McDonald's in France

I read the same comment a while ago. Someone (perhaps Mark Twain) said you can never lose money underestimating the American public. Perhaps the same can be said of any general public, even the French.

It’s fast; it’s cheap; it’s easy. Kids believe advertising and parents don’t like to argue with kids over unimportant things. I took our kids to McDonalds when they were little. None of them would go to McDonalds now and neither would I, but it served its purpose.

The only thing that truly bothers me is that in this country (US) when you travel, you can’t tell one town from another. You go past Mickey D’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, etc. ad nauseum and all the little mom & pop restaurants have disappeared along with most regional cuisine. I would really hate to see that happen in France. One of the reasons we enjoy France so much is you can drive into almost any little town and find a good to great restaurant.

We have often seen French mothers and fathers carefully educating their children about foods when they’ve been in a restaurant with us. I think they put more effort into it than we do, but I guess they also go to McDonald’s when it suits them. I understand Starbucks is also doing quite well in Paris!

SalB:

Well, I guess America is putting it’s USDA Stamp everywhere…I have also noticed that when turning off of I-95 or any major freeway, as one turns onto the exit road…signs are prominent as you describe, KFC, Mickey D’s, Wendy’s, etc…However, as in France and other countries…when traveling in USA…if one stops at a local store or gas station and asks the locals, they can also direct you to a very good restaurant in the area…this is helpful in Louisiana, (local cajun), Mexican foods,etc…

Although I love McDonald’s, I have really cut back on my fast food eating…I love their double cheeseburgers…and their fries are unsurpassed…But, I have noticed on TV (of course teenagers don’t watch what I watch), a lot of emphasis is being placed on overeating, weigh gain from fast foods, etc…and we are now noticing a lot of the fast food chains are offering low-carb, and Mickey’s has stopped super-sizing…We American’s and our portions are way too big…A portion for us is probably three times the amount that we should have…

I do notice that the French, Brits, Germans cook a lot using butter and other products that we in America has deemed either "fattening" or not good for the system…BUT, that is what makes the food taste so good…I am a southern cook and of course, southerner’s never thought or worried about putting cream, butter, sugar, lard (makes the very best bisquits)…gravy…but, we are becoming more health conscience also…We still love our southern foods like fried chicken, etc…but, we have found ways to make it more healthful…

I know when I was in Japan for two years, the first thing I did when I got back to Travis AFB was to head for the nearest McDonald’s…Even though we had good hamburgers on the base in Japan, nothing seems to equal McDonald’s…I also read an article yesterday that stated that we can become addicted to certain foods that we eat…perhaps this is happening with our taste buds for places like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC…SalB…nice talking to ya…

Scary, addicted to McDonalds. Whoa!

Years ago I was playing in an orchestra in Haiti and we had the world’s greatest cook. People would have paid a fortune for this woman’s cooking and here she was in the middle of a third world country, cooking for us. Lucky us! The entire summer a young percussion player spent every waking moment wishing for a MdDonald’s hamburger. His opening comment in every conversation was, "I can’t wait to get back to NY and get a Big Mac." The rest of us never did understand him!

Yesterday we visited Lone Pine, CA and asked a local for a good restaurant. There were two nearby, one in Lone Pine and the other in Independence. Both were closed on Wednesday. We did NOT eat at Subway. We found another little local place on our own and it was pretty good.

It works in some small towns and it doesn’t work in others. I just remember traveling when I was a kid and all the little restaurants on Main Street as we drove through the towns. Perhaps I wasn’t as discriminating as a kid?!

You’re certainly right about portions. In France we ae usually served a "normal" portion and can eat it. Last night we ate out and each ordered a half portion. Neither of us could finish it. Can you imagine a full portion? I don’t know why restaurants do that. When it’s put in front of you, you try to eat it, at least most people do. You would think restaurants could make more money if they served less food. I’m sure there’s a lesson there someplace.

SalB:

The people in France that eat MacDonalds (MacDo) the most are students. It’s fast, cheap and plentiful. However, once these students get real jobs, they tend to stay away from MacDo as they know it’s not great quality cooking.

However, the food in a French MacDo is of a much higher quality than in the USA because the meat has NO hormones, NO antibiodics in it. Likewise, the vegetables used are much fresher than the USA (go to a French market, go even to Monoprix and taste a French tomato). I’ve never eaten in a French MacDo. I figure that while in France, I’ll eat good French cooking.

Not all French cooking is covered in butter and grease. Go to southern France and the other coastal areas and see the varieties of fresh fish that are available! Plus, in Provence they cook the fish mediterrean style, which is much healthier that that good ol’ southern style of frying here in the USA (fried catfish isn’t for me).

The French walk a lot. They’re not addicted to cars as we are in the USA. So they walk to the markets, walk to the metro, walk to the train station every morning to work. They eat 2 or 3 meals a day, normal portions (no supersize) and they do NOT snack. Their main meal is at noon. Night meal is something small. In France, when I change my eating patterns and lifestyle, I automatically lose weight immediately without even trying to diet, and I surely have a creme brulee for dessert at lunch, too

I would tend to question the effects of American hormone laden meat on the numbers of big people in the usa. Think of it…hormones are given to animals to make them grow quicker. How would this affect a child growing up, eating hormone meat almost every day? The meat industry would say that the amount is so small as to be a no brainer, but how does this hormone stay in the human body over the years and affect overall weight and health?

My father being a electro-chemist and physicist, there are many, many things in my family we wouldn’t eat because he knew the industry secrets and its effects on the animals.

SalB:

I uploaded my new photos of France onto my PC. I didn’t realize just how many new photos I took! No matter how many times I go to France, I always see something new in the same monuments You bookmarked my online album? check back there next week as I will working this weekend to enhance the photos and upload them into a new sub-directory

LaVieilleBranche, Funny that you should mention it, but we also always lose weight when we go to France. It’s a combination of the food, the exercise and, IMHO, the joie de vivre. I think attitude has a lot to do with your weight. If you are happy and at peace with yourself, you are much less likely to gain weight than if you are constantly stressed.

Really looking forward to all those pictures. Thanks for posting them.

Hello Salb,

It’s funny. I also always lose weight when I go to France, and it’s definitely not because I’m on a diet when I’m there 😉

I usually go to Paris, and I noticed that I walk so much more than you I do when I’m in the States. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in most of the American cities (NY might be the only exception) you don’t really walk, except from your parked car to your office and vice versa… Also as noted previously here, portions are a lot smaller, then you have the wine which is better (and probably less fattening) than Coke. Anyway, I did not think it was a widespread phenomenon, but we’re all sharing the same experience! Maybe it’s the beginning of a trend: go to France to lose weight!

Going back to McDonalds, I think one of the reasons it is so popular in France is that it caters to kids and families. It is soooo hard to bring young kids to a restaurant in France, that people probably go to the ‘MacDo’ every week-end. Regulars restaurants really look you down if you’re accompanied with youngsters, and I suspect one of the main reason for McDonalds’ success is that it offers all a simple, cheap and convenient way to go out and feed the young ones.

JN

JN, Interesting observation about kids in restaurants in France. We’ve always been very impressed at how well behaved French children are. We see them occasionally in restaurants and they behave very well, take care choosing their food, listen to Mom and Dad explaining the niceties of fine dining and are generally a joy to have in the restaurant.

This does not happen without a great deal of effort by the parents and must include a certain amount of stress. I suppose they don’t do it often. The children we see in restaurants are usually on vacation but they are impressive. McDonalds’ must be very relaxing under the circumstances!

jnf:

Scroll back up. Most of the MacDo patrons are students. That is pretty much the same for most hamburger restaurants in France. NO self-respecting family would frequent MacDo on a regular basis! Grammar school students get to eat coq au vin, brie, fresh salads, creme brulee, etc. during their school lunch days. What do American kids get in school? chicken nuggets, hamburgers, fries, soda pop, grilled american (processed) cheese sandwiches, etc.

I’ve seen kids in restaurants in Paris and Rome, and they’re ALWAYS so well behaved and polite to everybody. I was brought up the same way; in a restaurant, as with visiting family, you are on your BEST behavior at ALL TIMES. It is how the kids are brought up there. Americans could learn something from them, as we let our kids in the USA do anything they want, and don’t care if they annoy, bother or interrupt other people.

I was in a restaurant in NYC on Mulberry Street last year, and some kid with a bubble blower was blowing bubbles and having the soap bubbles land on everybody’s food. When I told the parents that it was icky to eat soap bubbles, they had their kid stop and made a VERY NASTY comment about me to their kid in a loud voice for everybody to hear, as if i’m the big bad evil monster because I didn’t want soap bubbles on my tomato/mozzarrella salad.

This is just one experience from a long line of experiences like this.

I have been to France sevral times with kids ages 2 to 10 and we eat at McDo quite often because the kids and my wife like the food.
I just get a drink but they tell me the food taste the same. I have witnessed mostly young people there, many with kids. They are always crowded. We have found out it is a real treat for French kids to go to McDo.
When in France we always stay with friends, usually a family with kids. Middle class French families with kids rarely eat out, so
neither do we. There are seveal reasons for this, the cost, problems with kids, but the main reason is that everybody in France thinks they
are a great cook and are insulted if you offer a night out.So we
spend time at the Carre Four (great supermarket), stock up on groceries, and our hosts turn out some terrific stuff.
We have snuck away a few times and ate in restaurants and have been greeted by that look JNF mentioned. My wife(speaks French, complete
with Parisian accent) has to spend a few minuted reassuring the wait
staff that our kids will behave. The french seem to have a very different attitude towards kids.
Please note that everything above is antidotal, I could not be so arrogant as to make absolutes about any nation based on a few observations.

maxpower:

I dont know where you stay in France, but I live there for about 2 months each year, and I’ve rarely seen kids in MacDo when i walk by (I like to look in the windows to see who frequents the place).

I’ve seen plenty of kids in brasseries. These are restaurants for the comon man; good, well prepared food at moderate prices. And the French kids were VERY well behaved, too! Kids aren’t much welcome at LUXURY restaurants in France, which is the same as in the USA. People who spend $100 or more for a meal for each person usually don’t want to be disturbed by kids. Or they don’t want to pay that price for their kid(I don’t blame them on that either).

There is also an unwritten rule of thumb in France: "My right to libery ends where yours begins." In other words, if you or one of your family (including your kids) harasses, annoys or really DISTURBS other people in the metro, on the street, in a restaurant, then you are at fault and face the consequences, if any.

I’ve taught American kids and I’ve taught French kids, Italian kids, and various Asian kids. It always amazes me how well behaved, polite, respectful and courteous the foreign born students are as compared to the American kids. And I’ve taught literally thousands of kids of all ages.

And Maxpower, I think you have made absolute comments about other nations based on what you read/heard, in the other forums here.

Is anyone else having trouble replying to threads? I’ve done two now and the entire thread disappears when I hit the "Done" key.

If this disappears too, I guess I’ll disappear to another place in cyberspace. It is very strange.

Hmmmm . . . This posted. How odd.

SalB: I haven’t encountered any problems. Donerail

Donerail, This is crazy. I can make an entire category disappear. Do computers get ghosts?

The disappearing thread thing is happening again tonight. I can post and when I’m done, I can read the post and then when I go back to the Forum, the entire category is empty. I had to go to "Last 24 Hours" to get this although a couple of my posts from last night were back on the forum. I feel like I’m being censored. I can think of a few other people who deserve censoring a bit more than I.

Is anyone else having problems or is it just me?

Thanks.

SalB: Don’t get paranoid. Its ok. Since I always check this site, I use the "last 24 hours" link to find out about posts. Donerail

Paranoid . . . Me. Why would you say that? Are you on "their" side?! Is it a conspiracy?!

HI!

I see y’all and YES, SalB i can see you! your posts are coming through loud and clear..

sorry SalB, I still haven’t had time to edit and post the new France photos. I’ve been busy looking for a new job, and my time has been busy finishing up the end of school year things (900 kids/week is a LOT of paperwork to do each week) and polishing up the music for the Spring Concert. I have my students singing French opera as well as other things

ahhhhhhhhhh….summer vacation

Oh my gosh . . . You’re a music teacher! I just retired from a million years of teaching music. (Perhaps it only seemed like a million.)

Where do you teach? What do you teach? When is your spring concert? This is so exciting. My husband was a music teacher too.

I have a double bass playing friend who teaches middle school orchestra and she has a favorite saying, "There are three good reasons for teaching; June, July and August."

SalB:

I’m a music teacher in public school…however, with the fiscal crisis in NJ public education (nobody wants to pay me a fair salary here), I might end up in private/catholic school in September…

You name it, I’ve taught all ages! I have my students performing everything from Singin’In The Rain to Dome Epais (Delibes) to 14th century Christmas music (in season, of course). I’m the teacher, performer and accompanist..I was a NYC style baroom piano player when I was 12 years old..had a repetoire of more than 100 songs i could just play and improvise on…I made for great entertainment at parties and of course the students love to hear all the piano playing

Yes, I’m one of those WEIRD KIDS you read about in the newspaper, but all grown up now and still hearing tunes and playing them…and YES, i play all the classical stuff, too..usually memorize it after playing through it a few times.

why? you need a musician for your next French wine tasting party?
I’ll bring my fake books and an empty wine glass

Gawd, I am getting sleepy. Where is ikorrellim and amero-franc? Donerail

Donerail, Wake up and get the wine ready (French, of course) because we have a pianist for the wine cellar building party and she’s bringing her own wine glass.

If you behave yourself, I’ll promise NOT to bring my French horn!!

Oh gawd. ikorrellim, please come back. Donerail

That did it . . . I’m bringing my French horn!!!!!!

who’s Ikkorelim and what does he do ?

cr95: ikorrelim is a pro-bush, anti-arab, anti-world Southerner who comes in here and preaches hatred for everything non-american….

donerail" i know..it IS getting boring in the forums without the antagonists here to slap upside the head

Ikkorelim is from the southern United States, I think a woman but am not sure, who has opinions that differ from the opinions of several others who post frequently on this site.

Occasionally the fur would fly as they took turns insulting each other instead of debating logically. I think (s)he got tired of being insulted and left the forum.

I love debate, but do not love name calling. Now I’m being accused of making the forum boring. Ah . . . what is one to do?!

SalB: Perhaps you could play Cupid between ikorrellim and me. I miss her so. I think she may be jealous that you and LaVielleBranche have a crush on my prospective wine cellar. crc95, you really missed something in not meeting ikorellim. A real piece of work. Meanwhile, back to the Posts, I have heard that a GrandeMac now costs 5.75 euros. wow. Donerail

5.75 euros seems excessive. What does a Big Mac cost in the US? I thought McDonalds was supposed to be inexpensive in addition to being fast.

I can’t believe people pay that much to eat something that has negative nutritional value. Oh well, I suppose it’s better than a Big Slurp!!

5.75 Euros for a greasy hamburger in France?? for that price in France I could get a lovely "plat" of roasted chicken with frites or a tasty salad covered with jambon de bayonne…

what a waste of 5.75 euros, when one considers all the available culinary options in France…

SalB: the forums are NEVER boring witn you! bring your French horn to donerail’s wine cellar so you can play it in there. We can test the acoustics!

Do good acoustics help age the wine? If not, I better not bring the horn. The vibrations might break a few bottles. That would not be good!

Hello all

Perhaps I could fill a portion of ikkorelim’s shoes, as I am southern and have no particular problem with Bush. He seems like most of my friends; not particulary eloquent but steadfast. I am different in some important respects, such as my belief that Americans could take a lesson from the rest of the world and make an effort to learn about languages and cultures instead of fearing them. I don’t like name calling either.

sessiwf, Welcome to the forum. You don’t have to be of any particular political persuasion to join the fray. I’ve been lobbying against name calling for a while now, but even without it, the arguments can get very interesting. We always love another opinion. Join in the fun.

Nice to have you here.

Sessiwf: Welcome. Certainly as a Southerner and a Bush supporter you are well on the way to filling ikorrellims shoes. Those are very tall shoes to fill, however. Are you up to it? Donerail

This may be off the topic a little but any person has the control over body and mind. It’s their decision to eat McDonald’s, they have to know it’s not healthy, i mean come on. I think it is a lame excuse for fat people to sue fast food restaraunts because they claim it’s the food, no duh! It’s called proportion.

And so France probably does have more fresh food, but we have a higher demand in food because of our overwhelming population. It may seem to be that France has so many good eating dineries, it might be because of how much smaller the country is compared to the US. The US has many top of the line eating restaraunts it depends on where you go. Applebees, Garcias, etc are all good but somewhere in Malibu will obviously be much more better, because of the class and LUXURY.

The French wine, cheese, chocolates, are supposed to be so much better than US but like i said it depends on where you get it at.
It can just as easily be just as good.

Been to France lately?

You can drive into nearly any tiny town in France and find at least one excellent and reasonably priced restaurant. Believe me, I’ve traveled all over the US for more years than you have walked the earth. You cannot find at least one excellent and reasonably priced restaurant in most small US towns . . . or even in many quite large towns.

I don’t consider Applebees a good restaurant. We studiously avoid it . . . greasy, not-very-fresh, unimaginatively cooked food. To me, it’s one step above Mickey D’s. Yes, there are wonderful restaurants in small US towns, but they are not the norm. In France, they are the norm.

They also use much more fresh ingredients. That, admittedly, has much to do with the size of the country. We have to ship foods over large distances so we pick things before they are ripe because of the time problem. It’s too bad and it can be overcome by buying locally, but most restaurants find it more convenient to purchase in bulk (cheaper) so we don’t get fresh food . . . even in our supermarkets.

Good food does not have to be a luxury. My daughter & I were traveling through northern Ohio (yes, Ohio) and stopped in a moderate sized town looking for lunch. There was a clean looking restaurant on the main street with a lot of cars in front of it (always a good sign) so we went in. They used local fresh ingredients and they were very well cooked. It was an excellent restaurant and the cheapest meal we had on the trip.

Locally, we have about three restaurants that provide fine food for a very reasonable price. Luxury? No, but good value for money. It is possible; it just isn’t done often enough. Too many people are perfectly happy with Applebees, Home Town Buffet, Olive Garden, Black Angus, etc. ad nauseum. It never occurs to them that the idea of a chain restaurant negates the idea of imaginative local cuisine. The idea behind the chain is that you can walk into that particular restaurant in any city in the country and know exactly what you are getting. Well . . . yes, you can! The question is, what have we lost in the process?

"French wine, cheese, chocolates, are supposed to be so much better than US" Hmmm . . . interesting thought!

I’m a fan of French wines, but I’m also a fan of California wines and they’ve won many prizes, including rating over French wines. French cheeses are a different story.

We have a few excellent cheeses in the US, but the French have an overwhelming choice of excellent cheese. Each region has its own cheeses and each season has its own cheeses. Our mass marketing gets in the way here. When you visit dairy farming regions in the US, you find some lovely local cheese but we simply do not have the variety that France has.

Chocolate is another problem here. My favorite chocolate is Valrhona 71% cacao. That’s a dark rich chocolate and easily available at any supermarket in France. We can often get it at Trader Joe’s here, but it’s a French import. There are a few American specialty chocolates that come close, but they haven’t quite gotten there yet. Most Americans prefer milk chocolate (although that’s changing slowly) so there simply isn’t the market in this country. Hopefully that will change some day!

It can’t "just as easily be just as good." You can find good food here, but you have to look for it. In France there is no search involved.

Try the Buffalo wings at Hooters. They are to die for!

If I’m going to die for food, it’s not gonna be buffalo wings at Hooters!

Nice try . . .

SalB: You go girl! )

Everybody give a HUGE HUGE round of applause to SalB for saying it like it is!!!

SalB: Your next kir royale is on me!

SalB: *A standing ovation.* There are two chains that go against the tide – but they still can’t compare to a typical French restaurnat. Legal Seafood and Ruths Chris. Applebees, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, ad nauseum are basically just a cut above swill. Donerail

I make a tasty white wine/French mustard sauce for poached salmon in white wine. When you cannot get to France, just spend a little time in your kitchen

Anybody hungry now?

Sal B All kidding aside don’t you think food prefrence is a matter
of personal taste? You know,not even all Frenchman share your passion
for moldy, smelly cheese. I do,but I also enjoy all kinds of cheeses
from europe that I CAN’T get in France. I find them right here in U.S.
and its not that hard to find.
Another thing about food is it can be situational, you know like
how a hotdog always tastes better at Shea stadium. For you I would
guess anything would taste better in France because you are passionate
about the country. For me, its getting up at 4:00 am, puting a boat
in the ocean, battling wind and waves to bring home some blues
and stripers and throw them on the grill that night.
Now that is nirvana!

The best restaurant I have ever been to is my moms kitchen!! She could cook the butt end of a skunk and make it taste good (just kidding)

Seriously, I’m from Kansas and the best restaurant I have ever been to has to be the "Hereford House" in Kansas City. If I knew of a true "French restaurant" in my area I would travel there today. I have one french cookbook with pictures,it was oldworld farm cooking. That’s probably not the "cuisine" you are referring to.

My grandmother made a Christmas dish she called "French Dressing". It is little tiny diced potatoes and beef and onion and spices and ??. It’s very delicious. Does anyone know the French name for this?

NoelleAVP: You are right. The best food comes from good old family cooking. Preserve those recipes.

Maxpower: Home cooking is good, but don’t you have to have your stomach pumped after eating fish from LI Sound? I don’t want to sound overly rude, but Shea Stadium should be dismantled. When we played those horrible Mets in ’86, it was embarrassing having to go to Shea Stadium. The location, Flushing, was aptly named. It was probably the reason our beloved Sox lost. Regards, Donerail

I live in Maryland now and mostly fish the open ocean. I love Shea Stadium, its historic to me. Go Mets!

maxpower, Are you talking bluefish? If so, we used to get them fresh from the ocean at the beach in North Carolina. It was our very favorite food and cooked over a campfire down the road from the fish market. My mouth waters thinking about them! That’s about the only thing I miss in NC!!

I love fresh Ohio lake perch too and you can’t get them anywhere but right around the Great Lakes. If they’ve been shipped somewhere, even to Columbus, they aren’t as good.

I’m not saying you can’t get wonderful food in this country. What I’m saying is that it’s easy in France. Excellent restaurants are all over the place and you don’t need to search for them. Here, they exist, but finding them is difficult. We were in Flagstaff last autumn and asked a couple locals for restaurant recommendations. One smelled so bad we walked out and the one we finally patronised had greasy poorly cooked food. Have we had a bad meal in France? Sure, but it’s the exception.

Yes, I do think food is a matter of preference and I don’t like all moldy smelly cheeses . . . just some of them. My favorites can’t be bought in this country that I know of and if you find Temptation of St. Felicien cheese in the US, please tell me where to get it. I beg you!

I agree that the setting makes a difference too. I can’t imagine myself attending a noisy baseball game with thousands of screaming fans so I can’t comment on what a hot dog would taste like in that situation, although since I hate hot dogs, they probably wouldn’t taste any better in Shea Stadium.

Now, hopping in a boat and catching some fresh fish in a nice quiet lake, stream or ocean . . . that would be delightful. Fresh fish over a campfire is nirvana no matter where it is.

I will keep an eye out for that cheese, just the name makes me want to
try it. The best cheese I have ever had cannot be bought here or in
France. Many French keep secret stashes of over ripe cheese in their
basement or fridge. Interse stuff, you eat just a little, but remember
it a lifetime.
Yes I was talking bluefish. They are also very good smoked.
Taste even better with a bottle of Barre Muscadet.
As far as what people like to eat here, I don’t always agree either,
but you know what they say, theres no accounting for taste!

We may have to vacation in NC. Smoked bluefish. Yum.

Another good one is smoked whitefish in Michigan. When I was little, my Dad used to drive me up to my grandparents summer cottage and we always stopped at a house with a handlettered sign for "Smoked Whitefish" for sale. Dad would then open the newspaper-wrapped package and we would pick at the smoked fish the rest of the way up the state. It was heaven and nothing I’ve gotten in a grocery store comes close.

Perhaps fish named after colors taste better than other fish.

SalB/Maxpower: For Temptation St. Felicien try Fromaggios, Huron Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. I like Eppoisse better, though. Or maybe at Murray’s in NYC. Fromaggios has a website. LaVieilleBranche offered some good tips on getting that stuff into the US after a trip to France on one of these threads. I have to tell you, if you like southern bluefish, or Great Lakes perch or whitefish, you would die for fresh Atlantic haddock or cod or bass. Donerail

SalB: for REAL French cheese, try Murray’s Cheese shop on Bleeker St. You can alwo try Zabar’s on the upper west side. They have a web page:
http://www.zabars.com or something to this. just google "zabar’s" and see what domes up. Do the same for Murray’s Cheese Shop. I KNOW they have a web page too and both companies send things in the mail, I’m sure of it

LaVieilleBranche: I am willing to trade wine for cheese. Donerail

donerail: sounds like a possibility…

donerail, You’re the one who suggested Fromaggios. I thought it was maxpower. At any rate it was an excellent suggestion. A friend who lives in Boston works two blocks from Fromaggios so he went there and found my Temptation of St. Felicien cheese. He bought one and ate it for me. Hopefully, we can visit him soon and eat one ourselves.

Thank you!

SalB: You continue to amaze me. I actually stopped by Frommagios yesterday and picked up some Tomme de Brebis, Eppoisses, St. Felician, and (swiss) emmentaler. Because it is across town and the traffic is atrocious I usually only get there about every other month. (When the cravings can no longer be fought off.) It is probably a good thing that it is difficult to get to. They also have Burrdick’s chocolate made with real truffles ($4.00 for a piece the size of a quarter.) They have a website but I suspect the shipping would be prohibitive and it wouldn’t be as fresh. Can’t believe you made that post the same day that I went there. It is really the only good cheese shop around here. LaVieilleBranche has a bigger selection with Murray’s et al in the Big Apple. But she doesn’t have the Red Sox. Did I tell you about redwoodhill.com? Donerail

We have murray’s, Zabar’s, etcccc and I have a Whole Foods grocery store in town here and they have excellent quality cheeses, baguettes, etc… so i don’t starve

who cares about the red sox? we have tye YANKEES! GO YANKS! and the mets! and the NJ devils

LaVieilleBranche: The Forum Administrator is letting you get away with way to much with that last post. Donerail

I think it’s nothing special about Mc Donald’s in France. France is the first tourist destination in the world, so in Paris most of the clients are tourists and students. You are definitely wrong, when you think that the french families often goes to Mc Do. It’s youngsters, not families so much. There’s always tourists, youngsters, students and a lot of people, not a paradise for a family. And the french don’t classify Mc Do food as real food. Can you live a whole day on a Mc do menu? It’s something you can eat fast for a small hunger.
And about the french cuisine. Yes it’s true that one part is the farm cuisine, traditional countryside homemade food, but that’s one part. Then ther’s mediterranean food, luxury food and food from all the different areas. And of course, the desserts… French kitchen is huge, very variable and copious.
There’s so much food in France and Mc Do is just a small point in this case.

Hi, donerail. I’m jealous that you are so close to my cheese. BTW, don’t confuse St. Felicien cheese with my favorite, Temptation of St. Felicien. It is a totally different cheese although both are very good.

Hmm. I’m trying to think whether I’ve ever met a cheese I didn’t like. Yes, in Beaune in 1996 we were served two very veryripe cheeses and I did get them past my nose, but was sorry afterward. That was a rare exception though.

Enjoy another cheese on me. BTW, my friend takes public transportation to work so I can only assume you could take public transportation to the cheese store. It might be more pleasant for you.

SalB: I may very well have confused those two cheeses. I bought St. Felician which has a "barnyardy" aroma to it. What is the Temptation like? Relative to public transportation here, most of the MBTA here in Boston is quite horrible. I would say that I would rather have a root canal done before I would use 75% of the system. And that includes getting to the cheese shop. (We have a pretty good commuter rail network but that is not what we are talking about.) I guess I have become too spoiled by the bus and metro systems in Paris and Lyon. I used to think the MBTA was pretty good. I didn’t know the cars were supposed to be clean, on time, efficient, and dependable. Donerail

My friend takes the train in from Dorchester. I have no idea what system that entails.

The Temptation cheese is pretty strong and somewhat earthy but it lacks the "barnyard" element you mentioned. I guess you could say it is a flavorful but more gentle cheese.

Blech, McDonald’s is bad. I want to see that documentary "Supersize Me." I am told that it shows the harmful effects of, well, 60% of American diets.

wow!!!you guys really like cheese!!How about food from my neck of the woods….afro-caribbean blended with indian and spanish food….The best food I ever ate was my mother’s food, I am so glad I learned to cook from her…I love to cook! but I need variety, I like to cook a different dish from a different country each month. I like the fries at Mcdonalds but I try to stay away, must keep in shape! It’s very nice to meet everybody and hopefully we can trade recipes.

afro-caribbean food . . . Yum!! I spent twenty summers playing in an orchestra in Haiti and really love the food there. I’ve had Haitian friends show me how to fix griots and red beans with rice, two favorites. What’s your favorite food?