What French People Never Eat
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- čas přidán 11. 11. 2022
- Expand your French vocabulary with this lesson on French culture - specifically the “French cuisine” we don’t actually eat!
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Food is a huge part of French culture, and many of our iconic dishes are known all around the world. Maybe you’ve even heard that we eat some weird and unusual foods like frog legs, escargot, and more.
Do French people really eat these things? Find out in today’s French lesson! Reconnect with your love for all things French as you learn more about French culture and expand your French vocabulary at the same time.
Take care and stay safe.
😘 from Grenoble, France.
Géraldine
Everything you havementioned is very common at our local supermarket in central France.
May be it's a regional or city/rural thing but cuts of horsemeat are always available in my local supermarkets in western France both on the butchery counter and in the pre-packaged section. Tete de veau is also very common on local bistro menus. In fact about the only thing on the list we don't see regularly is frogs' legs.
How is horse meat?
I'd love to try it.
Merci! I like your accent especially when speaking English.
French and Chinese cuisine are world renown for eating all of the animal because they both share a long history of famine culture where nothing goes to waste. So you make do with what you have in the moment because the net meal isn't guaranteed.
I am french. I have eaten frog legs once in my life. The owner of the restaurant told me that the frog legs were imported from Poland.
I would have fallen for ris de veau as riz! Thanks for the warning on andouillette! I would have thought it was like andouille sausage in the US- which is good. Greetings from the US! 🇺🇸🇫🇷
Great video. Actually, in the UK we used to eat several of these dishes; e.g horsemeat and sheep's brains. We still eat beef tongue and some people eat sweetbreads.
We used to eat winkles too, not so different from snails I guess, but we would serve them with malted vinegar on them.
I don't think we've ever eaten anduoiette, but it used to be very common to eat tripe, cow's stomach lining, baked with vinegar.
What I did find strange in a Monmartre restaurant, was seeing someone eating a lamb chop with plain spaghetti along side it. No sauce at all.
In 1974, our family went to a restaurant in Boulogne-Billancourt, France which had a good reputation as haute cuisine. My father and I ordered la cervelle because the name was so lyrical that it sounded good. We were shocked when our plates arrived. At 15 years old, I did not even know that people ate brains! We tried to eat it but we could not. The waiter was upset, the Maitre d'Hotel was mad, and the chef was livid. Although we lived near that restaurant for 3 years, we did not dare return.
Great story, thank you. Sounds very French, how the waiter, chef and maître-de were all offended! Oo-la-la.
Foie Gras can be produced without gavage and it tastes the same.
I would try most of these. People often get put off by the idea of something more than the actual taste. I thought haggis would be gross but it's fantastic.
(Butcher is said with an "oo" sound, by the way -- "bootcher".)
Escargots (snails) are great! They're cheap and taste great with a whole bunch of different sauces.
One winter, my company hosted a holiday meal for its employees in a fancy French restaurant in Northern Virginia, USA. A co-worker thought that Steak Tartare sounded nice and ordered it. In a big production, the wait staff rolled a cart tableside with the plate of seasoned, raw ground beef and a hot skillet. They stirred the mixture in the hot pan for a few seconds and served the warm, raw meat with a flourish. The shocked gentleman tried a nibble but could not eat the meal. He ordered a doggie and confided that he expected it would be delicious after cooks it at home.
I went to a restaurant in France with my exchange family (short term stay) and they asked me if I wanted to try it, but I didn't know the word grenouille yet. So they just suggested I eat chicken lol. Escargot is delicious if made well! Horse meat was still available when I was there in 2004 but I didn't get the impression it was popular. -- I've seen a sheep's brain being eaten but it was with an Italian family. -- I'm quite used to andouille sausage, that's a staple everywhere I live. I've never seen andouilette so that was helpful! Merci!
Yes! Italian here, at Easter it's traditional to eat lamb, my grandma eats the brain with a spoon directly from the skull 😅
No disrespect to your grandmother, but she sounds like one tough cookie, someone not to anger! 😬. I’m only kidding. Ciao Italia! I visited Roma and Assisi in 2000 and loved it. I love a lot of Italian food too.
@@michaelcrummy8397 Ahahha, no disrespect taken (?), she's more like the dog that barks but doesn't bite, like if you're arguing with her you can freely raise your voice or cuss, she won't take it personally, but also won't take you seriously, she'll just keep thinking you're wrong 😅
Also I'm glad you liked Italy ☺️
Dionisia: “No disrespect taken…”, is absolutely correct English. I believe you’re Italian, and I must complement your English. It’s excellent! Chaio (?) amici Italiano! 🇮🇹🇺🇸
I love most things about French cuisine (including escargots, tartares, foie gras, dry sausage, cheeses, baguettes, onion soup, etc.), but nobody will ever convince me that andouillettes are good.
Escargots are commonly served in French restaurants everywhere, including here in the U.K. (where you can also buy them, prepared, in some supermarkets). Ditto tartare. Similarly foie gras, though it’s becoming much less common because of distaste for the “gavage” force feeding. I’ve seen and eaten frog’s legs in both France and Belgium (where their Dutch name is the rather strikingly descriptive “kikkerbillen”).
The one that has always defeated me is andouillette. Memorably described on a British TV programme by the (rather posh) English wine writer Jilly Goolden as “smelling and tasting as I imagine a pig’s bum must smell and taste.” A colleague in France teased me that I’d have to get used to it if I wanted to stay because, other than actually enjoying Johnny Halliday songs, eating andouillette was one the final tests before being awarded French citizenship.
Lol. Safe to say that French people know their own culinary habits better than English tourists do. I'll take her word over yours.
We still have several of those dishes in Louisiana. I've enjoyed frog legs and andouille. But Louisiana also shares a reputation for eating weird things.
Merci beaucoup pour enseigner cette intéressant et magnifique information et leçon du week end et dimanche, thanks a lot for this explanation of the weekend
Andouillete is a staple of American soul food. They're called chitterlings or chitlins. Yes, very smelly but tasty if cooked properly.
I live in France and of the dishes mentioned I see escargot, tartare, and fois gras being offered (and eaten) regularly. I once had lunch in a non-touristy bistrot in Paris where more than half the diners were eating tartare. I’m guessing it was a specialty there. I will bet that all of these dishes are way more popular than “French onion soup” which I have never encountered outside of tourist restaurants.
Steak tartare was very popular at my former job canteen. Personally, even though I'm French, the mere thought of it makes me shudder :)
Soupe à l'oignon is still pretty common. And good! Tartares are even more popular though.
Some of these are not so unheard of in Italy as well! For example, horse meat used to be more common than pig meat cause it was cheeper, cow tongue and sheep brain were not that uncommon as well, also cow brain which sort of disappeared after the mad cow thing too!
In Calabria there's also a kind of sausage called 'nduja, used to be made not to throw away the bad but still edible parts of pig meat (nowadays they do it with the good parts though) and a lot of peppers to cover the taste. It's not the same as andouille but now I can't avoid thinking the name might come from French (like some southern Italian dialect words, cause French domination and all that)
Also have a grandma who ate frog legs (said it tastes like chicken 🤷♀️) and the other who used to eat snails!
Most of these we have in Mexico.
Cow tongue- lengua
Brain - sesos
And head - cabeza
All available in taco form. I guess it tastes different because of the way we prepare it and the salsas we put on them.
Sounds disgusting.. sorry.
"Bleu" isn't "medium rare" (which is "mi-cuit") it's rarer than rare. Not to be confused with the Southwestern US "black and blue" which is charred on the outside and rare in the middle.
… horse meat is sold in regular grocery stores in Switzerland … while in Spain, I saw herds of Shetland ponies that are raised for their meat … 🤷🏼♀️
I love escargot and foie gras. My Italian grandmother used to make brains. I never tried it.
Hi Geraldine , thank you for all the great videos. Would you please do a video on how to talk to a voice assistant? like how to talk to Google Assistant or Siri or Alexa? Like it's even not easy to figure out how to set a timer or ask the weather or something?
One little English slip: not _beef's tongue_ but _ox tongue._ It's a classic English dish too, especially cold. And we have calf's cheek too (but it's really rare nowadays).
I do love andouiette - I first tried it in a French restaurant in Bath (in England) and I've been a fan ever since. But it's really, really hard to find in Britain (outside London, anyway).
You may be interested to know that horse meat is actually quite common in Quebec (even in Montreal, you can find it in most grocery stores, but not as common in the suburbs).
Frog legs are indeed a rarity, I think I've tried them twice in my over 60-year old long life - and didn't think much of them, found them rather tasteless.
Snails... quite frankly it's actually their garlic and butter dressing that makes them tasty.
As for horse meat, it's become both rare and unpopular; the reason is that , at least for most of us, our relationship with horses has changed from farm animals to pets (kind of), and for many of us eating horse meat would be as horrible as eating cat or dog meat, you just don't eat your friends.
I grew up eating les cuisses de grenouille and they were delicious --but the ones I was served were very tiny. I keep seeing frog's legs shown as these huge chicken sized legs and I never saw that before. Also, cuisses de grenouilles, escargot, foie gras, and tartare are not only eaten in France. These are eaten in Belgium and Switzerland as well.
I am the unfortunate taste tester of horse meat 25 years ago. Didn't know what it was til after. In Switzerland not Frencch.
C'est peut-être different par chaque region de France. Je mange souvent de tète de veau dans un resto dans le 19e de Paris! Délicieux. Et Dans ma jeunesse, je mangeais les cuisses de grenouilles dans la Louisiane.. selon la tradition Cajun. Merci, Geraldine.
OUAIS. moi j'mange des ouaouarons de temps en temps et j'viens de la Louisiane
In France we eat snails. It's in every grocery store. Not in "some", as you said. Some don't like it, but in general, yes, everyone has eaten it several times.
I was hoping you would discuss this, which was on the menu at a Cafe in Paris we visited earlier this year. I want to know, do the French really eat this:
APÉRO ORIGINAL : INSECTES À CROQUER JIMINI'S A7
GRILLON OIGNON GRILLE BBQ OU VER MOLITOR THYM& ORIGAN OU
COMTÉ & MUSCADE
Crickets or worms?
Just left France and had some huge frog legs. I’ve had them in America when I was young but they were small. These were so big that it was almost a turn off….imagine a frog that huge …. Ugh but they were delicious tho. I always eat snails when I visit France although the first few French people I asked about them..told me no they don’t eat them. I tried anyway and I fell in love. They’re just trop cher!!! Almost 15 US dollars for only 6 of them?!! I think that’s why people don’t eat them…Due to the price.. not the snail itself lol
I live in France and don't mind escargot...especially with lots of herbs and garlic. The little snail tarts for apero are delicious. Ditto frogs legs...though they are far less common...like a cross between chicken and fish. Andouillette, on the other hand, is disgusting...nicknamed 'bum sausage' in our house because that's exactly what it tastes (and smells) like! Locally we have a regional salad with duck gesiers which is delicious! As is the local foie gras! A big no to veal head but tongue was a classic British dish from my youth most often served thinly sliced in sandwiches.
Fully agreed on andouillettes. Most of French cuisine is great. Andouillettes, dear god...
Nous avons cuisse et jambe, mais a-t-il un nom pour la partie de la jambe entre le genou et le pied?
le tibia et le mollet
Salut Géraldine! C’était informative et intéressante, votre vidéo. La considération la plus importante pour moi, même plus que la nourriture soit bien cuite, c’est que’elle soit bien morte. 😁😁😁. Sérieusement, je me montre difficile sur la nourriture. Je passerai une semaine à Paris l’été prochain. Je connais déjà de la nourriture en France que j’aime de mon temps en France comme étudiant universitaire. J’aime les baguettes, la soupe à l’oignon, le Camembert, et la cœur du palmier (délicieuse), par example. À Paris, s’il est nécessaire, il y a toujours McDonald’s ou Burger King! 🤓🤓🤓👍
P.S. N’hésitez pas à corriger des fautes, si vous avez le temps. À la prochaine vidéo. 🇺🇸🇫🇷
LE cœur de palmier (j’adore aussi)😅
This video made me think of food we used to eat here in Sweden forty years ago, but are not very common today. Like liver, and kidneys. You could buy them in any shop that sold meat back then, but today they are much harder to find. The same with cow's tongue. And kalvbräss, which is sweetbread, or ris de veau. They all used to be common items to buy, but not any more. The same with pig tails, and pig feet. But those two were going out of fashion already forty years ago, and are impossible to find today. The same with horse meat, you can't really buy that today here in Sweden. Except in one special case, if you buy thinly sliced meat to put on your sandwich, and the label says "hamburgerkött" ("hamburger meat"). That's the code word for horse. Weird, because hamburgers aren't made from horse...
Bleu is more than rare. Ultra rare.
I remember having les escargots in a Paris restaurant it was nice 😊. But I haven’t seen frog legs ..
escargots are much more common (and better than frog legs anyway, lived in France for a few years).
I am Chinese. Have you guys tried chicken feet? I love chicken feet, if you haven’t tried it, please do try. Miam miam😊
I was served andouillette once. I never ever ever enter a French restaurant since then.
Noooo! Andouillettes are terrible, but so much of French cuisine is fantastic. Try again.
My mother was French, and an excellent cook,, but could not stomach escargots or cuisses de grenouille! As for andouilletes.... forget about it!
I live in France and don't mind escargot...especially with lots of herbs and garlic. The little snail tarts for apero are delicious. Ditto frogs legs...though they are far less common...like a cross between chicken and fish. Andouillette, on the other hand, is disgusting...nicknamed 'bum sausage' I our house because that's exactly what it tastes (and smells) like! Locally we have a regional salad with duck gesiers which is delicious! As is the local foie gras!
What’s weird about snails or frogs really? I don’t get it.
And I’ve been to some quintessentially French non-touristy restaurants and actually found these on offer both on the a la carte and formule menus.
I went with my mother to Le Grillon, a small hotel in Lac Chambon in 1974, and we saw a large plate of calf's brain in the dining room. I was nine years old, and I had never seen anything like that in real life.
"Tete du Veau" sent me back to America.
I had cervelles once in the 1970s. Yum.
Also, I've had andouillette. Didn't like it. Reminded me a bit of haggis which I don't like.
thalamus gland? ris de veau? I had to skip the tartare section. Felt my insides quivering.
I noticed that both you and Boby Lapointe were wearing shirts in un tricot rayé style. An episode on stereotypical French clothing would be interesting. 👕
Cleetus
J'ai l'impression que vous avez oublié les Tripoux et la Boulette d'Avesne…
I don't think I've seen "cuisses de grenouilles" on a French menu more than a handful of times in my entire life. I have definitely seen way more frog dishes in Asian restaurants in France at least, but rarely on typical French menus. I definitely agree that escargots are much more common, those can be easily found.
I personally think frog legs/ things is the best meat in the world. Too bad that it's not very common these days and as you said definitely easier to spot on the menu of an Asian restaurant than a French/western one . I find it interesting that the texture of escargot is more acceptable to her palate than frog thighs when in fact the texture of frog legs is a lot closer to common food than escargot.
I've had frog legs in Gary, Indiana, of all places.
A small bird, the Ortolan, has it's eye's gouged out in order to fatten it up, as it blind it cannot tell the difference between day and night and thus eats more, after which it is drowned alive in Cognac. This is a speciality of Le Lande!
Andouillette is a delicacy I look forward to eating when in France even though I normally eat vegetarian food! It´s delicious! I remember that my son was fed horse meat by his childminder when I lived in France in the 60-70s though I've never eaten it myself. Before mad cow disease in the UK we used to buy tripe direct from the abattoir but sadly no longer. Love your videos - trying not to lose the French I spoke decades ago!
Tout c'que j'peux dire en tant que francophone de la Louisiane c'est que j'mange bien des ouaouarons (bullfrogs), des huîtres et des cocodrils (alligators). J'ai jamais mangé des escargots. La langue de bœuf ... meh. C'est pas pour moi. Mais, nous-autres icitte, on cuit les andouilles avec nos gombos et nos poboys etc. Personnellement, je les mangerais pas froids comme ça
OMG!!!!
I live in Vire, Calvados [Normandy D14]. Unfortuately the dish it is renowned for is andouillette. A place down the road from me even has "World Champ 1968" across the facade. I hate the stuff. I have tried several times but I find it horrible.
I have had 'frogs' legs' a number of times at a restaurant in Brussels, on the menu as 'Les Petites Danceuses'. Snails with garlic butter, too. Excellent!
There used to be a horse meat stall in Valencia's fabulous Mercado Central but I notice it has closed. I had a chicken liver salad in Paris once that was so good I ordered a second round!
King Charles has decreed that foie gras will no longer be on the menu at any royal meal. Chapeau, your Majesty!
I notice you say les like lès and des like dès
I had no idea there were French people weirded out by horse meat.
I'm American and I don't get the aversion to it.
Just eat Mr. Ed. It's fine.
I live in Finland ( and now in France ) - we eat horse meat, horse inner fillet mmmmmmmmm nam nam. Unfortunately it is hard to find recently, before they sold it in supermarket. Now i live in France - i can not even find a feef inner fillet, your french meat cuts are weird. Obviously u can not buy just whole beef fillet.
I love frog love frog legs yummy taste like chicken wings
😅😅 proposer Boby Lapointe pour goûter la chanson française, c'est limite du sadisme 😉. Déjà que pour les Français, ce n'est pas aisé à comprendre, alors pour un étranger, ça pourrait être carrément un sujet de thèse. (ça fait deux remarques sur votre chaîne, ce sera la dernière. Vous faites un boulot remarquable. Pas question de troller)
No discussion of boudin noir! Which I think is quite tasty, but i don’t think Americans would eat it if they knew what is was and I’m not telling!
Poetic beast 36
In the early 70’s an acquaintance took me to a bistro in Paris, where she ordered the biftek frites. After taking her first bite, she said, “C’est du cheval!” She explained that her parents had fed her horsemeat all during her childhood because she had been a weak little girl, often sick, and horsemeat was supposed to “strengthen the blood.” Now, she said, the very smell of horsemeat was nauseating.
She summoned the waiter and had a vigorous discussion with him, but the French was so fast and colloquial that I couldn’t follow it. 😂
I always wonder, how is vegetarianism accepted throughout France. In America it is somewhat accepted in the cities and suburbs. But in the country, it is only tolerated. Most people are completely unfamiliar, illiterate, in the reason for or the benefits of vegetarianism and veganism. Many people are even aggravated about it, like it's a threat to their existence. So how is it accepted in France?
In Minnesota, there is a season for eating lutefisk, a fun subject to talk about, but not to partake.
Watch Mr bean getting rid of tartare in a ladies handbag and other places
It seems like madame is trying to downplay the french love of organ meats. I’ve never been to france but I live in a part of New York where there are many french expats. There used to be a bistro in my town that regularly served such “delicacies” as rougons de veau (veal kidneys) paté de campagne which contained pig liver, also cerveau d’agneau, escargots, foie gras (which the french are crazy for) etc; etc; So the consumption of these things are much more common than she would have you believe. I enjoy these videos but let’s be real!
Don’t quit your day job, Clee.
What exactly does that stupid remark mean? And who is clee?
The lower case ‘c’ gives you away, Doofus Dubious Dino DOOFISIMUS. Away put thy Dinklage we mean you no harm.
I think maybe things change with younger generations. We used to eat organ meats in the anglosphere too, back in the day.
@@johnheffernan2422 Not sure why the other guy is complaining. It's true that organ meats are a significant part of French cuisine.
I had chicken gizzards in a restaurant in France. They were really nice. I've never even seen them in my own country, Australia. Part of the reason maybe is that "chicken gizzards" sounds terrible in English. Who would want to eat that? _Gésiers de poulet_ sounds much nicer.
Andouillette is delicious. Tous ceux qui je connais kiffent l'andouillette. Ne prends pas ton cas pour une généralité. Everyone I know loves andouillette. Don't think your case is a generality.
Exactement. Elle a visiblement des goûts de bobo parisienne.
Chevaux. Les Français ne mangent pas de viande chevaline
si, il est encore possible d'en manger. Mais la viande de cheval est chère, car élever des chevaux pour la viande coûte cher.
Poetic beast 36