Food taboos in France

During formal banquets, putting meal bags directly on the dinner plate, eating dishes that have been boned and shelled, and mixing famous wines with drinks in specially arranged wine tasting bureaus. Other so-called "taboos" are mostly misunderstandings by outsiders or personal habits of different circles, and have no binding force at all.

In 2019, I was an exchange student in Lyon. I stayed at the house of Mrs. Margaret, a retired local primary school teacher. When I had my first family dinner, I made the first mistake: I put the cut baguette pieces on the dinner plate. The old lady smiled and picked it out for me and put it on the tablecloth next to the dinner plate. She also joked, "Bread is not a side dish. Put it on the plate to block me from serving you red wine braised beef." Later I learned that this rule is essentially because French bread has its own "dish wiping tool" properties. To eat the leftover sauce from the main course, you have to tear the bread and dip it clean. It is easy to put the soup and water from other dishes on the dinner plate, which is inconvenient. Nowadays, many young people in Paris don't care about this. They just throw baguettes on the plate when friends are having dinner, and no one thinks it's wrong. Only when going to Michelin restaurants or business banquets, everyone will subconsciously follow it to avoid appearing ignorant of etiquette.

Later, we went to a winery in Burgundy. The owner of the winery treated us to the local red wine stewed chicken. I held a knife and fork and struggled with the chicken bones for a long time. The owner directly tore up a chicken leg and handed it over. He also handed me a hot wet towel and said, "Don't listen to the nonsense of those food bloggers. What's the point of eating stewed chicken without chewing the bones?" In fact, only dishes such as neatly cut filet mignon and foie gras require the use of knives and forks throughout, such as duck confit, roasted snails, and oysters in the shell. Even if you eat them in a three-star restaurant, you are allowed to grab them with your hands. Later, I actually saw an old lady at the next table in a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Paris nibbling on snails with her bare hands. The waiter even took the initiative to change her wet wipes three times. It was not as exaggerated as the "touching your hands is rude" rumored online.

The most controversial issue is definitely the question of "whether wine can be mixed with drinks." I have a strong say in this. When I was vacationing on the beach in Nice, I saw many local young people carrying one-liter bottles of ordinary table wine and pouring lemon soda into glasses. After asking, I found out that this is called "Panaché", which is the most popular way to drink in the south in the summer. There is no such thing as "it is rude to mix wine with drinks". The real minefield is when someone deliberately brings out famous wines that have been collected for decades, or a specially organized wine tasting bureau, and you just drink half a glass of Sprite, which is equivalent to directly saying that the other person's wine does not taste good, and that is really disrespectful. Old-school gourmets may argue with you on the spot, thinking that this is a waste of good things, but if you drink a bottle of table wine for two or three euros at home, no one will care about you, let alone mixing it with Sprite, or mixing it with Coke and milk tea.

There are also many "taboos" that are rumored to be magical, but they all essentially depend on the occasion. For example, many people say, "You should never ask for ketchup when eating in a French restaurant." When I was eating steak at a street restaurant in Lyon, I asked for ketchup from the boss. The boss happily brought me a jar of homemade ketchup and showed off to me that the ketchup he made was ten times more fragrant than the one sold in the supermarket. The only ones that would really mind are the star-rated restaurants that specialize in creative dishes. The chef spent hours preparing the black truffle sauce, and you ask for tomato sauce when it comes out. This is equivalent to denying the fruits of other people's labor, which makes no one happy. It has nothing to do with "taboos". Some people say that you can’t have leftovers when eating in France. My landlady especially likes it when I clean the plates, saying that this is the greatest affirmation of her cooking skills. However, my classmates in Paris said that it is polite to have leftovers in their family. Otherwise, the host will think you are not full and will keep adding more food to you. This is because every family has different habits and there is no unified standard at all.

In the past few years, I have traveled to many places in the north and south of France and eaten various meals from street crepes to three-star restaurants. The biggest feeling is that there is no need to memorize a bunch of so-called dietary taboos in advance. When you get to the dinner table, just watch what the people around you do and follow suit. If you're really unsure, just smile and ask. The French are actually very tolerant of foreigners. Even if you put the bread on the plate, if you explain to others "I don't understand the local customs", no one will take it seriously. After all, when it comes to eating, happiness is the most important thing. Why are there so many dead rules that must be followed?