[Sca-cooks] OOP - Weird American food?

[Lilinah]

Gunthar wrote:
>I remember on "The Next Iron Chef" that one of
>the contestants made quite a stir by offering French
>diners a root beer float.

Adamantius wrote:
>There was an article in yesterday's New York Times food section on the
>gradual acceptance of the hamburger in Paris (although to a great
>extent these are more akin to the $50-and-up burgers you hear about in
>our own coastal cities). One thing the author discusses with one of
>the Parisian chefs interviewed is the confusion caused by the presence
>of milkshakes and malteds on menus: people order wine with their meal,
>and then have a shake for dessert ;-).

When i lived in France, granted, about 35 years ago, ice cream was 
sold in dedicated ice cream shops that were open only during the 
summer. The idea of consuming ice cream during the winter (or early 
spring or late fall) was considered pretty weird.

When the ice cream place finally opened, "Glacier Alaska" (that's 
Glah-see-ay)... well, it was pretty plush (there may have been more 
than one, but this, i was assured, was the best). Everything was made 
on site, everything was made with fresh real ingredients, and the 
cream was, mmm, sour.

When i first tasted it, i thought something was wrong. Knowing that i 
was in a different culture, i decided to play it cool. I asked for a 
taste of a friend's. My friend was happily eating his, and clearly it 
tasted the way it had the previous year. His tasted like mine - a 
different fruit flavor, yes, but the cream was sour. So i figured 
that was how it was supposed to be.

Many of the desserts were made in bombes - i'd only seen them on 
display when i was a kid - clearly they'd gone out of use in the US 
after WWII. So the bombe - a mold - would be lined with, oh, say, 
raspberry sherbet, then filled with, oh, say, strawberry ice cream 
(while they were still soft), then frozen. Served with chantilly 
(that's whipped cream) and a coulis of red fruit... This is an 
example - i do remember that at least one eaten by our crowd was very 
red fruity, but i really don't remember any of the others.

It was so elegant and Edwardian. The place probably ceased to exist 
decades ago.

But i'm not surprised that ice cream in a soda and pureed ice creams 
are not welcome with meals by the French.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

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