Mexican Food in France

[fresh_a]

John, where did François Simon write that?

[DCMark]

Another one suckered! Chipotle IS owned and operated by McDo.

Lucy,

          I guess you will have to make do with Spanish cuisine, which is not the same i grant you but i'm hardly going to shed a tear! Just returned from New York where the Chipotle franchises have won me over, why bother with MacDo crap when such 'fast food' exists!

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[DCMark]

Its funny? Is it really funny to you? Then it must be funny that there are consultants teaching French wine-makers how to 'oxygenate' to win higher Parker scores.

Yes, France has McDreck. Not on every corner but its there. Similar reasons to here: kids love it, cheap, American culture, etc. Also, French McDo sucks big time compared to the us version. If you want to see a problem, its the increasing acceptance of crappy, high in transfat processed foods at the supermarche that scares me. And yes, good old American cultural domination helped put them there. However, NO ONE forces the food (or the Disney tickets) down their gullets, so the blame is very mixed.

As for Mexican. I have gotten really sick from food one time. Mexican in Grenoble. I think of Homer J Simpson is remembering that meal:

Yeah Moe that team sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked!

PS: Lucy, perhaps the utter lack of Mexicans in France has some impact?

I think it's amusing in the same way that it's amusing to deal with someone who has a wacky assessment of his own abilities -- you know, like a guy who sings horribly but thinks he sings beautifully and therefore does so loudly. It's funny, in a Jerry Lewis sort of way, if you know what I mean. The point being, whenever some misguided ideologue of French cuisine -- be it someone French or, more often I think, a Francophile who has only ever experienced France as a tourist -- comes along and talks about the perfection of French culinary culture, it's funny to rub that person's face in McDonald's, Quick and a litany of other gastronomic failings. If the French and Francophile cognoscenti weren't so sensitive, so clearly living in denial about it (or, alternatively, treating it as though it's a threat tantamount to a nuclear first strike), it wouldn't be nearly as funny.

What's particularly interesting to me, to get back to the Taco Bell point, is that the peculiar admixture of embrace and rejection of McDonald's and Quick (which are essentially the same thing, except that Quick is indigenous) has created what I've seen labeled a "duopoly." There aren't really any other significant fast food chains in France. Which creates an interesting situation wherein the chains that would represent an improvement over the existing cuisine don't have the ability to penetrate the marketplace. Taco Bell is probably not a great example, because it's not particularly good, but look at a chain like Baja Fresh. Undoubtedly, Baja Fresh serves much better Mexican food than the current French baseline. And, because it's an easily replicable chain concept that can be built by anyone, staffed by anyone and plunked down anywhere with exactly the same results, it isn't subject to the tired old objections of "But we have no Mexicans!" and "But we have different ingredients!" Yet there's very little chain innovation in France. In most instances you just have McDonald's and Quick.

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[vserna]

Then it must be funny that there are consultants teaching French wine-makers how to 'oxygenate' to win higher Parker scores.

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What consultants? Micro-oxygenation was developed by Patrick Ducournau, a 100% red-blooded French winegrower in faraway, isolated Madiran, and the goal was certainly not to get higher Parker scores (Robert Parker has never tasted any Ducournau wines), but to soften the harsh tannins of the tannat grape.

Edited July 14, 2005 by vserna (log)

[seanw]

DCMark,

Yes i was suckered by their flavouful fast food, & hopefully will be suckered again. Credit to McDo to pursue such a tangent.

[DCMark]

Its good, I agree. But so many people have no idea the corporate parent!

DCMark,

              Yes i was suckered by their flavouful fast food, & hopefully will be suckered again. Credit to McDo to pursue such a tangent.

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[DCMark]

I forget the word micro. Have you seen Mondovino?

Michel Rolland makes a great villain. He laughs like a maniac while saying little about the work he does, work that's angering a lot of people in France. Michel Rolland is a wine consultant but he might as well be George Bush invading Iraq. In Mondovino, a documentary about the globalization of wine production and its accompanying capitalist tendencies, he comes across as a fatuous imperialist.

"Micro-oxygenate, micro-oxygenate," Mr. Rolland keeps imploring his clients, describing a process that softens tannins but is heresy to purists.

Then it must be funny that there are consultants teaching French wine-makers how to 'oxygenate' to win higher Parker scores.

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What consultants? Micro-oxygenation was developed by Patrick Ducournau, a 100% red-blooded French winegrower in faraway, isolated Madiran, and the goal was certainly not to get higher Parker scores (Robert Parker has never tasted any Ducournau wines), but to soften the harsh tannins of the tannat grape.

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