What are you eating?

[Sapphire]

Strange how habits and culture can vary so much across continents.
I like having multiple things to eat in small quantities.
I love those restaurant where you get like 10 to 18 (yes 18) different dishes, in very small quantities.
You start thinking you'll never have enough to fill yourself, but around 2 third of the dishes, you start getting full... and it keeps coming and is delicious.

Now we are only talking school canteens.
I have to say that quality varies a lot depending on schools and cities. But there's really a full course and they try their best to give a balanced meal.
Also, tables are often organised to help socialisation, talk and eat is very important here in France, so much that many work meetings are in fact done at lunch time.

Reminds me of when I was being babysat by a woman from Ukraine in the 4th grade. I completely resisted the idea of eating the small pancakes that she was cooking instead of just large ones because I thought I wouldn't get full. She made me eat them anyway and it turned out I was wrong lol.

The school lunches for America look particularly disgusting, but still within the bounds of reality if they only chose poor schools. I work in a school in Chinatown and the lunches look like that. I'll take a picture of it. The meals in the schools I experienced are more similar to what Buff described, pre-packaged and cooked in bulk in a single servings size. It was a main dish and a drink, and maybe a bag of chips as extra. Hmm now that I think about it, I never really experienced the sampling buffet style of eating on a regular basis until I came to college.

The Korean/Japanese foods look just like what they serve in the plastic bento boxes at the Asian stores. There's so much food that it's hard to finish...

In the dining hall at the dorm in my college, there is a huge variety of foods, so one's plate could easily look the ones in France (without that weirdass fruit). Or Brazil or Italy or Sweden.

Now I just think they were trying to make America look bad.

[David75]

In the dining hall at the dorm in my college, there is a huge variety of foods, so one's plate could easily look the ones in France (without that weirdass fruit). Or Brazil or Italy or Sweden.

enhanced-buzz-19037-1302802991-13.jpg

If you talk about the item in the bottom left corner, this is not a fruit, but an artichoke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artichoke

I had to become an adult to truly enjoy it though, as it really has a special taste and smell.

For some reason, I really think that picture is more a stereotype, or at least carefully chosen, as I don't ever remember having artichoke as a choice throughout the 20 years I have been to school canteens (from kindergarten to Engineer degree). Mainly because it is not that easy to eat/handle.
A french humorist once said:
"Artichoke is truly for poor people. It's the only dish that has more of it AFTER you've you ate it"

It is also true that it looks like some edible food you'd find in a Star Trek or Stargate episode

[Animeniax]

For some reason, I really think that picture is more a stereotype, or at least carefully chosen, as I don't ever remember having artichoke as a choice throughout the 20 years I have been to school canteens (from kindergarten to Engineer degree). Mainly because it is not that easy to eat/handle.
A french humorist once said:
"Artichoke is truly for poor people. It's the only dish that has more of it AFTER you've you ate it"

Did you ever have a huge plate of freedom fries for lunch like in that picture?

[David75]

Did you ever have a huge plate of freedom fries for lunch like in that picture?

I admitt I had the same reaction the first time I've seen that pic, there's a contradiction beetween fries with ketchup and artichoke. It's just I forgot about that reaction.
In many canteens, you can chose exactly what you want. But that choice also would be weird. Or we have a vegetarian here, who didn't like the other veggies alternative that day.

[rockmanj]

I admitt I had the same reaction the first time I've seen that pic, there's a contradiction beetween fries with ketchup and artichoke. It's just I forgot about that reaction.
In many canteens, you can chose exactly what you want. But that choice also would be weird. Or we have a vegetarian here, who didn't like the other veggies alternative that day.

Sadly, I often feel like an asshole when I inquire about vegetarian options.

[darkshadow]

Did you ever have a huge plate of freedom fries for lunch like in that picture?

Huge order of fries only is actually very normal here, I actually did some research about this and it seems that our country has perfected the art of "serving" fries. I though it was pretty funny that a lot of different countries served fries more as a side dish, in small portions. Also the lack of diversty in sauces also really suprised me....but then again we have a nationwide system of fastfood "slang" used just to identify fries + a certain sauce.

[rockmanj]

R
In the dining hall at the dorm in my college, there is a huge variety of foods, so one's plate could easily look the ones in France (without that weirdass fruit). Or Brazil or Italy or Sweden.

Now I just think they were trying to make America look bad.

Yea, that was a whole artichoke, and even though I like it, I have never had a whole one put in front of me. Also, I agree with Shinta; while a lot of Filipino food is tasty, there were few things that I found to be healthy. I must have gained about 7 pounds a month when I lived there.

[David75]

Yea, that was a whole artichoke, and even though I like it, I have never had a whole one put in front of me. Also, I agree with Shinta; while a lot of Filipino food is tasty, there were few things that I found to be healthy. I must have gained about 7 pounds a month when I lived there.

Well, having a whole artichoke to eat and the appropriate dipping sauce for scales is very nice. And after a hard work getting every bits, you can finally get the heart.
Really a nice appetizer, although you have to pause a bit because it gives a false feeling of being full for some time.

[rockmanj]

Well, having a whole artichoke to eat and the appropriate dipping sauce for scales is very nice. And after a hard work getting every bits, you can finally get the heart.
Really a nice appetizer, although you have to pause a bit because it gives a false feeling of being full for some time.

That sounds lovely...sadly, I live in the US. I do want to visit France and sample the cuisine there. I have not heard anything bad about the food there. Most of my friends (European ones included) say that the French take dining seriously.

[David75]

That sounds lovely...sadly, I live in the US. I do want to visit France and sample the cuisine there. I have not heard anything bad about the food there. Most of my friends (European ones included) say that the French take dining seriously.

Well, Italians do to, and other european countries.
Japanese tend to be perfectionnists too.

Sadly, things change and most restaurants, even at medium to high prices, use cheating methods like industrial meals they just have to heat... And it becomes hard to track.And what pains me is that it also happens in touristic places, I mean famous ones. I find it devastating for the culture and traditions.
Also, do not underestimate french restaurants abroad. It sometimes happens that chefs decide to travel and exercice their art in other countries and pass on their experience. Passion and dedication can make excellent cooks, even if they are not from the country.
That could be a good start, even if prices might be a tad high.

For anyone traveling to France, I would advise to use the "Guide Rouge Michelin" (red guide) for high end restaurants, and "Guide Vert" (green guide) for good quality/price ratio.