The Food Here, Part One

As the title suggests, I have quite a bit to say about the food here.  First of all, people here eat at different times then we do in Canada.  On school days, I'm used to eating at 6:30am, 11am, then 4 or 5pm.  Here I eat at about 7:10, 13:00 (1pm), and 20:00 (8pm).  I'm getting used to it, but it actually took a while to stop being absolutely famished as soon as I got home.  Not that it's a bad thing, actually eating late could prevent being really hungry at 3am, (if I was ever still awake at 3am).  The next thing I want to talk about is regional food.  Each little region of France has it's own special dish.  Here in Vendee, there are "haricots" (beans), cooked with various spices which is quite tasty.  There is also brioche, a soft bread usually in the form of a gigantic muffin that is really soft and delicious.  I'm going to attempt to make it for the next Canadian potluck I attend.

I really thought that I didn't like seafood, but apparently I was wrong:  I just don't like river fish.   I tried muscles and loved them.  This is my plate:

I didn't think of taking the picture until after I'd eaten all of them, but we added an uneaten one in the top right corner.  I also tried sole, which I believe is flounder in English.  It was also very tasty.

Another difference between French and Canadian cuisine is the structure.  Here if you're in a restaurant for lunch and dinner there is always a first course, a main course and a dessert.  You don't order a hamburger at a restaurant, that's just fast food places.  When you have guests over you can have an apéritif, where you serve wine and a small snack such as nuts or chips and converse with your guests.  What kind of alcohol you drink and the snacks you serve depends on what region you are in.  Oliviere asked me what a Canadian apéritif was.  I don't think there is one.  I'm not claiming to be an expert on Canada, but my colleagues in Nairn occasionally invited each other over for a beer on the porch, and whenever guests come over we always offer them something to drink, it's doesn't have a name though.

I haven't eaten out much, but a few of the things people eat at amusement parks and touristy areas are waffles, crêpes, and chichi (or churros in the US), which is a kind of large sweet french fry served in a paper cone with chocolate, caramel or nutella (they're very big on nutella here).  They're delicious, but the day I had some I forgot my camera, so here is a picture from the internet:

They are about one inch in diameter, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.  I actually prefer them to the one crêpe I had in Paris (It was undercooked), I'd definitely recommend these.  They may have them in Canada, although I've never seen them before.  I think they're an American thing.

So far there are very few things I've tried and not liked.  I don't like sausages here.  That's one thing that Canadians can definitely do better (in my opinion).  Don't tell the Germans I said that.  And pâte, that one is not really to my taste.  It's a kind of meat spread you eat alone or serve with bread.  And that's it, everything else is amazingly delicious (at home, mind you, the cafeteria at school is a different story for part 2).

So that's it for now, the food is so interesting there may be a part 3, and there will definitely be a part 2 as soon as I remember to take a picture of the school cafeteria.