My Top 5 French Food Favourites

For all those who know me closely, know I am a major Foodie. I take my food really seriously. However, most of my cravings are centred around Indian food. I´ve lived in Italy, United States, Germany, Switzerland, U.K. in the last years – but no food, anywhere, could shake my loyalty for Indian food. We have the best spices. We have the most innovative food combinations. We have the largest variety of dishes across the country that you can ever dream of.  We don´t care that you get fat when you eat that oil dripping, deep-fried Samosa or creamy Butter Chicken. We only care that you enjoy it. That you forget the world and your worries while you eat this food. That you slow-down and experience the experience of eating this food.

So not surprisingly, when I moved to Paris, France recently with my husband, I was initially quite closed to being convinced by the superiority of French food. I felt as though I knew it all already! Not the most remarkable trait I admit, but I can be strong-headed sometimes.

Needless to say, when you live in a country, you cannot “escape” its food. It stares at you from every nook and corner and we did end up visiting many French restaurants by a series of coincidences.

I have to confess that French food is different, rich and interesting. Many a times I just found myself observing how they had done a dish, what ingredients they had used and how they got the flavours they did. Like the Italians, they have many raw flavours in their foods and also relish a lot of beef (which I don´t take!). I´ve only been in Paris four months now, but I already have my personal French food favourites. I will revise the list again, of that I am sure, because I know there is so much more food here to try. But for now, here´s what I love in French food that I tried -  

1. Croque Monsieur

This is my version of French Pizza and it tastes heavenly when well-done. It consists of a crispy bread layered with melted cheese and ham. I indulge in it with the sharp, French Dijon mustard! Umm.. Delight!

Look at the dripping cheese. Image credit - lifeandstyle.ca

2. Crepes and Galette

It is said that Crepes originate from the region of Brittany in Western France. It made sense therefore to try them in their country of origin. However, I had eaten Crepes in Germany and didn´t feel particularly impressed by them. It´s just like a sweet pancake in nutella or caramel, right?
Wrong! The French take this stuff as serious business. On a trip with some friends to Café Breizh (recommended by Google for Crepes and Galette), I had the most divine Crepe one can imagine. It had salty caramel sauce (eeww I had thought to myself in the beginning), marinated apples and vanilla ice cream on it and with each bite we literally went mmm…mmm… a bit to the embarrassment of the neighbours seated at the next table. Please try this stuff. You won´t regret it.

Talking about Galette, this is again a typical French food, originating in France. I didn´t know what they were in the first place so I decided to give it a try. Delicious as hell again, these are buckwheat savoury pancakes which are offered with a wide variety of ingredients within them. I chose the one with Le Gruyere Cheese, ham, sunny-side up eggs and onions, slow-cooked for over 48 hours in cider. The onions added a remarkable flavour that I had never tasted before – they were sweet and sour, intoxicating almost.
It´s a full meal, this stuff.  

Crepe with salty caramel, caramelized apples and Vanilla Icecream

Buckwheat savoury Galette with eggs, ham, cheese and cider onions

3. Croissants

Yes we all know them and eat them but nobody, anywhere does it better than the French themselves. Well may be the Austrians do, but I haven´t tried theirs.

This was my easy, first favourite when we arrived in Paris. You can choose to pick up this multi-layered, over-buttered, soft flaky bread at a famous French Patisserie (bakery) or even at the local Carrefour market. They all do it good! It’s almost ironical that I enjoy my croissants with an extra layer of butter added to them from the top, after all the layers of butter already gone into making it. Melt in your mouth. Part of every French breakfast.

This brunch of ours at Cafe Francour, Mont Marte, has delectable croissants on the top right hand side corner and mouth watering sweet French toasts ( my next favourite) at the bottom right hand corner.

4. French Toast

The exact origin of this food is not known. However, in France it is popular as “Pain Perdu.”
This is basically bread that is dipped in milk and eggs and fried. The sweet version of it I enjoy with maple syrup or marmalade. The savoury one can be eaten with mustard or cheese. It´s really easy to make it at home. However, we once had it for brunch at Café Francouer and I felt surprised at how deliciously layeredtheir French toast was – it had an amazing yet mild filling of sugar inside. How they did it, only they know, but some secrets of their cuisine, the French can keep J

5. Desserts of all shapes and sizes

I don´t know where to start with this one. But probably the pictures will give you an idea of the sheer variety of lovely, sweet things that the French create with devotion. There is a patisserie at every little corner you turn to, full of colourful little macaroons and pastries and cakes of all shapes and sizes.

My favourite French dessert so far is Crème Brulee. It has a base of vanilla pudding generally with crisp, burnt sugar layered on the top. One bite of a well-made Crème Brulee and you look down upon the other “lesser mortals” in the world of desserts. However, make no mistake that is the best that the French have to offer. It is my personal favourite and I have much left to experiment with.

Colorful Macaroons staring at you through the window of each patisserie

I once remember entering an ordinary Café at Mont Marte to enjoy a coffee with a piece of cake while reading my book. I ordered a simple pastry but it was only when I bit into it that I realized it had four layers – of almonds, pistachio, caramel and cream, over and above the cake. That´s ordinary French sweets for you. I could risk saying that in this department, they could give close competition to us Indians and our halwas and ras malais.    

Just another patisserie at Mont Marte

Apart from my top five, I really enjoy drinking red wine in France. I´ve never had bad red wine here – only good and excellent. Their cheeses I´d like to try more and also their Quiches. As I said before, just one post cannot do justice to France´s talent in cuisine. I will be back with more food that brings joy to my life in this lovely country.

Story of my life in Paris. Until next time :)