What kind of food is there in Rennes?

I was debating whether to keep this section as part of a very long article on my first week in Rennes or make it its own separate article. I decided on the latter since French food deserves its own dissertation (ha!).

Although French cuisine exalts its different fromages (cheeses), haute cuisine and specialty sauces, regular French food that you might eat every day is rather straightforward. France makes good (and very cheap) bread, so sandwiches are a popular meal. Below are some pictures of two types of sandwiches from a local cafe:

A common sandwich that you might find in a boulangerie (a bakery with specialty products) or café is a jambon-beurre (the French ham sandwich), which has 3-4 ingredients only. The jambon-beurre that I eat in Rennes uses a soft, fresh square baguette along with some smoked ham, Emmental cheese, and a spread of butter. A very large sandwich (maybe 10-12 inches in length) ranges in price between 3.75-4.25 euros.

Apparently, ice tea has become a popular alternative to soft drinks in France in recent years. Peach ice tea (thé a la pêche), is EVERYWHERE, from the grocery stores to vending machines, to restaurants, to even home goods stores, almost every place serves some variation of peach ice tea.

One thing that bears mentioning is that food is relatively cheap in Rennes. I could feed myself for a whole day on just 10 or so euros. There are also differences in cost within France however. A 6-inch sandwich may cost 7 euros in Paris whereas in Rennes it might range from 1.50 to 2 euros, meaning that a similar-sized sandwich in Paris is 4 times as expensive as a sandwich in Rennes.

Hardcore lovers of "local" Hawaii cuisine might feel left out, but Rennes makes up for it through a wide variety of food options that might not be as available in Hawaii. Of course, you have classic American fast-food restaurants, such as McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and Subway. But you also have Turkish kebab shops, crêperies, boulangeries, an Irish pub, and even an Asian grocery store called Belasie, which is about a 5-minute walk from my residence.

A lot of ordering is done through terminals now instead of having people take your order. For example, at McDonald's, there are around 9 terminals where you can place an order, and staff will bring your food to you or to a table if you decide to eat there.

At Belasie, there are a lot of different Asian foods. It is a locally-owned business started in the 1980s by Monsieur Tran and his wife. This was my haul from Wednesday:

I also saw some things that aren't normally avaiable in Hawaii, such as regional Indian spices and so that was interesting to check out. Cantonese rice (basically fried rice) is the most expensive food at Belasie, at approximately 18 euros for one pound.