Vendredi alimentaire français

Vive la France!  More like, vive la French Food Friday!  (Note - the title is translated from Google Translator…so who knows if it’s right.)

People who know me may be under the impression that I’m not a big fan of France.  Probably because I’ve given them that impression.  Now, I don’t exactly dislike France…it’s just that when I think of all the places in the world that I want to visit, France doesn’t even make the cut.  For Christmas, I received a calendar (filler gift) of scenes of Paris - I regifted that thing faster than you can ask, “What are you doing for Bastille Day?”  In high school, I didn’t particularly like Les Misérables (the book) and I really couldn’t stand the girls who gushed about “Les Miz” (the musical).  I am definitely not a Francophile.  But when it came to Food Friday, I decided to go French. 

This was my first solo Food Friday and, truth be told, the title of this post almost became Five Guys Friday.  However, my conscious would not let me disappoint the masses, so I drove the extra few miles to le Madeleine’s.  On the drive there, I was dreaming of some lovely French duck and fancy French baguettes and I was half-worried that I wasn’t dressed fancily enough for this fine French eatery.  This was all before I found out that le Madeleine’s is basically a Frenchified Panera Bread!  At least Panera Bread's good!  Just goes to show, you should never judge a restaurant by its fancy lanterns and doors.

I stayed, only because it was snowing out and it was already past my hanger point (hunger + anger = hanger…for me, it usually occurs ‘round about noon time or any other time I haven’t eaten in a timely fashion.)  I perused the menu and decided on Quiche Lorraine.  I’ve never had quiche and I used to work with a really nice lady named Lorraine so it seemed like my best bet.  I also ordered an alpinette which is apparently French for “overpriced roll.”  I also ordered the potato soupe which was thin and tasteless despite the extra “e.”

Major disappointment - there’s egg in quiche!  I’m not a huge fan of eggs and I’m even less of a fan of eggs at lunch.  It was pretty horrible.  I only choked down about half of it before I gave up trying.  Thankfully, I had my overpriced roll and vowel heavy soupe to quell my hanger.  Now, 2010 Denise would’ve written off the whole quiche family on the basis of this one episode alone but I’m willing to admit that the quality of the food was a reflection of the restaurant.  So, let’s call this French Food Friday a practice run before Actual Good French Food Friday.

As a special bonus, there was a New Food Friday Night!  My neighbor/friend/colleague/snow shuttle operator Semper Fi called to invite me to go to the local chili place with his wife, Scrapper, and our mutual friend Lugnut.  Chili’s another one of those things I just cannot wrap my mind around.  I’ve had little bites of chili here and there and tonight I had a few more, including some on a chip that might've been a nacho.  While this doesn’t qualify as the successful completion of a meal, I’m open to ordering a chili dog the next time we go.

I guess since I’m open to the prospect of eating a chili dog, I’ll consider being more open to going to France too.  Who knows, maybe I’ll even eat a chili dog in France!