French and British trade barbs over food

London – No Briton has ever actually shouted “Non!” at Martine Mercier when she tried to serve French food, as The Daily Mail is currently proposing “Just say ‘Non!’” campaign.

“I had English friends over for dinned and served English appetizers,” said Mercier, a Frenchwoman who moved to London several years ago with her family when her husband got a job there. “And they started saying: ‘Aren’t you pleased to be able to have English food? French food is so terrible!’”

That was not particularly polite, but these are not polite times. Since France recently defied the European Union and announced that it would continue to ban imports of British beef owning to health concerns related to mad-cow disease, the two countries have enthusiastically taken their on-again off-again froideur to new lows.                    

In Britain, emotions have been always thrilled by the opportunity to dust off their anti-French headlines and to think of new ways to be rude. In printing a list of 21 reasons “why oui hate ’em”, The Daily Star used a headline that could only be described as impolite.

Through its “Just Say ‘non!’” campaign, the Mail has done its best to organize a nation-wide boycott of French products.                                

Throughout the dispute, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has repeatedly denounced opposition calls for a full-scale trade war with France. But he couldn’t stop his agriculture minister, Nick Brown, from announcing recently that he was personally boycotting French food and drink.

Why are Britain and France so snippy with each other? Their relationship is a result of hundreds of years of intertwined history. Now that the two countries are increasingly forced together as partners in, the European Union as well as major partners in trade. There is the added strain of having to get along when they would just as soon fight as ‘play’ with each other.

“One of the reasons why the French don’t come here much on holiday is that they think the food is awful.” Said Koukla Maclehose, who is French and has lived in London for 14 years. “Take the little bistro, the café in France, and compare it to the pub food here. It’s disgusting.”

Mrs. Archent, carrying her daily baguette as she stopped in at the French Bookshop in South Kensington one morning last week, said that she had rarely been harassed because of being French.

The British are just jealous, said Mercier, the woman whose guests praised her English appetizers while condemning French cuisine. She got the last laugh, anyway: serving a main course of French food. “They ate every last bit – they scraped their plates,” she said.