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French Food Focus
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     Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments
Welcome to French Food
Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food
and because I live in rural France the stress will be upon French food.
Not that I will limit myself to food only. There are numerous posts
concerning life in France, comments on life in general and, certainly,
opinions about anything that strikes my fancy. |
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Comments
to: yankinparisot@gmail.com
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Don't try to mimic the locals I always find it amusing when foreigners try to be 'local'. That is they try to mimic the dress, mannerisms and customs of the local populace. This happens a lot with ex-pats who come to France seeking to 'blend into the countryside' and 'be like the French'. Now I think its great for we foreigners to try and fit into the local society. Obviously we should dress and act appropriately and we certainly should respect the local customs.
No, its the
mimicking part and the part where things get carried too far that amuses
me. Lets face it if I live to be a hundred I'll never be French. I might
fake it with non-French people, but a French person will spot me as a
phony instantly. ( when I travelled a lot I used to play a game as I sat
around various airports. Spot the nationality! I got to almost a 90%
success rate at doing it without even hearing the person in question
speak. Shoes were the best giveaway.) Somehow we never quite get it just
right no matter how hard we try. Does it matter? No, I don't think so.
Most French people find foreigners fascinating; if you speak passable
French so much the better otherwise trying out their English is fun too.
Where is this
heading? Well, I have in mind a recent example to do with cooking. An
American blogger of note recently did a piece on trying to make Aligot.
Nothing much wrong with that except.... hardly anybody makes their own
Aligot any more. (Aligot by the way is a local dish from the Auvergne
consisting of mashed potatoes, garlic, milk butter and , here's the key,
a special cheese made only in the region) Its the very devil to make as
its hard to get exactly the right cheese outside (unfortunately, this
person didn't.) a very limited area (unfortunately this person lives in
the wrong area to get the cheese) and, here's the really hard part, the
seemingly endless stirring is very hard work. So much so that its
considered a man's job. I've seen it made by our locals for a 'repas'
and even took a turn at stirring, but it really is hard work.
So what everybody,
almost, does is to buy their Aligot at market where there will normally
be a specialist Aligot maker selling the stuff. Either that or the local
will only have Aligot when out to a restaurant. Or if really desperate
you can actually buy Aligot at the supermarket to heat up when you get
home.
Well,
unfortunately this person's Aligot failed. She could having been much
more native if she's just gone out & bought some. (Although I'm not sure
they sell it at market in her part of France) This person, however, is
determined to be LOCAL!! Unfortunately she usually just misses the boat
or the cheese in this case.
Or & here's a
'local' tip. You can turn a 'failed' Aligot into a " Truffade" by adding
a few lardons, flattening it into a thick pancake & frying it in a bit
of pork fat.
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