I said I would get in on the act of the Weekend engagement posts. Overseas food is my choice of titles because I was recently in France with my wife for our 40th birthdays. Food is a great love of mine and I always love trying the local delicacies in foreign cities. However France is a little different because there are somethings that I like to stay clear of. Frogs legs and Snails. I just don't have the urge to eat the old frogs or the slimy snails no matter how tasty the French say they are. France has always been hit or a miss as regards food over the years. They do a killer breakfast, a nice lunch but we have had always inconsistent evening meals. Don't get me wrong, some of the food is the nicest I have ever eaten but some of the courses have been laughable. The pea on the plate comes to mind. We were in a particular restaurant in Nice last week. I won't mention the name because it was beautiful. So it was a strange set up as regards the layout of the menu. Normally you would have a starter, a main and a dessert. But on this menu there were all just mains and you could have a starter version if you wanted. Seemed like my perfect place as I do love meat so a starter of a main dish was right up my street. So my wife went for some starter that had la carotte. Fair enough. I ordered some pork starter and the beef main. So we were waiting for the starter as we were on the go the whole day and we were absolutely starrrrrrrving.
So along came my starter. Beautiful. The pork looked amazing and tasted amazing then came my wifes starter........
Now it wasn't as if she didn't ask for it but I was under the impression it would have been served differently. I was laughing my head off and she wasn't happy I was laughing so much. Anyway she said it was nice even though it was somewhat carroty. Do you know the times where you just cannot stop laughing. It was one of those times and by the end of the meal my wife was telling me to shut the hell up. She did actually enjoy the carrot starter. Well she said she did out of spite I would imagine. But it gave me a right laugh.
The day after we went to a restaurant called Le Frog. Yep for a couple that do not want to eat Frog's legs it wasn't the best place to go. So we went in and the whole place was eating them. A mini quest of mine on holiday was hearing French people say their two most famous sayings:
Oh La La
Sacrebleu
I heard 3 Oh La La's in this restaurant. Said in different ways mind. One guy said OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and then muttered la la. I found this hilarious. But he got the frogs legs. I had a few wines at me at this stage and did a Homer Simpson type speech.
"Is it wrong to eat the legs of a chicken and not the legs of a frog??"
"Is it wrong to eat a cows arse and not eat some snails Marge?"
"Well this has to stop!"
Waiter , a portion of your finest frogs legs and escargo s'il vous plait.
I immediately regretted the decision on seeing my wifes face. The face of no nookie after snails rule had been implemented as fast as a sanction on Russia.
Along they came. The waiter showed me how to eat them. He gave me a tweezers like object to pluck the snails out from the shells. The frogs came drenched in garlic which was a major plus.
OK here it goes. Down the hatches. Close the back door behind me.
My wife did the about to vomit expression.
No going back now.
FREEEEDOOOOOMMMMM.
Fucking Delicious. The French know their shit.
