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Food Thread: What A Croque!

One of my favorite casual meals is a "Croque Monsieur" with a basket of good French Fries. And one would think that it is an easy thing to find around my current digs! And you would be wrong! They're not bad, but they aren't great. And using the internet to find some schmuck's list of the greatest Croque Monsieurs in Paris is an exercise in futility. They let anybody post anything on the internet!

The Platonic Ideal, at least in my experience, was a hotel room service Croque that was spectacular. And paid for by expense account. But somebody should be able to duplicate that without much trouble, since it is a damned simple sandwich. Cheese, ham, Béchamel, good bread, and a ton of butter. And don't forget the fries! The frogs may have invented them (they didn't...it was probably the Belgians), but I'll take British chips over most of the fries in France.

Anyway, serendipity provided a solid entry into this competition, in the form of a café near some cooking supply stores I and friends visited last week. The Croque was a firm B+, and the fries were on the border of an A-.

All in all, a successful day!

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I am struggling through a book about the food of France, and that is not the normal course of events at Chez Dildo. Obviously I like the topic, but "A Bite-sized History of France: Gastronomic Tales of Revolution, War, and Enlightenment" is a painful slog through the fever dreams of its leftist author. About 90% of it is an amusing romp through the history of many of the famous foods of France, but this pompous progressive with delusions of intellectual grandeur seems to think that his sophomoric musings about the evils of the right and, even worse, the glory of Islam is worth the ink. But it isn't.

If you can get the book from your library, it may be worth a read, but I recommend that you simply skip over his political pontifications, otherwise you will be irritated, and I will not be responsible for that!

The sad thing is that food and cooking are an integral part of history, and this could have been a fun way to learn a bit about the history of France.

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Anyone ever have a true boilermaker? A shot of cheap rye whiskey dropped into a beer? Well, this isn't one, but it is the French equivalent.

It's called a "Picon," and it is made with the eponymous bitter liquor that is made from oranges. Sadly, they don't drop the shot glass into the beer, which I think is a marvelous idea. They just pour it into a blonde beer.

And it's not bad, though I wouldn't seek it out. But sitting with a friend at a café on a hot Paris afternoon, watching the world (and Parisian women) go by, made it taste quite delicious!

Luckily Picon is made with cinchona, so I also feel quite confident of my protection against Malaria!

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I recall having fried chicken that had been either brined with pickle juice or flavored with pickling spices. Both sound good, so I might give this one a try. Yes, it is a weird combination, but pickles go well with all sorts of stuff. Anyone ever have a Cubano (classic Cuban pressed sandwich)? That is a glorious thing, to be sought out whenever one is near Cubans (but not in Cuba!). And pickles are featured prominently!
Pickle-Brined Chicken
The use of chicken breasts is a bit odd, although they are pretty bland in comparison to thighs, so maybe the punch of the pickle brine jazzes them up! I won't bother, and just use thighs, which cook better and won't dry out.

[Hat Tip: Misanthropic Humanitarian]

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One of the things I enjoy when I travel to foreign countries is poking around supermarkets, looking at all of the weird stuff those damned foreigners eat. Sometimes I even buy some, for both amusement value (anyone need any Banana Ketchup from St. Lucia?), and because the weird stuff might just taste great.

I didn't buy those chips, but still, that is an odd flavor. Of course, roast chicken is a huge favorite in France, so it makes some sort of sense, even though it actually means "grilled chicken.". But cheeseburgers are popular in America, and we don't have cheeseburger-flavored potato chips (I hope)!

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From long-time commenter and food writer "Steven Price Blair" comes a celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the founding of our wonderful country!

A Vicennial Meal for the Sestercentennial

As we move toward America’s Sestercentennial next year—or Semiquincentennial, as it looks like it will officially be called—it’s time to go back to the beginning. In previous years I’ve covered cookbooks from 1976 celebrating the Bicentennnial, and cookbooks from 1876 celebrating the Centennial.

There were no cookbooks in year zero, 1776, celebrating the American Declaration of Independence, for two obvious reasons. The glib answer is that we were too busy fighting for that Independence to waste time writing a cookbook celebrating Independence.

The second reason is that, until we declared our independence we weren’t American. We were British, and our cookbooks were British. Our cookbooks remained British, with likely a smattering from France and Italy among those literate in those languages, even after the war.

As I pointed out above, the evolution of food and cooking is part of the history of every country, and this is a fun and informative glance into revolutionary America. And...his website is worth poking around!
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[Hat Tips: Misanthropic Humanitarian]

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I thought France would have good garlic, but the Frogs seem to have the same problem we have in the U.S. At least they don't import filthy garlic from China. Pork is great here, but no game, so send all of your extra antelope to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls We know who shakes their Manhattans! These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

$1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!