Drunch, anyone? Slunch? Don’t know what I’m talking about? Me neither. But the newsletter for my Paris supermarket, Monoprix, thinks these are all the rage in the U.S.
The site gives recipes for mini hamburgers, carrot fries, cranberry-banana smoothies, and brownie/cookie parfaits. “No more depressing, gray Sunday afternoons,” I read on the site, looking out my window at the overcast skies that are as Parisian as poodles. If you want to “drunch” in Paris, a l’americaine, you can go to le Mini-Palais at the between-meals hour of 6 PM.
Want to immerse yourself in American culture? the site asks, leading us to a link of all things Yankee (from the French point of view): http://www.cuisineamericaine-cultureusa.com/
From there you can find out about: “The American Burger.” “Bagels: The Real Recipe for These New York Little Breads” (though how real can a bagel be that isn’t boiled?). “A Typical Day in an American School” (which explains, “although their subjects are somewhat similar to ours, their way of studying them is very different”). “How to Understand American Football and Play It in France.” And “The Ten Best Superbowl Commercials” (which I watched for the first time, thinking, that’s the culture we Americans are exporting? Advertisements of junk food?)
The (sometimes ambivalent, sometimes weird, sometimes earnest) love affair that the French have with America is funny to see from this side of the ocean. I feel like I’m watching my best friend dress for a date. She’s putting on a ridiculous get up, and I can’t stop her from making a fool of herself. But hey, I’m not the one she’s dating. Let’s hope at least they have enough of a sense of humor to make their rendez-vous a drunch.
Ambivalent, weird, earnest… I know exactly what you mean. Of course, it’s largely because France’s view of America is through the filter of the mass media, which like everywhere is sensationalist, sentimental, and lazy. However, intrigued by the terms “drunch” and “slunch,” I googled. And guess what? While “slunch” (supper + lunch, kind of a late afternoon brunch) seems to have been adopted mainly by the French, most of the first couple of pages of results for “drunch” (drunken lunch) are from American or British sites. I guess not everyone is branché enough to know that!
Sorry, I seem to have messed up the tagging for the above. The italics were supposed to apply only to the word “exactly.”
Hey Tom,
That’s what I figured. I thought drunch was lunch and dinner. But I like drunken lunch better! I’ll drink to that.
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