To eat French food, you must first find out the name of the dish

Source: Global Times

[Global Times special correspondent in Belgium Niu Ruifei] When I first came to Belgium, for the author, going to the restaurant to eat is a big problem, the price is high, and the order gives me a headache. In China, the menu of the general restaurant has pictures of dishes, but in the French-speaking part of Brussels where I live, the menu in the French restaurant has only text, no photos, and names such as "Flying in the Wind" abound, making people confused and do not know what kind of food it is. Of course, in addition to imaginative dish names, there are also some french food names that have deep cultural connotations.

French food name "VOL AU VENT", directly translated into Chinese is "flying in the wind", the name is as romantic as the French personality, the dish on the menu is also painted next to the star, indicating that it is the restaurant's recommended dish, so I ordered "Fly in the Wind" and began to look forward to its appearance, the French menu, the main course, the dessert after eating a next program increased my curiosity about it, finally, after ordering half an hour, I met "VOL AU VENT", the reality of "flying in the wind" In fact, it is a cream sauce chicken breast mushroom with a puff pastry tart (pictured), and when eating, the cream chicken is placed in the middle of the puff pastry tart, which feels similar to a Portuguese egg tart, and the taste and texture are very good. When I finished paying the bill, I asked the waiter why this very ordinary dish has such a romantic name, and he said to me: "I don't know the origin of the name of this dish, when I was a child, I was full of curiosity about this dish, I felt that it carried the rich imagination of many Europeans when they were young, for example, when I was a child, I always believed that eating this dish could make me practice light skills and fly with the wind." ”

So, I began to study the origin of the name of this dish, and found that in addition to some dishes named after raw materials and methods, the confusing name of the dish "Flying in the Wind" is "full of flying", and restaurant owners are often embarrassed. Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century, a shining book in the French cuisine world, the Catalogue of Gastronomic Dishes, was born, which completely described the standard names of French dishes and the raw materials of these dishes and the basic cooking methods. Until now, this book is still a must-buy book for French restaurant owners, and many waiters in high-end French restaurants must read the contents before taking up their posts in order to introduce customers to the details of each dish.

Before the 16th century, the name of French cuisine was very simple, basically named after the main ingredients and cooking methods, such as carrot and potato stewed lamb. From the 16th century to the 19th century, French cuisine was popular in naming foods after aristocrats, such as the French dessert "Napoleon", whose original name was mille-feuille puff pastry. After the 19th century, the French aristocracy was overthrown, and the names of many well-known chefs and political and cultural celebrities were used as new names for dishes, such as Paillard de veau, a payard veal, in honor of the chef who invented this way of cooking, Payard, which is actually roasted veal with mushrooms. In the 21st century, some pioneering French restaurants have broken free from the shackles of traditional French cuisine naming, learned from modern art, and named their own dishes in a vacuum, more creative and more ignorant.

Some French dishes have names that have significant origin imprints, such as Brittany crepes, which originated in the Brittany region of France and are made from buckwheat pancakes with cheese, eggs and ham. Lorraine is a special French salty pie native to the Lorraine region, usually consisting of puff pastry and egg cheese, various vegetables, and meat fillings. Some dishes have conventional names, such as a dish called "hot pot" in French cuisine, which is actually potato and carrot goulash soup. Some French food names are humorous, such as "Mr. French Sandwich" and "French Sandwich Lady", "French Sandwich" is made of two slices of bread sandwiched between ham and sauce, and "French Sandwich Lady" is to add an omelette to the top of "French Sandwich".

Sauces are also a very important part of French cuisine, and at the cookbook counter in bookstores, thick books on how to prepare sauces are popular. In Belgium, even if you buy a food stall fries, you'll have to pay to choose one of the many sauces, and the names of the sauces are varied, including countless allusions.