Behind the French Menu

Sardines – Sardines. The Sardine in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

If you have not tasted freshly grilled sardines,

you have not really tasted sardines.

Photograph courtesy of Rouvrais/Prisma and Cuisine Actuelle, France.

Sardine, Sardine Commune, Sardine d'Europe

The names for the sardine in France.

Fresh sardines taste nothing like canned sardines, nothing at all, so begin your entry into the world of fresh sardines with a sardine entrée, the French first course. Order fresh grilled sardines, that's Sardines Fraîches Grillées, or marinated sardines, Sardines Fraiche Marinées. Afterward, you will be licking your lips every time you think about them.

A grapefruit, fennel, and sardine salad.

Photograph courtesy of Alpha

https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/

The fresh sardines served in France are quite a bit larger than those we see in a can. A portion for a French entrée, the starter, will be three or four fish. The fishermen and fisherwomen will sell small sardines, along with similar-looking small fish to the canning industry; if they are tiny, they may appear on the menu as a Friture de Poissons a tasty fish fry.

Where did the sardine get its name?

The name sardine relates historically to the pilchards, and similar small fish caught off the coast of the Italian island of Sardinia. These were the first fish to be preserved, in large quantities, by packing them in oil; hence from the Island of Sardinia came sardines. Around France’s freshwater lakes, small fresh lake-fish may also be on the

Your French menu may offer:

Filets de Sardines Fraîches Marinées au Citron Vert et Feuilles de Coriandre - Filets of fresh sardines marinated in lime and coriander leaves.

Marinated sardines

Photograph courtesy of Trip Advisor

Sardines Fraîches Grillées – Grilled fresh sardines.

Sardines Fumées - Smoked sardines; a unique treat.

Rillettes de Sardines Fraîches à la Ciboulette - Fresh sardines grilled, boned and then mashed and flavored with chives; they make a tasty spread on toast. Rillettes are more often on menus when made with goose, duck or pork, but definitely should not be ignored when made with fresh sardines.

A sardine fishing boat

Gulls and others have a free lunch

They catching any fish they can reach when the net is reeled in.

Photograph courtesy of Anita Gilmore.

www.flickr.com/photos/ag_gilmore/8169949194/

Une Fougasse de Sardines Fraiches, Huile d'Olive au Basilic et Vinaigrette de Tomate – A fougasse with fresh sardines, basil flavored olive oil and a tomato vinaigrette. The fougasse was originally a crusty Provencal bread. It is made of baguette dough brushed with olive oil and flavored with orange zest, and that is still the tradition. However, Fougasse bread has changed beyond recognition. Now Fougasse comes with a wide variety of shapes and flavorings or fillings. For more about the different types of French bread click here.

The canned sardine

Photograph courtesy of Alpha

www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/13884758569/

Visiting France’s fishing ports and their celebrations.

When traveling to France, there is more than just restaurants to dine in and chateaus and museums to visit. Call or mail the French Government Tourist office in your home country and ask for information on fetes in the area where you will be staying. There are fetes for breads, cheeses, fruits, beef, sausages, wines, fish and even sardines; that’s apart from fetes and festivals for music, art, and antiques, etc.

Spaghettis aux sardines, sauce tomate.

Spaghetti with sardines and a tomato sauce.

This spaghetti dish has a sauce made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and, of course, flavored just before serving with one of France’s AOP olive oils.

Photograph courtesy of Iana Peralta

www.flickr.com/photos/upto6only/5559941513/

If you have already arrived in France when you read this, walk into the local tourist information office. There are over 1,600 Tourist Information Offices scattered around France, and one will be near you with someone who speaks English. The adverts for these fetes are mostly in French, but there will invariably be music, attractions for the kids, and food and wines fetes that will be tastings and cooking instructions with more options than you can think of. Entrance is always free, and overseas visitors are always welcome.

Soupe des Sardines - Sardine soup.

Photograph courtesy of CuisineAZ

Fêtes de la Sardine de La Turballe

Consider, as an example, the Sardine Fete held in the beautiful small town, (pop 5,000) of La Turballe. La Turballe is in the department of the Loire-Atlantique, in the région of the Pays de la Loire. The Prefecture, the departmental capital of Loire-Atlantique, is the lovely city of Nantes, just 80 km (54 miles) away. They have two Fêtes de la Sardine, the first on the third Saturday in July and the second on the third Saturday in August. N.B. Always always check the dates of celebrations with the nearest Tourist Information Office or in the case of La Turballe on their English language website:

http://www.tourisme-laturballe.fr/?code_langue=EN

You may visit La Turballe’s fête from 11:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night. There you will be offered tastings of grilled sardines, sardine based fish soups, sardine tartare, and many other tempting dishes as well as other local products. The organizers claim that during fete a ton of sardines is consumed! All the sardines you can eat may be accompanied by the extensive choice of the wines of the Pay de la Loire.

The fishing port of La Turballe.

Photograph courtesy of the Mairie de La Turballe

At other times stop at La Turballe for lunch even when there are no sardines. All year round, there will be fresh sole, mackerel, skate, St Peter's fish, monkfish, and many other fish and seafood options in the local restaurants. Take time to visit the town's museum, La Maison de la Pêche, their fishing museum. The museum's website is in French, but using Google or Bing translate, you will be able to understand it very well:

http://musee-laturballe.fr/.

When you have eaten enough sardines or other fish for lunch, take a short drive, about 10 km (6 miles), to La Turballe's beaches. There you may rent an umbrella and a beach chair and relax and watch the world go by. If you are traveling in the area, note that Guérande, so famous for its Fleur de Sel, is only 7 km (4 miles) away.

Great Cliff Beach at La Turnballe.

Photograph courtesy of en.plages.tv.

There are food and wine festivals in nearly every French City town and village. Do not miss out on France's wine roads, cheese trails, and fetes for everything from sardines to figs.

Sardines in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan - sardina),(Dutch – pelser, sardien),(German – sardine, pilchard), (Italian - sardine, sarda, sardella, sardina comune), (Spanish - sardine commune), (sardina pilchardus).

--------------------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

--------------------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases

French menus?

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Ordering a Steak Rare, Medium-Rare, Medium or Well-Done in France.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

All the French you need to order a perfectly cooked steak.

Steak and French fries (chips).

Photograph courtesy of Ernesto Andrade

www.flickr.com/photos/dongkwan/2943140653/

The short version

for ordering a steak in France.

Very, very rare – Bleu

(Pronounced ble).

Rare - Saignant

(Pronounced say-nyon, do not pronounce the T).

Medium Rare with the accent on the rare - À Point

(Pronounced ah pwa).

À Point

Medium-rare.with the accent on the rare.

Photograph courtesy of snowpea&bokchoi

www.flickr.com/photos/bokchoi-snowpea/4454588117/

Medium rare, closer to medium - Entre à Point et Bien Cuit.

(Pronounced awntr a pwan ay bien kwee).

Medium to well done - Bien Cuit

(Pronounced bien kwee).

Well done - Très Bien Cuit

(Pronounced tray bien kwee).

N.B. An exceptionally well-done steak; however, “très bien cuit” is not in any French chef’s dictionary though it will be clearly understood. Be careful when ordering!, Do not order France's popular steak frites very well-done; you will be served cooked cardboard or leather, that is if the server agrees to take your order.

For an in-depth answer on ordering steak in France click on this post:

Ordering a Steak in France, Cooked the Way you Like it.

More detail in this post.

To begin with there is no direct translation

for medium or medium-rare.
Read on.

North American and UK steakhouse terms such as medium, medium-rare, or well-done do NOT translate, conceptually, into traditional restaurant French. Your English-French travel dictionary may offer the word Moyen as the translation of the word medium, and that is correct. Unfortunately, in French Moyen is not used as a cooking term.

Ordering a steak requires little French. It does not matter whether you order a steak in English, or in perfect or poorly accented French. Every French waiter understands an order for a steak. Problems only appear when the waiter asks: Quelle cuisson, votre steak? How would you like your steak cooked?

Check these pictures.

Photograph courtesy of the online magazine OhMyMag

A lexicon of French terms for ordering a steak or cuts of beef

Bleu – Bleu is also the French word for the color blue, and for a steak, it means very, very rare; leaking onto the plate when cut. When you feel the need for an almost raw steak, then a steak bleu will fill that need. A steak bleu indicates that the chef will have allowed the steak to take a quick peek at the grill or frying pan, in passing, on its way to your plate. A steak bleu is just sealed on the outside; when cut that steak will leak copiously onto your plate; it will have been cooked, maybe, for one to two minutes on each side. (Bleu is pronounced ble).

Saignant – French for a rare steak. The direct translation into English of the word saignant would be bloody, or bleeding; despite that, a steak saignant will have been cooked a little more than a steak bleu. A steak saignant will also leak, when you cut into it, though less copiously than a steak bleu. In North America and the UK, a steak saignant will still be considered a rare steak. (Pronounced say-nyon, do not pronounce the T).

Saignant

A rare steak.

Photograoh courtesy of Dan

www.flickr.com/photos/bhamsandwich/5520541126/

À point - Perfectly cooked, just ready or just right. À point is the term used, in France, for all perfectly cooked foods, and not for steaks alone. Unfortunately, many guidebooks give the term à point as the way to order a medium-rare steak. A perfectly cooked steak, for most French men and women, is NOT medium-rare; rather, it is a rare-to-medium-rare, a lot closer to rare than the US or UK medium. (Pronounced ah pwa).

À point

Medium-rare.with the accent on the rare.

Photograph courtesy of Chico Locker & Sausage Co

I prefer my steaks cooked à point, (medium-rare with the accent on the rare), but that is my choice. French servers with experience with English-speaking tourists will agree, generally with a smile, to take your à point steak back into the kitchen for a few more minutes on the grill, or the frying pan when à point is too rare for your tastes.

When English speaking diners, in France, wish to order their steaks medium-rare, I suggest they order steaks cooked entre à point et bien cuit. That translates as “between well cooked and à point” the result will be a US or UK medium-rare steak, closer to medium than rare. For a medium-rare steak just ask for your steak entre à point et bien cuit. See the following paragraph.

Entre à Point et Bien Cuit – In France, entre à point et bien cuit has worked well for me when ordering a steak cooked to medium for friends. All French servers will understand it. A French diner sitting near you, and observing you order a steak cooked entre à point et bien cuit may consider your steak as overcooked; however, you are paying the piper. (Pronounced awntr a pwan ay bien kwee).

Entre à Point et Bien Cuit - Medium

Photograph courtesy of sousvideguy

www.flickr.com/photos/140547216@N04/42441238032/

Moyen – Average or the middle. In the French kitchen, the word moyen has nothing to do with steaks. Look to the two previous paragraphs and the terms À point or Entre à Point et Bien Cuit to order a medium-rare or medium steak.

Bien Cuit – Bien cuit translates into English as well done; however, an order for a steak bien cuit, in France, generally produces a medium-to-well-done steak. A steak bien cuit will not run at all; however, its center will still be slightly rosé, pink. (Pronounced bien kwee).

Bien Cuit

Very slightly rose in the center.

Photograph courtesy of Terry Robinson

www.flickr.com/photos/suburbanadventure/6855666864/

Très Bien Cuit – Very well cooked; an extremely well-done steak. Unfortunately, très bien cuit is not used for steaks in French kitchens; I made it up. Despite that, all servers with some experience with overseas visitors will understand the request. For the French très bien cuit means a very overcooked steak, and the server may ask you to repeat that instruction. If you have ordered steak frites, an experienced server may advise you re-consider, or order something else. The cuts used for France’s relatively inexpensive steak frites are usually flank steaks or hanger steaks, and a well-done flank or hanger steak will be tough and tasteless, practically inedible. For an enjoyable meal with a well-done steak, I suggest that you look through the menu again. Consider ordering a more expensive entrecôte, or change your request for your steak très bien cuit to just bien cuit. (Pronounced tray bien kwee for very, very well-done).

The French view of a steak cooked très bien cuit, very well done.

Photograph courtesy of Michael Button

www.flickr.com/photos/michaeljohnbutton/14682422315/

------------------------------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

-----------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases

French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGO. Behind the French Menu’s links, include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.

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