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Post by Happygoin on Sept 5, 2008 7:29:11 GMT -5
On French menus, I always get confused with the word poelée (I can't make that other accent mark over the o).
I keep thinking it's chicken (poulet) but it's associated with other types of meat (boeuf etc.).
So I'm wondering what exactly it means. Thanks in advance.
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Post by luckyluc on Sept 5, 2008 7:37:39 GMT -5
Poêlé is from the cooking ustensil poêle (frying pan). So it indicate the cooking method not a specific food.
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Post by Happygoin on Sept 5, 2008 11:53:00 GMT -5
Oh! So, if I see the word poelée, the food is fried? Or possibly just sautéed?
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Post by luckyluc on Sept 5, 2008 13:16:46 GMT -5
Yes sauté in a pan.
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Post by Happygoin on Sept 5, 2008 13:35:16 GMT -5
Thank you, Luc
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Post by GitteK on Sept 5, 2008 14:32:05 GMT -5
Happy, "pôelé" is when you fry something male (!) on the frying pan. e.g. "un steak haché pôelé".
"Pôelée" is when you have fried a feminine item on the pan, e.g. the dessert I had yesterday: Mirabelles pôelées (fried plums).
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Post by mossie on Sept 6, 2008 8:59:00 GMT -5
You're at it again Gitte. I do not want my plums fried, thank you very much.
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Post by Shoesy on Sept 6, 2008 9:07:21 GMT -5
Hmmm......I don't think I've never heard of them referred to as "plums" before.
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Post by chicchantal on Sept 6, 2008 10:49:05 GMT -5
I have and I know if someone offered, he'd jump at the chance. The gentleman(?) doth protest too much . . .
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Post by Happygoin on Sept 8, 2008 6:31:36 GMT -5
Gitte! Are you KIDDING me!!!?? Now I have to remember whether I'm eating a sautéed MALE something or a sautéed FEMALE something. This French is all just too, too much
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Post by Anne on Sept 8, 2008 11:22:22 GMT -5
Happy, if that can be of any comfort to you, poêlée is sometimes used as a name on menus . Then it is a feminine name whatever follows, instead of an adjective which gender depends on the name it goes with . Poêlée de légumes (panfried vegetables), poêlée d'escargots, etc ...
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Post by luckyluc on Sept 8, 2008 11:34:43 GMT -5
Yes, Anne is right, in that case poêlée as a name designated the pan content.
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Post by Happygoin on Sept 8, 2008 12:20:05 GMT -5
It just boggles my mind, is all. But thank you, both
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Post by annettecinca on Sept 8, 2008 12:23:44 GMT -5
This is further proof that I will never be able to master French in this lifetime!
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Post by Anne on Sept 8, 2008 12:38:56 GMT -5
Come on girls, if you think that French grammar is difficult, try and learn German grammar and you'll find French easy . I've learned German for 11 years and bathed in a German dialect throughout my youth, yet my grammar is still lousy .
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Post by GitteK on Sept 8, 2008 12:58:30 GMT -5
don't listen to anne266 - she is prejudiced. To foreigners like is, German is 10 times easier to learn than French, because German grammar is mathematical and logical in it's structure. French grammar certainly not so, because there are so many cases of "it depends on the context". You could write a 12 volume work at professor level as to the correct usage of the smallest French words: "à" and "de" (not to mention when to use conjunctive or not ) - and still a lot of native Frenchmen would get things mixed up. And yep, I have also noticed several plates calles "Pôelée de......." (= a pan-fried dish of.......) - so need to worry about male or female items going into the frying pan !! ;D
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Post by chicchantal on Sept 8, 2008 13:14:03 GMT -5
French grammar though, you can make it up as you go along (yes I do). German grammar is all cases and three genders and 15 different endings for each adjective and the spare verb at the end of the sentence that should have been somewhere in the middle, to say nothing of the separable prefix that sounds so odd at the end of the sentence you don't really want to leave it there in case people laugh at you.
And I was traumatised the time I asked a Germanperson to explain the logic behind 'aus dem Automaten' because she got into Mittelhochdeutsch and that finished me.
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Post by sunshine817 on Sept 8, 2008 14:46:00 GMT -5
German has always come easily to me -- and I realize that that makes me an anomaly. I've always wondered if it's because my grandmothers spoke Swiss German when I was a tiny girl, and it gave me an ear for the pronunciations.
French comes fairly easily for me -- not as easily as German, but I am fortunately able to absorb new words by hearing them used.
I used to work for a man who had lived and worked in Paris for several years, and despite multiple Berlitz classes and patient tutoring from his wife, still could barely manage 'bonjour' and 'merci' on business trips, leaving me to stumble along for both of us.
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Post by Anne on Sept 9, 2008 3:31:39 GMT -5
OK Gitte, I may be prejudiced because I sure don't like the German language, but I insist that grammar is much more difficult than French, and what I have in mind here are the dreaded DECLENSIONS that Chantal mentions : - There is no more logic in name genders in German than in French, except that there is one more gender in German to get you mistaken (like : dog is masculine, while cat is feminine, while young girl is neutral . Get my point ? ) - Each name (or rather its attached article and/or adjective) will declinate differently depending on the name's grammatical role in the sentence : so four grammatical cases multiplied by four genders (masc, fem, neutr, plural - OK, plural is not a gender but don't start me here ) = 16 possibilities - definite articles don't decline the same as indefinite ones, and adjectives don't declinate the same whether they come with a definite, indefinite or no article at all . I don't do the maths here, it is too disheartening . And I got lost at step #1 anyway ... I am fine with the rest of the German grammar, but these declensions, and names' gender to begin with, have always been a nightmare to me (and to many many others ;D) ...
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Post by sistereurope on Sept 9, 2008 7:36:10 GMT -5
I'm with Anne - I've tried to learn both French AND German and while I have mastered neither, I whole-heartedly agree that German is WAY more difficult. To add insult to injury, my bratty little sister managed to learn how to speak German fluently (she lives in Germany and is often mistaken for a native! ) Oh and Gitte - I would think that any language would be easier to learn after Danish - I can't imagine learning those pronunciations! ;D
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