Those French just throw our bullshit culture into sharp relief. I wish they'd given McDonalds the big Fuck You they deserve and denied them entry into that market. That goes for any other country with sane people.

Continuing my rant, I read that Coke has plans to expand throughout Africa. Insulin manufacturers must be drooling.

What is truly amazing to me is that the budget per student mentioned is about $2.50 per day, which is what the school lunch here in Idaho costs. Yesterday the lunch menu was macaroni and cheese with greenbeans. Monday is a pizza pocket with sun chips.

I loved the sight of them making all those individual ravioli!

Also, note the meal as more than a time to wolf down food.

The fried broccoli isn't that healthy, but the high school lunch looked pretty amazing.

The fried broccoli isn't that healthy

The thing is, if you mostly are eating healthy food, a little bribe-fried broccoli shouldn't be a big deal.

I eat very low carb, for example, with no flour or sugar or fruit. But, about once a week, I eat homemade gelato. One scoop. Dark chocolate! Or, if we're out at a really good restaurant, I'll have dessert (ideally, something without flour or a lot of flour).

Or, if we're out at a really good restaurant, I'll have dessert (ideally, something without flour or a lot of flour).

I'm not a sweets person, but I'll occasionally do desert when eating out. One of the signs of a great restaurant is how well they do creme brulée - in my opinion, the pinnacle of the desert experience, and flourless, too!

This is actually pretty cool. They don't each lunch, they dine. They don't have food, they have cuisine. Compare that to that rotten CHI-town school lunch scam where they force the kids to eat that yum yum enchilada they showed in that news story!

gah... eat lunch... the point about yanks eating food on the fly unfortunately is true. I especially liked the line where the chef in the school said just because they don't vote means you can't just throw crap at them.

How long do kids here get for lunch now? 30 minutes or so? And they're in the cafeteria line for 10 of that. So, while they ARE gobbling their "meat product" burgers and crinkle-cut fries, at least they don't have time to taste them.

One of the preschools we're considering for Baby A has real chef-prepared food. Not as elaborate as the French schools, but still a big selling point.

fantastic, the anglosphere is barbarian
in comparison, and really it's not that hard
to make a celery puree or serve a piece of
steamed or grilled fish. it's just a matter
of learning the recipe, after you do it 2
or 3 times it becomes a part of you.
i'm not Mexican but have learnt to make
a nice fresh pico de gallo (tomatoes,
onions, coriander, chile peppers chopped
up and mixed with a bit of lime juice)
and have it with corn chips several times
a week what could be healthier?

It is notable that the French seem to live much better than Americans. Six to eight weeks off a year is normal, as is pretty good national health insurance.

The numbers of French who come here and like our lifestyle is miniscule, while anybody visiting France comes back gushing about all they see and eat.

The food is better in Thailand too btw, but not the roads.

I understand even the roads are better now in France, as are their airports, their Internet connections, just about any aspect of public life, including schools.

We should re-examine our system and government. Devoting 10 percent of our GDP to a military, VA, foreign policy archipelago and accumulated debt may be too taxing on productive citizens. The military parasite is leeching us dry.

And when I was an employee, I sure could have used six weeks off a year. And good pastry.

BHOU, your lack of historical knowledge is astounding. But for the American military, there would BE no France.

> and have it with corn chips several times
> a week what could be healthier?

Having it with something low carb could be a lot healthier.

>> BHOU, your lack of historical knowledge is astounding. But for the American military, there would BE no France.

And to be fair, if not for France, there would be no America. It truly saddens me that those French who bravely fought the Nazis have been largely forgotten by us.

Actually, George Bush jr. said it himself: There is no French word for entrepreneur.

Yes, we did great in WWII--and then demobilized. As we should have.

And today? Staying 110 percent mobilized to fight a few morons armed with cell phones, homemade bombs and boxcutters. Time to demobilize and try to get our quality of life up to the level of France's. Personally, I would like nice parks, streetside cafes with food worth eating, excellent trains, clean and beautiful airports, good schools, etc etc etc. Face it, in many regards France is ahead of us--including Internet download speeds. We have better baseball teams.

Maybe taxes are too high in France--but their economy has actually performed well over the last 20 years, better than that of Japan's.

> their economy has actually performed well over
> the last 20 years, better than that of Japan's.

Pretty much every country in the Western world has had better economic growth than Japan over the last 20 years. That's a pretty low bar to beat.

I wish our students had a whole 20 minutes to eat lunch. Ours technically have 30 minutes, but all students must stay seated until a group of students is called away for lunch detention and wait again while another group is called away to do work that they did not complete in class.

Finally, students groups are called out a little at a time. Long lunch lines = fights, so most students must remain seated. The last students don't get to get in line until the final 10 minutes of lunch. We are training our kids to shove down food and to eat crap. Can you really enjoy good food in 5 minutes flat? Nope, you need calorie dense food to "get the job done."

My husband grew up in France and often says how much better the lunch hours were there - students ate restaurant-style (small tables of 4-6 kids, with food brought to them) and had plenty of time to eat. The short (25-min) lunch hours at our kids' school is one of his biggest complaints about schools in the US.

However that's counterbalanced by the fact that at his school kids had NO choice about what they ate - every Wednesday was cow brains day, like it or not. And even today in France kids with food allergies have a very tough battle with schools over being allowed to bring in food from home.

I've had some pretty crappy meals in French University cafeterias, though.

I'm guessing schools are more flexible these days, what with the Muslims and other immigrants having dietary restrictions

Reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago but still remember.

European Heaven:

The British are the police
The French are the cooks
The Italians are the lovers
The Swiss are the accountants
The Germans are the efficienct experts

European Hell:

The British are the cooks
The French are the accountants
The Italians are the efficiency experts
The Swiss are the lovers
The Germans are the police

Id have thought european hell would have had the gremans as lovers

"Actually, George Bush jr. said it himself: There is no French word for entrepreneur."
Eric, everyone knows that Jr. is a moron, so it should come as no surprise that Entrepreneur IS a french word!