What is “tigre qui pleure” (crying tiger)?
Tigre qui pleure d’amour pour la Saint-Valentin
A2 French listening practice · Belgian French · Curated for beginners
This Valentine’s recipe leans on a dish with an irresistible name: «la sauce du tigre qui pleure» (“the crying tiger sauce”). Le tigre qui pleure (“the crying tiger”) is a Thai grilled-beef dish, hugely popular in France, named for the fiery, tangy dipping sauce said to make even a tiger weep.
The video plays on the name for Valentine’s, a tiger “crying with love.” The marinade is pure French-Thai fusion: sauce soja, sauce huître, and nuoc-mâm (fish sauce), then a quick sear. France’s love of Thai food means dishes like this keep their evocative names untranslated, which is half the fun of the menu.
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Words above this video’s level
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸On the menus of Thai restaurants across France.
- ▸French cooking channels and food bloggers doing Thai recipes.
- ▸In French Valentine’s Day dinner ideas.
- ▸Alongside other untranslated dish names like pad thaï and bo bun.