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Comment by mlok | Hacker News Reader

As a Frenchman, it took me a while to realize it was supposed to mean "a painful thing to do"

To me "eating the frog" comes from a joke.

Two peasants find a frog and take a bet. One says he can eat the frog raw and the other bets $5 that he cannot. So the first peasant starts to eat the frog; halfway through he starts to feel nauseous. The second one starts to regret the $5 that he's about to lose. So he offers to reverse the bet - $5 back for eating the remaining half of the frog. The first one agrees and the second one eats the remaining half of the frog.

They walk for a bit and one asks the other "Hey, why exactly did we eat that frog?".

For science, of course!

BTW, as a 44 year old French that has never seen frogs on a restaurant menu, and never had any, I wonder how common eating frogs is nowadays. Escargots seem much more common, to cite something else we're known for.

I think it's quite rare. I tried once because a friend was visiting from the US and wanted to try. With a bit of research, I found a restaurant specialised in frog, but yes, they aren't common.

Frog's legs are eaten in Appalachia in the South East of the US.

Not so much in restaurants but I was invited to a friends house and that was part of the meal. Tasted kinda like chewy chicken wings, not bad.

I’ve had them several times along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Like the alligator eaten here, it’s part of the joke of the long list of things that tastes sorta like chicken.

Idk, I went to a lot of restaurant that had frog legs in their menu. On the other hand I had snails only once. But I think "traditional" french restaurant are not that common anymore in anycase. My city is full of restaurant from all over the world or thematic restaurant, only an handful of "classic" french restaurant (and its not a bad thing, I love the variety).

Frogs are a protected specie in france: you can catch some for personal "use" but there are quotas. So all the frogs you eat in restaurants come from elsewhere in europe. Could explain the evolution. Also i'm not sure it's something "typically french", i'd definitely categorize it as region-dependent (eg from the Dombes near Lyon). Btw for frog fishing you need no hook but just a small piece of fabric, had some fun making a couple fly when a kid, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUDmb3ZMw5c

Only place I've eaten frog was in Cambodia. First time, at a street vendor, it was delicious. Second time, at a hotel buffet, it made me sick as a dog.

Now that I think of it, I remember that when I was a kid (40 years ago), occasionally my mother would cook snail/frogs. Snails more than frogs actually. Maybe it's one of these traditions that we're losing.

Our local supermarket in an Arizona small town sells frogs right next to the seafood in the meat department. Somebody must be buying them. Though I've never seen them on a local menu. Are they typical in a French grocery?

I've never seen them in French supermarkets.

The only time I've eaten frog was fried in a Cajun restaurant.

I ate frog legs in a restaurant in France no later than this summer, but it was a Vietnamese restaurant...

Snails, on the other hand, are not too difficult to find in supermarkets.

It's not uncommon. In the south they eat it, I personally have had frog and it tasted like chicken to me. I try all kinds of weird food because why not.

I cross the line at eating spiders. Nope

As 47 year old Dutch guy I can say I ate frogs in the Netherlands of all places... but never seen them in France (but I did not specifically search for them)

I guess eating frogs might be more common in South East Asia?

Frog leg porridge is really easy to find in Singapore, for example.

They're common in Singapore because of the southern Chinese influence. You don't see them often in Malaysia or Indonesia tho (outside Chinese areas) because frog is not halal.

Frogs are very popular in Vietnam, served in all kinds of ways.

It's mostly a familly thing, I guess. I'm younger than you are but always ate frogs regularly.

It comes from a line often attributed to the 19th-century humorist Mark Twain: Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you that day. ”Eat a frog” is intended as a metaphor for “do that shitty task you don’t want to do”.

It appears to have actually been coined by a late 18th century French humorist: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/03/eat-frog/

Yeah me too! My first thought was, but frogs are... delicious? What is he even talking about?

That said, I was very surprised by the quality of the article, and the writing. I was expecting yet another bucket of self-help motivating bullshit and it's the opposite of that! And also quite funny.

It's probably (possibly?) a Mark Twain reference:

"If your job requires you to eat a toad, do it first. If it requires you to eat two, eat the bigger one first."

He's referring to, and quoting, a very popular self-help book titled "Eat the frog".

The book itself is probably a wink to that Mark Twain quote.

Wouldn't eating bread be more painful in France?

(Sorry.)

Why would eating bread in the country with one of the best bakery cultures be painful?

Edit: It's too early, thanks to the more awake commenters to point out the pun ;)

Pain is French for bread.

I hate this joke. There's a bakery I used to drive past called the "House of Pain".

Ah, they did one of my favorite wraps. Baguette up, baguette in..

Oh, well done.

Well, OP messed up the pun a bit, pain is bread in French but painful means nothing in French. But still a good one, first time I hear it.

It's a pun, "pain" means bread in French.

I've never eaten bread as delicious as the "boring" baguettes available from virtually every bakery in France. Maybe it's the yeast they use or something? So I'm genuinely curious as to where you're coming from with that.

Edit: Oh. Pat yourself on the back for a pun well played. Whooshed straight over my head! Take my angry upvote ;)

Baguettes "tradition" can only contain 3 ingredients (flour, water, yeast) so their quality matter, yes, but the preparation is what makes it all: how it's mixed, how long it rests, at what temperature, how the flour/water ratio changes through the process, etc. that dictate what the end result will be. It can take 10 years for a baker to master the process.

Thanks, I'll accept your upvote graciously as I'm celiac and unable to eat that fantastic French bread anymore!

It's funny because in Germany we have a similar phrase "swallowing the toad". I think the idea is to swallow them whole. I think French cuisine generally only serves frog legs, not whole frogs?

Not just French. They're popular in many parts of the South US as well, particularly in areas with Cajun/French influence. And delicious.

And yeah, just the legs.

Also in some areas of Italy, there used to be restaurants where frog (only legs, usually fried) were the main dish, though I believe they are little by little becoming more rare.

Also they once were a very "poor" (please read as cheap) meal, while nowadays they tend to be "gourmet".

Same thing as with oysters, then.

Frog legs are eaten in many parts of Europe (except Germany apparently) So much that some indigenous frog species have become endangered, and frog legs are more often imported from South-East Asia these days.

BTW. I had also expected the article to be about actual frogs: about how endangered some species are, or how the flesh may contain pollutants or diseases.

"Frog eaters" (using the word for "eat" that is used for animals, not people) is a German slur against French people, so yeah, Germany seems to have a strong aversion.

Yes, we only eat the legs :)

Interestingly, there is a similar French expression: "avaler des couleuvres" ("swallowing snakes").

It also means "doing things against your will", although it has the additional sense of doing them because you're gullible (not sure if this sense is also present in the English expression).

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/avaler_des_couleuvres

Yeah I thought the obvious answer is because they taste good!

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