Food for thought

In light of Thanksgiving this week—largely a celebration of eating—I thought I'd dedicate a quick post to food. The boys stayed at school for lunch for the first time yesterday instead of coming home from noon to 1:30 (a huge, brave step forward for them!!) and I want to describe their experience given how different it was from school lunch in the US.

First, some background: There's a discernibly different attitude to food here in France. Food seems simultaneously less important and yet far more important than it is at home in the US. On the one hand, food doesn't accompany every activity here. There is zero expectation that a meeting, mid-morning get-together, or other engagement would involve someone bringing snacks. Eating between meals is uncommon, even a little frowned upon (except for a small mid-afternoon snack for children that universally appears to happen at 4 p.m., not a minute earlier). But the midday and evening meals themselves are tantamount to sacred; much of the country comes to a halt from noon to 2 p.m. and again after 7 p.m. because everyone is seated around a table, somewhere, enjoying a proper meal and the company of friends or family. I've had a few people mention that the French call hunger the best seasoning. We Americans probably could learn something from that...to appreciate good meals by not mindlessly grazing on bits and pieces through the day!

Some miscellaneous food observations:

• I've not yet encountered someone cramming food into his or her mouth while walking along the street or shopping or even driving. If you're eating, then you're sitting down and appreciating it. Even if you're on the road, you pull off somewhere (spots are plentiful) to eat. On that latter point, it seems to be de rigueur for many folks to keep a tiny folding table and chairs, or at least a picnic blanket and proper eating gear, in their car to set up for a meal on the side of the road when the need arises.
• At flea and antique markets, the stall owners set up personal little tables and chairs, bistro style, for their lunches at midday. And they're definitely not downing a quick PB&J with a Coke! A cloth is spread out, proper flatware and glasses and china plates are produced from the trunk of the car, and a full meal is laid out or procured or dropped off, often hot and utterly delicious looking.  :) 
• It's not an unfounded or romanticized notion that half the people you see walking down the street will have a baguette tucked under an arm or poking out of a bag. The one French establishment that never closes (not over meal times, not even on Sundays) is the corner boulangerie, which cranks out hot baguettes and other lovely items from early in the morning into the evening. One doesn't buy gobs of bread and stockpile, either. Baguettes come in various sizes, so you buy your loaf for the day and know you'll pick up a fresh one tomorrow. 

As of yesterday, I've concluded that school lunches here are a great reflection of this food culture. And although the lunchroom wouldn't typically seem like the place where important lessons are learned at school, I think the boys stand to gain quite a bit from the experience.

Here's the rundown of the comparisons as reported by the boys last evening, as Jesse and I eagerly grilled them:

• At home, school lunch is always a rushed affair. Last year, Josiah frequently would have food left over in his lunch bag (I typically packed his lunches), and he explained he wanted to eat it but ran out of time in the scant 15 minutes given. Here, they have in excess of an hour to linger over the meal. Lesson: Food is to be appreciated and savored.
• At home, the kids are herded through a lunch line and then jostle for seats in a noisy lunchroom. Here, everyone is assigned a seat at the table and is individually served by staff. Lesson: Decorum at meals is standard, and even little kids can be treated respectfully.
• At home, the students are constantly told to quiet down and just focus on eating as fast as they can in the allotted minutes. Here, Josiah and William said the children could talk all they wanted. With plenty of time to spare and a culture that embraces conversation around the table, chatting is permitted and practiced even among the littlest munchkins! Lesson: A meal is as much about your companions as the food itself.
• At home, the lunch gear in the cafeteria is almost all disposable. Here, both boys used real glasses and proper tableware, and reportedly all the children were skilled in cutting their own food, etc.. Apparently the French don't share the irrational American notion that children are destined to stab their neighbor with a knife or slice themselves on shards of broken drinking glasses. Lesson: Expect mature behavior at the table, you'll get mature behavior at the table.
• At home, the food consists primarily of pre-packaged, individually wrapped items, usually with questionable health value. (That's why I ordinarily packed Josiah's lunches.) Here the meals consist of "real" food and are cooked from scratch on premises. And get this: Every day, school lunch is a four course meal. The boys reported yesterday that they had a starter that consisted of lentils, corn, and something (they didn't know the name), followed by a main meal involving mushrooms, chicken, green beans, and gravy, followed by a cheese course with bread, and wrapped up with a little pot of yogurt or creme-type thing for dessert. Lesson: Children who live on a diet of mac 'n cheese, ketchup, and nuggets are SO missing out! You in fact can feed lentils, mushrooms, and distinctive cheeses to preschoolers and elementary kids.
• At home, children throw out whatever they don't want to eat. Josiah used to say that his friends would toss half their school lunches (not that I can blame them, I suppose, seeing that even my food-loving child described many of the options as nearly inedible on the occasional days I failed to pack a lunch). Here, everyone is expect to finish what he or she is given, for good or ill. Josiah had to gag down his yogurt/creme (whatever it was) since he's NOT a fan, but he managed it...because, well, he had to. I mean, he was still shuddering upon recounting the misery at dinnertime, but the kid was alive.  :)  For the record, William said he scraped every last drop of it; in contrast to his brother, he adores yogurts! Lesson: The best way to simultaneously ensure a diverse palate and reduce junk/snack consumption an hour or two later is to require that proper, varied meals are eaten...and eaten in full. 
• Note that dessert seems to have been an unsweetened yogurt-type thing. In monitoring the school menus, I've seen a sugary dessert listed at most once per week. Even then, it's perhaps a small chocolate pot de crème, never cookies or a cupcake. Lesson: Sugar does not have to mark the conclusion of every meal...and in fact kids fare a lot better in the afternoon when not crashing off an insulin spike!

There's in fact even more I could say on the topic of food, seeing as I spend half my life over here in the kitchen, but I'll wrap it up now. This post is a lot longer than I intended...and I'm getting hungry!  :)