I thought people might sleep on Spain.

Spanish hot chocolate + churros is how I want to die.

I knew it was never coming back to me but thought it might fall a bit further than #5.

My hot take is that Spain > Italy.

Yup, probably truer to say I thought that there was a chance I might get it if I wasn't in the top 4 and so missed out on one of my major first round wants.

I would have said Spanish cuisine was a major under-rated euro cuisine, but apparently I'm wrong.

Spain was very high on our draft board, and now we has a sad that can only be healed by paella.

You and filthy should have traded. Both would have got their first round wish.

I also blame filthy

Still willing to trade up btw ianaww

Would I have got one of China/Japan at #5 if I'd traded down? Bad missed opportunity if so.

Depends what NotGonnaLie would have done after I took Italy at #1.

I'm okay with that

my picks are probably pretty safe

it's my clock, though, apparently. not sure how the holiday is factoring in

Italy was my #1, with Spain at a reasonably close #2. While researching for the write-up, I was thinking "damn, maybe I'm not that disappointed I couldn't get Italy".

In the hypothetical world where someone trades up to get Italy at #1 I would have agonized between Japan and yep Spain. Spain at #2 would likely have have been a reach, but the cuisine is great and one that I had targeted. In the end I probably take Japan if I cant trade back, but there was the possibility I take Spain as high as #2.

Moving back to get a country like China or Spain may indeed turn out to have been the better play.

Clock doesn't start for another 17 minutes imo.

Do you want to swap 1st, 2nd, and 4th rounds?

Italian food undoubtedly great but IMO somewhat overhyped, particularly by Americans.

A lot of Spanish food also more naturally suited to a food festival type situation I think.
So it looks like kokiri takes China at #4 before it falls to me, then. So I'm still happy I didn't trade down, Japan/China are solid value above any other picks IMO.

Nope, china was my #4, Spain I guess #5, so if the run out is Italy, Japan, filthy spew, I think china and Spain survive to #5.

This was the clear #1 pick to me. Nice.

And Spain was my personal favorite pick for #2

I AM READY

As always, lolfilthy.

ianaww confirmed via PM that we're swapping 1st, 2nd, and 4th round picks, so I'm up and inheriting his clock. We'll post our pick relatively shortly...

also ianaww you should confirm this here as well obv :P

I improvised something on the spreadsheet to mark the trades so that we'll know who is on the clock. After each round the picks can just be put on each person's line as if nothing unusual had happened.

Last year Mrs. Well Named and I watched the Michael Moore documentary "Where to Invade Next?" During a segment on this country, Moore highlighted how seriously this country takes its food by comparing some of its typical school lunch menus to those found in the US. In this country, lunch isn't just a 30 minute break to eat some soggy-with-grease rectangular pizza substitute with fake cheese, it's an entire class to itself, where students are taught to value the centuries-old food culture of their home country.





As you approach the festival tent, you hear strains of Edith Piaf's "Je ne regrette rien" emanating from the inside, and as you take your next breath the smell of freshly baked baguette envelops you.

You enter, and to your right you see a row of booths set up to resemble a Parisian market street. Your nose leads you to the boulangerie first.



The french baguette is a thing of simple beauty. Its indescribable crust, al dente to the tooth, conceals an airy and delicious soft bread. It's a staple in all reasonably appealing after-lives. You might also try the pain au chocolat. Each flaky layer of pastry hammered until it becomes one with the butter. Light and puffy, filled with exquisite dark chocolate. Perfect with your café crême.

Or perhaps you'd prefer a french tart.


After the boulangerie, you wander over to the charcuterie, where you find a delectable selection of cured meats



You pick up a mild but meaty saucisson (that's sausage to you) to go with your baguette, and head to the next stop on your impromptu picnic shopping spree, the fromagerie.



This is Laurent Dubois, on the corner of Rue Monge and Boulevard Saint Germain in the latin quarter of Paris. Mrs. Well Named and I picked out some amazing camembert and comte for the picnics we enjoyed on our honeymoon. The shop owners have graciously agreed to work our festival.

Charles de Gaulle famously said "comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?" How do you govern a country that has more than 246 types of cheese? We don't know, but we also don't know how we could possibly describe all of the options Laurent Dubois is offering. All of them amazing. They say that camembert smells like God's feet, but I'm happy to report it tastes much better than that.

Your last picnic stop is, of course, the cave à vins. The wine shop.



This shop is on the same block as Laurent Dubois, and the helpful proprietor guided us to two wines which we've never been able to forget, but also never been able to find outside of France.

The first, a Domaine Changarnier Monthelie. This small estate red burgundy (I think from a pinot noir grape) is light and fruity, with lots of raspberries. Speaking of light and fruity, every November the entire country of France waits with baited breath for the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau, a fantastically fresh, young, and vibrant red wine.

But, with your picnic in hand, the sommelier recommends a white burgundy instead, the Chateau de Messey Macon Cruzille. It is resplendent with fresh green apple notes, not too much acidity, and a fine structure.

You take your bounty and seat yourself in the cafe-style booth in the center of the tent. A single daisy rests in a small vase on your table, which is covered with a red and white checkered cloth, of course. Next to you a vendor is arranging an obsessively curated group of paintings for sale. La Femme Nue appears to be his favorite subject.

As you sip your wine, your attention is drawn to the smells coming from the cafe kitchen. Garlic and herbs pique your attention. You see a waiter emerge with someone else's dinner: Magret de Canard (Sliced Duck)



It's rich and tender, an absolute duck flavor bomb. It's a religious experience on a plate. At yet another table you spy a couple digging into the poulet roti (roast chicken), the ultimate french comfort food. Sure, you think you know about roast chicken, but you don't know roast chicken like the french do it.



You can't stand it anymore, so you consult the menu, written in chalk on a sandwich board. You order the cassoulet, a specialty of the south of France.



It's a hearty stew of white beans, sausage, carrots, potatoes and herbs. The flavors perfectly blend while slowly simmering, until it's time for the evening meal.

After your feast, you begin to head for the exit. But you see a booth commemorating an important French New Year tradition, and you have to stop. Before you is spread a plate of foie gras de canard, and a bottle of champagne.



How can you describe foie gras? It's like duck butter. Or goose butter if you get goose foie gras. No, it's better than that. Spread on toast points you achieve a level of bliss usually reserved for zen monks sitting on the peaks of mountains. In between duckgasms you cleanse your palate with the crisp bubbles of the champagne.

As you walk out of the tent supremely contented (you are still just barely able to walk), you observe l'artiste still trying to find the perfect light to exhibit his Femme Nue, and you're grateful that the French take the mettier of cuisine as seriously as they do with art.

You guys are being too hard on filthy unless fried Oreo funnel cakes are not actually American; that's the booth I'm loitering near

France at 6 Now that's what I call value.

Also now I can post this without feeling like I'm implying any [undrafted] countries. Whose cuisine will reign supreme?!

Yup, no one could have sniffed at France going #1. It's the Charles Dickens of gastronomy draft.