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Vive la France!

Unusually for me, I’ll still be in the UK for Bastille Day this year, unlike the past four years, and likely to be stuck in an anonymous meeting room most of the day. So my Gallic celebrations will probably be limited to a glass of wine on arriving home, possibly some cheese. Which is why I opted for a French lunch yesterday!

Of course, London has dozens, if not hundreds of French restaurants, and I guess you can experience the very best of French cooking, and the most wallet relieving moments around. Perfect for a special event, but just for an everyday lunch there are some great options around. If I’d had the time to head down Regent Street, I would definitely have opted for Aubaine. I had the best steak frites here that I’ve had this side of the Channel, and wonderful patisserie, not to mention charming service.

I’m not a big Cafe Rouge fan, but I was impressed with Côte in Soho yesterday, and they have a growing number of sites across the UK. I hope they keep up the quality of both food and service, as I had a very passable Steak Haché. And even a Parisian style tut when I ordered a second Kir Royale. Okay, it was instead of pudding, but what the heck?

If you’re doing it yourself, then you could just make it a cheese and wine party, possibly with some good bread. Pong have over a dozen options, or for an authentic, if not entirely gourmet, aperitif then try Apericubes, available here through FrenchClick. I’m going to look out for the Cocktail Bleu version next week, just for the heck of it. FrenchClick seems a reasonable resource for all sorts of French foodstuffs, both fresh and store cupboard type stuff.

So many choices, I think you could now do a supermarket sweep in most places and put together something interesting. But, as always, I would encourage you to seek out smaller stores, likely to be stocking more interesting stuff from smaller producers, and this applies to wine as much as food.  Try somewhere like Naked Wines, which is supporting independent winemakers, or Unwined, also looking at smaller producers.

Vive La France, Vive La Republique! And bring on the food! Fantastic shot of the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day by scorbette37 on Flickr.