My first delicious French experience of this tour occurs around 4:30 Sunday afternoon. I am coming off an overnight plane ride so I am not sure if I am hungry or tired but I decide that it is a good time to eat. It’s hard to tell here in Paris the proper time pour manger because, while everyone seems to be in cafes quite frequently, most people are drinking (usually beer of coffee).  At this moment, however, the majority of people sitting at this café are eating. And a majority of those eating are eating croque madame[s]. Perhaps you know what this is. Or perhaps you only know the more basic version: the croque monsieur. A croque monsieur is a hot ham cheese sandwich, sometimes served open-faced and sometimes as a sandwich. The sandwich version contains the ham in the middle, the Cheese on top, and a béchamel sauce is often placed under the cheese (over the bread). In my opinion, the open face is the most delicious way to eat this sandwich—just one nice piece of French peasant bread with ham and some emmental cheese melted to perfection on top.  As a custom, the first thing I usually do when I get to France is to sit in a café and say “Je voudrais un croque monsieur”. But this day it is slightly different. Today I simply say: “Un croque madame S’il vous plait” (I probably sound like an idiot, b/c the people next to me giggle). The Croque Madame is just like its male  counterpart except with a sunny side up fried egg on top. The whole thing is served with a standard French Salad which is quite delicious. I highly recommend this traditional French sandwich.  (Tommy, pictured below, did not get to experience the croque madame).

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 10:20 am and is filed under France. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.