19 December 2012

2012 French food poll

Here's the list of dishes that the 2012 poll asked French respondents to choose from as their favorites, and their rank. Each person polled could choose as many as five dishes. Which ones would you choose? Do you know them all? I think this is an interesting snapshot of French cuisine today.


Here's the list in English:

  1. Grilled or pan-roasted duck breast filets
  2. Mussels cooked in while wine served with French fried potatoes
  3. Couscous (North African meat & vegetable stew)
  4. White veal stew with onions and mushrooms
  5. Prime rib
  6. Roast leg of lamb
  7. Steak and French fries
  8. Beef Burgundy
  9. Raclette (melted cheese with cold cuts and potatoes)
  10. Stuffed tomatoes
  11. Grilled salmon steak
  12. Boiled beef dinner with vegetables
  13. Belgian endives with ham in cheese sauce
  14. Scalloped potatoes in cream sauce
  15. Chicken and French fries
  16. Scalloped potatoes with bacon and cheese
  17. Lasagne
  18. Pizza
  19. Spaghetti with meat sauce
  20. Rabbit in mustard sauce
  21. Ratatouille (stewed summer vegetables)
  22. Confit (slow-cooked duck leg/thigh pieces)
  23. Paëlla (Spanish-style rice with seafood)
  24. Sauerkraut with sausages, cured meats, potatoes
  25. Buckwheat crepes filled with cheese, ham, etc.
  26. Pork tenderloin with mustard sauce
  27. Cheese fondue
  28. Shepherd's pie
  29. Pasta carbonara (cheese & bacon sauce)
  30. Cassoulet (white beans with pork, duck, lamb, etc.)
  31. Chicken curry
  32. Sushi
  33. Moroccan-style lamb stew
  34. Salt cod with mashed potatoes
  35. Omelet
  36. Steak tartare (raw ground beef with condiments)
  37. Chitterling sausages
  38. Mediterranean fish soup
  39. Hamburger
  40. Chili con carne
  41. Elbow macaroni with ham

20 comments:


  1. Interesting, not very surprising ranking.

    I think Sushi might make a move up the list in years to come. So much fish, so little raw.

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  2. Great choices in that list. Peter is right, sushi might move up but others will too. Do they have a list for favorite desserts too?

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  3. And hardly a one that we haven't eaten in the last year or so. Fascinatingly traditional, with just a few outsiders that have really won people over, like couscous. The biggest surprise is the presence of curried chicken on the list. I'm surprised the Italian dishes aren't higher too, and that there isn't more fish/seafood.

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  4. Such a small percentage to have no opinion! Would that happen in many other countries I could think of? Pauline

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  5. The list is quire reasonable for an Australian. But generally, people of may age don't eat sushi.

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  6. And we've seen probably every one of them on your blog, don't you think? Is there one on there that we haven't?

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  7. Next time I come to France, I'm going to try the couscous. I think I've had most of the other dishes- even Andouillette which was not bad;-) Mind you, I loved haggis with drambuie sauce in Scotland.

    Ratatouille would be near the top of my list since it is a food memory when I was fifteen and my first taste of both garlic and eggplant.

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  8. I like it all it all but for me - #1 confit du canard, #2 steak-frites, #3 raclette.

    Happy holidays!

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  9. I'm surprise to see that the Quiche Lorraine is nolonger mentioned. Some ten years ago it used the the French's favourite food. It is still one of my favourites too! I don't like the current number 1, magret de canard, though. Martine

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  10. Hi Martine, also no poule au pot that I can see, and no soupe de poissons. What about lapin en gibelotte? Or potée, or garbure? Lapin aux pruneaux? Canard aux navets or aux olives? Now I'm really getting hungry.

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  11. #2 Gigot d'agneau and #3 Moules-frites. #1 is pork and collards, as served chez Ken and Walt.

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  12. LOL and thanks for the memory, Chrissou_P.

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  13. Magret de Canard, Couscous, Spaghetti à la Bolognaise, Hachis Parmentier and Curry de Poulet!

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  14. I'd look for the hamburger to steadily climb up the ranks over the next few years. The French have made France the chain's second biggest market in sales in the world after the U.S (1200+ very active McDo's in "le pays de la gastronomie").
    Last time I was in the McDonald's a couple miles from you in Noyers-sur-Cher, I saw a moustached guy eating a Royal Deluxe I would have sworn was José Bové.

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  15. wow i think i have an idea of what the american list would be - very different for sure. i was surprised about couscous. here, as you know, that usually just refers to the rice (or is it a pasta?) not a stew. but i'd love to learn more about that.
    :-D

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  16. Hi Ohio, I too was wondering what the U.S. list of foods would be. Maybe it's on the net somewhere.

    Dean, I haven't had a chance (!) yet to check out the local McDo. I never see many cars there when I go past it on my way to Intermarché.

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  17. I think that the last paragraph on the Sofrès poll is quite interesting :

    « Nous n’avons pas les mêmes valeurs… »

    Les plats préférés diffèrent également selon la catégorie socio-professionnelle et l’âge. Alors que les cadres et professions intellectuelles ont pour préférence les très diététiques pavé de saumon grillé et sushi (24% et 21%), les ouvriers leur préfèrent la raclette et le traditionnel steak-frites (25% chacun).

    Autre clivage notable, l’âge :
    alors que les 4 plats préférés des moins de 35 ans sont dans l’ordre raclette (31%), pizza (26%), tartiflette (24%) et steack-frites (23%), les plus âgés sont davantage tournés vers des plats du terroir avec des 50-64 ans amateurs de pot-au-feu (25%) et des 65 ans et plus qui préfèrent le gigot d’agneau (31%) et la blanquette de veau (30%)."

    Thus, intellectuals and well-off people (among whom, Parisian people...) tend to prefer dietetic dishes : "pavé de saumon" and "sushi" whereas "les ouvriers"/workers tend to prefer "la raclette" and "steak-frites"...

    And age is another criteria...

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  18. I've found this interactive map which shows favourite food in several different countries, but France is not included, so, thanks a lot, Ken, for publishing this interesting study :-)

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/interactive/2011/jun/16/world-favourite-foods-map-interactive

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  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  20. This really is a great list of popular french food.

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