A Cornucopia of Bizarre French Foods Join Us in France Travel Podcast

Join Us in France Travel Podcast, Episode 193
On today’s episode, Elyse and Annie present to you a cornucopia of bizarre French foods. Even if you never plan on trying any of them, you need to know about them because they’ll pop up on menus here and there and we’ve known visitors who had big surprises when their food arrived! Elyse herself has had some surprises!
WARNING: We talk about animal parts in this episode, some of the conversation may be disturbing to some listeners.
A Cornucopia of Bizarre French Foods Episode Outline with Timestamps [02:51] Warning: this episode discusses animal parts, it may disgust some of our listeners.
[03:33] French people think that if you’re going to eat meat anyway, you might as well eat the whole animal.
[04:48] Historically, during a time of siege, people ate all the animals they could find, even ones we do not normally eat. Example: Paris siege of 1870 and Warsaw during WWII.
[06:30] How unusual parts of animals have become delicacies in France.
[07:16] The reason why we felt it was important to discuss these things is because you will find these foods on the menu in many French restaurants, usually as one of the specials for that day.
[07:48] How specials work in French restaurants and restaurants that specialize in regional French dishes.
[08:43] What you can do if you want to try these bizarre French foods while you’re visiting France. Go to restaurants that specialize in regional foods, or go to Les Grands Buffets in Narbonne.
[10:42] There are also Brasseries in Paris that specialize in regional foods that have unusual dishes. Brasserie Bofinger specializes in Alsatian food and Au Pied de Fouet specializes in Auvergnat food.
[11:12] You could also go to any “charcuterie” or “boucherie-charcuterie” or “traiteur”. They will have some of them, but you won’t find all of the ones on our list at any one place in France, that’s not how it works.
[12:08] If you want to look up specific recipes for any of these dishes, try the French recipe site called Marmiton.
What You Will Find on the Seafood Platter in France [12:40] The Seafood Platter: Oysters “les huitres”. Whelks “les bulots”. Sea Urchins “les oursins ».
[15:02] Elyse orders « bulots » without knowing what they were exactly.
Foie Gras [15:37] This French food is controversial and there are good arguments made of why we should not eat it. But in the Southwest of France, we eat some of it, mostly in small quantities because it is very rich. It’s a food for special occasions.
[17:49] The tradition of making your own “foie gras” in families from the Southwest of France.
Steak Tartare [19:31] Steak Tartare is raw ground beef. It’s like sushi, but with beef. One variation on the Steak Tartare is qualified as “aller-retour”. [Addendum: Annie went a little too fast here. They do serve cooked hamburger with a cooked egg on top, that’s called “à cheval”, but they also put raw egg in Steak Tartare, it’s part of the recipe.]
French People Eat Horse Meat [21:19] We explain the difference between “steak de cheval” and “steak à cheval”. The first is horse meat, the second means there will be a fried egg on top of your cooked hamburger.
Steak Tartare Au Couteau [22:08] Sometimes you’ll see the word “au couteau” which means the meat hasn’t been ground in a machine, but rather chopped with a knife, by hand.
Moules Marinières [23:15] These are muscles served in a pot. If they are “marinière” it means they are served with a white wine, onions, garlic and parsley sauce. Or you could get the Normandy kind, which is with cream instead of wine.
Gésiers [24:44] Giblets are part of the stomach of ducks or chickens (probably other birds too!) and they are slow cooked in fat until really tender. [Addendum: Giblets have nothing to do with hearts, Elyse was wrong about that, but she’ll never admit to it 😉]
Coq au Vin [27:07] Rooster cooked in wine