When it comes to trying new food items, I’m always the first in line. So, when it came to exploring the uniqueness of French cuisine, I was ready. Here are some of the top “weird” things we tried, and how our children reacted to them.
1. Escargots aka Snails
I have fond childhood memories of eating this with my father, while my mother watched on, face twisted in clear repudiation of what she considered a “gross” culinary practice. Ha! Personally, I LOVE this dish, especially when it is prepared with extra yummy sauce.
The custom of eating snails dates back to antiquity, with people like Pliny the Elder registering the origins and process of Heliciculture (farming snails for human consumption) in the Roman Empire. With the Roman conquest of Gaule (territory in what would later be France…are you familiar with Asterix and Obelix?) the habit of raising and eating these little garden animals grew and became widespread, after all, snails didn’t fall within the regular “meat” category and could be consumed during religious festivities and dates such as Lent.
However, the practice didn’t quite catch on in the Americas, and many of my American and Brazilian friends still react strongly to this dish.
Anyway, I love it, and so does my husband, which obviously made us order some for our kids to try. We ordered the traditional dish, which calls for cooking the clean snails in a mixture of garlic, herbs, chicken broth and wine, followed by placing them back in their respective shells and topping it off with a buttery pesto and thyme sauce. DELICIOUS.
I gave my children one shell each, handed them the thin fork to extract the chewy goodness from it’s shell, and watched. It was quite a show. One child hesitated, but finally managed to chew one, gagged a little, but bravely followed through by swallowing and vowing never to try it again.
Another child happily pulled out the snail, picked it off the small fork, and savored every ounce of buttery goodness. Two thumbs up at the end of this experience.
The third child, oh my third child, threw down the fork, handed me the shell, and adamantly refused to try it. Oh well. It just goes to show that culinary habits go beyond tastebuds. It also involves psychological elements and pre-judgements that can keep you from trying something new simply out of the perceived impression that you will dislike it or, according to a personal value scale, you don’t consider it deemed for consumption.
So, in our party of five, escargots got a 3/5 positive review.
But seriously, it is chewy and somewhat rubbery, which might not work for people who have issues with certain textures. Nutritionally, they are a healthy and lean source of protein, containing important elements such as selenium, iron, and magnesium. Essentially, they are a fat free, carbohydrate free, sugar free snack (don’t count the buttery sauce you toss on them, though).
2. Lapin – Rabbit
This isn’t necessarily “weird,” but it isn’t as commonplace in the US or Brazil as it is in France. To be fair, shopping for meat in France is a unique experience in itself. There is such a variety of cuts and types of meat that I often pull out my translating app just so I buy what I’m actually looking for. I mean, we’re talking about duck, deer, pigeon, horse, rabbit, pork, snail, and the countless body parts and organs of said animals. They also eat exotic game like ostrich and, according to another blogger, zebra! I haven’t seen that yet, but if you want to see visuals of different cuts of meat check out Oui in France.
For the French, most things are edible, from blood to tongue to intestines and colon and head and so on. In light of this diversity, rabbit doesn’t sound as “weird” anymore, does it?
I’ve tried rabbit before, so it wasn’t a novelty for me, but my children hadn’t yet faced the trauma of eating an adorable bunny. Child number one wouldn’t touch it out of principle (guess a rabbit’s life is more valuable than that of a snail?), child number 2 ate it, liked it, but wasn’t crazy about it either. Child number 3 was so appalled at eating what was once a fluffy, cute bunny, that he soon jumped on the vegetarian train and refused to eat meat for what turned out to be ten whole days. That was an interesting experience. Eventually, bacon won him back to the carnivore diet.
When you get over the “cuteness” factor, rabbit meat is lean and resembles chicken in flavor and versatility. You can prepare it in stews or roasted, and add thick and rich sauces to it too. All things considered, it is strange that the US and other countries haven’t caught on to this trend, and rabbit is such a habitual part of French cuisine that other societies could benefit from it as well.
3. Duck
Ok, so this isn’t weird, although it isn’t as common in the US and in Brazil as it is in France, but I’ll include it here because, well, it is delicious and we’ve learned to make it more often.
There is a longstanding tradition of duck hunting in Europe, and ducks are treasured for their meat, which is lean like chicken and turkey, yet has a higher iron content as well as other nutrients such as selenium.
At our house, the kids had an easier time eating duck meat than rabbit, but they still prefer chicken or beef.
4. Foie Gras
This brings me to the next traditional, and controversial, French dish: Foie Gras.
Banned in some states in the US, and at the heart of many animal rights controversies, the Foie Gras (translating to fattened liver) is a culinary practice consisting of force feeding ducks or geese through a process called gavage. In its usual production, the animals are held in tight cages and a rubber tube is inserted in their beaks, with a mixture of corn meal and grains forced down their throats. This process is continued for several days, and the animals’ livers enlarge to ten times their normal size. Critics claim this is unnatural and brings suffering to the animals. Supporters, on the other hand, state that in the wild these birds tend to overeat prior to migration, thus naturally enlarging their livers in the first place. Also, Foie Gras producers defend their practices by stating that the tubes are harmless, and don’t extend into the birds’ stomach, but into a pouch that is naturally in their constitution to help store food and accommodate for bigger fish when in the wild.
The truth is probably somewhere in between.
Some farmers defend a more ethical production, with free roaming birds that are stimulated to overeat, but not necessarily force-fed. However, the industry claims that such methods produce less in volume and aren’t viable commercially.
Either way, Foie Gras remains a delicacy in France, widely used and valued for its smooth and rich taste. The most common way of preparing it is by pureeing it into a pate, and using it as a spread on toast with jellies and other accompaniments.
For us, both my husband and I have tried it before, and we really like its taste. So far, we haven’t bought any due to the price (tends to run on the steeper end) and we decided to try more accessible things first. Furthermore, my children don’t like spreads and pates anyway, so I predict they won’t be heavy consumers even if we bought some.
5. Boudin Noir or Blood Sausage
This particular delicacy is consumed throughout the world, and many countries carry different versions of it. In France it is called Boudin Noir and, as the name suggests, has a dark coloring. Another ancient invention, it is prepared by mixing pig, sheep, or bovine blood with other spices and ingredients for thickening, inserting it in pigs’ intestine (like most sausages) and then boiling so the mixture gains a hard, gelatinous consistency. You can then eat it cold, or fry it.
My husband LOVES Boudin Noir, and bought some for us to try. He offered it to the kids as a sausage, nobody asked more questions about it so he didn’t offer extra information. They tried it, and all of them unanimously disliked it. Personally, I do too, which is interesting since I like eating liver and I’m not averse to that stronger taste. However, blood sausage, blood pudding, and boudin noir didn’t rock my boat. I will fry it next time, and give it another shot, but overall in our household it got a 1/5.
Honestly, this only scratches the surface of the “weird” things on a French menu. From raw steak to cow’s tongue to essentially every part of the pig’s body, the French live by the motto “waste not.”
We are still exploring different dishes, and I plan on trying them out and introducing them to my kids but, for now, this is what we’ve had so far. Oh, and we had octopus salad too… delicious! But that’s not THAT weird, is it?
