FROG’S LEGS IN FRANCE

Give it a French name and any dish can sound interesting. Take cuisses de grenouilles . . . which is really tiny muscled frog’s legs. The French are mad about this dish. They say frog’s legs taste like chicken wings and they eat them with a baguette (French bread).

How did people come to eat frog’s legs? Apparently many centuries ago the authorities in the Roman Catholic Church felt the monks were getting too fat and so banned them from eating meat at certain times of the year. As frog’s meat wasn’t seen as real meat the monks were allowed to eat it during those periods.

People in the French countryside followed the monks’ example and today the French consume up to 80 million frogs a year.

But don’t think it’s only the French who eat frogs – frog’s legs are also popular in Chinese cuisine.