Actually, France is the land of Quinoa [1]
In my last blog post I talked about France being the land of croissants and baguettes. Well, it turns out France is actually the land of quinoa these days. Coming home on Air France I was even served a quinoa salad in coach class – you can see it here, right on my tray table.
How else do I know quinoa is hot in France? I walked into one of the Left Bank’s largest bookstores and looked for French books on whole grains. I was unable to find anything like the wonderful selection of whole grain cookbooks now available in the U.S. In fact, I found only four books on whole grains – and three of them were about quinoa. One was even called “Une graine sacrée – le quinoa” (“A sacred grain/seed – the quinoa”). (Click here to see quinoa books on amazon.fr [2].)
On my last night in France, I enjoyed the hospitality of talented chef, cookbook author and longtime Oldways friend Susan Hermann Loomis, at her home in Louviers, where she runs her cooking school called On Rue Tatin [3]. And what did Susan serve for dinner? Mais oui! Quinoa.
Quinoa, as you may know, is actually what’s called a pseudo-grain. Although botanically it’s not a cereal grain, it’s considered a whole grain in the U.S. Denmark, however, has decided not to include quinoa, buckwheat, or amaranth – all pseudo-cereals – in its upcoming whole grains campaign. The bottom line? No matter how you classify quinoa, it’s a tasty and healthy food. (Cynthia)