Reservations Recommended, Chapter 4 continues: The food? Possibly. Most of what we eat here is stew of one sort or another, and that’s fine with us. Stew is the international dish of comfort and consolation. When a French maman sees that the family is un peu triste, we’re sure she makes bœuf bourguignon or cassoulet. Our own mom made chicken stew (with, unfortunately for the quality of our childhood memories, lima beans). It’s the spices that make stew different around the world, and here we find that there is always a flavor we can’t quite identify. ...