This is a preview of the content in our French Food Decoder app. Get the app to:
  • Read offline
  • Remove ads
  • Access all content
  • Use the in-app Map to find sites, and add custom locations (your hotel...)
  • Build a list of your own favourites
  • Search the contents with full-text search functionality
  • ... and more!
iOS App Store Google Play

Fish and seafood

Tours - Halles de Tours - Avril 2019 - Poissonnerie

France is blessed not only with the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts and superb fish and seafood, but plenty of freshwater fish as well. You’ll also find a list of useful fish words here.

The fish order that arrived too late

Fish, or the lack of it, was the cause of the first but sadly not the last suicide of a great French chef. In 1660, Louis XIV had allowed the master of Château de Chantilly, the Grand Condé (Prince Louis II de Bourbon-Condé), to return from exile after he had fought for the king of Spain against France.

The Grand Condé hired the great chef François Vatel to run his kitchens, and spent a decade renovating his château, while Vatel established its reputation for fine cuisine. In April 1671, when everything was in order, the Grand Condé decided to go all out and impress Louis XIV and 3000 courtiers from Versailles, inviting them to Chantilly for a three-day fête .

Read the full content in the app
iOS App Store Google Play

fish words

what’s what at the fishmongers

abadèche

cusk eel

ablette

common bleak

accras

fish fritters

aigle de mer

eagle ray

aiglefin

haddock

algues de mer

edible seaweed

alose

shad

amandes de mer

dog cockles

anchois

anchovy

anguille

eel— or a pastry

araignée de mer

spider crab

athérine

sand smelt

bar

European sea bass or branzino

barbue

brill

berniques

limpets

bigorneau

sea snail, winkle or periwinkle

bonite

bonito

brandade

salt cod and olive oil purée

brochet

pike

bulot

whelk or sea snail

cabillaud

cod

calmar

squid

carpe frite

fried carp

carrelet

plaice

caviar

caviar

cernier

Atlantic wreckfish or stone bass

chinchard

Atlantic horse or jack mackerel

cigale de mer

slipper lobster or sand lobster

civelles

glass eels (elvers)

colin

pollack or coley (usually)

congre

conger eel

coques

cockles

coquilles Saint Jacques

scallops

couteaux de mer

razor clams

crépidule (berlingot de mer)

sea snail or slipper limpet

crevette

prawn or shrimp

céteau

wedge sole

datte-de-mer

date mussel

daurade royal

gilt head bream

dorade-sébaste

ocean perch

écrevisse

crayfish

encornet

common small squid

espadon

swordfish

estocaficada

stockfish

esturgeon

sturgeon

étouffée

‘smothered’ or Louisana seafood stew

étrille

velvet crab

flet

flounder

flétan

halibut

flion

tiny tasty clam

friture

fry

fruits de mer

shellfish

gambas

big prawns

goujon

gudgeon

grondin

gurnard (or sea robin)

hareng

herring

homard

lobster

homard à l’Américaine

lobster in a tomato sauce

huitres

oysters

julienne

ling

labre

wrasse

lamproie

lamprey

langouste

spiny lobster

langoustine

Norway lobster or Dublin Bay Prawn

lieu

pollack

lotte

monkfish or anglerfish

loup de mer

Atlantic wolf fish

maigre

meagre

maquereau

mackerel

merlan

whiting

merlu

hake

merluche

white hake

mérou

grouper

morue

salt or fresh cod

mostelle

forkbeard

moule

mussel

mulet

mullet

œufs de lompe

lumpfish roe

omble chevalier

Arctic char

ormeau

ormer (green abalone)

oursins

sea urchins

paella camarguaise

paella, Arles style

pageot

pandora

pagre

red porgy (common sea bream)

palourde

carpet shell clam

perche

perch

perche du Nil

Nile perch

pétoncle

variegated scallop

pouce-pied

goose or gooseneck barnacle

poulpe

octopus

poutargue

salted tuna or mullet roe

poutine

fry...or frites with gravy and cheese

praire

warty venus clams

raie

skate

rascasse

scorpion fish

requin

shark

rogue

fish ovary

rouget

red mullet (usually)

sabre

cutlassfish

Saint-Pierre

John Dory

sandre

zander or pikeperch

sardines de Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie

very good sardines (and some others)

saumon

salmon

saumonette

small spotted cat shark

seiche

cuttlefish

silure

Wels catfish

sole

sole

tacaud

pouting

tanche

tenche

telline

tiny clam

thon

tuna

tielle sètoise

squid and tomato pie

tourteau

brown crab

truite

trout

vernis

smooth clam

vieille

Ballan wrasse

violet de mer

sea squirt

Text © Dana Facaros

Image by GrandCelinien