CulinaryFoodLanguages

Pain au Chocolat vs Chocolatine

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It’s a dispute that has divided France for centuries–what is the name of the chocolate-filled pastry treat?

While most of the nation, and foreigners to France, might say “pain au chocolat”, a stronghold in the southwest has withstood, pridefully, standing to the term “chocolatine”.

South-West France and South-East France are all bundled as “the South” and “Occitan culture” seen from abroad, but really both areas are quite different and are two separate cultures.

Now, the term “chocolatine” is actually the original term, and it most likely comes from Austria and German (in German, “pain au chocolat” is Schokoladenbrot, if you remove “brot” (bread) what remains is very close to chocolatine).

While croissants, chocolatines and such are worldly known as French pastries nowadays, they really come from Austria. The French call them “viennoiseries” (literally “things from Vienna”). And nobody really knows why the original term stuck in the South West while it was gradually replaced by a French term in the rest of the country.

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Alex
Alex
7 years ago

Coincidentally, the “Chocolatine” area was also the maximum extent of Arab military incursions in Francia.

Alex
Alex
7 years ago
Reply to  Alex

Also the hub of the Occitan culture, which had a different language as well. The cultures didn’t truly begin merging until the revolution in the late 18th/early 19th centuries — partially due to the government requiring the use of French as a language.

Alex
Alex
7 years ago

Francia vs. “Espanna La Menor” (nombre medieval)

Alex
Alex
7 years ago

I discover our French house is in the ‘Zone Chocolatine’.

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