bastille-day

Bastille Day is here again! Where to even begin? Well, first open a bottle of wine, relax, maybe put on a little Django. Then work up an appetite for French onion and olive pizza and perfect tarte Tatin and celebrate the storming of the Bastille. It's a long story. Let's have a glass of wine first.

To celebrate Bastille Day, we're stuffing summer tomatoes with ground beef to create the quintessentially French tomate farcies. This recipe is perfect to serve at a party on a balmy evening with super-ripe summer tomatoes and is much more impressive than it is complicated. Your guests will never guess how easy it was to whip up.In…

We're crazy for Bastille Day, which goes down every July 14. What a food holiday! Thinking beyond the storming of the Bastille and the pardoning of parking tickets, our main concern is making sure you know you are stocked with recipes for all sorts of French essentials. Can you make a croque monsieur? How about…

I'm usually one of the first people in the room to scoff whenever our social media dude Mahir tells us it's International Kumquat Day or whatever, but at the risk of being hypocritical, I'm celebrating National French Fry Day (which Eatocracy hipped me to today). In truth, I got started early, ordering a steak and…

We're crazy for Bastille Day, regardless of how many of us know exactly what we're celebrating. Beyond the storming of the Bastille and pardoning of parking tickets, we're mainly concerned with making sure you know certain French essentials that will serve you well in all manners of life. Can you make a croque monsieur? Do…

For a summery drink with a dash of the dashing, try Lillet. In Casino Royale (1966), Bond famously adds a splash of the citrus-y French aperitif to his dry martini. Made with Bordeaux wine (white or red — Lillet comes both ways) and orange liqueur, it's sweet and sour, helped along by the bitter pin…

The wines of south and southwest France are some of the most under-appreciated in Europe. Why? First, the region’s more famous neighbors in Bordeaux tend to get all the love and attention. Second, the wines are often produced from grapes that consumers are unfamiliar with — an unfortunate death sentence in this market. But this…

Béchamel, like bacon, makes everything better. So it's no wonder that the sandwich of ham and cheese smothered in béchamel sauce that the French call a Croque Monsieur* is so damn delicious. To be honest, a croque monsieur is probably best eaten while seated at a Parisian café reading Sartre and smoking a Gitane cigarette.…