Sounds strange, smells bad, but tastes goooood !

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

Hello you people of taste.

 

 

 

 

French cuisine is often considered to be one of the best by self-pretended gourmets and other snobs. But I'd like to know how deeply some cultures in the wide world could feel disgusted by some of those dishes (concerning their tastes, or morale convictions):

 

 

 

 

• Frog legs of course, having given to the Frenchies their most common Anglo-Saxon nickname (not often consumed that much in fact, usually served with a sauce to give to the dish the taste it misses)
• Escargots (snails), usually served with garlic butter
• Horse meat or horse sausages (popular since Napoleon's campaigns, sold in specialized butcher shops, not much consumed nowadays)
• Numerous tripe-based dishes all over the country, like andouille (tripe cooked in smoked cold sausage), andouillette (in smoked grilled sausage – very smelly, believe it), tripes à la mode de Caen (with apple cider and Calvados, a distilled cider), tripoux, Marseillese pieds-paquets using also pig's trotters...
• Pig's trotters, usually breaded, or in jelly, or even cooked until the bones inside get reduced to powder!
• Foie gras (fattened by force goose or duck liver)
• Goat cheeses (seem to be not produced in the Anglo-Saxon world, safe for some Celtic counties in UK)
• Blue cheeses with localized areas of mould, like Roquefort (sometimes melted in sauces accompanying mussels or red meats) – said to be smelly
• New wines like Beaujolais Nouveau, immature because fermented only a few weeks, tasteless in the good years and barely drinkable in most other ones, but celebrated in France in an annual national Beaujolais Day, I still don't understand why (the past Thursday actually, which has inspired me this post).

 

 

Please be frank, but keep the rude words into the vomit bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+bobrock 15]

As an italian, french are actually the only ones I trust about food or wine.

Of your list I can only disagree on the Beaujolais (which is not exactly immature, but fermented in a different way from the traditional one) which I don't even consider a wine :P

 

But I come from a place where the traditional dish is made with boiling oil with anchovies and garlic melted in it. Now that sounds bad, smells bad but tastes good. Of course it affects your social life for at least 72 hrs.

[CarlosemoG 0]

Actually, I'm not disgusted at all! Here in Portugal we seem to have similar tastes.

We do love our tripe based cuisine. Be it "Tripas à Moda do Porto" - stewed cow stomach with white beans (mmmm....), or what we call "enchidos" - pork based sausages packed in the animals' intestines which after a period of smoking can be boiled, stewed, barbecued or eaten "as is".

Horse steak! Yummy!

Snails are not enjoyed by all (a slimy animal after all) but the way my Dad cooks them with tomato sauce... heavenly! Also great stewed with beans!

I don't know what pig's trotters are, but if it's feet you're talkin' about, then we're eatin' them!

Cheese! Here we have all sorts of cheese made from cow, goat or sheep milk and in a few cases, a combination of two kinds of milk. Absolutely delicious and I think we can give you Frenchies and the Suiss a run for your money! Except for blue cheeses which we never had. I like them but many Portuguese think twice about eating cheese with mould.

 

But immature wine? What are you guys thinking of? We take great pride in our wines. In fact, I think it's the same as with the cheese. French wines are good but ours can be as good. But drinking them before they get the chance to mature is hard to understand. What does Beaujolais taste like when it is mature? Is there such a thing?

 

All in all, and in spite of hearing French food being criticized for lack of flavour, your post has made me curious about French cuisine. I'll definitely look for some recipies in the very near future.

 

Vive la France!

[+Dave 2,322]

Being a foody I have tried just about everything on your list but the Pig trotters, and I like everything you listed. The blue cheese varies for me as I have had so many different versions, some I love, some I hate. I had snails and mushrooms in a white wine sauce, it was to DIE for. I am a big chef myself I specialize in good ole US BBQ. But I also have a list of French dishes like Coc a Vin that I have made over the years. (I stay to the strict recipe given to me by a friend who was in the French Air Force, it was his moms.).

 

One of my things I do when I go to any country is try their food. All of it and rarely am I afraid to try anything. French food is oustanding, the sauces, the preperation, all part of its mystic IMHO.

[JediMaster 451]

I dislike everything on that list!

 

For full disclosure, I also dislike about 85% of the menu at any restaurant I go to, so...

[FastCargo 412]

Picky, picky, picky...

 

I grew eating kimchi...questions?

 

FC

[+Dave 2,322]

Nothing wrong with being picky, however, that leaves one with a narrow view of a whole new world that awaits them. My wife is EXTREMELY picky, if she could eat pasta and bread only she would. But I get her to try alot new foods. She never liked chili, but she does now. She never liked Korean food, she does now. What turns people off is the idea of what they are eating. I have certain fish aversions, (don't really like fish with the heads still on them after being cooked) but I do try them and all though they may not be appealing because of one thing or another I end up liking some anyway.

[+Old Diego 66]

I will eat just about anything. Something I do when trying a new dish for the first time is try to limit one sense at a time. I try to not look or smell something until after I taste it. If I hate the taste, the other senses won't help it much.

[+hgbn 91]

Some good old cheese. yum yum If the germs inside actually moved in the same direction the Cheese would crawl 1 mph. Facts you'll probably dont need. But man it taste great.... But the smell

Edited November 24, 2009 by hgbn

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

Actually, I'm not disgusted at all! Here in Portugal we seem to have similar tastes.

We do love our tripe based cuisine. Be it "Tripas à Moda do Porto" - stewed cow stomach with white beans (mmmm....), or what we call "enchidos" - pork based sausages packed in the animals' intestines which after a period of smoking can be boiled, stewed, barbecued or eaten "as is".

Horse steak! Yummy!

Snails are not enjoyed by all (a slimy animal after all) but the way my Dad cooks them with tomato sauce... heavenly! Also great stewed with beans!

I don't know what pig's trotters are, but if it's feet you're talkin' about, then we're eatin' them!

Cheese! Here we have all sorts of cheese made from cow, goat or sheep milk and in a few cases, a combination of two kinds of milk. Absolutely delicious and I think we can give you Frenchies and the Suiss a run for your money! Except for blue cheeses which we never had. I like them but many Portuguese think twice about eating cheese with mould.

 

But immature wine? What are you guys thinking of? We take great pride in our wines. In fact, I think it's the same as with the cheese. French wines are good but ours can be as good. But drinking them before they get the chance to mature is hard to understand. What does Beaujolais taste like when it is mature? Is there such a thing?

 

All in all, and in spite of hearing French food being criticized for lack of flavour, your post has made me curious about French cuisine. I'll definitely look for some recipies in the very near future.

 

Vive la France!

 

 

I enjoy a large Portuguese restaurant next to me, but reading you, it seems that the dished served were quite, say, consensual (feijoada, churrasco, chanfana, cabrito assado, things like that - the pastries are quite tasty, too). Never heard of tripe recipes or dishes like snails with tomato sauce, but it seems original.

 

And agree for the wines: I dislike syrupy wines like Madeira or Porto, but nothing beats a good chilled sparkling Lancers when the summer is hot.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

Actually, for about the two last decades, one of the most, perhaps the most consumed dish in France seem to have been North African couscous (or kuskus), due to immigration. I think that's the same thing in England with Indian/Pakistani cuisine, or Mexican food in Southern USA. It's not a bad thing in itself: a very complete and tasty dish, with numerous sorts of recipes, provided you make no abuse with Harissa sauce: opening your windows for 3 days wouldn't be sufficent to refresh your air!!

 

By the way, about snails, do you think that Jabba the Hutt would look more or less disgusting if he were cooked with a quintal of parsley and 20 drums of garlic butter?

[TX3RN0BILL 3]

Well, I must say that I'm not a fan of the strange smelly cheeses, but the queijo de Azeitão and Serra da Estrela are "delicatessen" in their own right. As for wines, I can only reinforce what CarlosemoG said - we DO have world-class wines. In fact, our wines are famous since the times of the roman empire and we even go so far as to state in our LAWS that wine without a certain percentage of alcohol is not allowed to be designated as wine (since with all the drinking restrictions for drivers in place we have recently begun producing several "de-alcoholized" wines which the portuguese government refuses to allow to be classified as such)...

[charlielima 328]

That sounds like some interesting chow. Perhaps if I can ever pull away from grazing in tide pools and other low tide treats I'd like to try some of those.

CL

Edited November 26, 2009 by charlielima

[Rambler 1-1 9]

I have a rule for what I eat. It must appeal to at least one of my senses before I will taste it. That means it either has to look or smell good, or have an appealing texture.

 

I'd also eat it if I was trying to impress somebody. But that doesn't happen often.

 

And I'm not very cultured when it comes to food, so I won't try to contribute anything else. I can't knock it 'till I try it, which, judging from some descriptions there (and my own standards), won't be hapening soon.

[Guest Eject]

Hello you people of taste.

 

 

 

 

French cuisine is often considered to be one of the best by self-pretended gourmets and other snobs. But I'd like to know how deeply some cultures in the wide world could feel disgusted by some of those dishes (concerning their tastes, or morale convictions):

 

 

Some of the FROG legs were imported from Indonesia, so are the ground SNAILs! I enjoyed the latter in crackers package sold here in Jakarta and other cities. Very tasty!

 

• Frog legs of course, having given to the Frenchies their most common Anglo-Saxon nickname (not often consumed that much in fact, usually served with a sauce to give to the dish the taste it misses)
• Escargots (snails), usually served with garlic butter
• Horse meat or horse sausages (popular since Napoleon's campaigns, sold in specialized butcher shops, not much consumed nowadays)
• Numerous tripe-based dishes all over the country, like andouille (tripe cooked in smoked cold sausage), andouillette (in smoked grilled sausage – very smelly, believe it), tripes à la mode de Caen (with apple cider and Calvados, a distilled cider), tripoux, Marseillese pieds-paquets using also pig's trotters...
• Pig's trotters, usually breaded, or in jelly, or even cooked until the bones inside get reduced to powder!
• Foie gras (fattened by force goose or duck liver)
• Goat cheeses (seem to be not produced in the Anglo-Saxon world, safe for some Celtic counties in UK)
• Blue cheeses with localized areas of mould, like Roquefort (sometimes melted in sauces accompanying mussels or red meats) – said to be smelly
• New wines like Beaujolais Nouveau, immature because fermented only a few weeks, tasteless in the good years and barely drinkable in most other ones, but celebrated in France in an annual national Beaujolais Day, I still don't understand why (the past Thursday actually, which has inspired me this post).

 

 

Please be frank, but keep the rude words into the vomit bag.