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francofile chronicles

March, 26th 2001 "Let Them Eat Tofu"

by David Applefield

Good friends invited us over for dinner last weekend, and although we were happy to chow down avec des bons amis, the big question that struck us as we eyed the meaty pice de resistance on the finely-decked table was not "What are we having for dinner" but "what did our dinner have for dinner?" Admittedly, it´s getting tough these days filling your stomach while keeping your mind at peace, in a country where the act of eating ranks neck-n-neck with sex as the national past-time. Those awesome pictures of heaps of decaying animal carcasses waiting to be burned or buried in mass graves, are not only haunting in a European historical context, but do very little to stimulate the palate or reassure the health-conscious and the hungry.

"Les crudités" has re-gained its prestige as the entrée de choix in this country where cuisine assumes not only perverse importance and intense pleasure , but almost all significant conversations and strategic decisions take place at its tables. Contemporary dangers to the food chain, donc, carry with them particularly dramatic and disruptive consequences to social, commercial, and political life. Fortunately, most French people don´t care about dying as long as la bouffe is bonne.

After the Vache Folle (Kreutzfeld Jacob) disease which has removed most delicacy organs from the front lines of culinary experience and the OGM (genetically modified) grains and vegetables which pitted French growers and government against American imports -- and finally the horrendous trauma of hoof and mouth disease -- fivre aphteuse -- we find ourselves in France defining ourselves by our reaction to the imminent food scare. Do you or don´t you? People are dividing themselves over their decision to keep on chomping on the bone or veering into the less savory zones of organic consumption. The T-bone of course has retreated to the honored halls of the Musée d´Histoire Naturelle along with the Brontosaurus Rex, and the once coveted os È� moâ��lle, thought to be particularly healthy for its gelatinous white-cell protein, has fallen in stature shared by the stock of Yahoo! and Boo.com.

Mainstream supermarkets catering primarily to le grand public have smartly boned-up in a harried way at getting bio-positioned. The Monoprix led the way, but the others: Carrefour, Auchan, Champion, have followed. The Green Party did particularly well in the recent municipal elections as food, politics and pollution mix into one lumpy cake mix.

On a very personal level, I have my own barometers for measuring change in this society. For one, I´ve been keeping my own statistics on the sale of poulets fermiers versus poulets industriels at the local market, and can now attest that despite the 55 francs a bird price tag, the longer-to-live farm birds are getting plucked up by hungry clients at the rate of three to one. Public criteria for food has visibly changed.

So, what is for dinner? Well, if you opt for fish make sure it´s "sauvage" meaning that this particular salmon swam where it wanted and ate what was naturally tasty. If you opt for beef, make sure you ask to check the animal´s genealogical chart and carnet de santé. If you decide to stick to dairy products -- France´s cheeses are pretty damn good and relatively safe -- just trace that wedge of ripe Coulommiers back to the utter!