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One of the
differences between French and American dining is that the green salad
is normally served after the meal, either with cheese or on its own. I
remember Romain being very surprised when I told him that Americans
usually ate cheese before a meal, with the apéritif. “Ah bon?” he replied,
having a moment believing that we did that. (And this is from the only
French person that insists on having his coffee with dessert,
which is unusual in France as well.)
 There are
some exceptions; gut-busters like Hachis Parmentier (meat pie with
mashed potato topping), and Brandade (salt cod puree), are often served
with a salade verte, a
few leaves of lettuce in a mustardy
dressing. But most of the time, the salad arrives after
the plat principal.
(Curiously, we call the main course the entrée in America, whereas in
France, the entrée is the first course – or the “entry” into the meal.)
The after-dinner salad in France isn’t usually a
complicated affair with tomatoes, eggs, croutons, and all other
sorts of other things tossed in with it: it’s often a nice bowl of
leafy greens with a punchy dressing.
 A friend
who used to live in Paris was visiting last week and I invited her to
dinner. I always like to serve guests who don’t live here certain
French cheeses, like Brie de
Meaux or a raw milk Saint-Nectaire, which are hard to get
outside of France, and I know they miss them when they are not here. I
know when I go away, the first thing I do when I get back is to go to
a bakery, buy a fresh, crunchy baguette, slice it wide open, smear
it with lots of salted butter from Brittany, and eat that. And then, I
dive into the cheeses…
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