Traditional French breakfast: description, best recipes and reviews. Why are French women so graceful?

Admit it, we always want to know a little more than we have the opportunity. See at least out of the corner of your eye how people live in the neighborhood or in other countries, what they eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Here, for example, the French? They don't eat frog legs, really! How do ordinary French people make up their daily menu? I managed to visit three completely different French families with different lifestyles and pace of life, different habits and income levels. So, France, today, three families and French cuisine as it is.

Summer in the French countryside

Guillemet and Olivier live outside the city 50 kilometers from Paris in a large two-story mansion. They have their own farm, and the office is located in a separate building near the house, so they don’t need what is called “torn” between home and work. Their three children, Charles, Laurence, and Mathieu (aged 7, 5 and 3), are cared for by a nanny when the parents are at work.

Giymet is a very caring mother and monitors the nutrition of her family very scrupulously. Every evening, in a special notebook, she paints the menu for the next day. Oddly enough, but it is not customary for them to have a full breakfast, as most nutritionists advise. Guillemat doesn't eat breakfast at all, Olivier has a cup of coffee, the children eat corn flakes with milk or yogurt.

It is customary to sit down to dinner in the family at exactly 13.00. Guillemet even gets angry if her husband is late at work. Lunch begins with a salad - just lettuce leaves dressed with balsamic or wine vinegar and olive oil. After sure meat or a fish dish such as beef medallions in a sun-dried tomato sauce, fish fillet baked with a slice of lemon and herbs. For garnish - steamed vegetables: potatoes or cauliflower.

The French do not eat soups for lunch, and for dinner, this is an infrequent dish, although the word "dinner" in French sounds like le souper. Only once in a few weeks of my stay in this family was for dinner. It's simple: zucchini, broccoli and mushrooms are fried separately in olive oil, then chopped in a blender. Fatty cream is added to this mixture, salted, peppered and slightly warmed up before serving.

Complete lunch or dinner with cheese. Plateau is served with different types of cheeses (5-7 varieties), which can be combined with slices of French crispy baguette. It's unrealistically delicious! And only after this cheese “ritual”, we can assume that lunch or dinner is over.

Despite the presence of three children, the family is cool about sweets. For dessert, they eat fruit or the simplest homemade pies.

By the way, peaches in this family are usually eaten ... with a knife and fork !!! At the same time, first you need to remove the skin from the peach (again with the help of a knife and fork), and only then, cutting it off in pieces, enjoy the fruit. Experiment somehow in the kitchen secretly so that your loved ones do not accuse you of being too aristocratic, taste the peach with a knife and fork. And, if you still have enough patience, believe me, the peach will seem to taste completely different. Fortunately for me, five-year-old Laurence, due to her age, was also not an expert in figured peach cutting.

Provincial charm with an Italian accent

Anna and Joel- pensioners. They live in Bourges - in the Middle Ages the historical residence of the French kings - in their small house, immersed in flowers, with a green lawn and red maples in the yard.

The unhurried pace of life also affects the format of lunches and dinners. They eat slowly, as if it is not just food, but something more - a ceremony or even an old tradition. Lunch starts with an appetizer. Most often this traditional lettuce leaves with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic or wine vinegar. By the way, Joel brings salad for dinner right from his small garden, where strawberries, tomatoes, onions, basil and ... potatoes also grow. Yes, the elderly French are also very fond of all sorts of dacha affairs, but, of course, not on the same scale as our pensioners.

One day we were surprised appetizer of parma ham with melon. A ripe melon, preferably chilled, is de-seeded and cut lengthwise into large slices. The ham is cut very thinly, almost transparent slices and laid out on a plate, put a slice of melon on top. It is believed that this dish was born in Italy, but, in my opinion, it fits very organically into a French-style dinner.

For the main course on a mixture of butter and olive oil, portions of rabbit are fried until golden brown. Add chopped onion and fry until translucent. After the rabbit meat, sprinkle with flour and pour chicken broth. Add garlic, a glass of white wine, a mixture of peppers, a handful of raisins and a sprig of rosemary. Simmer covered for about an hour. Separately, mix the yolks with cream, add a couple of tablespoons of the cooled juice from the container where the rabbit was stewed, and pour the dish with this sauce. The side dish for the rabbit was asparagus beans, lightly stewed in a saucepan with butter and garlic.

Traditionally, the lunch is completed by a cheese plate with 5-6 varieties of cheese to choose from. Bread in Bourges, by the way, is completely different and also unusually tasty.

Unlike the previous family with three children, the venerable Anna and Joel turned out to be those sweet tooth. Every day we enjoyed different delicacies. One of them is a simple French dessert with cherries. The dough is made from a mixture of milk, flour, eggs and sugar. Peeled cherries are poured with this mixture, and after 20 minutes the most delicate dessert is ready. Be sure to get a couple of cherries on a branch with a leaf. And after you take the clafoutis out of the oven, decorate the dessert with them. It's very elegant. Almost a work of art. An important detail: it is better to use red cherries or cherries so that when baking, the juice of the berries does not stain the dough so much.

Crazy crazy metropolitan life

Anna and Joel's daughter - Marie - has been living in Paris for a long time. She works as a teacher of French language and literature in one of the colleges in the capital. She rents a one-room apartment with her fiancé Francois in the Marais, one of the oldest districts of the city.

For breakfast, she treats me to cereal with milk and toast with jam., moreover, jars of confiture for every taste: apricot, strawberry, blueberry. Magical taste overlooking a quiet French street and neighboring balconies with bright geraniums. But Marie admits that such measured breakfasts happen only on weekends, when you don’t have to rush to work. Often, the breakfast of a resident of this French metropolis consists of a cup of coffee..

Important detail

All these French lunches and dinners were not complete without a glass of wine. On an intuitive level, the French know how to choose red or white to the dish in such a way that sometimes it seems: your lunch or dinner is not just a set of dishes, but a well-thought-out plan in advance. A plan to conquer your taste buds.

The French are famous in the world as true gourmets. Who, no matter how they are, knows the real deal in the kitchen and understands the subtle combination of products and the variety of tastes. Further in the article, we will not only talk about what the French like to eat, but also provide information about the food that, most likely, they would not eat.

True gourmets

Food is an integral part of the life of this people, a kind of ritual, of course, food is necessary for all people, but ... the French are different. They, first of all, look at it from the aesthetic side - for them it is a kind of creative object. Moreover, everything should be beautiful - both the internal taste content and the external beauty of serving food.

Understanding what the French like to eat, first of all, it is worth mentioning that they do not have ordinary dishes - even the simplest ones have their own zest. This is the standard of fine taste and a special, unmatched sophistication. So, what do the French like and what don't they like to eat?

Russian dishes that they would not try

Each nation has its own preferences in food: what is good for one may go beyond all reasonable limits for another, or, at best, will not be something tasty. Russian and French cuisine, of course, are different from each other, and they have certain dishes that our people will not understand and will not accept, and similarly on their part.

For example, the French do not like herring, but in our country it is a very common product that is in good demand. And the inhabitants of France call it none other than "rotten fish."

The next product is jelly, however, it is incomprehensible not only for foreigners, but even not all Russians find it appetizing. Confused by its strange texture, smell and color. Buckwheat with milk is also beyond their understanding. Many of the French have never tried this cereal at all, and even more so in combination with milk.

Fat is also a controversial product. They eat it, but not in its pure form - most often it is bacon, with a small fat layer. Kissel also did not please the French - in terms of consistency it resembles the same jelly, for the same reasons it was rejected from the list of taste preferences.

Now it will be interesting to consider what the French eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

How does the morning start?

It is customary for Russians to eat heartily in the morning, but the French are deprived of this habit. Their breakfast is very light. In the classical sense, it looks like this: orange juice, croissants, and also ... coffee. Also on this list may be dried bread, honey, confiture, butter. Naturally, not everyone eats like this, but this, so to speak, is breakfast in its classic version.

Let's see what's for lunch

A standard French lunch consists of three parts:

• entrance (first) course;
• main;
• dessert.

Many deviate from this rule and can order one thing: a sandwich, salad, some dish or soup. The latter, it should be noted, began to lose its popularity. However, it is still used as an entrance dish. The most popular of them are onion and white cabbage. Pureed soups are in the greatest demand:

• vegetable;
• from leeks with potatoes;
• from young peas;
• gazpacho soup, originally from Italy.

Aperitif

A traditional home-cooked lunch begins with an aperitif (whiskey, etc., or just juice can be used as it). The aperitif is brought to the table with the so-called des amuse-gueule. In their role are salted cookies, canapes, salted nuts.

On the first

And now it's the turn of the entrance dish, in its role is often some kind of salad. The list of the most popular looks like this:

• "Nicoise" (it includes green beans, tuna, olives, lettuce, boiled eggs, tomatoes);
• tomato salad;
• green salad (a mixture of greens);
• grated carrots with dressing;
• eggs with mayonnaise;
• beetroot salad.

Next, different types of pate (pate), sharkutri (sausages, serverat) are served along with gherkins. Open pies are also popular here, for example, with cheese, leeks, jambon, as well as those made according to an individual recipe.

Another dish that is appreciated by the French is snails (Burgundy) with garlic, for us this is definitely an unusual dish. Of course, it is worth noting seafood - oysters, scallops, mussels, shrimps, crabs.

The favorite of the French table is the dish "Fruy de Mayor" - a salad with shrimp, mussels and salmon, seasoned with yogurt. Sardines with olive oil and lemon juice are also popular.

By the way, for the curious, the Nicoise salad recipe is as follows: 140 g of tuna (canned food), 10 olives, 200 g of green beans, 8 anchovies, 4 tomatoes, 2 eggs, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, lettuce - according to taste, 1.5 tbsp. l. wine vinegar.

1. First you need to prepare the sauce using olive oil, wine vinegar, freshly ground pepper, garlic, basil leaves, salt. All this must be thoroughly mixed and set aside for now.
2. Now you need to boil the beans in salted water over low heat. Rinse it with cold water. In order to make it more tasty, it can be lightly fried for 1-2 minutes with olive oil and garlic.
3. Tomatoes and boiled eggs need to be cut, and preferably in the same way - it will look more beautiful this way. Olives, if they are small, do not need to be crushed.
4. Let's get to the final part. Put the torn lettuce leaves on the bottom of the plate. Next come thin onion feathers and pour a little sauce. We distribute the beans over the dish and again a little dressing on top. Put the tuna in a slide in the center. We lay egg and tomato slices around, as well as anchovies. To taste, you can add freshly ground pepper and cooked sauce.

Main course

We have considered the entree options, and now we move on to the main dish, which, of course, must contain protein and carbohydrates. It can be a piece of meat or fish with a side dish. Beef cutlets, fried chicken steak, baked veal, tartare, salmon fillet, flounder, duck breasts - in general, there can be many options here.

French fries, cauliflower, beans, artichokes, lentils, pasta, rice, steamed vegetables are traditionally served as a side dish. As a condiment - sauce, sour cream, butter or olive oil, spices.

After the second course, cheese platter will be used, and as you know, this product is simply very popular in the country. Here they are produced in a wide variety of forms and for every taste.

Dessert

And in the end, if you get to a French lunch, coffee and dessert in creams, pastries and fruits will be waiting for you. Moreover, fruits can be in different forms, for example, flambéed in cognac, rum or strong wine.

Consider now what the French prefer for dessert. The leaders are melting chocolate dessert (fondant au chocolat). Also on this list are chocolate mousse, pancakes - again with chocolate, banana and even cognac.

Simple in execution, but no less tasty dessert "Floating Islands", made from whipped proteins, milk, vanilla sugar and caramel, in addition, you can also add the famous tiramisu, yogurt with sugar or jam and also "strawberries".

What does it look like gin?

What do the French like to eat for dinner? The French prefer to have dinner at home, as well as to dine, but as an exception they can go to a bistro or restaurant. Unlike lunch, which they pay great attention to, in the evening they eat light meals.

It can be any of the vegetables for the first, in the cold season they can be replaced by hot soups, and a main course is added to them, at the end of the dessert or cheese.

Differences in French cuisine by region

In different regions of the country there are differences in the same recipe. However, regardless of the region, there are common features that are inherent in French dishes. As a rule, a lot of vegetables and root vegetables are used, and there is also generally very little use of dairy products (cheeses are an exception). So what do the French like to eat in different parts of the country?

For example, Lyon cuisine is famous for its delicious onion soup - gratine, in Lorraine, open pies with slices of smoked bacon and ham with melted cheese, as well as stewed cabbage with pork and smoked breast are popular dishes.

In Burgundy, wine is used in many dishes in cooking - it is added to sauces and gravies. Snails marinated in wine are served without shells with onions and parsley.

In Provencal cuisine, various vegetables, garlic and all kinds of seasonings are widely used. The consumption of meat is limited here. The vegetable dishes here are very hearty. They often eat fish - halibut, pike, carp. They love seafood - mussels and oysters.

Desserts are in special demand here: there are traditionally chocolate, nuts, nougat, creme brulee, cookies and cakes on the table.

What do the French like to eat in Normandy? Here they use dairy products in cooking - butter, cream and Camembert cheese. Even meat and fish are always cooked with cream.

What the French like to eat, now we know, but still, each part of the country has its own characteristics, and this is how they differ from each other.

Some of the most famous dishes

What other dishes are worth trying when you are in the country of true connoisseurs of gourmet cuisine? Gourmet reviews of French cuisine indicate that the dishes here have a unique combination of flavors, in addition to this, they look very aesthetically pleasing. For cooking, only fresh products are used, attention to detail and design is paid.

The French favorite dish is foie gras. It is a very popular delicacy that can be prepared at home. There are many recipes for it, and we will consider the most common. It is easy to prepare and requires a minimum of ingredients.

Fried foie gras requires 500 g of duck or goose liver, green salad leaves, pepper and salt.

1. First, the liver must be carefully washed and divided into parts.
2. Place the pieces in the refrigerator for a while.
3. Then pepper and salt, put in a pan and fry for 1-2 minutes on each side.
4. After a golden crust appears, it is necessary to remove the liver from the pan. In this case, you do not need to add oil, because it itself is very oily.
5. Toasted foie gras must be placed in a baking dish and brought to readiness already in the oven.
6. The delicacy is placed on a plate, which is decorated with lettuce leaves, and served immediately to the table.

Naturally, in addition to this dish, there are many others in the national cuisine that will answer the question of what the French actually eat and what else they prefer:

• "Bloody steak" - the meat is fried on the outside, but at the same time it remains half-baked inside. Served with potatoes and vegetables;
• roti - roast beef;
• kok-o-ven - a rooster in wine;
• frog legs are a famous French delicacy. The legs of these amphibians are fried in breadcrumbs or deep-fried. However, not everyone dares to try them;
• Escargot is a gourmet dish made from snails.

And here is another popular dish - ratatouille. Let's take a closer look at this vegetable dish, simple, but very tasty.

To prepare ratatouille, you need to take one eggplant and zucchini each, 4 tomatoes, a third of red pepper, 3-4 cloves of garlic, half an onion, vegetable oil, ground black pepper, salt, bay leaf, herbs.

1. Next, cut the zucchini, eggplant and three tomatoes into thin circles.
2. Place the vegetables in a greased dish. At the same time, they should alternate in color. Add bay leaf, pepper, sprinkle with oil.
3. Cut the onion and pepper into small cubes, which then need to be fried in oil.
4. The remaining tomato must be peeled, finely chopped and mixed with pepper and onion. Pour in half a glass of water. Sauce cook for 5 minutes. Add chopped garlic and herbs to it, as well as salt and pepper to taste.
5. Pour the vegetables with this sauce and bake them in the oven for an hour at 180°C.
6. And now you need to beautifully put it in the center of the dish and pour over the sauce. Bon appetit!

Another feature of the national cuisine should be noted: almost all dishes are served with sauce. There are thousands of recipes for sauces, and for the French, this is not just a sauce for a dish, but a very complex recipe and a certain sacrament. However, here it is customary to treat the preparation of any dish in this way, putting the soul into it, creating incredible combinations of tastes that conquer the world.

French cuisine can rightfully be called the most refined in the world, and the process of cooking is a real art. Knowing this, you will understand that the French love to eat.

Looking around in a crowd in France - be it Paris or a small town - you hardly see seriously obese women, even moderately overweight people are few here. And also you will not see many people, both men and women, with the pumped muscles of a disciplined athlete, even just with chiseled bodies.

Why? Because in France moderation and pleasure are lifelong mantras, that's how they are raised, that's how they stay healthy, and that's how they live by and large.

Refusal of food and some of its individual types, negative attitude towards food, consumption of factory food - all this is not the norm.

Most French women don't go to the gym for a toned figure. They go there because they know how useful it is. They find the right kind of physical activity that they can enjoy and know they'll feel great afterwards (and look better in skinny jeans).

But ask any ordinary French woman: how often does she go to training? Maximum 1-2 times a week. And very rarely in the morning before work, since most fitness centers in France are open from 9 am. So forget about training 5 days a week at 5am.

Training 1-2 times a week - seems to be not enough? But French women are constantly on the move, walking for hours and climbing stairs. And this is every day!

Walking with the family after dinner on a day off is common, but they don't even consider it "workout". It is also normal for them to take their children to the kindergarten / school on foot and take them home, go shopping and then climb with heavy bags in their hands to the 7th floor.

So, despite the fact that visits to the fitness center or a game of tennis occur a couple of times a week, French women are constantly moving. And if they are lucky enough to live somewhere in the French Alps, then fitness is second nature here: hiking, biking, water sports, skiing and much more are an integral part of spending any weekend here.

As with an active lifestyle and fitness, French women practice moderation in food too. No type of food is avoided (including full-fat dairy products, alcohol, sweets, and all types of bread); however, caution in the quantity and frequency of such treats is how they manage to balance moderation, pleasure, and health.

During lunch, a French woman can refuse bread, but on weekends she will never miss a glass of champagne and a lemon tart.

There are no deprivations and absolute rules in the life of a French woman. It's all about wise choices, quantity, and opportunities, as well as proper nutrition most of the time. French-style eating is very easy to maintain for a long time, or even a lifetime, because you can eat a little bit of everything, although the main emphasis is on healthy, natural food.

You can talk about how French women stay slim for a very long time. But nothing will give a clearer idea than a visual menu of real French women. Rebeca Plantier, a well-known writer based in France, asked her French friends to take pictures of everything they eat during the day to show the diet visually.

There are no whimsical or unusual ingredients here, just everything that the average French woman eats on a typical day. Rebeca asked them to take pictures of everything, including drinks, snacks and dessert.

Instead of taking pictures of French food, each of Plantier's friends summarized the nutritional and health advice they apply to their daily lives. This will make it easier for us to understand their food choices, as well as their lifestyle and cultural overtones.

The French women also included types of physical activity for the week and ways to recover from "gluttony" in special cases: on vacation, on weekends and holidays.

Breakfast

Homemade buckwheat pancakes with almond butter, raisins and a cup of organic vegetable juice.

Dinner

Fish cooked with tomatoes, onions, ginger and peppers, basmati rice, fruit salad.

Snack at 17:00

Apple, herbal tea.

Dinner at 8 pm

Homemade vegetable soup (carrots, potatoes, leeks, zucchini) and a salad of endive, half an avocado, olives, pumpkin and flaxseeds.

1. If she wants dessert after dinner, she eats a few slices of dark chocolate (80%).

2. She does not eat cheese every day, usually she chooses goat cheese.

3. Kati usually drinks up to 1.5 liters of herbal teas and water per day.

4. For fitness, she does Pilates once a week and at least two weekend workouts: hiking, biking, skiing, etc., depending on the season.

5. On weekdays she often eats in restaurants, so when cooking at home, she uses as many vegetables as possible.

Breakfast

Mixed cereal porridge with almond milk, almonds, walnuts, goji berries and fresh pears. Herb tea.

Dinner

Chicken with leek, rice, cheese and bread.

Dinner

Pasta with green peas, onions and sweet peppers, beet and carrot salad with vinaigrette dressing.

1. During the day Dolphin drinks water and herbal teas.

2. On the weekends, he can drink up to 2 glasses of wine.

3. Avoids sugar and dairy products.

4. Eat plenty of lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, and omega-3 foods.

5. If she drinks too much at parties, she drinks a lot of broth all the next day.

6. Pilates and exercises to tone the legs and buttocks during the week.

Breakfast

Large bowl of fresh fruit, yogurt, tea.

Dinner

Salmon with red pepper, avocado and cucumber salad, cheese, 2 types of fruit.

Dinner

Sausage, green beans, potatoes, cheese, bread, fruit and applesauce.

1. Vanina tries to make herself a light dinner several times a week (less quantity, light composition and preparation) to balance improper or heavy meals in restaurants or at parties.

2. Her weekly activities include regular walking, Pilates, tap dancing and tennis. She skates every winter and plays golf several times a month.

Breakfast

Pretty typical French breakfast of brioche, honey, butter and coffee.

Dinner

Steak and green beans. Dessert: 1 spoon of chestnut "cream" with coffee.

Snack

Chocolate bun (brioche).

Dinner

This type of light dish is often served in France: some meats, capers, blue cheese, bread and fruit.

1. Eats until full, no more.

2. Never takes supplements (unless away).

3. For dessert - either cheese or sweets, but never both.

4. Always include carbohydrates in your meals.

5. Eats moderately for breakfast, for lunch - the main course, dinner - light.

6. Depending on the size and nutritional value of the meal, may skip the afternoon snack.

7. Every day: 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 glass of wine and bread.

8. Enjoys a croissant or chocolate bread on weekends.

9. Always eat a lot of vegetables for lunch.

Breakfast

Bread with butter and coffee.

Dinner

Salmon, lettuce, zucchini terrine (she makes it herself with zucchini, eggs, milk and spices) and fruit salad for dessert.

Dinner

Generous portion of risotto and vegetable soup.

1. No snacking between meals.

2. Exercise every day. The type of physical activity varies depending on how you feel.

3. Short naps, if possible.

4. Regular body care.

5. The key point is homemade food for the whole family (Corinne is a fan of the Thermomix kitchen robot for simple, quick and healthy meals).

Breakfast

Baguette campagne (dark bread) with either jam or local honey, coffee, fruit (banana that day) and sometimes plain yogurt.

Dinner

Chicken breast, rice, baked vegetables and endive salad. There is no Greek yogurt for dessert in the photo.

Snack

Usually two fruits (on that day it was a banana and an apple) or one fruit and a handful of nuts.

Dinner

A large bowl of vegetable soup, a piece of ham and bread.

1. A couple of glasses of wine on weekends only.

2. Exercise daily - in any form. Sophie usually walks in the afternoon and plays tennis and swims on the weekends.

3. Sweets or desserts a couple of times a week. She tries to do it less often.

4. Once a week, eat only vegetables in the form of salads and soups, giving the body a rest from the digestion of meat, fish and eggs.

5. Favorite drink is water. On fasting days from meat, Sophie drinks up to three liters of water to help the body "cleanse" from the inside.

6. Every three months Sophie goes for a massage/facial and takes a day off from her family (alone or with friends).

Breakfast

Bread or crackers with butter, honey, and kiwi and tea.

Dinner

Baked cod, a salad of various vegetables and a spoonful of rice.

Dinner

Vegetable soup, salad, lentil cutlets, steamed endive, yogurt.

1. During the day she drinks water and tea.

2. As a former smoker, Kristin tries to keep track of the amount of sweets, as she does not want to gain weight.

3. The day after some grand dinner, she eats vegetables and fish or chicken.

4. If she gets hungry between meals, she will eat some fruit.

5. She tries not to eat bread, red meat or drink alcohol.

6. She swims in the lake all year round and does water aerobics three times a week, and also cycles out of town.

The French are an incredibly proud nation. They are proud of their language, free education, health insurance, democracy. But, above all, the French are proud of their cuisine. Here, eating is no longer a culture, but a cult. No wonder the cuisine of this particular country has been included in the list of the World Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO for eight years now. The first and only of the world's gastronomy.

For the French, lunch or dinner is not just a meal, but a significant part of social life: an occasion to get together with friends or colleagues, chat with family, and have a good time. Therefore, this process is strictly regulated, and any deviation from it is perceived as an insult.

So, the French do not welcome snacks, but have lunch and dinner at a strictly defined time. Lunch - from 12 to 15, later - it is impossible. If you want to have lunch after three in the afternoon, you will hardly find a decent restaurant open. You will have to wait for dinner, which starts around seven in the evening, or look for a simpler cafe, say, a brasserie. Or, excuse me, McDonald's.

Aperitif always, digestif everywhere

Lunch and dinner follow approximately the same scenario, the difference can only be in the amount of alcohol (in the evening, of course, more). First of all, an aperitif. Twenty minutes before a meal, every self-respecting Frenchman will drink a glass of wine, port or liquor, whichever you prefer. Some prefer stronger drinks like gin or rum, but in society it is customary to leave them for a digestif (a drink after a meal for better digestion). Alsatian white wine with the unpronounceable name Gewurztraminer (German neighbors make themselves felt), various anise liqueurs (for example, Pastis and Ricard), sweet nutmeg wines, and in summer Breton and Norman cider are especially respected as an aperitif.

By the way, if we are not talking about a lunch break on a typical weekday, but about dinner with friends or a traditional Sunday family lunch ‘le répas dominical’, then the aperitif can last for an hour. And if you heard somewhere that Russians drink and drink, and Europeans have a drinking culture, then I can assure you: the French still know how to drink an aperitif on an empty stomach. Therefore, it is important to move from an aperitif to an entre in time.

What about first?

Antre, that is, the first course or light snack, is of three types: soup, salad or, in fact, an appetizer. In France, as, indeed, throughout Europe, soup is not in honor: you can’t find whole pieces of meat in it, like in borscht, they don’t put sour cream in it, and, of course, it will not replace the main dish.

The most popular is the famous onion soup. Lots and lots of onions fried and stewed in butter, the fattest broth, and on top - croutons covered with melted cheese. Beware, very high in calories and super nutritious! A more dietary option is just a vegetable soup, an analogue of the Italian minestrone. Thin broth with potato pieces, peas, onions, beans and other vegetables at the discretion of the chef. If desired, you can find both fish soup and tomato soup, but these dishes are less common.

Of the salads, the most famous are goat cheese salad (goat cheese, lettuce, croutons), Nicoise salad (tuna, green beans, tomatoes, egg) and Russian salad (Olivier we know). Russian salad is located in the same place as the menu in Russian - in very touristic places. By the way, if the waiter helpfully asks whether to add a salad to your main course - don’t flatter yourself, in the French sense, a salad is just lettuce leaves, more complex dishes have their own names.

The rest of the options, which we have modestly labeled as "appetizers", include all the fun: snails in burgundy sauce (i.e., in garlic sauce), boiled mussels, fatty goose liver foie gras, oysters, beef tartare or tartare from tuna and ... an egg with mayonnaise. Yes, the French love eggs with mayonnaise on the entrée, and in front of my eyes, one representative of this glorious nation, choosing from snails, mussels and foie gras, settled on it.

From appetizers onwards, food is washed down with wine or beer, and what they drank for an aperitif is no longer drunk! If they drank wine for an aperitif, then they drink another wine with food, do not offend the French, follow the rules. And be careful with the baguette, which is served in large quantities, because the main course and dessert are still ahead!

And for the second?

The main dish is usually meat and a side dish. Fish - cod or salmon - are also found, but if this is not the coast, then you should not expect much from it. With meat, the choice is much richer and more varied. The most famous is, of course, Burgundy meat: stewed pieces of beef with potatoes. Thanks to long languishing, the meat becomes tender, and a little red wine gives it a refined aroma. Or a medium rare rump steak with Roquefort sauce. Or a veal blanket à l’ancienne, rabbit in mustard sauce, lamb leg stewed with rosemary…

Or, here, duck confit - a leg that languished for hours in its own fat over low heat. Or duck magret, a skin-on fillet baked for a long time in the oven, served sliced ​​into thin pieces with something sweet like a pear or an orange. Another must-try poultry dish is rooster in wine (may sound familiar in French - “kokovan” or ‘coq au vin’). He, like duck, cooks slowly, and therefore just melts in your mouth. By the way, the French replace the long phrase “cook for a long time on low heat” with one word - ‘mijoter’, which betrays their love for slowness and thoroughness in kitchen matters.

France, despite its modest size compared to Russia (just don’t tell the French this, they have the largest country in the European Union), seems huge due to regional features and differences, including gastronomic ones.

So, the already mentioned Alsace is famous for its chowder: pieces of pork, bacon, sausages and sausages, potatoes with sauerkraut for garnish. From Lorraine, quiche loren became famous all over the world: an open pie stuffed with eggs, cheese, smoked brisket (this is a classic recipe, of which there are hundreds of variations). And the dish of the Alpine shepherds is fondue, melted cheese in a pot, in which pieces of baguette on thin skewers are dipped. Or raclette - the brother of fondue, here slices of potatoes, gherkins or olives are dipped in cheese. From the French south, cassoulet became famous throughout the country: a thick bean stew with meat: pork, poultry or lamb.

Voila, now dessert

Creme brulee, fondant, profiteroles, tiramisu, chocolate mousse, ice cream or cheese. Yes, the French serve cheese as a dessert, do not be surprised. Therefore, if there is still a baguette and strength, you can take a piece of Camembert or Roquefort for dessert. If not, fruit salad helps. Just don't skip dessert - don't discourage the French. Order coffee, enjoy the aftertaste in detail and do not forget the digestif: a stack of strong will help you survive this feast.

This order of serving dishes is preserved even in the case of a home feast, and this is a huge difference from the Russian table we are used to. The neighborhood of salads with main courses shocks the ordinary Frenchman, and if he sees sliced ​​\u200b\u200bfruits (read - dessert) on the same table, then his nervous system will never recover. Another French nightmare at the Russian table is that no one pauses between an aperitif and the meal itself, no one! Everyone eats and drinks at once, without changing the drink for an aperitif to a drink for an entre. So, while the Frenchman finishes his aperitif, the Russians have been dancing for a long time.

Once again I will say about the hours of eating: they must not be violated! If a Frenchman sees his child eating yogurt at the wrong time, a scandal cannot be avoided. Because, ate yogurt - interrupted appetite - did not finish dinner - duck confit flew into the trash - apoplexy.

Are you sure you haven't missed anything?

And in conclusion, breaking the laws of logic, let's say a word about breakfast. There is no breakfast in France. Forget what mom and grandma said, this is not the main meal here. It's hard to believe, but the average Frenchman really has coffee with a croissant for breakfast, which is optionally replaced with a bun with chocolate or jam, toast with jam, a bagel with raisins, or something similar. In general, only simple, only carbohydrates. In cafes and restaurants, you should look for a normal breakfast by the word "American" or "English". However, the French are not too worried that after their modest breakfast, after two hours they feel hungry, after all, lunch starts at 12, and the regime cannot be broken, and it's time to warm up a little with an aperitif.

If you answer the question: “What do the French eat?”, It turns out that they eat everything. Here live meat lovers, and vegetarians, and sweet tooth, and lovers of salty.

Food is a very important part of life in France. Here food is not just eaten. Here, before serving, it is beautifully decorated, and dishes are served on the table in a certain order, and not all at once.

Although French cuisine is traditional, it is heavily influenced by other countries. For example, if earlier in France there were only small grocery stores, in the last 20 years huge supermarkets have appeared, where you can buy an unimaginable amount of food in one go. Previously, the French went to the bakery for bread, for meat - to the butcher, and for vegetables and fruits - to the local market. Now they all visit the supermarkets once a week and buy everything they need at once.

True, despite the abundance of supermarkets, for special occasions, the French still rush to stores designed to sell goods of one category. Many families prefer to take meat from a butcher for a family celebration, and baguette lovers will definitely visit the baker in the morning to crunch on French bread for breakfast.

Despite the fact that the French do not like to rush at the table, they usually eat breakfast quite quickly. Here at lunch and dinner they sit longer.

french breakfast

Breakfast in France is usually quite light. The French drink coffee and eat the following foods:

• Tartinki, which are toasts with jam.
• Croissants. They are often eaten for breakfast on weekends.
• Slice of baguette with butter and jam.
• A piece of bread, fresh fruit or yogurt.
• Before breakfast, the French prefer to drink a cup of coffee. If you order coffee in the cafe in the morning, you will be served espresso. It is served to everyone by default. If you want coffee with milk, you should say so. Coffee with milk is served in a huge bowl, and there will be really a lot of milk in it. Sometimes the French drink tea or hot chocolate in the morning.

french lunch

Lunch in France lasts about two hours. At this time, some go to a cafe where they eat a multi-course meal and drink wine, others go home, and still others buy a couple of sandwiches from a street vendor.

• Lunch at a restaurant. The restaurant usually serves three to four courses. These include salad, soup, main course and dessert. Often, a cheese plate is served instead of dessert or along with it. During lunch, wine is usually ordered.
• Lunch at home. Those who eat at home eat a couple of hot meals. Their food is, of course, simpler and less varied than that of those who eat in a restaurant.
• Lunch outside. If the work schedule does not allow you to go to a restaurant or go home, in France you can always buy sandwiches on the street at lunchtime. As a rule, they consist of a baguette with cheese and ham. There you can also find boiled eggs, canned tuna, salami, ham and cheese separately.

french dinner

Different days of the week in France can have different dinners. Those who ate lunch in a restaurant during the day usually eat little. Those who ate a sandwich during lunch eat more heartily.

On special occasions, lunch can be very long. The table is covered with a beautiful tablecloth, decorated with flowers or candles. Dishes are put on beautiful plates.

Despite the fact that there are no clearly defined dishes for different meals, in a restaurant and at home, the French eat about the same food. Coffee and wine are practically integral products at every meal. Tourists are always happy to taste delicious French dishes and fresh products.