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French vote for Boeuf Bourguignon as country's 'national dish'

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French vote for Boeuf Bourguignon as country's 'national dish'
Photo Jun Seita/Flickr

The French have voted for the dish that best represents Gallic gastronomy and yes the winner involves meat and wine.

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The French public believe the classic dish Boeuf Bourguignon is the one that best represents Gallic cuisine.

The meat stew from the Burgundy region of central France, made with chunks of beef, mushrooms, carrots, lardons and shallots and Burgundy wine (depending on the recipe of course) normally served with potatoes is a pillar of French gastronomy that in 2010 was given heritage status by Unesco.

Boeuf Bourguignon regularly tops polls as the favourite dish of the French so it's perhaps no surprise it topped the survey by the Toluna Institute to find out the country's most repesentative dish.

In second place came blanquette de veau, which is sometimes referred to as in English simply as veal in a creme sauce. It has long been a favourite dish of the French people and apparently was a "a classic of bourgeois cooking". 

"The result is logical," Michelin star French chef Laurent Trochain told Le Parisien newspaper. "The traditional dishes echo our culinary heritage and at the same time have comforting values.

"They contain the simmering flavours from our childhood that we want to share with others around the world."

Unsurprisingly in third place was the simple steak frites or steak and chips, which may not be incredibly sophisticated but it is a classic Gallic dish, served up in most brasseries.

"This doesn't shock me," said Trochain. "Steak frites is a dish for friends that you can get in a brasserie at any time of the day. It can become gastronomic if you alter the cut of meat or vary the potatoes.

(Photo: David McSpadden)

In fourth place came Cassoulet, a classic slow-cooked casserole originating in the south west of France containing meat of all kinds and white beans.

Then came Magret de Canard, basically duck breast and poulet frites (chicken and chips).

Also in the top 10 were the classics snails and frogs legs, perhaps the two dishes that many foreigners associate with French cuisine even if they are not that widely eaten in most parts of the country.

(Photo: Valdiney Pimenta)

Rounding off the top 10 were côte de boeuf, essentially a steak and then Moules Frites - Mussels and chips, which is probably Belgium's national dish, but also incredibly popular in France, particularly in Normandy.

And where do the French like to eat all of these traditional dishes?

Well around the table of course, said an overwhelming 93 percent of respondents.

A fact that Pierre-Alexandre Teulié from France's Nestle Foundation, which commissioned the study found "reassuring".

"It shows that our citizens still have a strong attachment to a longstanding tradition," he said. 

"We are still one of the rare cultures to sit for a long time around the dinner table."

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