Letters: French food is fine but lacks spice
Connexion readers say they struggle to find decent salsa in France
Some regions of France have their own spicy traditions, like piment d'Espelette
barmalini / Shutterstock
To the Editor,
My husband and I live a good part of the year in France but we do miss some spicy ethnic food options that we are accustomed to in California - Primarily, salsa.
We are used to having great salsa every day and prefer the very hot versions.
Eggs without salsa? Never!
Our local supermarket does sell a passable salsa but even the ‘forte’ version is too bland for our taste.
Short of making it ourselves, we’ve hit on a solution by buying something wonderful (and very hot!) imported salsas from a Mexican food shop in Paris and mixing it with the local market’s offering to extend the amount since we don’t get to Paris often and lugging more than a few heavy jars on the train to the Dordogne isn’t practical.
Also in our small town, there aren’t many ethnic restaurants with spicy cuisines like Thai, which we miss too.
For home cooking, we go through a lot of red chile flakes, jalapeños, cayenne pepper and assorted other spices to get us through.
Cynthia Colby, Montignac-Lascaux
Do you find French cuisine lacking in spicy options? How you spice up your dishes? Let us know at letters@connexionfrance.com
