Enjoy slower experience when dining in France

PARIS — Americans in France who insist on chowing down the way they do back home miss out on one of the most satisfying pleasures any visitor can experience: exploring a country through its food.

There are any number of French restaurateurs who will give "famished" Americans exactly what they're used to — after all, a euro is a euro is a euro. And, yes, you can and will find McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks and other symbols of "our" food culture open for business here and feeding French people. Yet I still think the visitor pays too high a price, and I'm not talking just about what will likely be an inflated bill.

The French have spent centuries honing their food to a high and honest art. Eating and drinking well is their passion; Parisians, in particular, always seem to be on a restless quest to find the best fare their budgets and taste buds will allow. For eating in France is much, much more than simply sating primeval hunger. It's in the flavors, the rituals, the sensuality of le repas fran?is that you can really "get" what makes the French tick — and what really ticks them off about us.

"I often find that Americans are impatient in French restaurants," recalled Dorie Greenspan, the cookbook author and baking expert who divides her time among New York City, Paris and Westbrook, Conn.

"Everything in a restaurant moves slower than it does in America," she added. "I remember having a simple lunch in a cafe with an American friend, and she said, 'The service here is terrible. We've finished and the waiter hasn't brought the check.' Had the waiter brought the check, it would have been considered impolite by French standards. The check comes when you ask for it."

Other American habits also go against the French grain, said Wendy Lyn, a Florida-born and now Paris-based guide to all things culinary: sharing of entrees, asking for substitutions and ordering a salad or just one course in a prix fixe meal.

"It also confuses the kitchen and wait staff who are serving diners in a way that is efficient for them — not the diner," added Lyn, who recounts her travels, tastings and tips on a Web site called The Paris Kitchen (thepariskitchen.com).

"The balance of power during a European meal is often with the chef and not the customer," wrote Alexander Lobrano in an e-mail from Lisbon. He is the Connecticut-reared author of "Hungry for Paris," a restaurant guide I find essential in France, and formerly European correspondent for the late Gourmet magazine. He elaborated on this point in an entry on his dining-focused Web site, hungryforparis.com.