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Aug. 13th, 2016 10:53 amRe: my previous post, the lovely ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
drazzi, replied with this query: "Would "With French Cheese" make it any better?". I thought about it long and hard, and the thing is, this is a complicated matter which deserves its own post. So here it is. :D
First of all, I don't think you should ask this question to any Frenchman, because it's a little like poking the French psyche in the eye with a stick. It could picture it going down like this: "What do you mean by French cheese? Is there another type of cheese that matters in the grand scheme of cheeses? If it is a French dish, then yes, it DESERVES no less than French cheese, thank you very much, but if it's not supposed to have ANY cheese in it, then even French cheese won't help! Also, you are a heathen to dare suggest that France may not have the monopoly on all the good cheese. WE MAKE THE CHEESE! ALL THE CHEESE!" (We don't, but my father-in-law, for instance, while ready to admit that cheese is occasionally produced elsewhere in the world, as in the Netherlands or Quebec, will never concede that cheese produced outside of France might have any sort of gastronomic value, unless it's Quebec cheese, in which case it's merely trying to taste French.)
On the other hand, however, my compatriots are always up for a culinary challenge. I can totally picture my purist French friend (who is also a fantastic cook) exclaiming, "Making it with cheese is cheating! It's way too easy!" Because yes, of course my potatoes au gratin and my quiche are tastier with cheese... but I am taking the easy way out and I know it. The French have a solid tradition of trying to bend the rules of expensive-tasting yumminess, see. One of the unspoken sides of French traditional cooking is the art of combining inexpensive ingredients into something that tastes like it was made in the King's kitchen in Versailles. Because it is easy to make superb food with great ingredients, but it's harder to transform potatoes, cream and a little garlic into a feast fit for the Gods of French Cuisine (they're pretty picky Gods).
But then of course, my purist friend would taste my quiche anyways. And I can precisely picture her expression, her eyes slightly glazing over, and her dreamy voice as she would slowly admit "this may not be a quiche Lorraine but it's really good. Really interesting, dammit. I wonder...."
And then, about two weeks later, she would invite me to try out her own variations of quiche with cheese - with blue cheese, with three different cheeses, with St-Nectaire, with Comté, with Munster cheese at different stages of ripeness - and we would discuss their merits and have a grand time (with lots of cheese). She would say something alone the lines of "those are lovely, just don't call them quiche Lorraine". And then we'd try to come up with new names for them. And towards the end of the day, I would realize that I have been hopelessly, completely out-cheesed.
And I would not mind. One. Bit. :D
drazzi, replied with this query: "Would "With French Cheese" make it any better?". I thought about it long and hard, and the thing is, this is a complicated matter which deserves its own post. So here it is. :D First of all, I don't think you should ask this question to any Frenchman, because it's a little like poking the French psyche in the eye with a stick. It could picture it going down like this: "What do you mean by French cheese? Is there another type of cheese that matters in the grand scheme of cheeses? If it is a French dish, then yes, it DESERVES no less than French cheese, thank you very much, but if it's not supposed to have ANY cheese in it, then even French cheese won't help! Also, you are a heathen to dare suggest that France may not have the monopoly on all the good cheese. WE MAKE THE CHEESE! ALL THE CHEESE!" (We don't, but my father-in-law, for instance, while ready to admit that cheese is occasionally produced elsewhere in the world, as in the Netherlands or Quebec, will never concede that cheese produced outside of France might have any sort of gastronomic value, unless it's Quebec cheese, in which case it's merely trying to taste French.)
On the other hand, however, my compatriots are always up for a culinary challenge. I can totally picture my purist French friend (who is also a fantastic cook) exclaiming, "Making it with cheese is cheating! It's way too easy!" Because yes, of course my potatoes au gratin and my quiche are tastier with cheese... but I am taking the easy way out and I know it. The French have a solid tradition of trying to bend the rules of expensive-tasting yumminess, see. One of the unspoken sides of French traditional cooking is the art of combining inexpensive ingredients into something that tastes like it was made in the King's kitchen in Versailles. Because it is easy to make superb food with great ingredients, but it's harder to transform potatoes, cream and a little garlic into a feast fit for the Gods of French Cuisine (they're pretty picky Gods).
But then of course, my purist friend would taste my quiche anyways. And I can precisely picture her expression, her eyes slightly glazing over, and her dreamy voice as she would slowly admit "this may not be a quiche Lorraine but it's really good. Really interesting, dammit. I wonder...."
And then, about two weeks later, she would invite me to try out her own variations of quiche with cheese - with blue cheese, with three different cheeses, with St-Nectaire, with Comté, with Munster cheese at different stages of ripeness - and we would discuss their merits and have a grand time (with lots of cheese). She would say something alone the lines of "those are lovely, just don't call them quiche Lorraine". And then we'd try to come up with new names for them. And towards the end of the day, I would realize that I have been hopelessly, completely out-cheesed.
And I would not mind. One. Bit. :D
