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Greece? Spain?

I hate fast food…

September 9, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…as long as it’s not done by yourself. I don’t know where you live but here in Europe there’s packaged and pre-seasoned frozen vegetables on every supermarket shelf (and on far too many tables). I mean, I’m not surprised that children in Britain are raised with a “Field Fresh country mix” served by BirdsEye or with Tesco’s “Farmhouse mixed vegetables”. I’m pretty aware that the Germans prefer Iglo’s “Französische Pfanne” or a pseudo-hearty “Bauern-Pfanne” to chopping some greens themselves. But […]

Categories: malbouffe, Whatever Works • Tags: Culture, Fast Food, Food

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I didn't trust my eyes, frankly...

A pizza robot? In France!?

September 3, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

The answer is yes and I’ve seen it recently while travelling in lovely Brittany. Unfortunately, I forgot the small town’s name where it tinkers around – I only remember that it was somewhere close to Nantes and built into the annexe of a quite awful restaurant where we had lunch while taking a break from driving. The “Pizzap” was as ugly as you would imagine it to be, it’s inscriptions boasting with “hand-made pizza”, with freshness and a thousand varieties […]

Categories: malbouffe, Snack, Whatever Works • Tags: Fast Food, Food, France

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Food for kids? Absolutely! Just add some social pressure.

Children must eat

July 10, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…and if you asked me, I’d say we should bring them up with the best food we can possibly get hold of. I mean, what’s the use of industrial fish fingers, artificially flavoured instant sauces, packaged pizza (“Greek style”) and deep frozen chicken from the killing fields of our times? There isn’t any, as you might agree. So you have to cook – which isn’t a guarantee for success though. Maybe your loved ones are not willing to enjoy what […]

Categories: Dinner, good food, malbouffe, Whatever Works • Tags: Children, Education, Fish, Food

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Salad at Houlihan's: you really think about calling the police.

One of the worst salads in the world…

June 9, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

is served at Houlihan’s restaurant in Terminal E of Boston Logan Airport. I can tell because I had it yesterday, shortly before flying back to Europe and I admit that I was kind of impressed by the shockingly poor quality of the food served here. My steak & wedge salad looked as if the main shelf in the kitchen had collapsed onto the plate. There hardly is a better explanation for this wild composition, an outright cacophony forcing together beef and […]

Categories: chefs, malbouffe, signature dish, World • Tags: Food, Houlihan's, Salad

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A caveman's feast: airport sandwich without a cause.

Travelling to Boston with a “poulet roti”…

June 7, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…served on white bread accompanied by vegetables and a Cesar’s dressing, well, that’s what the package said at the airport where a foolish appetite came over me and made me buy (and eat) a sandwich. It was a brutal act going against my fierce conviction never to buy any sandwiches or other food at gas stations, airports, street stalls. But I still did it, thinking about human imperfection while chewing on the dry morsel packaged three days before and best before […]

Categories: Bread, malbouffe, Whatever Works • Tags: Food, Junkfood

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Brickbreaker

Nightmare on Brick street…

June 4, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…might be the appropriate title for a horribly failed lunch I’ve just prepared. Yes, these things happen, and I don’t want to hide them away, they make part of my happy culinary life, too. What actually happened? Well, I had the idea of wrapping some nice Chavignol goat cheese in brick dough crêpes, brush the packages with olive oil and bake them in the oven. I know several bistros where this is done, too, and I never thought about the […]

Categories: Lunch, malbouffe, skills, Whatever Works • Tags: Cheese, Food, kitchen loser

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Food chain from a to z: a butcher's shop at Marché Aligre.

The way of all flesh is on display in Paris…

June 2, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…the butchers here aren’t shy about what they’re doing – they’re proud of it. You’ll find publicly displayed documents showing for example where the cattle for your barbecue comes from, who the farmer was, what race he bred and nourished for you. In the background of the butcher shops you’ll have people happily working huge pieces of beef or pork and the chicken you order will come with its head, its feet and some feathers just to remind you that […]

Categories: good food, hero butchers, malbouffe • Tags: Food, supermarkets

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steer burger

On South African roads…

May 4, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…you look for deep potholes and don’t ask for culinary refinement. The locals like their fast food, and most villagers and squatter camp residents consider KFC, McDo and Co. as the ultimate luxury. I’ve been “dining out” today at Steers, a flashy hamburger eatery sitting next to a Total gaz station in a breathtaking landscape…

Categories: Lunch, malbouffe • Tags: South Africa, Steers

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Steak & snails: sounds French, tastes South African.

Here’s to all pretentious South African chefs…

May 2, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…who deal with snails and cream on Sirloin steaks, “oak-smoked” hot salmon fillets, pecan nut and Amaretti desserts, to all in Johannesburg and elsewhere who believe in that fusion stuff that nobody really needs and to those who charge prices for less-than-average meals that add up to a monthly salary of two policemen and five nurses in Johannesburg or Soweto or the Cape flats: GET LOST! GET SERIOUS!! DO BETTER!!! Don’t go on with steaks like this, served in the […]

Categories: Dinner, malbouffe, skills

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A hearty lunch (or dinner): dried beef à l'Afrique du Sud.

Chewing on dried beef in the African bushland…

April 30, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…is the best you can do to kill some time while driving and driving and…driving through the vast North-West Province of South Africa, heading for the Royal Bafokeng Kingdom (founded in 1140) where the FIFA World Cup Stadium of Rustenburg is to be found. The venue isn’t in Rustenburg, really, that’s just a weird town with a rotten Far West aura surrounded by the world’s biggest platinum mines. In fact, the arena sits about 20 kilometres further up – in the […]

Categories: Dinner, Lunch, malbouffe • Tags: Biltong, FIFA World Cup, Rustenburg

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Design or not design: eggs, juice, well, just breakfast.

South Africa isn’t warming up to me…

April 28, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…foodwise, that is. I mean, I enjoy it a lot to stroll around Johannesburg. All the people I meet are gentle and welcoming, yet I somehow make the wrong choices whenever it comes to ordering (or just buying) food. Let me guide you through my day. It started here: It didn’t went on much smoother due to my packed agenda (it’s a big hassle getting from A to B in Johannesburg, it is a vast city). Lunch had to be […]

Categories: Dinner, Lunch, malbouffe • Tags: South African food

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Ostrich steak on Mandela Square: they can do better.

First African meal in Johannesburg…

April 27, 2010 by Frenchfoodfool

…on Nelson Mandela Square where people were in a shopping frenzy today because it was Freedom Day and many of them had a day off. I had the ostrich steak(s) as pictured below. The meat tasted like, well, having been slowly cooked in benzine before landing on a barbecue or so. But you know what? It was better than anything offered by Air France during the 10 hours flight from Paris. A ride on an Airbus 380, yet they had […]

Categories: Dinner, malbouffe • Tags: South Africa

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