<p>We have a student staying with us for 3 weeks and am looking for advice on foods/culture. I took him to the grocery store today, hoping to get some clues on what he likes. Everything I held up was acknowledged with a “yes”. He has turned us down on some dairy products.</p>
<p>All of you were so helpful when I asked for tips with our Indonesian exchange student so I know some of you will have advice for me now. Thanks.</p>
<p>Make sure you take him out for some Mexican food. My D had a French grad student living with her for a summer and she ended up liking the Mexican food places we took her to and even learned how to make quesedillas herself while she was here. Anyway, she seemed to be open to eating most things but she was quite surprised at the large portions served in restaurants here. Really, it’s a good time for him to try some things he’s not used to. When it comes to eating different types of foods I’ve found most Europeans more adventurous than a lot of Americans and especially me. After all, the French are even willing to eat snails of all things (although not this French girl - haha).</p>
<p>Maybe see if he’ll be willing to pick out some things at the grocery himself.</p>
<p>Our French exchange student thought we had terrible food. Of course, he was from Provence and we were in New England in the middle of winter.</p>
<p>His favorites were pasta, Nutella, and really good bread and cheese. He also liked pizza. </p>
<p>My son is just back from his year abroad in Provence. He’s into many of the same foods as Jules … we are doing a lot of fresh veggies cooked into stews and casseroles. Fresh bread. Cheese and fruit. It’s much easier in the summer! That list of foods sounds cliched … but that’s really what my son enjoys from his experience. Also he’s got me making onion soup. Use the Joy of Cooking recipe!</p>
<p>My German friends thought that any time I cooked with garlic it was “hot” and too spicy. They weren’t too fond of Mexican food either. But aside from that they thought I was a great cook, and were always surprised that American didn’t subsist on hamburgers and fries. When I lived in France for a year, I looked on it as an opportunity to try new food. My family did ask me if there was anything I couldn’t bear to eat and I admitted I would prefer not to eat liver. (They ate it about once a month and they fried me an egg for dinner instead.) There were a few other things that I didn’t care for, but there was no need to let them know. I wouldn’t overthink it. Cook what you cook well.</p>
<p>By the way, I’m cooking snails on Sunday for a Bastille Day party.</p>
<p>Anybody who’s from Provence is bound to be spoiled as far as food goes.
My French nephew would have been happy eating McDonald’s every day (we would not have been!)
My nephew and nieces love maple syrup on waffles. Also Nutella. They all like pizzas.They’re not keen on spicy hot food, so we passed up Tex-Mex and Thai food. They loved corn on the cob and could have eaten some at every dinner (the McDs were for lunch). Also lobster. They liked Legal Seafoods clam chowder a lot.</p>
<p>When my S returned from his year in Provence he was accompanied by his French “sister”. It was summer and meals were pretty casual since no one felt like cooking much. I remember the girl saying “I am seeeck of sandwiches!” She occasionally made herself a snack, clafouti, of baked berries and custard. I sometimes served ratatouille and could make it into a full meal by putting mozzarella cheese on top and baking. Lots of good bread and Nutella worked, too. My feeling is when in Rome…</p>
<p>The first night I served tacos made with ground turkey. He only ate one. That’s when I knew I needed some advice. </p>
<p>So I guess my Kraft singles on his sandwich weren’t a big hit at lunch, either?!!</p>
<p>What part of France is he from?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I travel to Marseille on business occasionally, and Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants are all the rage there. My French hosts insisted on taking me for some. It was the second-lamest Mexican food I’ve ever tasted (the worst was in Indianapolis). The French enchiladas <em>looked</em> like enchiladas, but they tasted more like…well, French food.</p>
<p>Well, these (no longer) kids are Parisians. In Marseille, they’d be used to North African and Middle Eastern cuisine and would also be familiar with Spanish and Italian food. In Alsace, it’s saucisses et choucroute garnie (sausages and sauerkraut). in Lyon, there’s lots of meat pies. My nieces and nephew are very Americanized. I goggled when I saw them eating milk and cereals for breakfast. In my days, one just drank warm milk.</p>
<p>I agree with Marite … my son was living in the Vacluse region (Avignon and Orange) and the North African, Middle Eastern, Moroccan food is what’s he’s cooking for us now that he’s home. Along with pasta. Although he’s seems to have keyed in on the differences between Provencal pastas and Italian pastas – I don’t know the differences – and is rather distainful of the Italian versions!</p>
<p>This boy is from Paris (Le Blanc Mesnil). So there are different pastas,too? We’ll pick up some pasta, cheeses, breads, and fruits. He tried Reeses Peanut Butter Puffs for breakfast yesterday and loved them so I bought another box of them. He said they eat cereal in Paris, but none of the kinds we had in our cereal aisle. He mentioned pizza so I let him pick out one from the frozen food aisle, so we’ll see how that goes over. </p>
<p>When all 15 kids got off the bus, they were all wearing dark jeans and dark sweatshirts. It was 85 degrees here and we were all in our shorts. In our family, we even wear white shorts (horrors!). I had to suggest that he take of his sweatshirt. How could he stand it?!!</p>
<p>If he was wearing jeans and sweatshirts inside, then I would guess that he probably isn’t used to air conditioning. I’m currently in Germany, and the normal room temperature here in the high 70s, while it would be 70-72 in the US with a/c.</p>
<p>My son came home from France telling me all about these great cereals they have in France … Smacks, Pops, Golden Grahams. He thought they were exotic. I guess we just aren’t very exotic at our house – while I personally <em>love</em> the presweetened cereals, my H has a phobia about them, so my kids had never been exposed!</p>
<p>My D had two friends from her German high school here for 2 weeks in June. They were rather adventurous eaters - one more so than the other. I had the advantage that I knew what things would be familiar and what would be different - and I tried to offer them some of both.</p>
<p>They were used to eating cereal for breakfast, and liked to do that here, too. They loved Krispy Kreme donuts; were lukewarm about bagels. They liked our bacon, even though it is very different from German bacon. They enjoyed hamburgers on the grill (only American hamburgers they were familiar with had come from the golden arches.) Be aware that meats taste different here - animals are raised differently. So even if they like ham or beef or chicken back home, it may not taste quite right to them here. (Pork tastes the same.)</p>
<p>They both tried PB & J sandwiches, but only one liked it. I had an array of sandwich meats and cheeses; they both went for hard salami and provolone.</p>
<p>We had pizza, and they ate it just fine; it is rather different from German pizza, though (which is more like Italian).</p>
<p>Steak restaurants always go over big here, with both younger and older German guests. Texas Roadhouse is fun because of the line-dancing and atmosphere. </p>
<p>Corn used to be considered animal feed in Germany, and not everyone is fond of it. Our German teens were surprised that we buttered our corn on the cob - they are used to only salt. They don’t use butter on their bread, either. </p>
<p>Our young German friends love the Mexican restaurants here. I was surprised, because they aren’t usually big on heavy spices. I remembered, though, how much they liked my homemade nachos when we were in Germany, so I thought that might happen.</p>
<p>I didn’t cook a turkey this time - but that has always gone over big with all our international guests. Usually brings out the cameras. American watermelons are better than European ones, too.</p>
<p>My German friends always enjoyed it when I invited them for a Thanksgiving dinner. It was always a bit of a challenge to make. I had to go to a special store to get the turkey. There were no sweet potatoes - though I could get something similar from Brazil. Pumpkin and pecans are also not readily available. Something else you might make that doesn’t exist in Europe, but everyone likes, is brownies.</p>
<p>Biggest problem I had cooking a turkey in Germany was making sure I bought one small enough to fit in my oven! (I had friends on military bases who would get me an American turkey - but it had to be a small one.) When we first moved to Germany, I couldn’t find pecans anywhere, but later the grocer started carrying small cans of them. I could usually find good ones at Aldi. You’re right - pecan pies always went over big! (And I discovered that the strudel dough in the fridge section made a pretty good pie crust. Better than using the German flour.)</p>
<p>Nutello is big in Europe (created in Italy) - wherever we went, breakfast bars always included Nutella and fresh croissants. Oh my.</p>
<p>toledo, unless your student is a vegetarian, grilled meats should go over well: grilled steak, chicken, etc. Fresh salads, fruit. Have on hand european-style bread and some cheese for snacks. Good pizza & pastas will probably work too. Agree with binx about corn: it can be an oddity to many Europeans but sometimes it goes over very, very well. </p>
<p>Mexican food is a hit-or miss, many French people don’t really like it despite the apparent popularity of Tex-Mex in France (one French guy told me he goes to those restaurants for the fun/noisy ambiance mostly.) And I rarely met a European who liked American pies. The dough is too strange for them. However, chocolate chip cookies – in fact, traditional American cookies of any sort – are usually a big hit. Same with home-made ice cream sundaes.</p>
<p>
If you have never left the US you won’t realise it but basically American dairy products taste like plastic! They are hugely over processed. You really don’t know what real cheese and milk taste like. I think you will be hard pressed to find a non-American who can stomach them. So I suspect this is a losing battle.</p>
<p>Also peanut butter, and especially peanut butter and jelly, is a big no-no too (apart from Canadians). Most American food is far sweeter than the ame food would be in any other country, and this is the ultimate in too sweet.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about your exchange student not eating it all. American portions a HUGE compared to the entire rest of the world. He is probably just full.</p>
<p>In general though I think that this student is visiting to experience American life, so unless he has special dietry needs, just give him whatever you all eat. I don’t think you should run round trying to make things exactly like they are at home for him. Otherwise what was the point in his visit? Don’t beat yourself up about it.</p>
<p>I will have to ask my friends who have a regular teenage visitor from France every summer about her food preferences. She sometimes went along to our kids’ spots practices, and I used to treat my carpool to ice cream or smoothies, which she did like, as I recall. Once I had to stop by Costco on our way home, and when I came back out of the store, the kids were rolling in the parking lot laughing at their friend - she was SO amused by the sizes of packages and the fully loaded shopping carts coming out of Costco (24 rolls of toilet paper - oohhhh!). She wanted to go back with her camera and take pictures of the American way of shopping!</p>