Famine
British food is, apparently, not good enough for Chirac. So, let's look at what the French have given the world of eating:
1. Horse. Yes - the cute little pony all girls love to love, which people race and teach tricks to. Slice it up and stuff it on the plate. Neigh.
2. Frog's Legs. Well, those freaky French cut up and roast pond life - that puts them on a level with a year 10 schoolboy's dissection experiment.
3. Pig's trotters. An animal considered SO unclean that one religion bans their consumption entirely and the Gauls munch on the dirtiest part of all. For Heaven's sakes, Chirac, you're eating toenails!
4. Snails. Only in a country where farmers burn all of the good meat-producing animals in protest every 6 months would you find food so scarce you resort to cooking vermin that most gardeners eradicate without a second thought. Pass the salt... oh.
Let's not even begin to mention to relative incidences of BSE in the UK and France in the last 24 months...
Appearantly British food isn't good enough for most of the civilized world either, and rightfully so.
It's a sin what the English have done to food.
What has France contributed to the world of eating? As much as I don't like to admit it, just about everything.
Probably the most influental is Escoffier. He is pretty much responsible for organizing and standardizing the culinary world. His systems are still very much in place today all across the globe.
He even introduced a proper saute pan to England so you didn't have to boil everything to death. Evidently it didn't take.
Glance at any menu and the way it's designed, he's responsible for that as well. Al a carte?
How about French wine and it's very integral part with food and cooking?
However, North America did save the entire French wine industry from a plague of philoxora. Yet another time their ass was saved by someone else?
You also mentioned snails, which are more commonly refered to as escargot. I'll admit that the French popularized them, (they consume 40,000 metric tons a year) but snails have been eaten as food since at least ancient Roman times.
If ya gotta eat, ya gotta eat.
Even though the French have done an amazing amout in the food world, it doesn't make Chiracs statement about English food any less pompous. And Mr. Putin doesn't really have much room to talk as Russian cuisine is just as horrible as the English.
On a side note, Traditional Italian cuisine is by far the best. Ever have risotto? Take into consideration that what most consider Italian food now a days, is actually fairly new. Italy didn't have noodles until the Chinese introduced them, and Italy didn't have tomatoes until the Americas were discovered.
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