25 years ago it was served in my french school, once or twice a year maybe. Never saw any since.
I remember thinking at the time it was ok, a bit like chicken.
My biology teacher was aware of the menu and explained to us in which gruesome way they were butchered. I didn’t eat any after that.
We had other “old fashioned” dishes from time to time, like veal tongue. Nobody liked that. There’s something a bit unsettling in seeing hundreds of tongues sitting in a big container
Tongue is pure muscle and tastes really nice. It’s also high quality meat from an animal that’s produced for food, so no extra killing or torcherous butchering for it. It just needs to be marinated for a day in salted water to soften before cooking. But since it is -yuck- tongue and needs preparation, mostly the cats get it, nowadays, because it’s easier to just mix it into cat food or dog food.
I’ve had frog legs at some Asian buffets before, and every now and then my wife would pick some up from the supermarket. Fried frog legs taste very similar to fried chicken, sterotypically enough.
It’s somewhat common in touristy restaurants in France. I’ve never heard an actual French person praising the dish (as they do for many other foods), but you can have it if you like.
I have the same experience as well. Never met anyone eating or offering frogs in my life. When I was a kid, in the first half of the 90’s, I would sometimes see frozen frog legs in supermarkets, but I never saw anyone buying them and they have disappeared from french supermarkets for well over 30 years now.
I think it’s only local fairs and festivals and some local restaurants, arguing to keep culinary tradition alive who still serves them, definitely not everyday people. Which is ironic because almost all frogs consumed in France are imported from Indonesia. Poor frogs would be better left alone in their rainforest :(
That’s not what I read. Frog farming is difficult because they must eat live prey. So most of it is imported from places where they don’t bother with farming, or environmental conservation.
From an article in French:
"Problème, pour les scientifiques, ces animaux sont issus “en grande majorité de populations sauvages”, et “en particulier d’Indonésie, de Turquie, d’Albanie et du Vietnam”
"Problematically for scientists, those animals come “in vast majority from wilderness populations” and “particularly from Indonesia, Turkey, Albania and Vietnam”
I don’t think there’d be enough frogs in the wild to fulfil demand.
Yes, there isn’t enough frogs in the wild for it to be sustainable at the scale they’re being hunted. And that’s why scientists raise the alarm about frog populations decline in those places where they are being hunted.
From the same article I linked, still in French, which you can easily machine translate:
“En raison de leur chasse importante, plusieurs espèces et populations connaissent déjà un déclin significatif”, s’inquiètent les experts."
““Due to their heavy hunting, several species and populations are already experiencing a significant decline,” experts worry.”
It’s funny that this meme lasted for so long. In 40 years, I have never met anyone eating frogs or any restaurant selling those things.
Frog tastes pretty good but it’s too expensive for not much meat
Lmao I am Romanian and you can find frog legs in many places around
I’ve eaten them at a casino. I bet the french cook them much better, even disregarding the stereotypes.
They’re not bad, but it’s like a chicken wing with less tendon and gristle, and a lot less meat: Not worth it.
25 years ago it was served in my french school, once or twice a year maybe. Never saw any since.
I remember thinking at the time it was ok, a bit like chicken.
My biology teacher was aware of the menu and explained to us in which gruesome way they were butchered. I didn’t eat any after that. We had other “old fashioned” dishes from time to time, like veal tongue. Nobody liked that. There’s something a bit unsettling in seeing hundreds of tongues sitting in a big container
Tongue is pure muscle and tastes really nice. It’s also high quality meat from an animal that’s produced for food, so no extra killing or torcherous butchering for it. It just needs to be marinated for a day in salted water to soften before cooking. But since it is -yuck- tongue and needs preparation, mostly the cats get it, nowadays, because it’s easier to just mix it into cat food or dog food.
I’m sure when it’s correctly prepared. This had the texture of a sponge.
I have! A Chinese restaurant.
Wow! You haven’t been outside for forty years?!
Due to the proliferation of LLM-hallucinated nonsense, any explanation of this phenomenon found online must be taken with a grenouille of salt.
In our city there are a few restaurants that sell frog legs
I have. Frog legs were the excuse for garlic butter at this restaurant.
The meat itself tastes like chicken.
I have eaten frog legs in a fancy French restaurant and I have eaten frog legs in a single wide trailer. They both have their qualities.
I’ve had frog legs at some Asian buffets before, and every now and then my wife would pick some up from the supermarket. Fried frog legs taste very similar to fried chicken, sterotypically enough.
I tried frogs once and they were amazing. Pretty much chicken flavor (like somehow every exotic animal supposedly tastes like) but tender af
It’s somewhat common in touristy restaurants in France. I’ve never heard an actual French person praising the dish (as they do for many other foods), but you can have it if you like.
At many buffets in Louisiana
I have the same experience as well. Never met anyone eating or offering frogs in my life. When I was a kid, in the first half of the 90’s, I would sometimes see frozen frog legs in supermarkets, but I never saw anyone buying them and they have disappeared from french supermarkets for well over 30 years now. I think it’s only local fairs and festivals and some local restaurants, arguing to keep culinary tradition alive who still serves them, definitely not everyday people. Which is ironic because almost all frogs consumed in France are imported from Indonesia. Poor frogs would be better left alone in their rainforest :(
Those frogs are being bred in farms.
That’s not what I read. Frog farming is difficult because they must eat live prey. So most of it is imported from places where they don’t bother with farming, or environmental conservation.
From an article in French:
"Problème, pour les scientifiques, ces animaux sont issus “en grande majorité de populations sauvages”, et “en particulier d’Indonésie, de Turquie, d’Albanie et du Vietnam”
"Problematically for scientists, those animals come “in vast majority from wilderness populations” and “particularly from Indonesia, Turkey, Albania and Vietnam”
Link to the article in French
https://www.bfmtv.com/animaux/une-responsabilite-particuliere-plus-de-500-scientifiques-demandent-a-la-france-de-freiner-les-importations-de-cuisses-de-grenouilles_AN-202403090160.html
I’ve seen frogs being farmed in Thailand, albeit on a small scale. I don’t think there’d be enough frogs in the wild to fulfil demand.
Yes, there isn’t enough frogs in the wild for it to be sustainable at the scale they’re being hunted. And that’s why scientists raise the alarm about frog populations decline in those places where they are being hunted.
From the same article I linked, still in French, which you can easily machine translate:
“En raison de leur chasse importante, plusieurs espèces et populations connaissent déjà un déclin significatif”, s’inquiètent les experts."
““Due to their heavy hunting, several species and populations are already experiencing a significant decline,” experts worry.”