France, it goes without saying, is known for its food. French cuisine holds a certain cachet that few other cuisines have had bestowed upon them.
So as a New Zealander living in France, how could I possibly compare French and New Zealand food?
I must admit, it’s not easy.
After all, New Zealand isn’t known for its cuisine. If you were to ask a New Zealander what New Zealand cuisine is, you’d get puzzled looks. As mainstream New Zealand takes after British cuisine, which itself doesn’t have a stellar reputation, there isn’t a collection of recipes that we could hold up as being prototypical examples of New Zealand food. Sure, we’ve got fish and chips, Marmite, bacon and eggs, and so on; but none of them are unique to New Zealand, and they’re not dishes that you’d consume on a daily basis.
So how could you possibly compare our short history of food with a cuisine as famous as France’s?
Bread
Well, I’d happily concede that when it comes to something like bread, France wins by a country mile. I’m no expert, but I do believe that France probably has the highest standard for bread in the world. There’s simply a strong culture based around buying fresh bread almost every day. I live within close proximity to about three or four bakeries, which I’d say is pretty typical in the Paris region.
By contrast, New Zealand has more of what could be called a “sliced bread” culture. It’s pretty typical for people to grab a loaf in a plastic bag at a supermarket and go through it over the course of a few days. While such a way of eating is seen as disgusting by French people, it’s not entirely justified. Good quality sliced bread can be delicious, if you’re willing to pay for it. But when you’re paying that much, you could easily get three or four fresh baguettes.
The Philosophy of Eating
So I suppose you could say that when it comes to the simple things, France wins hands down.
As an employee in France, I actually get a 200€ allowance from my company once a month to spend on lunch. Under French law, workplaces are required to provide canteens to employees – and if they don’t have canteens, they must subsidize their lunches. Why? Simply because the French government wants every employee to eat well.
Of course, that’s not to say that the New Zealand government doesn’t want people to eat well. It’s just that in New Zealand, governments wouldn’t create laws requiring an employee’s income be spent in such a way. As New Zealand is economically more of a laissez-faire country, people wouldn’t want some of their paychecks being fenced-off just for lunch. Most people would rather pocket the extra money and spend it however they saw fit. So the fact that France requires employees to reserve 200€ a month on lunch money is just a quirk of French culture.
Not that I’m complaining, of course. When you feel like you’re getting a free lunch (and of course, you aren’t, because it does ultimately come out of your paycheck), you’re more likely to spend your dough on nicer lunches and not just grab a quick sandwich.
What’s wrong with a quick sandwich, you might ask? Nothing, of course. And it’s not as if it’s unheard for French workers to grab a quick bite at lunch – especially if they’re “sous l’eau” or drowning in work, so to speak. But there does appear to be a strong belief in French culture that lunch is sacred, and that a one-hour lunch break is non-negotiable. While some countries may take multiple breaks during the day, French people tend to work pretty hard right up until lunch, and then take an hour out of work to just eat and talk about food.
I know, I know: this all sounds terribly stereotypical. But in this case, I feel like this stereotype is mostly valid based on all the lunches I’ve had. Besides, it’s not the worst stereotype to be known for.
Multicultural Food
While reading all this, you might believe that I simply believe in the inherent superiority of French food. But actually, I don’t think it’s better.
While I do think that French people “do” lunch better than New Zealanders, mainly because they take their time to eat and don’t just rush things, I think there’s one area where New Zealand blows France out of the water, and that is the sheer diversity of cuisines on offer. As one of the most diverse cities in the world, Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, pretty much has cuisines from any country you could think of. And the general standard of the food will be high.
Compare this to, say, Paris, and we’re looking at two different worlds. While living in Paris, I can’t help but feel that a lot of Asian food just isn’t the same. While I realize that tastes are subjective, in my experience, the Chinese, Japanese and Korean food you find in Paris tends to be very expensive, bland, and lacking in character. (Having been to China, Japan and South Korea, I feel I can safely make this statement.) It’s as if all the flavor was removed so as not to offend local tastes – but in doing so, they neutered the best parts of the cuisines. And while I’d happily eat it, I can’t help but think that 17€ for lackluster sushi is a pretty bad deal.
On the other hand, Vietnamese food seems pretty good, if a little limited. But given France’s colonial history with Vietnam, one could probably expect Vietnamese food to have a longer footprint in France.
Of course, I’m no expert, but I do believe that for some reason, English-speaking countries do multi-cultural cuisine better than anywhere else in the world. I suppose this is partly due to the history of immigration. But even then, it’s not as if Paris doesn’t also have a long history of immigration.
So my theory is that French food dominates society to such a strong extent that most people don’t really have a desire to eat other cuisines. Sure, there are lots of Italian restaurants, and the general standard of Italian food is higher in France than in New Zealand. But when it comes to non-European food, I think that New Zealand simply has much more enticing food options. And it’s much more normal in the culture to just go out and try a different kind of cuisine, whereas doing so in France might still seem quite novel.
Conclusion
So where does this leave me? No idea. I genuinely love the food in Paris but sometimes I do wish there were more high quality non-European options. Of course, it’s difficult to speak about such things with French people because they tend to be pretty proud of their food – and rightly so. But beyond sushi, Lebanese wraps and burgers, there’s plenty of good non-European food out there that a lot of French people just don’t know anything about. However, as it’s so hard to talk about and feel like I’d be understood, I tend to keep my mouth shut.
That is, until lunch time arrives.
