Ptipois

It's all gamay anyway, one of the grape varietals that are the most difficult to get right. So most of the time you get plonk, and when properly made it can yield great wine. But cases are relatively rare (think gamay de Touraine for a little cousin of beaujolais nouveau, and at the other end of the spectrum think of chanturgue, that mythical Auvergne red that used to be one of the most celebrated wines back in the 17th century and is the basis of coq au vin). Except for a few great chanturgues and bugey-cerdon, I am not a fan of gamay, but I agree that some crus de beaujolais are drinkable. People who know at least a bit about wine do know that there are good crus in beaujolais (those you named, and régnié, moulin-à-vent...) and I don't believe serious wine makers in beaujolais suffer more than serious wine makers in other regions. Outside of beaujolais nouveau, regular beaujolais are widely consumed.

Oh, the French fall into it at least as much as the Americans and were doing so long before Americans heard about it. It would be a mistake to think that the beaujolais nouveau marketing hype is directed primarily at the US clientele.

Even while they follow the instructions of flour companies and churn out dozens of the very same Banettes as the ones produced in Valenciennes on the same day, the more gifted boulangers have a margin of creativity and are always able to make stuff of their own. A contract or two with a flour company does not mean they are bound to produce only what the company dictates. Which is why you have to be very careful and explore, taste, try as much as you can. Concerning the pain aveyronnais, you are spot on. Aveyron has always been a great region for bread. In Aubrac they have a special sourdough method which produces superior white bread and I remember from years ago people stuffing their trunks with baguettes from a special boulanger in Laguiole, ready to take them home miles away and fill their deep-freezer. If your boulangère has the recipe for that type of bread and the suitable flour, she may be the only one to produce it miles around, but it will be good. In the same way, my friend Laurent Bonneau (who makes one of the greatest baguettes in Paris) sells "seigle auvergnat" bread which is very much like the dark cracked round rye loaves that you can find in lower Auvergne. What you have to do is 1) have the recipe, 2) have the right flour and 3) know your levain well.

To describe it briefly, it is a little-known form of industrial baking masquerading as artisanal baking. It is actually a sort of franchise. Quaint names like Banette, Baguépi, Rétrodor, etc., are brand names for baked products made from special flour mixes created by the meuniers (flour companies). The mixes are sold to the individual bakers with special strict guidelines to use them, PRs come and teach the boulanger how to use the flour and shape the bread, etc., the brand is pasted on the shop window and printed onto the wrapping paper, sometimes a sign is added above the window (Banette), etc. Initially this situation was aimed at improving the baking techniques (in the late 70s and 80s, the art of boulangerie was in a very poor state in France and levain had nearly disappeared. Rétrodor for instance was instrumental in bringing back the use of sourdough and slow fermentation). But in some cases they have overdone it and have played an important part in the standardization of French bread — and in the extinction of local forms of baking.

http://www.linternaute.com/restaurant/home/6/6988/chantilly/ The info is in French only but apparently there should be a few options there.

Laidback, I don't even understand why you ask. Posting pictures is definitely part of what eGullet is about, and has been about since the beginning. Just look at other subforums, or even this one. The fact that there was a recent thread about the matter does not mean there is an antiphoto trend here that should be considered a rule. Or I have been missing something since I arrived here. Imagine every eGulleter in all other subforums asking for a pro- or anti-photo poll at the beginning of every thread since this board began. That would be a strange situation indeed. So I'm with John on this, do what you please — and I cannot see why one should refrain from keeping eGullet just the way it is.

There's quite a mass of work to be done if they expect people to take beaujolais nouveau more seriously. And what's the point anyway? There are zillions of serious wines around. Why deprive us of the only wine in the world that's actually a joke? They wouldn't stop making money on it. Or maybe they just want to charge more* for it? (*Translation in Truth Language of "more seriously".)

In the South, yes. On the rocky part of the Provençal coast, so probably from the Italian border to the Camargue. At the very least, around Nice and Cannes. Sea anemones are made into omelets. People used to gather lots of them when I was little; no reason to think they don't anymore. I never had any of those omelets (though I did have poutine) and could not tell you what they taste like.

Host's Note The gibiers topic began to veer off onto a discussion of Auguste so I split these posts off for a fuller discussion. Well Auguste certainly knows something about hanging. When I had dinner there (a total disaster) I was served a piece of lean charolais steak that had been aged so long (you can't age lean charolais) it had an off smell and taste.

It was most likely the Porto Cruz available in every supermarket, or any other readily available bottle of port like Taylors or Sandeman. Not the thinnest chance it was banyuls. When you order port in France, they serve you port, or if they're out of it they ask what you'd like instead.

The tiny sea snails were bigorneaux, described above.

Bigorneaux can be gathered on rocks, but be careful; in France there are two main types. The dark grey, pointy-shelled one and the lighter-colored, dull-shelled one. The first one is edible, the second one is not. They are probably my favorite shellfish, apart from mussels and urchins. Another shellfish that can be gathered and is sometimes seen at fishmongers in the South is arapèdes, also called patelles or berniques (limpets). They generally are eaten raw or require a long cooking time.

It is 35 °C here and that is unusual, even in high Summer. I am almost dreaming of snow. True, but in average conditions I believe the French are extremely bad at sandwiches. A good sandwich in the US will always be better than any French sandwich — except for some Mediterranean examples like fricassé or pan bagnat at its best. I think we had that discussion before. To me this comparison does matter because we are discussing standards here, and there is I believe a general misunderstanding on the present state of food in France based on lingering experiences of what used to be but is not anymore. And yes, the French used to be more discriminating, but it is risky to generalize because I think there is a good side to the present situation: before the Trente Glorieuses, there wasn't so much opening up to foreign cuisines. And if some excellent products disappeared, others appeared and are more readily available than ever. The matter is not that clearly cut. However we're dealing with restaurant (commuter) food here, which is well defined and is a matter of cooking as much as it is a matter of products. Definitely based on the average, which is the subject. Judging by the best is irrelevant in the present topic. Asking about commuter food means exactly this: how good is the average nowadays? I was naturally not expecting you to provide the solution by giving a few exceptions to the general trend, but I was only pointing out that they were exceptions, as far as the topic was concerned. This is exactly my point. Again, we are dealing with the average situation, the situation for average people. It is no surprise that France caters to the top layers of society very well, which it always has done. That, if I daresay, is the easy solution in today's society, because it is always simpler to cater to the rich. Everybody does that, you don't have to be French, it is a worldwide phenomenon. It is the type of excellence that is the last to disappear, if it ever does. So there is nothing surprising about its existence. What I mean by that is that its existence in today's France is no particular sign of culinary excellence. A better sign of national culinary excellence would be the survival of good, decent and cheap food for everybody (I am thinking of restaurant food here, because when it comes to product buying and home cooking there would be a lot to tell, but the situation is based on different rules.) Exactly. But there used to be a time, not long ago, when it did not require any. It would be a mistake to think that the present situation of French food — much more socially polarized than it used to be — is a permanent and not a recent one. IMO there has been a definite leap downwards in the last 20 years.

Well I can think of a very good butcher in rue Saint-Jacques, near the Feuillantines intersection. Apart from that I get my beef from markets and shops, and I must confess I have no special addresses. I shop by the look of the meat rather than by the address. If the beef looks good, I get some. Experience has taught me that good stuff may be found in unexpected places.

Not an easy question, and certainly a complex problem. I remember from long-ago country butchers in Auvergne that their meat was properly aged, and beautifully marbled (it was Salers beef, totally grass-fed). In France, marbled beef used to be the favorite and it was replaced some years ago, during the 70's I believe, by another standard; red, unmarbled meat, which was not often aged right. The marbling probably scared away health-conscious breedeers and consumers. Which is silly because tender, marbled beef is more digestible that tough, lean beef. I had the opportunity to chat on the beef subject with one of Bocuse's butchers and he straightened a few ideas for me, for instance in his opinion the best breed for meat was the Norman breed, which yielded beautifully marbled and tasty steaks. Which explains the great beef I used to eat as a child in Normandy. I used to believe in the simple formula that grass-fed meant lean, unmarbled and on the tough side, and that cereal-fed meant marbled and tender. It is not really so. The best marbled simmenthal beef is grass-fed, and so was the Salers beef before it became a fashionable supermarket item and accordingly lost most of its flavor. I think it is all in the way the cows are bred, fed and slaughtered, and the meat aged. Breed can be important in exceptional cases (like Simmental, Norman or Coutancie) but seems to be secondary compared to those conditions. It is also surprising to realize how the same breed can yield such different results under different conditions. I had come to believe, after years of dull, pale-colored, unmarbled charolais at French butcher stalls, that I was definitely not interested in charolais beef (having the same experience of it as DeGusto's above). And recently, at Lafayette Gourmet, I found some charolais steak from Argentina. It cost an arm and a leg, but it was very marbled and proved to be some of the tastiest beef I ever had. First thing that surprised me is that all the Argentinian beef I had seen before was unmarbled and a bit tasteless; this one was spectacular. Other surprising thing was that the charolais breed could yield such diametrically different results, both in taste, look and texture.

In case it's still time to add my two cents, fromage blanc is only fresh cow's milk curds at the very first stage of cheesemaking. Though the process is very simple, I haven't found any equivalent of it outside of France. It is definitely not cottage cheese. It comes in two different states: soft and smooth (fromage blanc lissé), which means it has been beaten. In its most natural state it comes in a faisselle (a cheese strainer) and you can buy it like that, with the strainer in the carton. A mix of plain whipped cream and smooth fromage blanc is called fontainebleau or crémet; Strained, firmed-up fromage blanc with added cream is "fromage double-crème" or "fromage à la crème" and it is a type of cream cheese (Carré Frais Gervais is a good example); Petit-Suisse is slightly strained fromage blanc with cream added; it is sold in small cylinders wrapped in paper. Fresh goat cheese will never be called "fromage blanc" but simply "chèvre frais". A good traditional way to serve fromage blanc lissé is to whip it with vanilla sugar. That is the way it used to be served in school refectories.

The aligot at La Maison de la Lozère in Paris (totally unrelated to the one in Montpellier) is, IMO, the best one can have in Paris, as is anything they serve with it. Booking is mandatory.

With the disappearance of cheap bouillons, workers' restaurants and, generally speaking, good cheap French food, it is true that commuter food has become very dire and I completely agree with John on this. Before complaining about cultural imperialism from anywhere, protecting the national popular heritage should have started with individual awareness and that is where most of the problem lies. A sad fact is that the French, when it comes to food, are not so demanding as they are believed to be (or as they used to be), and they are as likely as anyone (and certainly more than some) to eat crap when it is served to them. So much for the myth. Much of that loss, I believe, was caused by the disappearing of decent meals eaten at lunch break. Even when I was working in offices, I have been boycotting fast food joints from the start. There used to be alternatives, choice was possible. Not anymore. Bistrots, which are now booked weeks in advance from all over the world, used to be the people's lunch places, where workers had their lunch breaks. The only remaining examples of decent commuter food can be found in the troquets, not precisely the bistrots (which have become too chic for commuters) but in the corner cafés serving food, sometimes good food. They are the true descendance of old-style bistrots and bouillons. Edit: my dear Julot — what you are describing is very fine, but take a closer look: sporadic bakeries that serve good sandwiches, the Produits d'Auvergne in gare du Nord, Cosi, La Bonbonnière, etc. These are 1) sandwiches and 2) exceptions. 1) Now sandwiches are a fairly recent thing as commuter food. Indeed they took over when decent commuter food started to disappear. And sandwiches could not be counted as a decent meal, especially not French sandwiches if I daresay... They are not so much a description of French commuter food as a vivid demonstration of how low it has sunk in recent years. 2) Those are great addresses, but only addresses. They do not solve the general problem, which is that most working people in France eat crap at lunch instead of eating a proper, simple, cheap meal as used to be the case. Um, double edit, on re-reading your post: Julot, knowing what a lover of good food you are, please allow me to be somewhat surprised at your description of what may be bought at boulangeries as "in keeping with the reputation of gastronomic superiority of Paris".

You don't cook violets any more than you cook urchins. Sorry I couldn't reply earlier, I am now far away from France dealing with very different types of seafoods. Tellines are not exclusively from Camargue but are found all over the sandy beaches of Southwestern Europe: the French South coast from Camargue to Catalunya, Spain, Portugal (where they are much esteemed in Algarve and sautéed with whole garlic cloves and coriander sprigs), the Landes, Charentes and Vendée. They may be found as far south as South Morocco, where I am now. Yesterday, I met two young men from Agadir were going to gather them on the beach. They're quite easy to find, just scratch the wet sand where the surf stops and you'll dig up two or three of them at once. Abra could you be a bit more specific about the various shellfish you find here? Pictures perhaps? I might be able to help you. From the top of my head, where you are, you are likely to find tellines, violets, urchins, amandes de mer (a shiny type of clam), cockles, couteaux (razor clams), and perhaps sea anemones and squilles (mantis shrimp).

That Sarah Weiner?

I'm hungry, wonder why. Provided of course the cœur-de-bœuf tomatoes are the real McCoy and not the horrid mealy, mass-produced tasteless supermarket ersatz.

I did ask myself, but the answer would not validate your thesis. Though I should normally admire your knowledge of how much time I spend on eGullet and in my kitchen, I am sorry to tell you that your guess is wrong. I fail to see what there is to be guilty about. Or do you believe that the existence of food photography/food writing is a threat to the material existence of cooking? In other terms, that food photo is occupying a place that should normally be occupied by real food? I find this thought very strange. With all due respect, I think you are establishing correlations and sets of causes and consequences that simply do not exist.

On the subject of cookware shops, it is a little-known fact that the BHV (Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville) has one of the largest and nicest cookware departments in Europe. It is on the third floor and it even has a professional section. Quite easy to reach from Gagnaire's since all you have to do is take the métro, line 1, straight to Hôtel de Ville.

Was there ever anyone stupid enough to consider them a substitute for the real thing? Do you think people take food photos to eat them later?

There is a new food bookstore, La Cocotte, strategically located on rue Paul-Bert, n° 5.