dimanche 29 août 2010

French Breakfast

In French breakfast is called "petit déjeuner" which loosely means "a small meal to break the fast (of the night)". its name reveals the small variety and quantity of what is eaten by a French person  early in the morning. The big meal to break the fast being of course the "déjeuner" !
In fact, many children and adults eat some more around 10.00 am, although it is not  nowadays advised by doctors and nutritionists, all the more so as many people just have coffee and nothing else.

a biscotte
What we eat at home is comparable to a continental breakfast in England: cups of strong black coffee, a bit of the day-before baguette or  biscottes (which is a sort of dried sandwich loaf slice) wth unsalted butter and/or jam ( the most common would be apricot and strawberry)and a glass of orange juice. Children, of course do not drink coffee ! usually they have a hot chocolate milk and on their brad they do enjoy nutella very much !

Ajouter une légende


The most famous brand ever in France is "banania", it dates back from the 1910s, and brings us back to the colonialist past of France.Chocolate was brought back from our colonies. The slogan, as well the original picture on the packets are now considered as racist stereotypes" and could not be used today.
The slogan was "y'a bon, banania" which could be translated by "Is good, banania"






Puffy, buttery, yummy !
Breakfast on week-ends is for many of us quite a different thing: we then have the time to go to the nearest bakery and enjoy several croissant and or pains au chocolat and/or pains aux raisins ! Nowadays, supermarket sell those in pckets, but they have nothing to do with a real baker's ones !





These last years, Many compagnies have appealed to children to sell greasy, sugary cereals on the grounds that it was good for their health. Nowadays I would say that people still have them, but globally the trendy effect has worn out ! Yet, as more and more people in France are weight and health conscious, more and more people make sure they have fruit, a dairy product and protein in the morning.

MY city is the best !

I don't know if all the French think the way I do, I should say the way we do, because I am from Marseilles, and like most people living here I am quite happy and proud of my city with all its defects included !

Indeed, most of the time, when Marseilles is mentioned on French television it's only either to relate some bloody criminal case in the news or a strike (the city is reputed in France for having very strong town unions which paralyse transports and/or garbage collection at least once a year). Sometimes, it is to convey an old-fashion cliché about men with a strong unintelligible accent, drinking pastis by the sea, playing the petanque bowl game. 
We, inhabitants of Marseilles, attribute these terrible reports to the fact that the inhabitants of Paris are our natural "enemies" ( this trend is very much present in football, in the season, the most important thing for the local team O. M. is to win over Paris team.). 

What is never virtually mentioned about my city:
the "calanques"
  • There are beautiful sites within the city itself, though the "cannebière" is highly overrated IMHO, as well as splendid small isles nearby, not to mention the savage seaside the "calanques". 

  • If you have more than hour for your lunch break and enough energy, you'll probably be able to go for a swim in the sea every day!

  • The city is constituted of many neighbourhoods, almost villages , in which the atmosphere, the landscape , and people are very different. In each of these villages, you'll find food markets some of which reflect the multicultural quality of the city.

  • Becoming a "Marseillais" is quite an easy task, we don't need an integration policy, here nobody will ask if you're from French descent, and certainly not for how much time your family has been here. We just assume that whatever the origin, you're now here and you're a Marseillais. The only thing is to never proclaim your love for another football team in public and certainly not in the street !
 
 This video was taken before the match had started, the players were just warming up.

  • Whenever someone asks "what"s the weather like?" the answer will be "sunny"

  • The city is over 2000 years old, so it is quite rich historically !

  • The Alps are just about an hour away.

  • In the morning, you can buy fresh fish right from the fisher's boat in the port located right in the city center.

  • Notre Dame de la Garde !
Notre Dame de la Garde by night seen from le vieux port

  • You can witness a whole comic sketch in the street at any time for a disagreement on a parking place, or a driving violation.








If you are ever to visit my city, a few things need to be said (among the defects) criminality IS an issue by night, but also during the day, in the city centre, but also at the beaches (thieves go to the beach too).
This being said, and even if I was once robbed from my purse (taken into my bag without violence: I  did not realise it was gone until a few minutes later), I have never been assaulted, nor witnessed any assault myself. Maybe because I do may attention to where I am, and who to carefully avoid. 

Maybe, you've guessed it, I feel more Marseillaise than French, yet, when I spend time abroad, I start to feel French again !



Matefaim: the first dish I learned to cook when I was a child

A simple meal if there is one, this is the very first dish I learned to cook when I was about 6.
My granny taught it to me, and I enjoyed it a lot with a little bit of tomato sauce on the side ( or even ketchup). You need:
  • 2 eggs
  • Flour
  • Oil ( I use olive oil, but I use it pretty much all the time because I am from Provence, feel free to try with your favorite)
  • Salt and pepper
  • A pan (small)
  • A very flat lid which matches the size of the pan.
Break the eggs in a bowl, just beat them with a fork until white and yolk are mixed, add up two /three spoons of flour, beat some more, add salt and pepper.
The mix must be homogeneous and thicker than the one for crêpes.

Heat on low heat a pan with a little oil in it, then pour on the eggs in it. After two or three minutes, check with a spatula if the edges are cooked and golden. If they are, make sure your matefaim is not sticking to the pan with your spatula.

Then take lid which must be the size of your pan, a lid which must be very flat.

Place the lid on the saucepan then turn it over, lid on the bottom and pan on the top,  to cook the other side of your matefaim. Put the pan back on the heat. put back the matefaim from the lid back to the pan.(the golden underside of the matefaim must now be visible, and the yet unccoked part directly on the pan bottom).

Finish to cook, the two sides must be golden brown.

The name "Matefaim" is derived from two French words: "mate", put down or subdue and "faim" hunger; so that this dish is supposed to make one feel full !
In some regions , the same dish is called "matafan", a small deformation of the name I use.

Variations:
My granny used to add some chopped tomatoes or red pepper to mix before cooking. I like it with some sweet corn grains.
You can add up about anything you want to the mix as long it is either already cooked, or cut into very small bits which will be cooked very quickly. Traditionally, it can't be meat or fish but veggies or even fruits for the sugar version.

In some regions, it is served as a dessert, it is then prepared with sugar instead of salt and pepper, and some cooked fruits are added to the mix ( like apples or pears).

THE French cuisine : a unique concept ?

A map with the name of all the dialects (not that much spoken nowadays) which happen to be the name of different cooking styles : provençale, lorraine, basque and so on.
Such a thing simply does not exist, of course some recipes are known all over France no matter where you are : everyone has heard of cassoulet or of pot-au-feu.

Yet, every region has is own  recipe book and classics most of the time influenced by the traditional products you may find there (Mirabelle pie in Lorraine, different sorts of fish on the coasts ), by history (Henry IV and la poule-au pot) and the migration waves (Couscous in a classic now), and -not to be neglected- by the proximity of other countries, such as Germany or Italy (Pasta is eaten by the vast majority of people at least once a week).

Main principle:
  • The upper part of the map traditionally cooks  with butter (usually unsalted)  and double cream.
  • The lower part of the map traditionnally cooks  with oil (that is to say of course olive oil !)
In the 60's a comic movie called "la cuisine au beurre" was even made about this MAJOR culinary difference:
The story takes place after WWII, a man (from Marseilles) comes back home in the South of France after having been kept in detention by the Germans only to find his wife re-married with a man from Normandy, because she thought he had been killed. The film is very caricatural, and old-fashioned but is, IMHO, still fun to watch.







I will try to pay tribute to every region, and post recipes I know and like from all over France, but I have got to say, I am a "Provençale" myself, and I tend to use olive oil and Mediterranean veggies all the time when I cook for my family, not to mention garlic. I even "converted" my husband into it even if he is a lorrain himself, so this was not an easy task at first !

Welcome !

Welcome to my very first blog about French cooking and French table manners and habits as well !!

Having some pen pals from around the world, I realized many people had misconceptions about us ,  French , and cooking:
Some thought, for instance, that we are all chef-quality cooks, who spend every day at least 3 hours to cook a  sophisticated meal, and spend 3 hours eating it ;  others that French cooking is a sort of unique concept, the whole nation being able to prepare the same "French" dishes....


I'm just going to try to share my experience and my recipes, making it as easy as possible, for anyone to manage to cook a simple, tasty French dish, like I do every day in my kitchen for my family !

The French and Red Wine: beyond the clichés

Almost all around the world, and especially in the English-speaking countries (for having been there myself), we drag with us an image of wine (red wine especially) fanatics. Alcoholics, one would wisely say.

When I was maybe 9 or 10 I was sent by my school in a family to London to improve my English-speaking. On the first evening a party was organised to introduce me to relatives and neighbours. Because I come from the Marseilles region, the family had bought pastis ( a very strong aniseed drink to be diluted in water). They offered me some, I had the hardest time convincing them that I was not allowed nor wanted to drink that.
Looking back, they were surely a little dumb, but still, they were convinced that because I was French, I was used to drinking alcohol at that age.

On the other hand, of course, in many families, red wine (not always quality wine) is drunk daily. Yet, as a whole, the French population does not drink that much: in many restaurants, you can order a glass of red or white wine with your dish or even a little cute bottle containing only 25 cl of wine. All that without the waiter frowning upon you !
And I even know many people ( my age , older and younger) who never or very exceptionally drink alcohol, either because they are health conscious, or they just don't like it.

But as far as I can tell, what gives us the image of happy alcoholics is that alcohol drinking in fairly large amount is not socially unacceptable, as long as you are not drunk
Not a month ago, I was trying to explain to a relative of mine that his drinking of 4 pre-lunch drinks, several beers, at least 3/4 of a bottle of wine and a digstive or two every day was far too much. He simply did not believe me and was supported by several other persons sitting next to us at the table. 
 To me, his drinking is way too much, yet for some part of the population , because he is not rolling on the floor completely drunk, this is okay.



  A campaign against binge drinking broadcast on French TV : "Drinking too much : too extreme sensations"



Nowadays, when I do not work the next day, I am used too drink either a cocktail before the evening meal along with some appetizers, or a glass of wine (usually white or "rosé") that I sip during the starter and the main dish. Tell me, I'm not an alcoholic, am I ?? lol