I had a "Mayberry Moment" while on vacation this past week in California
that I just had to share. We were visiting my son who lives in San Diego and
one night he wanted to take us out to a really fancy French restaurant.
When we got the menus everything was in French and man were the prices high!
Considering I knew a little French from watching the Andy and Barney episode
where they had dinner in the fancy French restaurant in Raleigh I knew to
stay away from escargot (snails) and cerveaux de veau (brains) and sure
enough they were both on the menu so I avoided those! Story does not end
there. Being a bit like Andy I really just wanted a steak and baked potato,
but
also being a little like Barney, I did not want to have to ask the waiter
for help so I read over that menu really good and saw Steak Tartare with
fried potatoes. How could I go wrong with that, it was steak and potatoes! So
I ordered it and when my meal came out I just had to stare for a
minute....it looked like they took a can of Fancy Feast Cat Food, opened it up
and
dumped it out on my plate and it stayed in that same shape that it was in the
can! I hesitated and then decided to take a bite.....and it was ice cold,
and rather spicy smelling to me! I did not want to appear rude so I ate
that whole patty along with the fried potatoes, which looked something like
kettle chips. My son asked me how I liked it and I told him if was just fine!
After dinner was over I decided to figure out just what it was I ate. I
searched and found that Steak Tartare in a nice restaurant in France would be
chopped RAW HORSE MEAT with spices, but that in the US they normally used
RAW New York Strip Steak chopped finely since I guess good horse meat is
hard to find over here....and may be illegal too! The kettle chips it was
served with were suppose to be used to scoop it up and eat it with. So now I
know some more French and I hope my experience will help some of you know
what to avoid in Fancy French Restaurants and still be able to order by
yourself and impress the waiter!
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