Ordering at French restaurants

Things to watch out for when ordering food in French restaurants...

If you are not travelling with someone well-versed in the type of food on French menus – bring a dictionary or travel guide book with you. We didnt remember it a few times with some interesting results! The French are well-renowned for their love of offal, so if you are anything other than adventurous about the innards of various animals, then avoid things like ‘rognons’ – kidneys or ‘nois de Riz’ – sweetbreads, while foie is used not just for foie gras, but for all liver dishes`- this is before you get to gras-double which is tripe... You have been warned! We ended up ordering rognons de veau, and nois de Riz de veau – not realising what they were. One of us even ordered foie gras and the nois de Riz at the same lunch, and the foie gras was really lightly cooked, so a lot of slimy looking and tasting food was presented to us! Then you can end up thinking that things are more complicated than they actually are – ciboulette is chives, faux-filet is sirloin and steac-hache is minced meat...

After some experimentation with different style restaurants, our strong preference was for the simpler style of French cooking found in inexpensive bistro type places - a lot of the 'gastronomique' food was very complicated, and over-accessorised! As someone said to us at one of the visits to a chateau - they dont give you enough of what you order and insist on giving you tid-bits of things that you havent ordered - that says it all really! We really enjoyed our local creperie in Vertheuil - they saved our hungry tummies more than once with great crepes - check them out at http://www.le-v-en-vertheuil.com/ as they also do Chambres d'Hotes (ask for Patrick or Bernard). Ther was also a great seafood restaurant in Granville called La Citadelle - a photo of their fruits de mer will be published shortly - worth a trip to France for this alone! Again, though, bring the guide-book for names of both fish and shell-fish - otherwise it is a total lottery as to what you get (pardon the pun - Lot was one of those fish we had trouble identifying!)