzano, porto, banyuls), or pastis, or whiskey, or a glass of champagne, or kir (white wine with red syrup to taste). And the children? Children juice.

The so-called “des amuse-gueule” is served from the meal to the aperitif, which in a direct translation means, forgive me, “fall-to please”. And most often the French are delighted with canapes, salty cookies and crackers, fried salted nuts and peanuts, olives.

Gastronomic Canapes

✔ After the joys for the mouth there is an entrance dish, it’s also Antre

Here are the options:

  ♦ Des crudités, or fresh vegetables

- grated carrots \\ grated celery root with dressing
  - tomato salad
  - green salad (different types of greens or mixes)
  - beetroot salad
  - Nisuas salad (tomatoes, boiled eggs, green beans, olives, tuna, lettuce)
  - eggs with mayonnaise
  - artichokes with vinaigrette sauce

Salad de creudite

  ♦ Râté paté (paste in all its forms and variety)

french pate - classic serving with gherkins

  ♦ De la charcuterie, pronounced sharkutri, served with gherkins

- jambon \\ jamon
  - sausages
  - cervelat, smoked sausage, dry-cured sausage, etc.

Jerky sausages with herbs and spices

  ♦ Une tarte or open cakes

- aux poireaux / aux oignons with leek / onion
  - une quiche lorraine / quiche loren, add jambon and cheese
  - as well as tart according to an individual housewife recipe

French quiche - simple and quick to prepare

♦ Breton pancakes, they are crępe bretonne

Breton pancake - buckwheat, served with an egg

♦ Burgundy snails, they are also des escargots bourguignons

Famous Burgundy snails - carefully, they are with garlic

♦ Seafood, depending on the generosity of the owners - the number of ingredients varies

Of the desserts unusual for the Russian eye and taste, Ile Flotan (raw beaten egg yolks), yogurt with sugar or jam, and chocolate mousse can be noted.

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That's about it, and from such components, the French gastronomic everyday life is formed, which I tried to disclose in this short article.

If my readers have questions, additions, recommendations or just comments regarding French food, then express yourself, please do not keep in yourself!

Admit, we always want to know a little more than we have the opportunity. To see at least out of the corner of your eye how they live in the neighborhood or in other countries, what they eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. For example, the French? Not the frog legs they eat, indeed! How do the most ordinary Frenchmen make up their everyday menu? I managed to stay in three completely different French families with a different way of life and pace of life, different habits and income levels. So, France, nowadays, three families and French cuisine as it is.

Summer in a french village

Guillaume and Olivier  live outside the city 50 kilometers from Paris in a large two-story mansion. They have their own farm, and the office is in a separate building near the house, so they don’t need what’s torn between the house and work. Their three children, Charles, Laurence, and Mathieu (7, 5, and 3 years old), are supervised by the nanny when their parents are at work.

Guillaume is a very caring mother and monitors the nutrition of her family very carefully. Every evening in a special notebook she paints a menu the next day. Oddly enough, but to have a full breakfast, as most nutritionists advise, they have not accepted. Guillamet does not eat breakfast at all, Olivier drinks a cup of coffee, children eat cornflakes with milk or yogurt.

It is customary to sit down to have dinner at home at exactly 13.00. Guillaume is even angry if her husband lingers at work. Lunch begins with a salad - just lettuce seasoned with balsamic or wine vinegar and olive oil. After necessarily meat  or a fish dishfor example, beef medallions in sun-dried tomato sauce, fish fillet, baked with a slice of lemon and herbs. Garnished with steamed vegetables: potatoes or cauliflower.

Frenchmen don’t eat soups for lunch,  and for dinner this is an infrequent dish, although the word "dinner" in French sounds like le souper. Only once during the several weeks of my stay in this family was for dinner. Everything is simple: zucchini, broccoli and mushrooms are fried separately in olive oil, then crushed in a blender. Fat cream is added to this mixture, salt, pepper and slightly warmed before serving.

Complete lunch or dinner with cheeses.. A plateau is served with different types of cheeses (5-7 grades), which can be combined with pieces of French crispy baguette. This is unrealistically delicious! And only after this cheese "ritual", it can be considered that lunch or dinner is over.

Despite having three children, the family is cool about sweets. For dessert, they eat fruit or the easiest homemade pies to make.

By the way peaches in this family decided to eat ... with a knife and a fork !!!  In this case, first you need to peel the peach (again with a knife and fork), and only then, cutting off a piece, enjoy the fruit. Experiment somehow in the kitchen secretly so that your loved ones do not accuse you of being too aristocratic, to taste a peach with a knife and fork. And, if you still have enough patience, believe me, the peach will seem to taste completely different. Fortunately for me, the five-year-old Laurence, by virtue of her age, was also not a specialist in figured peach slicing.

Provincial charm with an Italian accent

Anna and Joel  - pensioners. They live in Bourges - in the Middle Ages, the historical residence of the French kings - in their small house, surrounded by flowers, with a green lawn and red maples in the yard.

The leisurely pace of life affects the format of lunches and dinners. They eat slowly, as if it was not just food, but something more - a ceremony or even an old tradition. Lunch begins with a snack.  Most often it is traditional lettuce with olive oil and balsamic or wine vinegar dressing.  By the way, Joel’s salad brings to dinner straight from his small garden where strawberries, tomatoes, onions, basil and ... potatoes also grow. Yes, yes, the elderly French are also very fond of all sorts of summer cottages, but, of course, not on such a scale as our pensioners.

One day we were surprised parma ham and melon appetizer. Ripe melon, preferably chilled, is peeled and cut along large segments along. The ham is cut very thinly, almost transparent slices and laid out on a plate, put a slice of melon on top. It is believed that this dish was born in Italy, but, in my opinion, very organically fit into a French-style dinner.

To the main course  portions of a rabbit are fried in a mixture of butter and olive oil to a golden crust. Add chopped onion and fry it until transparent. After the rabbit meat, sprinkle with flour and pour chicken broth. Add garlic, a glass of white wine, a mixture of peppers, a handful of raisins and a sprig of rosemary. Stew under the lid for about an hour. Separately, mix the yolks with cream, add a couple of tablespoons of the cooled juice from the container where the rabbit was stewed, and pour the sauce over this dish. The rabbit garnished with asparagus beans, slightly stewed in a saucepan with butter and garlic.

Traditionally ends with a cheese plate with 5-6 grades of cheese to choose from.  Bread in Bourges, by the way, is completely different and also unusually tasty.

Unlike the previous family with three children, the venerable Anna and Joel were those still sweet tooth. Every day we feasted on different goodies. One of them is a simple French dessert with cherries.  The dough is made from a mixture of milk, flour, eggs and sugar. Pitted cherries are poured with this mixture, and after 20 minutes the most delicate dessert is ready. Be sure to get a couple of cherries on a branch with a leaf. And after you get the klafuti from the oven, decorate them with dessert. It is very elegant. Almost a work of art. An important detail: it is better to use cherries or red cherries so that when baking, the juice of the berries does not stain the dough so much.

Crazy Crazy Capital Life

The daughter of Anna and Joel - Marie -he has long been living in Paris. She works as a teacher of French language and literature in one of the colleges of the capital. He rents a studio apartment with his fiance Francois in the Marais - one of the old districts of the city.

For breakfast, she treats me to cereal with milk and toast with confiture, moreover, jars of confiture for every taste: apricot, strawberry, blueberry. A magical taste overlooking a quiet French street and neighboring balconies with bright geraniums. But Marie admits that such measured breakfasts are only on weekends, when there is no need to rush to work. Often, the breakfast of a resident of this French metropolis consists of a cup of coffee.

Important detail

All these French lunches and dinners could not do without a glass of wine. On an intuitive level, French people can choose red or white for a dish in such a way that sometimes it seems: your lunch or dinner is not just a set of dishes, but a well-thought out plan. A plan to conquer your taste buds.

French cuisine is famous for its variety and balance. My guest Maria will tell you about the secrets and details of healthy French nutrition today. Masha is the mother of two children, Russian-French bilinguals. Living in France, she studies the traditions and life of this interesting country, including French cuisine and the culinary habits of the French.

French cuisine is considered one of the best cuisines in the world. At the mention of French cuisine, the imagination draws us sophisticated and sophisticated dishes, beautifully served at an elegant table. But few people know that in France there are simple daily and tasty dishes that can safely be attributed to a healthy cuisine. In general, the whole system of French everyday cuisine is built on the rules of healthy eating. I'll tell you how the French manage it.

Each region has its own cuisine based on climatic conditions.

France is a small country compared to Russia, it has many small regions, and each region, even part of the region, is necessarily famous for its cuisine, special dishes and local products. The cuisine of the coastal Aquitaine is significantly different from the cuisine of Alsace bordering Germany, the cuisine of southern Provence does not look like the cuisine of northern Picardy. What can I say, France has more than three hundred varieties of cheese!

These culinary features are associated with the diverse climate of France and with the French love for their cuisine, which they tirelessly improve, while paying tribute to traditions.

Children are taught to eat right from childhood, creating balanced and varied menus for them.

The French love to come up with new combinations of different ingredients and vary their nutrition. They raise their children accordingly. From the beginning of feeding, little Frenchmen have tried not only apple or cabbage purees, but apple-mango and a mixture of avocados and bulgur. From childhood, the French develop their taste buds. Did your child not like mashed leek with carrots? Nothing, try to give it in a month. At the same time, parents present the moment of food as a fascinating culinary experiment. And what are the recipes for the kids, lick your fingers!

When a child grows up, he with interest begins to try adult food, to observe the reaction of parents during meals. French parents are very fond of discussing at the table a combination of products that they like and dislike. And since adults eat very varied, preparing delicious dishes for themselves, it is interesting for children to eat the same as their parents. In France, children love vegetables, very often children are given boiled green beans with sour cream or butter, this can be said to be a classic side dish.

An important aspect of proper nutrition from childhood is to sit at the table and devote enough time to food for the body to absorb.

It is believed that beautifully served food improves appetite.

Juices are not consumed at any time, the main drink is water.

Snacks here are also not welcome. Each Frenchman takes food four times a day: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. Moreover, at a strictly defined time!

The French love the cuisine of their regions and prefer products grown in their own region.

After all, this means that these products were not taken to distant lands for a long time, which means they are fresh. Another plus is that you can go and see how specifically the producer grows his vegetables and fruits, than sprinkles and fertilizes. Many manufacturers open stores and sell everything directly, so to speak, from the field. And in some farms you can come by yourself, collect seasonal products directly from the bush and pay for them at the exit. Here, for sure, fresh products go!

Some French people do not eat food out of season, for example, tomatoes do not eat in the winter, but pumpkin in the summer.

On each label of any product it is written by whom and how the product was produced, whether it also contains GMOs and chemical dyes.

All French people love to go to the market for groceries, where local producers often bring their goods. Firstly, the French are sure that the products in the stores are of less than perfect quality, and secondly, the seller on the market will always advise which dish can be prepared from a particular product, which spices to use. And there are a lot of spices, by the way, in France, and also, which surprised me, vinegar: apple vinegar, raspberry, walnuts, apricot, etc.

The best meat is taken from a trusted butcher, who can custom-select the meat for you for meatballs, and in a fish shop you will be advised of a new dish. Good, tasty bread, of course, is bought from the baker, and dessert in the pastry shop.

All these products can be bought at the supermarket and of good quality. But the best products are bought at themed grocery stores. Perhaps this attitude to food allows the French to have a large selection of quality products.

In connection with such an extensive choice, probably all the French are connoisseurs of cooking. For them, cuisine is like a fun chemical experience that allows you to get something new and tasty. They can spend hours talking about which cheese is suitable for which wine, which appetizers are combined with which dish, and which sauce is best for mushrooms or squid.

The French love a varied diet, the cuisine for them is an endless variety, a celebration of taste. They are all gourmets.

In France, no one particularly adheres to diets, and the French remain slim.

What is the secret? In the optimal combination of fatty and not very foods: a lot of meat or fish with vegetables, a little cheese or sauce and a very small dessert in the form of fruit or yogurt. All sorts of cookies and other pastries are bought or cooked sometimes, and not constantly. The French also have small portions, here it is encouraged to try, taste, not to eat up to the dump. The same goes for wine. You can eat well during the holidays or during a family Sunday lunch.

The cooking method is also very diverse: steamed, in the oven, raw or stewed. For example, some French people eat raw mushrooms. And the famous tartare is a thin cut of raw beef with sauce.

The French do not like overcooked, overcooked food. Many people use a kitchen thermometer when cooking meat or fish.

On TV, any food ad is accompanied by nutritional advice. “Eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day, do not eat too fatty, salty and sweet foods”. Schools often hold thematic classes on nutrition. In many educational institutions it is forbidden to sell chocolates and soda. Even the famous fast food, McDonald's, the French government obliged to reduce portions and add vegetables, salad, water and juices to the menu.

Balanced nutrition for the French is combined with the concept of light, regular sporting activities: walking, cycling, jogging or swimming.

It turns out that the meaning of French healthy nutrition is as follows: eat balanced (more vegetables and proteins, less fat and sweets), eat regularly, try everything, but little by little, diversify your diet, choose foods of good quality and go in for sports!

I would like to thank Maria for such a detailed and interesting article! In turn, I will prepare for my readers a step-by-step recipe from French cuisine in the very near future.

Thank you for being with me!

The food system in France is exactly the opposite of the sensational rule: eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to the enemy.

French breakfast is very modest and not without reason called a small breakfast (le petit déjeuner). Most often, it is limited to a cup of coffee and a small bun, bagel or sandwich. It is interesting to note that at breakfast the French prefer sweet sandwiches - often it is bread with butter and jam / jam.

Lunch (in French terminology “breakfast”, le déjeuner) starts at 12 noon. It usually consists of appetizers, green salad, meat or fish dishes, cheese and coffee.

Evening meal, at 6 - 7 pm, called lunch (le dîner)  and also includes several dishes: an aperitif, green salad, a hot dish (meat with a side dish), a cheese plate (several types of cheese cut into small pieces and laid out on a plate specially provided for this) and coffee with sweets (often with chocolate candies, cookies).

The culinary traditions of the French were preserved not only in good restaurants, but also in ordinary families. At festive family dinners and especially at dinners with guests, you can perfectly see the main features of French cuisine.

Before lunch, guests are offered an “aperitif” - alcoholic drinks with nuts, almonds or dry biscuits - to stimulate appetite. Lunch itself, as in the 16th century, begins with an “introduction”: vegetable, meat or fish snacks. Soup is now rarely eaten, more often in the village. The basis of the festive city dinner is fish, meat or poultry with the appropriate white or red wines.

Abroad, the French are considered to be frog lovers, and it is no coincidence, because the French are really willing to eat the delicate white meat of the frog's hind legs, reminiscent of chicken meat to taste. However, for a family dinner, this is quite an expensive pleasure, so frog legs do not eat themselves every day.

In an ordinary French family, they usually eat steak with fried potatoes, stew with vegetables, rabbit stew or. Along with beef steak, horse meat steaks are also prepared, which is sold in special butcher shops.

Of the exotic dishes for the Russian people, the French love shells and snails. Some shells are eaten raw - they resemble oysters. Others cook specially - their meat is similar to the meat of crab or crayfish. A very tasty dish is obtained from large escargo grape snails: they are baked in oil with parsley and garlic and served right in the sink.

For the main family holiday - Christmas - in the old days they cooked a fried boar. Then he was replaced by a pig, now more often a turkey. The Christmas table is usually decorated with an oyster dish and a special, oblong cake - “Christmas log” . The final part of the holiday dinner consists of green lettuce, cheese, fruits, sweets and coffee. After coffee, guests are offered cognacs or liquors; they are collectively called "digestif" - facilitating digestion. If the aperitif opens the holiday dinner procedure, then the digestif completes it.

These are the simple traditions of an ordinary French table! Do not forget to check out our French recipes page. This is a selection of fairly simple and easily implemented culinary recipes for which you do not have to spend a lot of money on unique seasonings and ingredients. You can easily cook everything yourself!

In preparing the article, the materials of the book by V.P. Smirnova “France: traditions, people, impressions”

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