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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
http://www.ab-technologies.com/francefro…
I feel deep pity for any French person stuck here with our generally shitty food.
France has an amazing food culture going back centuries, our supermarkets are basically stocked with dogshit.
I concede that the food there is better, but having to spend my time surrounded by these douche bags would ruin my appetite.
Give France 10-20 years and they will surpass the USA as well. They are adopting an American diet, just with more incredibly unhealthy foie gras, veal, and butterfat.
And yes, he needs to experience a deep-fried Snickers bar as soon a possible.
Love the sausages from the region near Luxembourg/Belgium. But in general the culture in France is nothing special. I sat through Le Petit Nicholas two weeks ago, the smash hit film in France. It was about a grade Z sitcom, worse than a bad 'Friends' episode. And the supermarkets (Hypermarché) there are full of stupid Teeny-girl mags, etc.
I never knew the French had Cheez-wiz.
@11 YES. Savage, Frizzelle... you guys HAVE to take him to report on the Puyallop Fair on a Saturday. I want to see what he has to say about the epic brick pits of endless BBQ.
Speaking of food, check out what's happening to French food:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/…
Interesting trend in France.
BTW, I enjoy cuisine of the Magreb and Levant whether halal or kosher. Bon appetit!
These are worn cliches not worthy of a post. If you want a really disgusting experience, go to the midwest. There you can get deep fried cheese curd, a Culvers "Butter Burger", and oh, the portions are four times what are served here.
I'd like to ask the French Intern, if you're real, to not counsel Americans to eat more bread. We don't need it anymore. We don't need anymore butter or Nutella "orgasms" (we have Nutella too, guy) unless it involves putting the topping on my crotch and having some guy or gal lick it off. We're too damned fat. Also, please don't tell us to put fried eggs on our hamburgers. We'll just get more fat.
Seems like the area has plenty of natural food/farmers/markets etc. I only shop at these places because I don't mind dropping an extra dollar for a little health benefit but I don't begrudge the shoppers of at the corporate grocery places because I've been poor before. The system is rigged to encourage us to eat pudding packs, frozen veggies, and microwave Mac N Cheese.
It's funny, too: last night I watched Bourdain revisiting Paris, and guess what? All the hot new ideas in cooking are coming from New York, from America. France is lovely, but it's a museum culture.
Quand j'habitais en France il y avait des differences culturelles qui m'ont etonne. Dans les supermarches francaises le lait n'est pas dans le frigidaire mais sur les rayons. Les oeufs aussi. L'horreur ! Mais je me suis rendu compte tres vite qu'il fallait essayer d'adapter plutot que de me moquer de un autre pays pour aucune raison sauf qu'il est different de mon pays. Pourquoi vivre dans un autre pays sinon pour avoir une autre perspective ?
D'ailleurs il est chiant de se plaindre de tout, tout le temps.
danon yogurt
mint chocolate chip ice cream
the way you dial phone numbers
cat food
security
lettuce
beads
tuberculosis testing/treatment
manners
mangoes
houses
tuna
clothes washers
There you go. France wins.
My high school French reads it as "And my ass, it is of chicken?"
I'm assuming my high school French has failed me again.
Fun fact: my expatriate Quebecois grandmère (turning 98 this month) was kicked out of her French Catholic junior high in northeastern Massachusetts for speaking improper "kitchen French".
I hope you will try to experience the breadth of what we have to offer and provide your unique take on it, stepping outside of what is easy to create something artful, original or at least interesting.
I get that this was supposed to be funny, but its the equivalent of going to Paris and writing a story on body odor. I also don't think racial or relationship stereotype humor is funny. This isn't the 80s and I'm not on coke. A little more creativity please.
On the one hand, I'm thinking "fuck this guy, talking shit about America, the greatest thing ever," (I learned to speak French just so I can read his posts), on the other hand, I adore the pleasant jabbing of American culture from a perspective of French culture, and on the third hand...how very French of French Intern.
And a bit Mudede-esque.
I consider that suspicion confirmed by this supposed Frenchman using the word nauseous when he mean t to say nauseated.
Only a shitty American writer with a JC education would make that mistake.
Nice try l'etranger. Back to the drawing board.
And if I can bring the snark for a minute: If you're here to learn from American journalists to report the facts and not your own opinion, why are you interning for the Stranger?
That being said, yes of course there are many lovely farmer's markets and little bakeries and etc, etc. The post was not a blanket dismissal, he did not claim that there is no good food in your entire city. I laughed out loud at a few of the responses here - there's a reason for the stereotype of Americans taking themselves too seriously!
Mmmm! Poutine!
@17 for the win
@41 It's not Chelsea. Unless you were trying to be funny. In which case - fail.
You ought to read "In Defense of Food" and "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan. He draws a distinction between "food" and "edible foodlike substances." I'm sure France has some edible foodlike substances of its own, but the U.S. has raised it to a fine art.
However, I must say that Velveeta Shells and Cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods. To keep myself from eating it all the time, I restrict myself to buying one box once a month.
You don't have to go far to experience good food. Seattle has great food.
Doesn't mean I don't also love the tiny mom-and-pop operations as well as the lovely homey bakeries and open-air markets, blah, blah.
@18: I was pretty sure the deepfried Mars Bar was a Scottish invention.
He's really an intern if his post is three times longer than the average lazy Stranger staff member.
Need to get Julien to comment about his take on Vegan food.
Toss him over to I, Anonymous to get his feet wet.
And I agree with what he says about American food in general, but, come on! This is Seattle, not Tampa (no offense, Floridians, but your grocery stores are abysmal). We have the best groceries, butchers, cheesemongers, farmers markets, cafes, etc., in the country. We are want for nothing fresh and delicious here. So his berating of our foodstuffs would work better in New York, or some other city that doesn't offer easy access for all people to fresh foods.
As for the Mr. Bieber, he is of course Canadian, not American, and even sings in French. And French folks aren't really in any position to be talking shit about anybody else's pop music. Ever heard of Lorie? Or the inexplicably massive Mylene Farmer, who has sold 25 million records in France?
Though I do have a lifelong massive crush on Francoise Hardy and all the ye-ye girls. And just about my favorite band is French, Watoo Watoo.
But that's not what we're talking about here, is it? We're talking about trashy magazines. No such thing in cultured France, right? Except for Closer, Voici, Public, or for teens, Phosphor.... Plenty of trash culture in France if you know where to look.
The paragraph with the bread and birdsong and sun-caressed skin was great. The whole post was great, and very Stranger-esque, like a combination of Mudede and Lindy West, but with a French twist. I love it!
Julien - don't mind the cranky-pants, keep trying. But try to get a little more original.
So welcome. You have a lot of Seattle queers in a tither wet dreaming about sucking you off in Le Marais at 2 am.
He's saying essentially "If the bread in that picture is French, then my ass is chicken."
Equivalent to "I'm a monkey's uncle."
dirac @42:
Uh, what? Look up Jean-Marie le Pen and his Front National party. They've been garnering really astonishing levels of support for their nativist policy, which includes making the death penalty more common, moving away from the EU, anti-abortion and anti-immigration platforms. Sounds pretty Tea Party-esque to me. Le Pen got 16.9% of the votes in the first round presidential election in 2002 and made it to the second round, where he was defeated by Chirac, and 10% in the first round in 2007 with 83.8% turnout (he was defeated by both Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal and didn't make it to the second round).
What's more, many pundits attribute the rise of the FN party to a growing backlash against immigration from non-European countries. As far as I know, Le Pen hasn't suggested that the immigrants are beheading folks in the Loire valley on a regular basis, but if you don't see any parallels to the Tea Party in FN, I think you're not looking very hard.
Most of Europe is struggling with immigration problems and the attendant backlash (wearing burqas to public school and so on), and the nativist parties are the ones shouting the loudest. They get more attention than I'm comfortable with.