Cuisine Americaine

When I first got to Troyes, one of the profs at my lycee told me about a former student who really enjoys practicing his English. The former assistant would meet with him for coffee occassionally, and he was hoping I would as well. A French student motivated to speak English?! I know how rare those are so of course I said yes.
Thibaut is a very nice guy. We met a few weeks ago for a drink and chatted for a couple of hours. His English is very good! Turns out we like a lot of the same music (Jimi Hendrix, CCR, etc) and we share the same favorite movie (Forrest Gump). Excellent.
So earlier this week Thibaut texted me asking if I'd like to meet for lunch this week. Met up with him this afternoon and he took me to a (Americans, prepare to be semi-jealous)..... Tex-Mex restaurant! Right here in Troyes. And I thought I hit the jackpot finding cheddar cheese at our marche.
Granted, French Tex-Mex is far from the real thing. It certainly is not the type of Mexican food we Californians know & love (mmm, California burritos). My dinky "burrito poulet"definitely required a knife & fork, and was about as spicy as fruit salad. Yes I know my standards for spicy as above & beyond that of a normal person (Thibaut looked shocked when I told him I could probably down a bottle of Tabasco & not be affected), but honestly, France... comment dit-on "habanero" en francais?! I remembered the lack of spice from my time in Le Mans. But still, even the attempt was awesome. And dig this, they served CALIFORNIA wine. I'm sure it was some crap like Gallo but still, just seeing CA wine on a French menu is a first for me. They also had Budweiser on the menu, along with a few Mexican beers. I'll likely return if/when I need a dose of stuff from home.
I find it funny that, reading back the previous paragraph, I said, "dig." We went back to Thibaut's place after lunch for some coffee, he played a bit of Jimi Hendrix on his guitar, and as we were walking back to centre ville he asked me, "What does Jimi mean when he says, 'dig'?" No, Jimi was not digging up holes. He was asking his listeners if they liked it, if they thought it was cool. For instance, "I dig Jimi Hendrix."
And I dig Mexican food, even if it's been Frenchified.