We should have warned you about restaurants closed out of regular meal times. In France you have déjeuner between 11.30 -> 13.30 and dîner 19.00 -> 22.00. Newsweek reporter Ted Stanger had exactly the same bad experience (McDo included) Another advise: if someone tries to steal your place in a lineup, defend it. Cheating is the national sport, far beyond soccer. Don't let yourself get ripped off.
I'm only here until December 23, so it's not that long a time. Still, I'm happy to be here and the food is very good. Today I had a crepe pecheur for lunch, only 7.50 euros, and it was fantastic (shrimp, mussels, and some type of fish). And it's true that the area around the dorms are quiet right now. More things will open up next week, as far as I know.
blackjack, you don't know what you're missing by not eating burgers in France. Well, steak hacher, at any rate. I've not been to France in years but I used to love steak hache, nice and red in the middle. Fantastic stuff. I know it's not a burger but it resembles one, so some people might equate the two. If you mean fast-food burgers, fair enough, but give the "real" stuff a try, it's splendid. Incidentally I haven't read this topic in full, but the French have earned every right to be snobbish about their food and their attitude towards it, as their food is, on the whole, marvellous.
yes, a steak haché is no burger! when you go to the neighborhood supermarket (or the meat counter at the hypermarché) there's no "hamburger" on display; if you want some they take chunks of meat and grind it in front of you. it has a grain to it like wood... shape it into a patty preserving that structure as best you can and grill it like a rare steak. the reason behind the grinding is not to sell an agglomeration of odd bits with fat added; it's because the beef they use (it's marked boeuf bourguignon in its tray) is very tasty but too tough to grill as is.
you're killing me man! all i had for lunch was a tuna sandwich out of a machine!!! of course in france even machine sandwiches are pretty good...
magnificent weather this weekend so hauled out the weber for a baroud d'honneur... of course for a successful BBQ it's important to start right... bien sur sans exagérer! the chicken cut in quarters and rolled in fresh rosemary goes on first (almost all the rosemary falls into the fire, that's the idea anyway), then you've got time to pull the last bell peppers out of the garden; chopped up roughly with a big onion and a head's worth of whole garlic cloves, they just fit in the biggest skillet... let it all just burn about 30 seconds before adding the olive oil; 2-3 minutes on max heat, deglaze with a splash of the above yellow nectar... then clear out of the kitchen to let the wife do the polenta. the chicken goes to the edges now and the merguez go on. repeat operation n°1... while cleaning the sardines. two minutes each side for those little devils, put it all on a platter and take it to the table while brother-in-law pulls up last basil plant. finding the corkscrew and opening a bottle of rosé (yes i said rosé, but i'm talking lirac or tavel, not white zin!) gives the wife just enough time to get the polenta to table... that's where the fresh basil goes. pull a couple of lemons off the tree et voila! wie Gott in Frankreich!
