Lunch and other food

At the office I ask what people typically do for lunch. Francois, who is like the CEO of the Lyon office, invites me to join him and Michael Kaplan from San Jose for lunch nearby. We jump in his car and he rips around the block to the far side of the office complex where we eat at a little industrial cafeteria. But, this is the French version of the industrial cafeteria. There is a wine dispenser and carafes. There are "petit pain" (little buns) which are traditional because in France every meal comes with bread. However, I notice nobody takes the bread here because they charge for it. Pocketbook trumps tradition. We're late and the chicken is gone so I take my second choice of the three entrees - the rabbit. Other signs we're in France are the little dishes of pate in the appetizer section as well as an abundance of desserts. They love dessert here.

As an aside on bread, it seems to follow completely different rules from all other food. Owen's theory of n+1 pieces of bread is definitely not true here, but then again the French have no qualms about reusing a bread basket and just adding more to fill it back up. They wouldn't do that with other food items would they?. Bread you take from the basket goes right on the table - no plate, no napkin - just directly on the table. While you use a fork and knife on salad and french fries, bread is ripped apart with bare hands and it's perfectly fine to soak up leftover sauce on your plate with a piece of bread. It's like culinary evolution has left bread behind here.

My coworkers wolf down their meals in nothing flat. What happened to the 2-hour French lunch break? Gone apparently in this part of Lyon. Finally, I notice people paying using tear-off coupons. What is this? It's the purest form of tax dodge I've seen in a long time is what it is. Employees buy the coupons at 50% of face value and the company pays the other half. 90% or more of restaurants honor them like cash. The ironic thing? There is a nice cafe right next to the office that doesn't take the coupons. That's why everyone drives around to the far side to eat.

Lyon is supposed to be the capital of French cuisine and also home to the world's most famous chef Paul Bocuse (google "most famous chef alive" if you leave off the alive he's listed after Julia Child), so we expected to get plenty of great food while we lived here. But you still have to be a bit wary - nothing is automatic, and chain restaurants are invading - McDonalds, Quick, and others we didn't know were chains. When we first visited France one of our memories was that the cheap table wine was as good as California wines. Definitely not the case now. We're not sure if CA wine has gotten better or low-end French wine has gotten worse. Definitely there is plenty of really cheap wine here - eating out with my coworkers at Croc-dile wine is dispensed freely at the same beverage buffet as water and Coke. My coworkers warn me about it - "be careful. This is suitable for flushing the toilet." - but they still fill a pitcher and drink a glass or two (although they might also order a bottled beer).

One of our favorite wines at home is Cote-du-Rhone and, wonder-of-wonders, we are in the Rhone-Alps region and one of the 2 default red wines is Cote-du-Rhone. Hurrah! We're overjoyed as we order a $2 bottle with our meals only to look at each other after tasting it... This isn't as good as we remembered it being. It's still a lot better than something like 2-buck chuck, but once we start to spend a little more we get something to close your eyes and smile over. Ah! Now THAT'S more like it.

Some other pleasant discoveries we've made here are the Lyonnais specialties. Each region of France has their specialties and sometimes you might not like your region's "thing." Our cheese here is St. Marcellin. You can get lots of other cheeses of course, but this is the local one and so we had to try it. It's delicious - a creamy white cheese that is a bit like brie, but slightly stronger tasting. I'm enjoying it plain (for dessert) or in sauces. The other weakness I have is the chevre salad - warm goat cheese on little toasts in the salad. You just can't go wrong with warm goat cheese in my book. I'm like Jason and bacon that way.