France vs. England: Food
22:12
I like food. "Shocker!" I hear you cry. Don't worry, I am aware that most living things like food. But I probably like food more than most of them. It's not as much of a coincidence as I'd like to admit that I chose to study the languages of the 2 European countries most famous for their cuisine. Two years working in a delicatessen left me with a love of olives, pastries and artisan cheese which, in turn, left me with a slightly higher percentage of body fat. International food markets are both my heaven and my downfall and I never, ever regret eating cake.
My love of fine food stems from good fortune; I grew up in a house with food-loving parents who place a lot of value on family meal times, supporting small businesses and the quality of ingredients. We conform to almost every middle-class foody stereotype you could think of (aside from being fans of Great British Bake-Off which, for some reason, my parents never took to as much as Masterchef). We make our own hummus. We have a bread-maker. We have enough tomato plants in our back garden to start a small farm. It's not just us - our friends have the food bug, too. In 2004 we took a fortnight-long holiday in Brittany with old family friends. It mostly consisted of the wives and children gleefully filling their faces with all sorts of gourmet treats for 14 days while the men took turns trying to out-cook each other. It was wonderful. 10 years later, I was excited to return to this gluttonous dream of a country.
In culinary terms, I got a bit bored of Italy. There are a few things that the Italians do better than anybody else in the world - pizza, pasta, coffee (I despise the stuff so can't confirm this), ice-cream - but it's pretty much all they do. Having grown up in a country in which even the smallest towns have restaurants from 3 different continents, the homogeneity of Italian food started to eclipse its loveliness after a few months. There's only so many calzones a girl can eat before she starts craving a fajita. In spite of their fierce and vocal pride in their own cuisine, the French have actually proven to be a lot more open to other countries' foods. There is a significantly higher number of foreign restaurants in Aix than in Pavia and the international section in my local supermarket consists of more than a shelf with some soy sauce on it.
When it comes to diversity in the kitchen, the UK is difficult to beat in Europe. You don't own a third of the world without picking up some cooking tips. I live in a very small town and there is a Turkish restaurant, a tapas bar, 2 curry houses and a pizzeria. Of course we have a few iconic British dishes and I do occasionally crave a Sunday roast but, most of the time, I just enjoy the huge variety of different countries that one can sample via one's tastebuds. If we can all agree on one benefit of multiculturalism it's the impact it's had on British food. Just as a warning to Nigel Farage and the rest of the get-us-out-of-Europe brigade: if you even try to come between me and my tapas, there will be dire consequences.
France is posing a significant threat to my cholesterol and waistline by doing desserts just as well as they do main courses and cheese. The first thing I saw when I went into my local supermarket was a patisserie counter stocked with cheesecakes, fruit tarts, éclairs and enough chocolate that just looking at it increased my risk of slipping into a hyperglycaemic coma. Possibly to combat this, the fresh fruit and vegetables are pleasingly cheap compared to the UK and Provence is apparently famous for its salads as well as its decadent pastries. I'm sure my GP will be able to confirm whether salad niçois has undone the damage caused by chocolate choux buns when I come waddling into his surgery at the end of my placement.
The supermarket is not the place to be if you want the really good food, though. The locals prefer to buy from independent stores, be they butchers, market stalls or bakeries, of which there are approximately 9000 in Aix and some of them have the same name. The emphasis is very much on local produce, or at least French produce, and you can't move for specialist Provençal shops in the town centre. Buying locally is catching on in the UK but unfortunately high prices make it a principle that only the relatively well-off can afford to adhere to. The French are definitely beating us on this one, at least for the time being.
I really don't want to be known as "the cheese girl" but I'm going to make this point anyway because it really needs to be addressed. The world needs to embrace British cheese as a matter of urgency. Continental Europe: your refusal to admit that the UK actually does food quite well these days is cutting you off from a world of wonderful dairy products. Even if you can't overcome your prejudices and try it yourself, at least start sourcing it for the foreign students, ex-pats and tourists that are craving a nice bit of Red Leicester. I made the mistake of buying some cheddar from a French supermarket and when I first tried it I thought I'd accidentally taken a bite out of a bar of soap. It was vile. You eat German cheese; it's time to give ours a try too. You'll like it, I promise. Our sausages are better than yours as well, by the way, but I'll let that one slide because you do at least try.
I'm not here to bash British food. Our reputation for not being able to keep up with the rest of the world on the culinary stage is unjustified and not even really a thing anymore. I have noticed, however, that my favourite thing about eating in the UK is how easy it is to find the cuisine of other countries rather than specifically British meals. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to be unpatriotic on this one and praise the French, especially since they seem to have started embracing non-European food as well. 5 months in this place is going to be glorious. Let's hope my arteries can take a pounding.
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