I just took another look at this article we referenced a few weeks back. We are just back after 14 days in France, and after having read this article in the Seattle Times, I quizzed everyone I know about the supposed “decline” in French food. Everyone thought the idea was hogwash. All the Americans and all the French. We too found good and bad food. Certainly, Paris, like any large city, does not have a uniformly cheap and mind-blowing culinary experience on every street corner. In general, it’s expensive and in the restaurants right across from major monuments, expect to get fleeced with high prices and low quality. Elsewhere, it’s caveat emptor though the odds are still higher in Paris than in San Francisco for good that tastes like the primary ingredients, rather than slop reconstituted from a can off the Sysco Food Services truck.
I think some of this is chauvinism. It’s nice to kick the French off their high horse, and real data trends seem to indicate that the French are eating more fast food including McDonald’s. For some reason, everyone likes to christen London as the greatest food capitol. It does have it’s restaurant finds, though frequent visitors tend to go to the same ones over and over again. I’d take a French neighborhood brasserie though over a pub meal in a heartbeat though.
Controversy also sells papers!
