A Cornucopia of Bizarre French Foods, Episode 193

Categories: French Customs & Lifestyle, French Food & Wine

This episode features our frequent and very popular guest Elyse Rivin. If you enjoy her episodes, please consider supporting her on Patreon.

Never say that Annie and Elyse never say anything negative about France! We certainly do today! 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!

As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast.

How Do You Say the Name Caen?

Our conversation takes a few detours, as it always does, but this time Elyse gets a pronunciation epiphany! She finally understands how to say the city name "Caen". It doesn't have to take you 30 years, listen to our exchange starting at [44:46] 😉

From Strange Animal Products to Stinky Cheeses

The foods we discuss get stranger and stranger as we go along in the conversation, and we end with a few terribly ripe cheeses that can also be terribly challenging.

This is possibly more than anybody wants to know about bizarre French foods, but we think you need to be forewarned because if some of these ended on your plate by mistake, you'd be sorry!

Insects? Really?

And, watch out France, Elyse reports that there are new strange foods coming on the market in France, the kind made with insects. Honestly, what is the world coming to?

Recommendation

If you love to cook at home (a very French thing to do!) you should really check out this App for meal planning and shopping. I've been using it for a year and I don't know how I managed without it before!

Learn More: French Food & Wine and French Lifestyle & Customs

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Discussed in this Episode

  • Seafood platter in France
  • Foie gras
  • Steak tartare
  • French people and horse meat
  • Steak tartare au couteau
  • Moules marinières
  • Gésiers
  • Coq au vin
  • Escargots de Bourgogne
  • Rillettes
  • Pot-au-feu
  • Coeurs de canard
  • Steak à cheval vs. Steak de cheval
  • Croque Madame
  • Croque Monsieur
  • Frittons
  • Pieds de porc
  • Tripes à la mode de Caen
  • Andouillettes and andouilles
  • Langue de boeuf
  • Tête de veau ravigotte and tête de veau vinaigrette
  • Ris de veau
  • Boudin noir and boudin blanc
  • Lapin
  • Cuisses de grenouilles
  • Cervelle de veau en persillade
  • Rognons
  • Rognons blancs
  • Cheval
  • Salade de museau
  • Fromage de tête
  • Perdrix
  • Pintade
  • Pigeon
  • Cailles
  • Cerfeuil
  • Strange stinky French cheeses
  • Époisses
  • Maroilles
  • Langres
  • Camembert
  • Brie
  • Pont l’Évèque
  • Munster
  • Morbier
  • Roquefort
  • Aligot and Tartiflette
  • Tripou
  • Normal French foods with strange names
  • How to say the city name "Caen"
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If you enjoyed this episode, you should also listen to related episode(s):

a dish of moules marinières
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Categories: French Customs & Lifestyle, French Food & Wine

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