French and foreign products you like

[Bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by Matou

Bev, I recommend to try olive oil and Japanese white rice vinegar it makes a killer vinaigrette. Actually, Japanese and French cooking often do mingle quite well.
What I do miss from France when I am abroad for a long time (lets say more than a year) is cheese, wine and "saucisson"...
I have never seen washcloth in France but I do not care I use my paws instead

Funny you should mention the "saucisson" - one of the things I miss from my time in Germany is the Wurst. There are some good saucissons here, but nothing quite like some of my favorite Würst. Then again, you can't find the good, heavy German breads in France, either. (But they do have them in Luxembourg... which also has all the amazing French pastries, too. Bakeries in Luxembourg are a little bit of heaven!)

What I miss most from France when I'm back in the US is the complete confidence in the food chain we have here. A nurse friend of mine was horrified when I joked about how cooking oysters struck me as a novel idea (we were having fried oysters) - "eating raw shellfish is dangerous!" I'm just so used to being able to eat raw oysters (and so many other good things) with no concerns about getting sick. Lately there have been so many food scares in the US - fruits and vegetables as well as meats.
Cheers,
Bev

[Matou]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

Funny you should mention the "saucisson" - one of the things I miss from my time in Germany is the Wurst. There are some good saucissons here, but nothing quite like some of my favorite Würst. Then again, you can't find the good, heavy German breads in France, either. (But they do have them in Luxembourg... which also has all the amazing French pastries, too. Bakeries in Luxembourg are a little bit of heaven!)

What I miss most from France when I'm back in the US is the complete confidence in the food chain we have here. A nurse friend of mine was horrified when I joked about how cooking oysters struck me as a novel idea (we were having fried oysters) - "eating raw shellfish is dangerous!" I'm just so used to being able to eat raw oysters (and so many other good things) with no concerns about getting sick. Lately there have been so many food scares in the US - fruits and vegetables as well as meats.
Cheers,
Bev

True ! And you are reminding me that I am also missing a nice "tartare" (I am sure Bev knows but for everyone's complete information: it's raw beef meat with capers, onion, egg yolk and various sauces), which will definitely rank as dangerous food in the US.

[Coton90]

Originally Posted by Matou

True ! And you are reminding me that I am also missing a nice "tartare" (I am sure Bev knows but for everyone's complete information: it's raw beef meat with capers, onion, egg yolk and various sauces), which will definitely rank as dangerous food in the US.

Bev,
My in-laws produce oysters in the Basin de Thau (Huitres de Bouzigue). and I can tell you the basin is monitored each week by the authorities for salmonella. If the salmonella count is too high, they are prohibited from selling until the count reaches an acceptable level. I don't know what they do in places like Oleron but I imagine the same controls are in place, so go ahead and eat those oysters. However under no circumstances should you eat an oyster that's open and smells bad.

I have heard the controls for fish and seafood is poor to non-existent in the States. This comes as no surprise.

There's not much of a selection of wurst in most parts of France , Alsace and Lorraine excepted (try the choucroute) but I do love the hams. The local village butcher makes excellent grilling sausage. We also enjoy Spanish chorizo and can usually find it all over in France.

I love tartare and ate it on numerous occasions in Germany. I never got sick once from eating it. One thing I will miss is the beer. There's not much of a selection where we're moving. They sell a lot of this "76" beer. Biere sans gout! I guess we got spoiled living in Germany.
Cheers

[coloma gold]

Originally Posted by frogblogger

Levis, American? I thought they were made in China, Thailand and Sri Lanka!

Isn't that the American way.... Develop a product in America, then outsource. We don't make TV's, autos (not the entire autos), anything electronic, any clothing, etc. We even sell the wood chips from our lumber mills to the orient.. they process it into bulding materials and sell it back to us... the only useless thing that we make are politicians and lawyers.

[Bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by Coton90

Bev,
My in-laws produce oysters in the Basin de Thau (Huitres de Bouzigue). and I can tell you the basin is monitored each week by the authorities for salmonella. If the salmonella count is too high, they are prohibited from selling until the count reaches an acceptable level. I don't know what they do in places like Oleron but I imagine the same controls are in place, so go ahead and eat those oysters. However under no circumstances should you eat an oyster that's open and smells bad.

I have heard the controls for fish and seafood is poor to non-existent in the States. This comes as no surprise.

There's not much of a selection of wurst in most parts of France , Alsace and Lorraine excepted (try the choucroute) but I do love the hams. The local village butcher makes excellent grilling sausage. We also enjoy Spanish chorizo and can usually find it all over in France.

I love tartare and ate it on numerous occasions in Germany. I never got sick once from eating it. One thing I will miss is the beer. There's not much of a selection where we're moving. They sell a lot of this "76" beer. Biere sans gout! I guess we got spoiled living in Germany.
Cheers

I'm not a fan of tartare (or especially of the variety made from horse meat), but DH is, and I would never allow him to eat raw hamburger in the US! <g>

I have to admit I prefer French choucroute to German Sauerkraut. But another thing I miss big time in France is a ham (or gammon) that you roast yourself in the oven (with or without the various glazes). It's lovely to get single slices of ham (jambon blanc) from the charcutier, but the one time I insisted on getting a whole ham to cook myself, the local charcutier ordered a very expensive (and actually quite small) cut of ham. It was delicious, but not what I know as a ham.

And I wound up getting the ham bone for free from the local butcher one time to make a split pea soup - but damn, if the butcher wasn't a real expert at getting the last morsel of meat off the bone!

Funny the things you take for granted when you're "back home" that are simply unavailable when you go expat.
Cheers,
Bev

[frogblogger]

Originally Posted by coloma gold

Isn't that the American way.... Develop a product in America, then outsource. We don't make TV's, autos (not the entire autos), anything electronic, any clothing, etc. We even sell the wood chips from our lumber mills to the orient.. they process it into bulding materials and sell it back to us... the only useless thing that we make are politicians and lawyers.

Don't worry, the Brits are at least as bad. Thatcher decided in the 80s that absolutely no manufacturing industry should be subsidised, that the financial/insurance services sector was the future, and look where that's got us.

Anyway, sorry, back to the topic. A quality Christmas Pudding, with a liberal soaking in a good Cognac. Haven't had one of those for ten years or so. Mmmm.

[sun flower]

Originally Posted by frogblogger

Don't worry, the Brits are at least as bad. Thatcher decided in the 80s that absolutely no manufacturing industry should be subsidised, that the financial/insurance services sector was the future, and look where that's got us.

Anyway, sorry, back to the topic. A quality Christmas Pudding, with a liberal soaking in a good Cognac. Haven't had one of those for ten years or so. Mmmm.

Last Christmas i made my own Christmas pudding and Mince pies, and our good friends in Chaing Mai said they were better than M&S. I think if my husband went 10 yrs without one Christmas wouldnt be the same, talking of which i have mine left from last year ! Mmmm should be well matured. I can allways send you the recipe nearer the time Cheers Di