What are you eating?

[Buffalobiian]

Are you by any chance a slow eater David? (or well, a relaxed, easy eater, if slow sounds too extreme and bad, lol)

[David75]

Are you by any chance a slow eater David? (or well, a relaxed, easy eater, if slow sounds too extreme and bad, lol)

I'm a slow eater by US or english world standards... but too quick for french people
Truth is, with work, I tend to be way too careless and quick, although I have my addresses and try to find the optimum in price/quality and time.
And many times a year, I like taking my sweet time, with 2 3 or 4 hours lunches
I have had an incredible experience in France in a top quality restaurant in Annecy (French Alps) and another one in Venice, that come to mind in the very slow yet wonderful category.

[rockmanj]

I'm a slow eater by US or english world standards... but too quick for french people
Truth is, with work, I tend to be way too careless and quick, although I have my addresses and try to find the optimum in price/quality and time.
And many times a year, I like taking my sweet time, with 2 3 or 4 hours lunches
I have had an incredible experience in France in a top quality restaurant in Annecy (French Alps) and another one in Venice, that come to mind in the very slow yet wonderful category.

A 4 hour lunch? O.O

[Sapphire]

Strange how habits and culture can vary so much across continents.
I like having multiple things to eat in small quantities.
I love those restaurant where you get like 10 to 18 (yes 18) different dishes, in very small quantities.
You start thinking you'll never have enough to fill yourself, but around 2 third of the dishes, you start getting full... and it keeps coming and is delicious.

Now we are only talking school canteens.
I have to say that quality varies a lot depending on schools and cities. But there's really a full course and they try their best to give a balanced meal.
Also, tables are often organised to help socialisation, talk and eat is very important here in France, so much that many work meetings are in fact done at lunch time.

Reminds me of when I was being babysat by a woman from Ukraine in the 4th grade. I completely resisted the idea of eating the small pancakes that she was cooking instead of just large ones because I thought I wouldn't get full. She made me eat them anyway and it turned out I was wrong lol.

The school lunches for America look particularly disgusting, but still within the bounds of reality if they only chose poor schools. I work in a school in Chinatown and the lunches look like that. I'll take a picture of it. The meals in the schools I experienced are more similar to what Buff described, pre-packaged and cooked in bulk in a single servings size. It was a main dish and a drink, and maybe a bag of chips as extra. Hmm now that I think about it, I never really experienced the sampling buffet style of eating on a regular basis until I came to college.

The Korean/Japanese foods look just like what they serve in the plastic bento boxes at the Asian stores. There's so much food that it's hard to finish...

In the dining hall at the dorm in my college, there is a huge variety of foods, so one's plate could easily look the ones in France (without that weirdass fruit). Or Brazil or Italy or Sweden.

Now I just think they were trying to make America look bad.

[Buffalobiian]

And many times a year, I like taking my sweet time, with 2 3 or 4 hours lunches
I have had an incredible experience in France in a top quality restaurant in Annecy (French Alps) and another one in Venice, that come to mind in the very slow yet wonderful category.

I can only imagine how miserable you'd be living here with half-hour lunch breaks. I try to make the most of it by microwaving my food before I take my break. (knocks 5 minutes off). I'm pretty quick, though I sometimes can still have trouble finishing off some meals in time because I'm web-surfing at the same time, or I simply brought too much food.

Even in university here we don't have the buffet-style lunches. You get introduced to the hot-tray on the counter, but you usually only mix 2 foods, if at all. If you bought some roast meat you might get a little bit more variety in the form of the various vegetables.

Now I just think they were trying to make America look bad.

Yeah, pretty much. Though I didn't find America to LOOK the worst, even though it's hands down the most unhealthiest. I might have had slightly adverse feelings towards some of the other food due to sheer lack of familiarity.

[David75]

In the dining hall at the dorm in my college, there is a huge variety of foods, so one's plate could easily look the ones in France (without that weirdass fruit). Or Brazil or Italy or Sweden.

enhanced-buzz-19037-1302802991-13.jpg

If you talk about the item in the bottom left corner, this is not a fruit, but an artichoke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artichoke

I had to become an adult to truly enjoy it though, as it really has a special taste and smell.

For some reason, I really think that picture is more a stereotype, or at least carefully chosen, as I don't ever remember having artichoke as a choice throughout the 20 years I have been to school canteens (from kindergarten to Engineer degree). Mainly because it is not that easy to eat/handle.
A french humorist once said:
"Artichoke is truly for poor people. It's the only dish that has more of it AFTER you've you ate it"

It is also true that it looks like some edible food you'd find in a Star Trek or Stargate episode

[Kraco]

Yeah, artichoke was pretty strange food. No way in hell it would ever get served in schools over here.

[shinta|hikari]

@Buff - I'm not sure about it (US) being the most unhealthy. The Philippines' Lechon Kawali is basically a huge slab of bacon (pork belly) deep fried in oil until crispy. It is also served with a high calorie, high fat, very sweet liver dipping sauce.

I think Philippine cuisine is one of the unhealthiest in the world. We're only lucky we don't get to eat too much of it, even if it is not by choice.

[rockmanj]

R
In the dining hall at the dorm in my college, there is a huge variety of foods, so one's plate could easily look the ones in France (without that weirdass fruit). Or Brazil or Italy or Sweden.

Now I just think they were trying to make America look bad.

Yea, that was a whole artichoke, and even though I like it, I have never had a whole one put in front of me. Also, I agree with Shinta; while a lot of Filipino food is tasty, there were few things that I found to be healthy. I must have gained about 7 pounds a month when I lived there.

[David75]

Yea, that was a whole artichoke, and even though I like it, I have never had a whole one put in front of me. Also, I agree with Shinta; while a lot of Filipino food is tasty, there were few things that I found to be healthy. I must have gained about 7 pounds a month when I lived there.

Well, having a whole artichoke to eat and the appropriate dipping sauce for scales is very nice. And after a hard work getting every bits, you can finally get the heart.
Really a nice appetizer, although you have to pause a bit because it gives a false feeling of being full for some time.

[rockmanj]

Well, having a whole artichoke to eat and the appropriate dipping sauce for scales is very nice. And after a hard work getting every bits, you can finally get the heart.
Really a nice appetizer, although you have to pause a bit because it gives a false feeling of being full for some time.

That sounds lovely...sadly, I live in the US. I do want to visit France and sample the cuisine there. I have not heard anything bad about the food there. Most of my friends (European ones included) say that the French take dining seriously.

[David75]

That sounds lovely...sadly, I live in the US. I do want to visit France and sample the cuisine there. I have not heard anything bad about the food there. Most of my friends (European ones included) say that the French take dining seriously.

Well, Italians do to, and other european countries.
Japanese tend to be perfectionnists too.

Sadly, things change and most restaurants, even at medium to high prices, use cheating methods like industrial meals they just have to heat... And it becomes hard to track.And what pains me is that it also happens in touristic places, I mean famous ones. I find it devastating for the culture and traditions.
Also, do not underestimate french restaurants abroad. It sometimes happens that chefs decide to travel and exercice their art in other countries and pass on their experience. Passion and dedication can make excellent cooks, even if they are not from the country.
That could be a good start, even if prices might be a tad high.

For anyone traveling to France, I would advise to use the "Guide Rouge Michelin" (red guide) for high end restaurants, and "Guide Vert" (green guide) for good quality/price ratio.

[shinta|hikari]

I plan to go to France just to eat one day... when I save up enough money.

I love travelling, and my 2 main goals are always the food and the thrills (i.e. Snowboarding, Scuba Diving, Canyoneering, White water rafting). I plan to skydive during this month.

Sight seeing and other things are minor priorities.

[XanBcoo]

Does that mean it is served free or part of the school service?

The school I teach at offers free breakfast and lunch to its students because it's located in such a poor area. Most of our lunches look like the ones pictured there, but sometimes we'll get foods that look more like the "Singapore" pictures.

They've got 4 options every day, "Homestyle, Pizza, International, or Deli". Every option is slim on vegetables and ridiculously high in carbohydrates. Though in the Deli line, they do get a small apple or orange.

[rockmanj]

I plan to go to France just to eat one day... when I save up enough money.

I love travelling, and my 2 main goals are always the food and the thrills (i.e. Snowboarding, Scuba Diving, Canyoneering, White water rafting). I plan to skydive during this month.

Sight seeing and other things are minor priorities.

I kinda like to just wander places and try local cuisine. I find my thrills where I find them.

[Animeniax]

For some reason, I really think that picture is more a stereotype, or at least carefully chosen, as I don't ever remember having artichoke as a choice throughout the 20 years I have been to school canteens (from kindergarten to Engineer degree). Mainly because it is not that easy to eat/handle.
A french humorist once said:
"Artichoke is truly for poor people. It's the only dish that has more of it AFTER you've you ate it"

Did you ever have a huge plate of freedom fries for lunch like in that picture?

[darkshadow]

My school has pretty much anything you want. Which is pretty funny cause it seems like our system is more like an evolution of some sorts; in the first phase of school (6-12y) I don't really remember there ever being school lunches, everything is packed in from home. Second phase (12-16(17/18)) gets a cafeteria, but doesn't offer much more than some drinks, sandwiches and snacks. Then the 3rd stage (16+) most school cafeteria's are a full blown kitchen....I'll post some pictures later of some stuff in our kitchen.

edit pic:
16541_1151355912380_1482103377_30351638_7033233_n.jpg

[David75]

Did you ever have a huge plate of freedom fries for lunch like in that picture?

I admitt I had the same reaction the first time I've seen that pic, there's a contradiction beetween fries with ketchup and artichoke. It's just I forgot about that reaction.
In many canteens, you can chose exactly what you want. But that choice also would be weird. Or we have a vegetarian here, who didn't like the other veggies alternative that day.

[rockmanj]

I admitt I had the same reaction the first time I've seen that pic, there's a contradiction beetween fries with ketchup and artichoke. It's just I forgot about that reaction.
In many canteens, you can chose exactly what you want. But that choice also would be weird. Or we have a vegetarian here, who didn't like the other veggies alternative that day.

Sadly, I often feel like an asshole when I inquire about vegetarian options.

[darkshadow]

Did you ever have a huge plate of freedom fries for lunch like in that picture?

Huge order of fries only is actually very normal here, I actually did some research about this and it seems that our country has perfected the art of "serving" fries. I though it was pretty funny that a lot of different countries served fries more as a side dish, in small portions. Also the lack of diversty in sauces also really suprised me....but then again we have a nationwide system of fastfood "slang" used just to identify fries + a certain sauce.