Food & Drink
French Food
la cuisine française - French food
La cuisine française is world-renowned and taken very seriously!
Here are a few examples of food that you might come across:
un croissant - a pastry
This is a buttery, flaky pastry in the shape of a crescent.
une crêpe - a pancake
une baguette - a long stick of bread
DID YOU KNOW... whilst the length of a baguette is not fixed, there is a strict recipe that must be followed to make a genuine baguette.
une brioche - a buttery bread
Brioche is more like a cake than bread thanks to the high amount of butter and eggs in it.
In the French Revolution, when Marie Antoinette said 'Let them eat cake!' she is supposed to have actually said 'Let them eat brioche!'
des châtaignes - sweet chestnuts
These are particularly typical in the Ardèche, Tar and Lyon regions.
une salade niçoise - a mixed salad with tuna
This is a speciality of the Côte d'Azur, and is named after Nice. It's made of lots of vegetables topped with tuna and anchovies.
des moules-frites - mussels and chips
This is a popular dish in Normandy and Brittany in France but is a speciality of Belgium, another country in which French is spoken.
un croque-monsieur - a toasted sandwich, or toastie
No-one knows why it's called this although croquer means 'to crunch'. A croque-monsieur is made with ham and cheese, while a croque-madame has a fried egg on the top of it!
un diabolo menthe - mint cordial with lemonade
A firm favourite with kids as it is bright green!
des escargots - snails
The snails are cooked and usually served with lots of butter and garlic on a special plate and eaten with special tongs to pull the snails out of the shells. Miam? or berk? Try them and see!
