Ptipois

As a Yank, I have always found the translation of St Pierre as John Dory to be confusing - it doesn't help me identify the fish, because to my knowledge, only Brits and ex-colonials from Aussie-Kiwi-lands say John Dory, most of us other ex-colonists have never heard this descriptor. My handy-dandy "McLane's Fish Buyer's Guide" gives conflicting info on St Pierre fish, placing it (1) among the Cichlids of which Blue Tilapia and Mozambique Tilapia are the closest translations and (2) Dories (Dory pleural) of which John Dory or Zeus Faber is as well. In any case, it says that the former (Cichlids) are not native to North America (but are cultivated in the US) and the latter (John Dories) are "rarely" found in Western Atlantic waters. End of class. ← C'est malin, now I want to eat a grilled saint-pierre. At least in the French context, saint-pierre is clearly Zeus faber, of the Zeidae family. I never heard of a cichlid being called saint-pierre, but there must be more than one Pierre swimming in the seas — maybe in French-speaking parts of the New World? Quoting Davidson on saint-pierre: « Engl. John Dory, Dory, family Zeidae. Portuguese: peixe galo, peixe são Pedro [...] Dutch zonnevis, German Heringskönig, Swedish Sankt Peterfisk, etc. The species is well known in the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay. It occurs as far north as Norway but it is not found in abundance north of the English Channel and Ireland. Its American counterpart, Zenopsis ocellata (Storer), is found mainly between Nova Scotia and North Carolina, but not in quantities sufficient to excite commercial interest. » I found a picture of Zenopsis ocellata. Boo! Oh, by the way, saint-pierre used to be called "l'horrible" in some parts of France.

Dorades and snappers look alike but they're not related; dorades and porgies are Sparidae and near-tropical (Mediterranean)/tropical fish, snappers are Lutjanidae, tropical fish that rarely swim North of their zone. Snappers are rarely found in France except flown-in at Asian of African markets or frozen. They have firmer flesh than the dorades and porgies. However you may perfectly use dorade for recipes using snapper, except that the flesh will be a bit more fragile. If you can find very large and fresh fillets you'll get closer to the original, and marinating them will increase the likeness. I particularly think of onion-lemon-chili marinades as in the West African yassa dishes. (Dorade en yassa is yum.) Oh, also: about dorade/daurade. Supposedly you should use one or the other spelling depending on whether you have a plain plebeian dorade or a daurade royale (gilt-headed bream). According to knowledgeable fish chef Jacques Le Divellec this is not true, both spellings may be used indistinctly. That makes the whole thing much easier. And there are many subspecies of Sparidae and closely-related Bramidae: sar, denté or dentex (those last two only in the Mediterranean), pageot, dorade rose, dorade grise, dorade royale. They all look related and are all good eating. Dorade royale is often farmed, watch the labels closely when the fish is under 800 grams or 1 kilo, no farmed dorade makes it to that weight. Buying a very large fish ensures that it was fished in the wild.

No, actually that makes sense. There are so many vernacular fish names all over the Atlantic coasts, East and West. When I wrote catfish in my previous post I meant freshwater catfish, which is generally not eaten in France. But it is also one of the local names of the wolf-fish or "loup marin", a large Northern fish unrelated to sea-bass. In France this fish is sold ready filleted at fishmongers, so you never see what it looks like (a very large goby), and it is labeled "loup de l'Atlantique", so there you are. Why "loup de l'Atlantique" ? Because "loup" means sea bass on the French Mediterranean coasts, while it it called "bar' on the Atlantic coast. So there are two "loups" in the French seas, one in the Atlantic and it's not a bar, one in the Mediterranean, and that one is a bar and not a loup marin. A bit confusing. Alan Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood is a great reference book on the subject.

Felice, that was quite right. Cabillaud = cod, codfish, from the Flemish kabeljauw. Loup is sea bass (also called bar), saint-pierre is John Dory, and dorade is sea bream. Catfish is not eaten in France though you may find some frozen in Asian stores.

You can take a look at my blog but sorry, there aren't many pics, my digital camera ran out of gas much too soon.

True. I have no clue. It's rather unbelievable, but it seems there is no French cheddar and never has been. I wonder why. Likewise, I wonder how it is that the Scots have never been very successful at cantal cheese and the Dutch pretty poor at reproducing romanée-conti. Understand me well: I think good cheddar is one of the great cheeses of the world. But why would it seem natural that the French make cheddar? Is cheddar some international standard? Are we supposed to copy everything?

You mean it's not a vegetable? Damn. Ahh, we French.

Why not add nems and paella on top of the bargain. OK the French love couscous and they add merguez to it, and they could also add camembert but that wouldn't make it any frencher. Highly francized, OK. Plain and simple, steak-frites is the thing. Croque-monsieur is not really a dish. It's a hasty solution to a temporary problem.

Clearly.

ANG ARG AUS BRA CRC CIV CRO CZE ECU ENG FRA GER GHA IRN ITA JPN KOR KSA MEX NED PAR POL POR SCG ESP SWE SUI TOG TRI TUN UKR USA ← Thanks John!

For France, cassouLET would be national enough, I think. It would be hard to find anything frencher than that. Or maybe entrecôte au poivre with frites. For Trinidad and Tobago, that would definitely be calaloo. Belgium will have the complet bruxellois (moules-frites) but waterzooi would be fine too. What are the other nations? I'm not into soccer at all.

Thanks. Half of my family is from Auvergne. The other half is from camembertland. 'Nuff said.

Well, jus'tellin'ya where to get cheddar, mate.

The thick, perfectly aged slice of blue stilton I bought a couple of months ago at Monoprix Beaugrenelle (in Paris, 15e) was better than any of that cheese I've ever had in England. But that doesn't happen everyday. I can at least be sure that the Paris Monoprix stores and the fancy épiceries like the Lafayette, Inno Montparnasse and the Bon Marché have sharp farmhouse cheddar on a regular basis, and sometimes stilton too. But other places (including the regional stores) might only have lower-grade, orangey cheddar, and that's the one that's closest to mimolette indeed.

In Paris: Monoprix, Inno, Lafayette Gourmet, Bon Marché, etc., and almost any fromager has sharp farmhouse cheddar. I agree that the problem is different here and there's nothing like cheddar when that's what you need. Far from Paris: any supermarket of some size may have it. The bigger the store, the likelier. IMO Mimolette is much too lean and compact to be a substitute for cheddar but for gratins, why not. Cantal and laguiole have a different taste but the texture and the way they behave in cooking are very close to cheddar. When I can't have cheddar I use good young cantal. Any other craving while we're at it?

Great, at last someone is bringing civilization to us. There is decent beef to be found in France, especially in the Southwest — some of the best beef is produced there. All you need to do is shop right and keep your eyes open. I do share Kate's astonishment.

Of course. My opinion on Ledeuil is highly subjective and I'm not expecting everyone to agree with me. But describing Camdeborde as an "old hand" is quite a different matter. An "old hand" he is not. He certainly is amongst the young chefs (though not the youngest) who bring a breath of fresh air to French cuisine.

I wouldn't describe him that way. Though middle-aged and experienced, he's considered a "young chef" because of his refreshing, buoyant approach to cooking and the food world. It's not how old you are, it's what you bring. Ledeuil, for instance, may be actually younger than Camdeborde but I'd personally place him in the "old" category.

Quite true, John. It is a new law that extends the Loi Évin, which already aims at banning smoking from public places - including cafés and restaurants -, a measure that certainly has nothing to do with American tourism or economic power (there are, of course, many people affected by cigarette smoke in France, and the French are perfectly able to make laws to answer their own needs). This new law is more focused on "tabagisme passif", secondhand smoke, a vivid health issue in France these days. Watching La Chaîne Parlementaire last night on cable was very instructive since much of the program was dedicated to a documentary on secondhand smoke, as if by chance. It also showed how tobacco companies, now that their advertising powers are so limited in developed countries, are taking poor African countries like Niger as targets, and how associations in those countries were rising to "educate" the citizens, especially the young ones, about the dangers of smoking. (One man, quote: "We already have aids, malaria, and chronical hunger, do you think we need something more?"). When the LCP channel broadcasts that kind of program, you know that something is in the air (or rather that something is about to no longer be in the air )

I thought it was because of "la Loi Evain", non? ← It is, indeed, because of the loi Évin.

With whose culture?

My dinner at Le Bistral was very disappointing, the food not very good and overcomplicated. I won't be going back either.

In the category "snotty chocolate vendors", one lady at Debauve & Galais, rue du Bac, wins the prize thumbs up. At least she did last year when I dropped in; maybe in the meantime she has found a new job at Jean-Paul Hévin.

If partridge were compulsory, Carcassonne cassoulets could only be made from October through January. Unless of course there's a confit de perdrix I haven't heard of. Confit can be made out of some old game birds. In the case of non-palmipedes like partridge, extra fat is needed. Preserved partridge can be used in the Carcassonne cassoulet, and fresh old partridge when in season. And to be exact, it's not that compulsory. But it's part of the basic ingredients in Carcassonne. That's indeed how the folkloric literature went after Prosper Montagné. The controversy was always more literary than real, and was a Parisian legend much more than a Southwestern phenomenon. People in Carcassonne, Toulouse, Castelnaudary, Montauban, etc., just cooked their cassoulets their ways, and had better to do with their lives than fight about them. Bouillabaisse is a slightly different subject because the controversy about the dish was always a typically Marseillais thing.

Well at least there has to be pork of some sort, and white beans. The texture relies on pork rinds, a rather overlooked fact. That can be defined as the basis: just beans and just rinds can make a cassoulet. The double cooking (stewing + gratin) is also essential. I don't believe in rigid classifications in cuisine, no more than I believe in "the only true authentic recipe" of this or that. Country cooking just isn't like that. Some people like to create "schools" and charts and confréries about that sort of thing but I believe their secret purpose is eating and getting drunk together, sometimes wearing funny clothes. Famous traditional dishes have generated a lot of literature — but more for the sake of literature than for the sake of food. Cassoulet does generate a folkloric, touristical, kitschy aspect that I find rather misleading. I think the dish deserves much better than that.