Bonsoir
tout le monde!
France
and Britain, two of my favourite countries ever. Neighbouring
countries yet so very different, so one day I decided to compile a list of their differences. But where to start?
Let's say, the best thing in life, the most photographed thing in
life, ie., FOOD. (&drink)
Some examples to start off with before The List...
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| Croque Madame & Burger @ Au Bureau, Douai, France |
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| Sunday Roast @ Chester's @ Aberystwyth, Britain |
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| French cakes @ Lyon |
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| British cakes @ London |
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| Snails. Yes both CC and I sampled them. A bit chewy. |
So,
let's start with...
COFFEE
Britain
Coffees are always served with milk. My
favourite British coffeey specialty (though I admit I have only come
across it made by Grandma or an adorable tiny café in an adorable
tiny town in Wales) is MILKY COFFEE.
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| Welsh milky coffee @ Conti's, Lampeter on a cold autumnal day <3 |
And if
you want an espresso, you ask for an espresso. Though no one drinks
espressos in the UK. Apart from my Hungarian friend Andy. Who drinks
quadruple espressos (which he orders with “can I have a double
espresso... and then another double espresso, in the same cup?”)
France
Despite
having lived in France for two years, I still frequently forget that 'un café' is not a mug or a decent-sized cup of the said liquid,
but a tiny espresso. Tiny, quaint, tiny, pretty, tiny, often
accompanied with a fancy-papered sugar, Speculoos-biscuit or, if
you're lucky, a little chocolate. But it's tiny. And strong. And did
I mention tiny.
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| Un café s'il vous plait monsieur @ Douai |
During
one morning coffee-moment, my friend Nicola and I resorted to buying cappuccinos in addition to our cafés. Now that looks more like it...
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| Now this satisfied our British coffee cravings! |
Or, at
the other side of the spectrum, France basically does coffee in
everything apart from mugs. They do bowls of coffee, for example.
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| Trust me, it was actually a nice breakfast |
And
even glasses. When working at a school in France, I usually had a
bowl of coffee for breakfast and a glass of coffee after lunch at the
school canteen. In all fairness, we did come to the conclusion with
the fellow assistants that the coffee was not MEANT to be drunk from
glasses, but instead from the miniscule cups next to the glasses. But
even many of the French teachers thought better not to touch these
tiny ornate dishes and drink
their black, sugarless coffee from glasses.
TEA
Britain
Ah,
tea. The liquid gold, elixir of life that must run through the veins
of every true Brit. I will not get into the debate about what kind of
tea is the most perfect, though most Brits will agree with me that it
must have milk (apart from my friend Hayzybobzykins... but she is
special in many ways), and a decent amount will agree that it should
have sugar.
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| Home-stirred tea with a dashing of milk and one sugar. Mug courtesy of Grandma. |
France
French
have tea. In some places. Most places nowadays I guess due to all
this mondialisation. But if you want
milk with your tea, don't have your hopes too high up. If you're
lucky you may get a tiny blobule of condensed milk. But don't dispair
yet, since it could be worse: In Holland our condensed milky tea
tasted of pizza. Hannah laughed at me for describing it like that,
then tasted it herself and, to her complete surprise, she agreed. It
tasted like oregon or origami or whatever the spice is you put on
pizza. (So I had to google it. Oregano. Sorry lol.)
WINE
Britain
If the
topic were vinegar, you could do pretty well in the UK buying a 75 cl
bottle of vinegar from the local CK's for £3.99. Except that
confusingly the label claims to be wine, not vinegar.
For a tenner
maybe you can get a relatively decent bottle (not that my financial
situation has ever let me explore those posher paths).
Whereas
in France...
Honestly,
the bottles that cost less than a euro fifty may not be suited for the
taste buds of the most pedantic wine connoisseurs, but if you go for
anything above a few euros, the wine is pretty decent.
Basically...
This bottle
of wine in France: Bottle of wine in Britain:
2.39euros £9.99
**** **
And
since we're on the wine topic...
A
DAILY JUG OF WINE AT LUNCH AT WORK (at least if you are working at a
school)
France:
= the norm
Britain:
= serious alcohol problem
(Well,
if one wants to believe Gerard Depardieu, you can have the same
example with 14 bottles of wine a day...)
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| My wine recommendation number 1: Probably quite pricey since it was a gift... |
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| My wine recommendation number 2, and very affordable, thank you Nicola! |
CROISSANTS
This
one is simple.
A
croissant from a multipack from a local supermarket:
France:
****½ Britain: ½
:9 :S
TRADITIONAL TABLE VIEW
Britain: Tea (Brits are so obsessed with tea there is even a meal named after it...)
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| My lovely 21st birthday tea à la Grandma |
France: Raclette (melted cheesy goodness)
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| chez Bernard @ Douai |
RAW
MEAT
Britain:
= er... raw meat
France:
= gourmet steak
tartare
à la Mr Bean...
The first time I had raw meat was my first day with my French
au pair family when I came to lunch after a bout of homesickness (crying on the phone to my mumsie in my bathroom). The raw meat did not improve my teary
anti-France sentiments. Since then I have come to understand that it can be nice-tasting... but still too weird for me.
OASIS
So refreshing, so tropical.
Ah.
No
wait, wrong Oasis
The French Oasis is my absolute favourite non-milky drink ever.
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| Père la fraise <3 |
And extra points for the adorable fruits in their ads and their PUNS yes the French do puns as well! Their slogan is “Be fruit”, 'fruit' in French is pronounced very close to the 'free' in English... Yes, amazing. :'''))
Drinkwise,
unfortunately Britain tries to trick you with its less delicious
version.
French
Oasis: ***** British Oasis: **½
(Though
this one is by far personal opinion, I admit.)
(Wonderwall
is pretty good though.)
CHICKENY
GOODNESS SANDWICH
Britain:
Chicken&stuffing sandwich.
Scrumptious. Btw, if stuffing is especially scrumptious can you just
say 'scruffing'?
France: Poulet rôti. Literally means roasted chicken. But can be understood as chicken baguette. So unbelieveably good considering its... plainness. You can never be bored of lunches in France if you have this. Though once or twice they have understood my 'poulet' as 'thon' (tuna). Luckily I'm not fussy.
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| Tbf the best ones are even plainer than this... |
PERFECTION
IN CONSUMABLE FORM
Britain:
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| Oreo cookie milkshake, Upper Limit Café @ Aberystwyth |
“It looks like someones ashes,” - Chris. I get your point, but still. SO GOOD. SO SO SO SO taste-bud smashingly gorgeously flavoured OREO COOKIE MILKSHAKE.
France:
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| Speculoos Tiramisu @ Café Leffe, Lille |
Tiramisu
is not French, true. But SPECULOOS TIRAMISU is. Ahhhhhh death in a
cup if you are ready to die of amazingness!!!!!
PERFECTION
IN CONSUMABLE FORM (TRADITIONAL EDITION)
Britain:
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| Scones @ Ilfracombe |
It
took me a while to learn to accept their plainness, but scones are proof that plain on the outside does not mean
plain on the inside... And when you get to know them, they stay with you forever... and ever... and ever.... till you die happily drowning in their goodness.
France:
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| Nutella crepe @ Douai |
Yes,
yes, a cliché. But what creates a cliché? A truth.
Whatever
the question, Nutella crepe is the answer.
Amen.
Ah.
Et c'est tout.
That's it. No, not really, but I have to stop somewhere. Thank you for joining me on this foody adventure :)
What
would you add to the list?
Bizzzz
(the equivalent of xxxxxxxxxxx in French)
Emmmzzzzy
:)
PS. And every single tiniest comment will make my day. :)
PS. And every single tiniest comment will make my day. :)
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| The rough draft I did many months ago |
I think I need a nice cup of tea... or shall I make it milky coffee? BTW, do snail shells taste like egg shells?
ReplyDeleteNext time I try an egg shell I will let you know :) Milky coffee please!!
Delete