Let's be honest. The reason why both the French and tourists flock to McDonald's is because French food sucks.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
►
2012
(47)
-
►
April
(10)
- Great Recession, Part II
- Hunger Strike in Dubai Debtor's Prison
- Why high school kids don't care about cars now
- It's been a bad month for Obama.
- Houston is the second most boring city in the worl...
- October Surprise
- It's like deja vu all over again.
- Hobby International
- Pink slime disgusts me.
- Why the hell are we so fat?
-
►
January
(17)
- Hurricane Magnet
- How low can the television networks go?
- Debate Fatigue
- Just another Massachusetts politician running for ...
- Stupid Brits
- Has Facebook has reached that pivotal MySpace mome...
- Newt Gingrich is a hypocrite!
- Boom/Bust
- Make up a bunch of fake political crap and post it...
- Ron Paul is First Class
- Mike and Carol Brady just lost a crapload of money...
- Brad Pitt / Kurt Cobain
- Prescription Drug Shortages
- Housing bubble in Norway
- California Dreamin'
- This would be more fun than Obama vs Romney
- 2012 Predictions
-
►
April
(10)
About Me
- Lou Minatti
- I have two great kids who I love more than life itself, despite any whining you might read here. Everything else is peanuts. You can e-mail me at louminatti at gmail dot com.
Lou's YouTube Channel
Telwink
Swamplot
Lileks
Exurban Nation
James Randi
Dr. Tom, the Astronomy Guy
Eric Berger
Instapundit
Iowahawk
Dvorak
Calculated Risk
Mish
8 comments:
Or at least the price-performance of French food is poor: Inconvenient hours of operation. Slow, rigid service. High prices.
Also, note the exceptional tyranny of table manners that French adults impose on French children... and on each other. At McDonalds, children and adults alike are liberated from that stuffy elitist conformism.
Freedom, speed, low cost, fun...repeatably, every time, any time, at any location. What's not for them to like in the land of culinary tyranny?
My take is that real french fry a lot of their food. But at home, this means large portions. So McD's provides the food they want anyway, in a convenient time and portion size. The only special addition is the burger, and who can blame them for liking burgers, plenty of Americans like the McD's burgers. Now, if the In-n-Out family deigned to open a store in France, we could deconvolve some of the hamburger effect from the fried food effect (not all the effect; freedom fries would still be there muddying the waters).
If you truly think that French food sucks, Lou, we clearly are not dining in the same restaurants. Let me know next time you go and I will give you a long list of sublime restaurants in Paris. For reasonable prices, start with Au Lyonaise.
Gotta go with Bob on this one. I love French food. I love British food as well. It's just a matter of avoiding a lot of the famous/infamous dishes.
Bob, if French food is the cat's meow, why are French people avoiding it in droves? Why are there no French food franchises?
I honestly don't remember being all that impressed. I do remember one time I was in a cellar somewhere in Paris eating food and drinking wine in some expensive place and thinking, "This is pretty cool, I am three sheets to the wind and eating an expensive dinner in Paris." I had a great time. But that was the wine and the people talking to me. And I readily admit I am not sophisticated enough to appreciate French cuisine. :-)
I think their neighbors just to the east agree with me on this. Germans dig Italian and I've had great meals there. I've had wonderful Italian food in Bavaria in a restaurant owned by a Greek dude. I don't recall seeing any French places, though.
My last meal at Au Lyonaise was simple pork roast with vegetables. Every pea, potato, and carrot was perfect in appearance and perfectly cooked. The jus was a perfect complement to the food, as was the wine. The core of French cooking is extraordinary attention to detail, subtly in ingredients (herbs and spices), and perfection in the actual cooking. It is difficult to do well, and there is a dearth of expert French chefs. Perhaps that, along with expense and the significant time investment required to do it right, are the reasons it is decreasing in popularity.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, though, Lou. I have a friend who is a French chef. He visits me in Houston once or twice a year. Last time we had truffled risotto, various fois gras dishes, provence-style vegetables, and braised short ribs. If you're up for a free (and hopefully educational) meal, I'll invite you to our next food and wine orgy.
Having lived in Germany (outside Munich) I'm sure they would trade their national cuisine for anybody else's.
This is "Anonymous" again from the first post. Ditto the comment about bavarian food. I also lived in Munich and worked nearby for a long stretch. Very few restaurants with bavarian cuisine there outside of the tourist joints.
Ditto Lou's post about great memories, three sheets to the wind, in fancy French restaurants. Lived there for 10 years, much of it on an unrestrained expense statement. When Bob talks about meticulous preparation of the food, well duh. That's how it become awesome...and very very expensive...and rigid in preparation, presentation, timing and so forth, as viewed by the customer. Dare I say "anal"? Yes, I do. If you've got five hours and $200 a head to burn, great. Seldom happens.
Post a Comment