French Food - foreign foods in France

Foreign foods in France

French food is excellent and intensely varied. I feel a little guilty thinking of other options sometimes, but I do love variety. French supermarkets heavily favor French products, as opposed to New York City, where there are so many different kinds of places to shop that it is just a normal part of running errands. The variety in cheeses and wines from France is extensive, while the selection from other countries is seriously limited. The "France" wine section feels like its own separate supermarket, with a "foreign wines" section that could fit on an end cap. The same applies to cheeses.

Nantes is also a smaller city than Paris or New York and this is just a thing about smaller towns, I guess.

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I really notice this when it comes to anything spicy or heavily seasoned. This town does have significant African, Caribbean, and Asian places that offer some variety, even if many restaurants cater to typical French tastes, but I’ve also been to some Indian places here that made the mildest “spicy” dishesI’ve ever heard of. It might as well have been seasoned with ketchup. I had to make friends with some of the staff to get some legit flavors.

Mexican food is scarce and seems totally misunderstood. Pizzas, uneven at best, shine with French toppings. For Italian style pizzas, the best have been in the frozen section. For local pizzerias, it is better to go for the ones that have honey, ham, chevre and other French ingredients. They’re far better.

American food

The best "American food" is in the frozen section, but its burgers and hot dogs and chicken fingers. It lacks something. Barbeque has been bland and uninteresting. If someone is grilling well here, I truly want to know.

Foreign flavors in the market are grouped together, with aisles featuring German, Indian, Italian, Mexican, and American foods—a caricature of each country's cuisine. Websites selling American food often include strange chocolates from Asia. Surprisingly, American candy frequently features Nerds, which I haven’t seen around since the 1980s.

French food for French people?

It feels like France wants food from other countries to fall short. Old El Paso is likely laughable "Mexican" food for natives of that country, but French versions of dishes like hamburgers and mac and cheese, can be fantastic. If you want to have good Mexican in this town, I’d suggest you learn how to cook it yourself. It’s worth knowing.

California cuisine hasn't gained traction, French adaptations of certain dishes are noteworthy.

Clearly, France has not heard of Joey Chestnut.

An "American barbecue night" we attended last summer was good but didn't match any American BBQ style I knew. Other American spectacles included line dancing, a mechanical bull and a hot dog eating contest with a winner eating just 5 hot dogs and buns, didn’t seem to impressive. There was a guy at the next table who had eaten as many free hot dogs as the guy who came in 3^rd. Spectators were taking extra hot dogs off the competition table before the contest was over.

In the hot sauce eating contest, one guy wound up in an ambulance and an Indian woman swept it all. In the end, with 8 people in stage, she was the only one smiling.

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