Talk:French cuisine/Archive 1

Vandalism
Lots here, dunno how to edit, sorry =(

Move
Okay, I hope someone is watching this page. I propose to move this to Cuisine of France, its proper name. The adjective form (French) shouldn't come first, and the convention is almost always to have it this way. Objections? --Dmcdevit 01:54, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

A bit late - but - food is cultural not territorial. For example, in Brick Lane I may be served Chicken Tikka Masala which is probably the most famous Indian cuisine dish in the world, but I would in London, eating a dish invented in Scotland, and prepared by Bangladeshis. Jooler 18:27, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

intrusion of "cuisine" content onto this page
anyone else bothered that the cuisine article has usurped a large part of the opening of this article? shouldn't an article about french cuisine be first about french cuisine and only LINK to the cuisine page?

Opening sentence
I made an edit yesterday removing the sentence "French cuisine is characterized by its extreme diversity" from the beginning because it is an empty statement. For one thing, the article begins much more naturally with the next sentence, and for another, as I noted, the current opener doesn't actually say any information. "Extreme diversity" doesn't help us understand anything, while the second sentence immediately gives us concrete knowledge about french cuisine. I think the edit was a strong one; it was, however, reverted by a certain user. I am going to revert it back now. Thank you. If anyone feels this notion of diversity is important for the opening sentence (which I don't) it should be better written and more specific. 128.12.66.132 08:15, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Please. Don't manipulate the truth. In your 1st edit you talk about a vandalism whereas you was removing the first sentence. Pixeltoo 14:47, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
 * That 's ok I won't revert. I will removed this empty sentence. Pixeltoo 17:57, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Discrepancy?
I see a huge difference between:
 * Restaurants offering Japanese dishes such as sushi or yakitori are getting increasingly popular in urban centers, though the majority of the French population probably objects to eating raw fish.

And Famous French Dishes, which reads:
 * Oysters are generally eaten raw; cooking oysters are uncommon.

Can someone offer a source for the first quote? "Probably" isn't very encyclopedic, and Sushi isn't even synonymous with seafood, raw or otherwise.


 * This is really simple. (We don't have any "official" polls on hand, but ask anybody in France, they will say the same.) Apart from the minority (young, in urban centers, etc.) that eat sushi, hardly anybody eats raw fish. Most of the French object to eating any kind of fish raw, except oysters (which is shellfish), which is a traditional exception. Despite that, Japanese restaurants are getting increased audience, but it tends to be within the young, urban, etc. minority.
 * It really boils down to different lifestyles. There's a traditional lifestyle, where people tend to eat French food in the traditional way (where oysters are eaten raw, but no other fish is eaten raw) and other people are more adventurous, to different degrees. David.Monniaux 23:35, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clearing that up! 24.4.199.243 03:49, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

How about the French Islands ?
I'm suprised to see no mention of the French Islands such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion... If my english was good enough, I would have written something... Can somebody help ?? You should write it anyway here and maybe some bilingual user could translate it for you! User OliverVascovi

I've added the Antilles as a source of exotic food. I don't think it's worth much more because even though cuisine antillaise may be a bit popular in Paris, it has not penetrated in the provinces. Writing about it makes me hungry for Accrats de Morue. El Ingles 22:21, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Semiprotect page
I have made a request to semi protect the page due to increased vandalism. STTW (talk)  17:06, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Rareity of Escargots
Are snails actually rarely eaten in France? They've been on the menu in almost all the restaurants that I've been to, though that may not be representative of what is generally eaten in the home. Chrisjohnson 10:11, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
 * It's certainly not a common dish. It can be found in some restaurants and "traiteur" shops but it's not something that people eat on a regular basis, except perhaps in certain areas (or circles). It's really become a specialty dish. I don't have production figures though, this could be interesting. --Gilles Tran 16:45, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm, some googling gives French consumption as 40,000 tonnes per year ≈ 800g per person per year, about double that of French Foie gras consumption. Not sure how reliable that source is though - further down the page they confuse thousand with million. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Chrisjohnson (talk • contribs) 23:43, 5 April 2007 (UTC).
 * Escargot and Frogs Legs are not "rare" in France, they are regional specialties in France. Stating they are rare is like saying cassoulet is rare in France because it comes from the southwest of France or that fricasee of chicken and crayfish is rare because its served mostly is regions where streams exist and quality chicken are raised such as near Bresse and the Alpine streams.  This is a serious POV error.--Christopher Tanner, CCC 06:29, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Ratatouille
I strongly challenge asparagus as a component of ratatouille. I have never seen asparagus in that dish. marmiton.org has 93 ratatouille recipes, only one of which includes asparagus. Would the original author care to defend the text? El Ingles 22:30, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

(later) ack, I just noticed that onion and garlic are not listed as ingredients. I really think something has to be done. El Ingles 00:23, 9 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Now that 4 days have elapsed without a defence of the text, I'm going to make my edits. El Ingles 21:36, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Good move. I have to agree, asparagus is not a typical ingredient of ratatouille. Alexthe5th 02:37, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Do the ingredients for the dishes even belong on this page, or a separate article for the dishes? --Christopher Tanner, CCC 16:58, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

So long as they are by way of an explanation of a word that may not be familiar to english speakers, and don't stray into the territory of a recipe, I think so, yes. El Ingles 21:38, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Ingredients
Why is this list important? I see it in no way a contribution to "French Cuisine" unless you are stating AOC products such as the Bresse chickens instead of chickens or the tarbais beans instead of just saying beans. It is in my opinion that the ingredient section should be redone to AOC products for France, that are significant to French cuisine alone, otherwise this list could potentially be an astronomical encyclopedia of almost every foodstuff known to man. I can name 15 types of poultry off the top of my head that are used in French cooking, but are used in other cuisines as well, so it makes them irrelevant.--Christopher Tanner, CCC 06:18, 4 May 2007 (UTC)