Schiffren Chick Bungles France, Comes Back On Sanford
NRO's Lisa Schiffren is kind of an idiot on what to eat in France, and in her assumption that the French "don't much like children" (couldn't be farther from the truth). She posts with abandon -- apparently without making any effort to understand or investigate French culture -- and doesn't get that children are not catered to in France, but expected to act like little adults if they're in adult places like restaurants.
She complains that restaurants are only open at certain times. What times? Meal times! That's because the French tend to eat meals...they don't walk the streets shoving Cheetos in their snoots all day. Doesn't work for you? Easy answer: Stay in Cleveland!
Contrary to her complaint, you can get food at a café at all hours, at least in Paris, where her whining starts. About an hour and a half after Gregg and I arrived in Paris, on our very first trip together about six years ago, we popped by Les Deux (Magots) at around 3 p.m. to sit out and watch the world go by and have this snack.
If your kiddies can't survive in a small town without having their little faces fed every 20 minutes, buy some cheese and a Swiss army knife and carry it around in a baggie in your purse, or stay in the big cities until they become big childish adults.
Hmmm...could this be a Paris alternative to "McDo"?
And no, shockingly, the food around tourist sites usually isn't fantastic -- which is why savvy travelers don't eat at the tourist sites. Is there any city where the tourist site food is gourmet?
Many of her complaints would be moot if she'd been smart enough to rent an apartment and tailor her vacation to American children (if hers are typical, they push their parents around with great success: "I want macaroneeeeee! And I want it nowwwwww!") Three kids, perhaps used to being coddled at meals (and in between)...you can't take them to France and expect things to be perfect for their finicky little American stomachs. French children, on the other hand, get a choice at mealtimes, over plates of liver, brains, and other food that isn't exactly a hot dog on a Wonderbread bun: Eat or starve.
Yes, the French may be socialist nitwits, but there are a few areas they have their heads screwed on right compared to Americans, and one is in the parenting department. Their kids are not only expected to eat what everybody else is eating, they are also allowed to run, play, fall down, and lose at sports (none of that business where "everybody wins!" -- because this is not real life, and the French are pretty real and realistic, except when it comes to the socialism thing).
Schiffrin's also clueless about what's healthy to eat, buying into the idea that vegetables fried in duck fat will kill you -- yet never putting together that the French are not all dropping dead in the streets of coronaries. (P.S. the evidence-based science -- as opposed to the "science" most American's diets are guided by -- suggests it's carbohydrates, not fat, that make us fat and cause us numerous health problems.)
Something else is a little different, too, from the way it is in America (why don't people who complain about that sort of thing simply stay home?). Note the portion size.
This was my lunch -- a rather inexpensive and delicious plate of duck and potatoes -- from a neighborhood restaurant out in the 14th arrondissement called Bouquet d'Alesia. You want inexpensive and delicious meals? Don't expect to find them on a cart underneath the Eiffel Tower.
As misguided as Schiffren is on France, she manages a bit of wisdom on L'Affaire Sanford, from another post on NRO:
You know what we call men who have dumb affairs and keep their mouths shut? Husbands. Occasionally, presidents. Hard to see how a wife with any self-respect could tolerate hearing the guy she's trying to forgive and reconcile with refer to the other woman as his soulmate -- on the record, and in public. There are limits to what marriage therapy can do when someone doesn't want to be there. Ditto being politically sound. You can have great ideas and be such a head case -- in this case, such an egotist -- that voters can't pull the lever. We're there. And I bet that Sanford -- unlike Newt, Giuliani, Clinton, etc. - isn't unhappy with that resolution. Mark Sanford doesn't want to be president.
Hmmm...there, finally, she could almost be French. Or Spanish or Italian. The latins, they are much more pragmatic about marriage than we are. But, there is a line that gets crossed -- in any culture.
And back to Paris, come to think of it, the first time I went there, with my friends M. and E. and E's daughter, none of us were exactly flush with money. M. bought baguettes, sausage and cheese (and horsemeat, or he said so, because he's a kidder). We went to up to Sacré Coeur, and after touring around, sat out and ate overlooking Paris. I remember thinking the sausage and cheese were pretty amazing compared to the food in America. It was a wonderful time, and of all my Paris memories that have disappeared into some dusty file cabinet in my head, I still remember that one 20 years later.
photos, except for Sacré Coeur and the duck, by Gregg Sutter
Ooooooooooooohhhhhh....the duck and potatoes....Pavlovian response all over the keyboard....dangit...
Juliana at July 2, 2009 6:34 AM
"Pavlovian response"? Very good! I was looking for a good euphemism for "drooling." "Slobbering" doesn't do it. "Salivating" actually sounds worse.
And the duck and potatoes plate looks wonderful. But so much. Looks like a lot of food.
Regarding the American diet, the problem with it (which is what causes our excessive carbohydrate consumption) is the fact that our food is processed out of all nutrition. Take the "hot dog" example that Amy mentioned. One hot dog taken from various parts of the pig or cow. You butcher an animal, take the salable parts and package them up nicely. And the hotdog is...everything else. Now, the roll. Most kids aren't conditioned to eat whole grain bread (not to be confused with wheat bread, which is made with white flour and a handful of wheat flour throw into the vat), so this is made with white flour which takes the whole grain, removes all the fiber (actually the healthiest part) and leaves the starch (turning it into sugar as far as your pancreas is concerned). And this is LUNCH to a child. Add a nice sugary drink, loaded with caffeine and some nice deep fried potato chips, and you're left totally perplexed as to why your child becomes a hyperactive recalcitrant brat then later devolves into a miserable crank.
Now Amy's lunch is much healthier. Duck. Real cuts of duck. Not parts of the duck that would send her running to ladies room to technicolor yawn if she ever found out what parts she was eating, but whole cuts she can recognize. And a potato (not shaved into paper thin slices and deep fried in vegetable oil) and some vegetables on the side, that I can recognize as vegetables.
Nothing is taken away from the food. It's served basically whole. We didn't process the healthy parts away or turn it into a phallic mass that we tell our kids to shove in their faces.
The nutrition and diet thing is not hard. You're making better choices right away if you're actually eating something you can recognize. You don't know what a hot dog is. (And you don't want to know.)
Patrick at July 2, 2009 7:25 AM
The best part of travelling is the food. You might as well stay home if you want to eat at Mickey D's.
MarkD at July 2, 2009 9:20 AM
Dang. Now you've got me jonesing for Paris again.
deja pseu at July 2, 2009 9:30 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/02/_lisa_schiffren.html#comment-1656792">comment from MarkDI'm with you, MarkD. Especially in Paris. Here's an inexpensive and fantastic restaurant in a rugby pub called L'Ami Jean (near the Eiffel Tower):
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2007/09/food_porn_1.html
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2009 9:32 AM
Hah. I love "technicolor yawn" Patrick! I can't wait to use it.
Also, I wanted to say that Amy is right about the carbs thing. I cut out carbs, and if you want to drop weight without trying, that's the way to do it. I stopped eating carby foods almost three weeks ago, and in the first week I didn't see much of a difference, but after week two I was down by five lbs. And last night (middle of week three) even though I was feeling slimmer, I was curious whether or not the lbs had actually stayed off, so I got on the scale and I was down another two lbs. So… down a total of seven lbs without any real effort.
Also, my portion sizes have shrunk naturally because I'm feeling fuller faster, and I find I can't even eat as much as I used to.
Angie at July 2, 2009 9:34 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/02/_lisa_schiffren.html#comment-1656797">comment from PatrickAnd the duck and potatoes plate looks wonderful. But so much. Looks like a lot of food.
It actually wasn't, but I don't typically finish my food in a restaurant. I almost never do, even in Paris. I typically tell the waiter to tell the chef it was wonderful, but I don't eat very much so they won't think I didn't like it. Of course, the tragedy in Paris is...no doggie bags!
In America, dinner at a restaurant sometimes lasts two more meals.
As for caring about which parts of the animal I'm eating, I really don't. In fact, I let M. order for me sometimes because he's a foodie. And in Italy, two friends and I went out and had cow tail, which they thought was hilarious (that I was eating it) and I thought was very tasty (Perilli, in Rome, in the meatpacking district, which is owned by the family of the girl I was with).
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2009 9:38 AM
Reminds me of a joke. It seems there was a married couple travelling to the United States from some impoverished Slavic nation. Since they were visiting for the first time, they were advised by their American friends what they should get to eat. They were assured that food was very convenient here, and they would encounter the ubiquitous hotdog cart on any street corner and that hotdogs were considered an American delicacy. So, they stopped at a cart and ordered two hotdogs, and got them wrapped in foil bags. The woman opens hers up and looks to her husband, saying in a concerned voice, "Guess which part of the dog I got."
Patrick at July 2, 2009 9:41 AM
"French children, on the other hand, get a choice at mealtimes, over plates of liver, brains, and other food that isn't exactly a hot dog on a Wonderbread bun: Eat or starve."
If I ever become a parent, I am going to follow this to the letter.
At a recent in-law wedding I attended in the Mid-West, I was apalled that my S-I-L made a sidetrip to McDonalds for her 9 year old daughter at 11 pm after a perfectly servicable (if boring) banquet meal had been served. "Sometimes kids don't want to eat adult food." Yeah, especially if you make concentrated sugar and salt available to them upon demand.
snakeman99 at July 2, 2009 10:41 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/02/_lisa_schiffren.html#comment-1656809">comment from snakeman99"Sometimes kids don't want to eat adult food."
Or go to school, or wear boots in four feet of snow. Who's in charge here? These parents aren't doing their kids any favors by letting them rule the roost.
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2009 12:08 PM
It makes sense to me, that your kids eat what you do, and that you start that when they're really little. My nieces and nephews are hot-dogs and mac-n-cheese types, but their parents are, too. (We all went on a beach trip together and all that the entire family wanted to eat was... PIZZA!) My assumption is that my kid won't insist on chicken nuggets and grilled cheese all the time, because 1) I won't let them, and 2)We don't keep that in the house. I hate McDonalds... except for those chicken biscuts they have for breakfast.
I do have to say that I probably wouldn't take my little kid(s) to a foreign country (other than maybe Cananda), anyway. Husband and I established long before we got pregant that "family trips" are not the same as "vacations."
Sanford needs to go hide in a cave for a while and stop making public statements. An affair, in many cases, can be worked through or forgiven or whatever. A public proclamation of love for another woman, though? What an asshole.
ahw at July 2, 2009 12:18 PM
LOL I was reading that post by Lisa Schiffren, and immediately thought "OMG, I wonder if Amy will see this!" I shoulda known. LOL.
Here's a guy who agrees with her:
http://themachoresponse.blogspot.com/2009/07/eating-in-france-dying-inside.html
Maggie45 at July 2, 2009 1:58 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/02/_lisa_schiffren.html#comment-1656822">comment from Maggie45The guy mentions his French ex-wife, which seems to be the underlying reason for the post. Look at my photos from our meal at L'Ami Jean. Not quite in keeping with sour man's appraisal. He should have married more carefully.
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2009 2:32 PM
I've been looking at your photos of French food for a couple of years now, and vowing to myself that I'm going to get over there one day before I die. I do hope that fellow gets over the resentment he is carrying for his former wife.
I also like Nina Camic's blog. Lots of posts and photos of food, in Europe and also here in the US. She's a professor at U of W with Althouse.
http://ninacamic.blogspot.com/
Maggie45 at July 2, 2009 3:13 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/02/_lisa_schiffren.html#comment-1656830">comment from Maggie45Do go!
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2009 3:33 PM
Just read her article. Was extremely puzzled by the phrase "Who wants really excellent food every day?" followed by extolling the virtues of the admittednly mediocre burger . . .
My mind is boggled. o.O
(Pass the duck with the fat-fried potatoes and haricorts vert si vous plais)
Elle at July 2, 2009 3:58 PM
"Sometimes kids don't want to eat adult food."
I was irritated by an example of this just last night! We at dinner at a small Greek restaurant--a hole-in-the-wall beloved by locals. I was amazed when I saw a mother come into the restaurant with a Happy Meal for her son (about four years old, I think) and proceeded to let him eat it at the restaurant table. How rude!
If my daughter doesn't want to eat what we have for dinner, huh, well, it's a long time until breakfast.
Eat, Drink, and Be Merrie at July 2, 2009 7:06 PM
ATE, not at...proofreading skills are rusty...
Eat, Drink, and Be Merrie at July 2, 2009 7:07 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/02/_lisa_schiffren.html#comment-1656852">comment from Eat, Drink, and Be MerrieIf my daughter doesn't want to eat what we have for dinner, huh, well, it's a long time until breakfast.
My kinda lady!
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2009 7:48 PM
Okay, so we have a blogger whining about another blogger whining about eating in France. I think I will blog about this.
I wonder how many generations we can go? Maybe then someone can blog about my blog.
As for France being socialist...well, they are nuking up, have six weeks off a year, good public schools, and living standards roughly the same as ours. And national health care. And better food. And, says Amy (who never raised kids) better behaved kids.
Socialism seems to be working, while the USA...well, we seem to be falling behind Europe and the Far East.
Not sure about socialism here, but there will be some delicious pleasure in this retort, when the rich complain about higher taxes that seem inevitable to finance our national health insurance: "Life is not fair. Who ever said life is fair?"
Jack McAdam "Big Road" of Los Angeles at July 2, 2009 8:40 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/02/_lisa_schiffren.html#comment-1656857">comment from Jack McAdam "Big Road" of Los AngelesWhining? Do point out where I "whine."
There's a difference -- I'm actually informed about France and French culture.
Also, what makes you think putting out a shot of sperm or a woman squeezing a child out her coochie qualifies one to be a parent?
I know quite a bit about parenting and what it takes to be a parent. Read my columns on parents, family, and how children need daddies.
Amy Alkon at July 2, 2009 9:42 PM
My mother always cooked fantastic food, in fact I rarely taste anything as good. But she had no patience for me not liking the food she cooked. And I was forced to eat it. Nowadays well let's just say whenever in a foreign country I am not a picky eater. And all the better for it. In fact all my foreign friends marvel that I actually eat and enjoy what's before me and dont whine about how good the food is back home (yuck! it's not).
Ppen at July 2, 2009 10:54 PM
I don't think it's right to force a kid to eat something. But this business of coddling the little snots with chicken fingers and french fries instead of teaching them to eat real food - that's ridiculous. A co-worker of mine said his sister stopped by McDonald's on the way to Thanksgiving freaking dinner, because her precious angels wouldn't eat turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.
This is great: "If my daughter doesn't want to eat what we have for dinner, huh, well, it's a long time until breakfast."
You don't have to cram her dinner down her throat, and you know, if she really hates it, she probably WILL wait until breakfast. On the other hand, that probably won't happen too often.
Pirate Jo at July 3, 2009 5:28 AM
If my kids tell me they're hungry but don't want what I've prepared, then they're not really hungry. They'll get hungry enough soon, and they inevitably realize that mommy doesn't put crap on the table.
However when their little friends come over.... grrrr.
Juliana at July 3, 2009 5:43 AM
"But who wants really excellent food every day?"
That quote really amazed me because I'd love to eat bad food everyday. That's the logic displayed there and the level of discourse.
As to "I'm actually informed about France and French culture." and calling L'Ami Jean a rugby resto, I'm afraid you're wrong. I should know, I turned you onto the place.
Don at July 4, 2009 10:32 AM
"But who wants really excellent food every day?"
That quote really amazed me because I'd love to eat bad food everyday. That's the logic displayed there and the level of discourse.
As to "I'm actually informed about France and French culture." and calling L'Ami Jean a rugby resto, I'm afraid you're wrong. I should know, I turned you onto the place.
Don at July 4, 2009 10:37 AM
Oh cmon, 6 year olds need liver and fois gras about as much as they need ipods and cell phones. What ever happened to letting kids be kids, including eating like kids? This dates back to Victorian times when children ate "nursery food" like toast, puddings, boiled eggs, etc.
And I'm not saying that parents should bend over to their child's every dietary preference, but it's important to recognize that kids eat differently than adults. They have less developed taste buds and smaller stomachs-meaning that little kids DO need to eat many times throughout the day, including inbetween meals.
I babysit for a lot of little kids, and most of them eat every 1-2 hours, but only about 100-200 calories at a time. I've noticed that almost all of them have very good internal sensors of when they're hungry or full, and have no problem leaving part of their meal on their plate when they're done. Too often adults are out of touch with these internal hunger cues, no doubt because they've been innundated with messages like "you better eat all your dinner or there will be no food until breakfast." A sure-fire strategy if your goal is to raise overweight kids with food issues.
Shannon at July 6, 2009 10:58 AM
Okay, this is a very boring, common sense, unprovactive comment, but...if your palate is not attuned to French food, you are probably not going to like it. When I first moved to France, I must have lost 20 lbs. I was living alone, preparing my own food and shopping at the little supermarkets here in Paris and found it all just disgusting. However, I quickly decided to confine myself to eating in restaurants for dinner (ethnic French hole-in-the-wall bistros for the most part), and after about 6 months, I was loving all sorts of 'weird' things, and best, learned to prepare French food by eating out. I now rarely eat in restaurants, but cannot recall a memorably bad meal in any of them, particularly because being a chef in even a simple brasserie is serious business.
Therefore, I think that it is pretty facile to trash another country's cuisine or when you haven't been acclimated to it. Okay, it is true that Americans will take to Italian food like fish to water, but French food, while not using many spices, often uses very strong flavors, which take some getting used to. They also use a lot of offal in their dishes, which can be excellent. My last restuarant meal had my partner eating cow stomach à la lyonnaise. Personally, I didn't realise that stomach was covered with cilia. It was a meal and a biology lesson at the same time!
The writer is correct however, in that, if you don't eat at mealtimes, you can get really horrible food (croque monsieur springs to mind...ugh, Amy!). That took some adjustment. Heck, I am still adjusting to the fact that the French do everything at the same time, whether it be vacationing in St. Malo, food shopping, or riding the métro. But, the French are fundamentally conservative people, and things are done how things "are done". And, no, to the people on the "macho response" site defending doner kabebs...gross. "Ethnic" food, be it Mexican, Thai, Chinese, or Italian, is simply better in the U.S. in general.
Of course, if I had the choice of where to eat in France, it would be my mother in law's. But, I understand we cannot be so lucky. :)
liz at July 6, 2009 11:13 AM
Actually, across the plaza from the Chartres Cathedral there are some EXCELLENT restaurants.
I do have to say that in the past 10 or 20 years, though, American restaurants have improved to the point where the mid-priced ones are often better than the ones in France or Switzerland. And cheaper. We have some great places.
NicoleK at July 7, 2009 4:18 AM
Nicole, yeah, there ARE some good restaurants in Chartres, for sure. Maybe we are thinking of the same place, where I can honestly say, I "inhaled" the food. Chartres is freaking cool in every way, period.
However, I spent a week in Switzerland last month and thought the food was pretty bogus and way overpriced. And that was French CH. I simply cannot get down with German food, mostly because of the salt and grease. Fat is cool, but grease pools on top of your dinner is not so great. I guess it helps fight the constipation I always get in northern European countries, so I shouldn't bitch. :) TMI, I know...
liz at July 7, 2009 1:03 PM
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