French traditional meal in winter - Raclette

During winter each year, French like having an important traditional meal to keep themselves warm - Raclette. This meal originally comes from Switzerland. 

My husband explained that it is for people who live in the mountain, imagine the weather is cold with the snow outside.... they need something to keep their bodies warm.

According to my parents-in-law, raclette this name is from the movement how we scrap the melted cheese to our plate.

In French, "Racler" = to scrap.

















The main ingredients of raclette are cheese, smoked meat, potatos and pickles!  
AND... Don't forget the wine haha! Which is really important for the French!

I have a friend who now lives in Germany, they said their German friends eat raclette but with different ingredients other than those 4 main ingredients.... I personally prefer French raclette. 

However, be careful of the following issue after having a raclette at home:

1. The whole house will smell cheese.If you like the cheese smell, that will be fine. Otherwise you will feel disgusted... after eating cheese and your tummy becomes too satisfied!

2. Do not drive right after the meal, you will feel sleepy after the meal. I have said at the beginning that this meal keeps your bodies warm... so after eating the raclette, drinking the wine (French wine of course!!) You can go straight to the bed!

You can see on the table there are smoked meat, sausage, different kinds of cheese and potato (oh pickles are hiding behind the wine glass at the left).

In the middle of the table, there is a raclette machine to heat up the cheese.
This machine has been bought since N years ago!! It is the modern version.

On the top you can see the potatos keep heating up.

The wine is not shown here (it's actually on the right side) but we DO have a bottle of French wine!