Brasseries in France.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

   

Brasserie Midi.

A brasserie is a brewery in French. Even 200 years ago the Alsace and the Lorraine in Northern France were known for their many small but good breweries that also served light meals. Today more that 50% of the beer brewed in France comes from large breweries in the Alsace and Lorraine.
   

The Alsace and the Lorraine.
Copyright Kids Brittanica.com

The history of Brasseries in France.
   
In 1870 Germany had mostly become a single German state and forced the Franco-Prussian War on France. This was the war that saw the exile of Napoleon III to England and the establishment of France’s Third Republic.  After Germany’s victory, it annexed most of the French regions of Alsace and the Lorraine. Following the annexation, there was a rush of emigrants from the Alsace in the North to Paris and the south.
  
  

  A sign in Brasserie Lipp in Paris today.
    
The first brasseries were in Paris.
        
Some of these Alsatian immigrants had worked in or owned brasseries in the Alsace brewing and selling beer.  In Paris, and in other cities, they opened restaurants whose first menus were typically Alsatian, and some did, in the beginning, brew their own beer. These brasseries began as open noisy restaurants and, apart from whatever else they offered, they included traditional Alsatian dishes such as  Choucroute, pickled cabbage; Timbales, pies; Foie Gras, fatted goose and duck liver;Baeckeoffe, a hearty stew, and of course beer.
   

Le Grand Café, bar-brasserie in the town of Moulins.
Its decoration has remained since 1899.
The style is a mixture of Art Nouveau and Art-Déco.
   
At the end of the World War I, the Alsace and the Lorraine returned to the rule of France.  Now came more Alsatian immigrants to follow on the success of those who came earlier. At the same time, by the 1920’s Art Deco had become popular and many Brasseries are still recognized by their unique Art Deco exteriors or interiors. Brasseries were well established and while they offered a full menu that included Alsatian specialties they still sold more beer than wine. 
   

 Brasserie
Photograph courtesy of Karol Franks

Brasseries menus today.

Today Brasserie menus may have less visible links to the Alsace, in some maybe just a quarter of the menu will offer Alsatian dishes and wines and they will be selling more wine than beer.Most Brasseries are open every day of the week serving the same menu all day.
  

Dinner in Brasserie Margaux


Connected Posts:
 
 



Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2016

    

Silure or Silure Glane - Catfish on French Menus. The Wels Catfish, the European Catfish.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

  
The Wels Catfish.
  
The Silure or Wels Catfish fish has white meat with a firm texture. It will be served as filets sautéed, grilled, baked or smoked and is often part of freshwater fish soups. Areas, where freshwater fishermen and women are at work like those who fish in the River Loire, will have plenty of wild catfish for the restaurant trade and these are the best.


Too big to eat; soon to be released.
   
The Wels Catfish on French Menus:

Darne de Silure Grillée au Beurre de Citron Verts -  A large cut of the Wels catfish grilled with a lime butter.
 
Ragoût Blanc de Silure - A stew made with Wels Catfish and prepared with a cream and wine sauce.

Silure Grillé Sauce au Vin Rouge et Échalotes- Grilled Wells Catfish served with a red wine sauce flavored with shallots.
   

Wels Catfish.
  
Silure Fumé Maison en Salade aux Lentilles Vertes du Berry, Parmesan et Tuile de Speck.-  Home smoked Wels Catfish served with a salad with the green lentils from Berry sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and thin slices of cured ham

Siilure Fumé de Loire aux Olives Noires, Smoked Wels Catfish from the River Loire, served with black olives.
 
Filet De Silure Sauté avec Sauce au Pinot Gris.- Lightly Fried Filet of Wels Catfish Prepared with a Pinot Gris Sauce,
   

Catfish with lemon and horseradish cream sauce.
  
Wels catfish caught in the wild can easily reach over 1 meter (3 ft) long, but the champions can be over 2 meters long and weigh over 65 kg. Nevertheless, the wild catfish sold to restaurants are rarely over ten kilos as the larger sizes are considered too fatty and the smaller fish are tastier.  
    

The Silure or Wels Catfish.
   
On most restaurant menus the Wels Catfish offered will be farmed fish; these catfish when farmed are going to be over one kilo.

The Silur or Wels Catfish in the languages of France’s neighbors:
 
(Catalan – silur), (Dutch -  meerval)(German- waller, welro, wils, wilss, wels), (Italy - siluro), (Spanish - siluro).

Connected posts:
 
  
   
   
  
  

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2016



Bistros - French Bistro Menus. The History of the French Bistro.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

    
Bistro on Rue Lepic, Montmartre, Paris.

www.flickr.com/photos/frankblacknoir/4579308613/
   
The History of Bistros
   
With the advent, of the French revolution in 1789 and the breakup of the large estates owned by aristocrats, the staff, including all the kitchen staff were out of work.  They went back to their homes in France’s villages, or they went to poorer parts of the cities and towns; this was a very hard time to find work.  Nevertheless, some of these graduates of aristocratic kitchens had learned a great deal and had saved a few Francs; they opened France’s first small bar/restaurants. (Brasseries have a different history and different menus).
  
 Parisian Bistro.
Photograph courtesy of Amy Glaze
www.flickr.com/photos/msglaze/2198386877/

The menus of the first bistros.
   
These first bar/restaurants would have a menu of maybe five to six dishes. Everything that was offered would be well prepared and inexpensive. Acceptable, low-priced, wines were offered, and they came from barrels, not bottles.  Most of these nameless bar/restaurants would later be called Bistros while a few would go on to be really excellent full-service restaurants.
   

Braised Short Ribs of Beef mashed potatoes, roasted beets.
Photograph courtesy of Larry Miller

In 1815 came the soldiers of the Royal Houses of Europe.
   
The soldiers came from Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Portugal and they defeated and exiled Napoleon I for the second time. However, this time the armies occupied France, mainly in the cities, and many NCOs and lower level officers were quartered in private homes.
  
NCOs and lower level officers do not have the time to sit down for a three, or a possibly four or five-hour meal like their commanders, and at that point, four hours was the norm for a full multi-course dinner at the few high-class restaurants that existed.  In all of Paris, in 1815, there were less than 50 full-service restaurants. Today, in Paris, there are over 20,000 full-service restaurants.


The meaning of the word. 
  
These soldiers demanded a whole, well-cooked, meal that could be served in less than an hour and a half at a price they could afford. The Russian soldiers were among those who shouted the loudest, and when they entered these small restaurants, they shouted, быстро “Bistro,” which means “quickly” in Russian.  Within a few weeks all the soldiers from the different armies had one word in common and on entering a restaurant they would call out Bistro and dinner would be cooked and served in less than an hour and a half.
     
Boudin noir et gambas grilles,
Black pudding sausage and large shrimps, bistro style.
www.flickr.com/photos/puce576/17184975237/

     
   Bistros were  France's first fast-food restaurants.  
  
With high quality and low prices, these new restaurants also drew in skilled workers from the area around about, those who could pay for an inexpensive lunch.  This took business away from the carts in the streets that sold stews; the first French fast food restaurants had arrived!  In a Bistro today expect dinner for four still to take about one and a half hours.

From then on, and for the next one hundred and fifty years Bistros were a uniquely French mixture of bar, cafe and restaurant with even the smallest village having one or more. Many are or were family-owned with Monsieur cooking while Madame runs the dining room and keeps an eye on the cash register. The reverse is also seen.

The words Bystro, Bistro and Bistrot first appeared in French dictionaries in 1884. That tells us that from the time that the foreign soldiers had left France in 1818 the Bistro had remained popular. Bystro, Bistro, and Bistrot had become part of the French language and are part of France’s culinary history.
   


www.flickr.com/photos/flem007_uk/3625173675/

Today's Bistros  today offer France's favorite comfort foods

Then came WWII and the economic turn down after the war; that and the move to the cities closed tens of thousands of small Bistros all over France. The Bistros that remain (not the contemporary bistro variety), still offer local comfort foods along with national bistro favorites such as Andouillettes and other sausages, snails, frog’s legs, roast chicken and steak frites. Organ meats (calf's liver, pig's feet, sweetbreads, etc.) are also essential to the bistro menu, as is such homey fare as pâtés and terrines and more. Apart from towns where tourists are valuable customers Bistros depend on their regular clientele, and these are locals who demand their timeless favorites served in pleasant and moderately comfortable, but not hi-tech surroundings. The traditional bistro is small, intimate and low-key.
    
Duck Leg Confit and Slow Cooked Duck Breast with Cabbage.

  
Some bistros have remained much as they were with plain tables and simple glasses and cutlery; others have linen tablecloths and serviettes. Neither format will tell you much about the food being served though you will notice a difference in the prices on the menu. Nevertheless, since the traditional Bistro has a limited and recurrent menu both will produce well-prepared food day after day.

Contemporary Bistros, Gastro Bistros and more.
   
Contemporary bistros are something else.  It seems to me that many excellent French chefs, after achieving success while working for a restaurateur in a Michelin guide restaurant with one or more stars will go back to their childhood dream and opens a bistro they own themselves.  However, these are chefs with lots of knowledge will be constrained by the traditional bistro’s menu; their Bistro will become a “contemporary bistro”. Alongside Contemporary Bistros are Gastro Bistros, Néo-Bistrots and other versions of Bistros with upgraded menus; some are now owned by celebrity chefs.  When you visit France first try the traditional Bistro first and only then branch out; in Contemporary Bistros expect unique dishes not usually seen. 

The Bouchons of Lyon

In addition to bistros, there are the Bouchons of Lyons. Bouchons were formerly coaching inns where passengers could eat and rest while the horses from their carriages were changed. When coaching inns were no longer required many became a unique Lyonnais restaurant that served local comforts foods. Unfortunately, few remain, there are maybe 20 Bouchons in all of Lyon.

 
  


Sweetbreads in French cuisine, Ris de Veau (d'Agneau) on French Menus. When sweetbreads are on the menu in France do not pass them by.
 
Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?


Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google. Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 400 articles that include over 3,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.fr
  

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2016, 2018
  

Responsive ad