what does it mean? *feels sheepish now*
― blueski, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 17:53 (sixteen years ago) link
1. rez
Native American slang for "reservation," as in "on the Indian reservation."
Ayy, there's always a party Saturday night on the rez, man.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:01 (sixteen years ago) link
serious lols @ anyone voting for anything from UK
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Someone's already claimed they're voting for Russia, which is absolute insanity.
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:02 (sixteen years ago) link
maybe they like cabbage and a whole lot? even still, there are better cabbage countries ...
http://www.thinkvitamin.com/images/articles/features/cal/trifle.jpg
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:03 (sixteen years ago) link
-- remy bean, Wednesday, January 2, 2008 6:01 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link
whole poll is ridic, but we get a claim on anglo-indian food and shit i dunno maybe food from the many other places we lorded it over, so we break even. eat that, france.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:05 (sixteen years ago) link
culinary imperialism?
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:05 (sixteen years ago) link
wtf did tuomas just explain something to somebody else?
― darraghmac, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:06 (sixteen years ago) link
you know tuomas is all about indians, man
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:07 (sixteen years ago) link
.jpg
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:08 (sixteen years ago) link
who needs culinary imperialism when you've got a pork pie?
― blueski, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:08 (sixteen years ago) link
-- remy bean, Wednesday, January 2, 2008 6:05 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
yes, england, alone among european nations, has been prone to imperial adventures on occasion. our national fuckin' drink comes from the empire. there isn't really a 'british cuisine'.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link
good:
spain italy france belgium germany (pastry) portugal turkey
okay:
everything else
crap: wales latvia
who the fuck knows:
cyprus faroe islands
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:10 (sixteen years ago) link
cyprus
who indeed
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:13 (sixteen years ago) link
i didn't really have any good food when i went to berlin except for a hungarian goulash and 'austrian-style' fried chicken at cafe einstein
― blueski, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:14 (sixteen years ago) link
crap:
wales
Rarebit isn't to be fucked with.
― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:14 (sixteen years ago) link
crap: latvia
Your best bet in the Baltic states is the resturant chain Cilli Kamas (I think that what it was called) which serves traditional fare and is actually rather good.
― chap, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:15 (sixteen years ago) link
isn't cypriot food mostly just greek food? wiki says halloumi comes from cyprus, and that is good. so +1 for cyprus
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:17 (sixteen years ago) link
at any rate, all Euro food beats Newfoundland food hands down.
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:19 (sixteen years ago) link
NEWFOUNDLAND FLIPPER PIE
* 4 seal flippers * 1 L water * 500 ml soda * 125 ml fat pork, diced * 1 cup milk * 2 onoins, chopped * 5 ml salt * 60 ml flour * 250 ml cold water * 5 ml Worcestershire sauce
Soak flippers in 1 L of water and soda. Trim off excess fat. dry flippers and dip in seasoned flour. Brown in pork fat. Add onions and make a gravy of flour, water, and sauce. Pour over flippers. Cover and bake at 160o C for 2-3 hours. Make a pastry and cover the flippers. Bake at 220oC for 30 minutes. Serves 6-8.
FRIED COD TONGUES
* 32 cod fish tongues * 1 1/2 cups of flour * 3 tbsp. margarine or cooking oil * 1 tsp. salt * 1/2 tsp. pepper
Carefully wash fresh cod tongues and dry in a paper towel. Put flour, salt, and pepper together in a plastic page. Add tongues and shake until they are covered evenly with flour. Melt margarine in a large saucepan. Add tongues and cook until golden brown. Serve hot, with mashed potatoes, carrots, and green peas, garnished with lemon wedges on a lettuce leaf.
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Cypriot food is miles better than Greek food. It has as much in common with Turkish as Greek, less of an emphasis on one big dish at a time (hence the meze, the olives'n'pitta side-dishes aplenty and the assortment of meats), and more halloumi.
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
i got completely sick of halloumi but probably just because i kept over-frying it.
― blueski, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
it's not a very original answer, but i've been going through a french food renaissance lately, both as a cook and a diner.
― get bent, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Spain and France tie for me, so I'm voting Andorra.
And people slagging off British/English/any part of the Uk food - do you really know what the fuck you're talking about? Honestly?
― Porkpie, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:24 (sixteen years ago) link
yay!
― blueski, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:46 (sixteen years ago) link
I found outside of London the food was really terrible, sorry. Soggy chips served with every meal, instant coffee, poor quality overpriced red meat. Curries were nice in Brum tho.
I voted for Italy.
― Trayce, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:50 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm voting germany because I think overall I prefer their combination of drink and foodstuffs over any other. there are certainly many things italy and spain can do that are above and beyond all challengers but neither approaches the total package according to me
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Where's Liechtenstein?
― Ludo, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Can there be any doubt as to how I voted?
― Michael White, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Trayce where the heck were you eating? Aberdeen Steakhouses?
― Porkpie, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Not even that good! I was staying in the country and eating at shitty diners, casual eateries, Wimpys, that kind of thing. I judge a place as much on its cheap food as its posh stuff, and I wasn't inspired. In fairness the home cooking I was served was nice (gammon and things yum) but god, enough with the chips.
― Trayce, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link
I should be fair and point out that if you ate in rural Australia you'd likely be equally revolted as it happens.
― Trayce, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:00 (sixteen years ago) link
they have Wimpys in the country? huh
― blueski, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I was going to say, rural WA had some absolute howlers.
And Angus steakhouses = the absolute Nadir of eating in the UK - Wimpy = twice as good IMO.
― Porkpie, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:03 (sixteen years ago) link
it must be difficult for tourists coming here to find what could be classed as 'British food' outside of the bog-standard variety served in most pubs tho (as opposed to UK takes on American fare). you'd have to research in advance to pick out gastropubs with the best ratings.
i would like to, just every now and then, go out for dinner at an actual restaurant serving trad British dishes, nothing too fancy but not like Harvester standard either. this is seemingly very difficult.
― blueski, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:07 (sixteen years ago) link
rivington grill was good the couple of times i went.
― lauren, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:19 (sixteen years ago) link
pub food in ireland is normally pretty good, in my experience.
― darraghmac, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:24 (sixteen years ago) link
It'd be hilarious if the Netherlands won. Belgium? I think our food is quite good but certainly no contender.
― stevienixed, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I think I just voted for Turkey
― nabisco, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:42 (sixteen years ago) link
only the dark meat, though
France scores pretty highly for its cheap food as well, you can go to an auberge mostly frequented by lorry drivers in some village in the middle of nowhere and still get a really good meal, incomparable to what you'd get in an equivalent establishment over here. It's kind of a cliche to say that but in my experience it's true.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:44 (sixteen years ago) link
I slag off the food having lived on it for a year.
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:46 (sixteen years ago) link
To be fair, you should also hear me bag on the american protestant meat & potatoes fare i spent 17 years eating.
― remy bean, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:48 (sixteen years ago) link
-- remy bean, Wednesday, January 2, 2008 6:01 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link
it's actually kind of heartbreaking to be honest
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:50 (sixteen years ago) link
I am voting Germany, because sausage plus beer plus sweet white wines = heaven and I want to be a little contrary, but really France or Italy should just kill this.
― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:51 (sixteen years ago) link
It's not terribly difficult to find good Scottish food when eating out up here, with not a chip in sight. Game, haggis, Aberdeen Angus steaks, Scottish lamb, Ayrshire potatoes, OM NOM NOM. Then we have whisky and Deuchars IPA and heather ale and Mackies ice-cream (and Irn Bru and deep fried mars bars, obviously).
― ailsa, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 21:54 (sixteen years ago) link
i spent a week eating UK food in London in late March. I recall eating in at least two better-known trad pubs and one contempo-ish one, church cafeterias, a Brick Lane curry place, a mod-ish chippie and a mid-range purportedly contemporary-French-influenced place in addition to takeaway sandwiches and pasties. The overwhelming flavor profile was bland/indistinct (if not in a few cases outright unpleasant), weaker than the rather good beer it seemed better-suited to than wine. the overwhelming texture was mushy or close to it. quality ingredients were rare, and what light foods I had seemed somewhat misunderstood by those who produced them. while hearty meats and grains could be quite satisfying, fruits and vegetables (potatoes don't count) appeared largely as afterthoughts, punctuation. the better foods I had went some measure to cut through the fog by introducing some minor but essential sharpness in the form of "curry," yeast, lemon, tomato, cheese and/or vinegar. they were also more often the non-british (indian or gastro pizza) or simply uncooked-or-even-composed (salad greens, cheese) meals. i'm sure there are many much poorer cuisines, but that doesn't mean it compares to what I get at home (or the no-better-than-bistro-level places I ate at in Paris). this could just be my native palate talking, but british cuisine is being defended by those whose palates are most accustomed to it as well. It's also entirely possible I just picked unwisely as blueski said.
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 22:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Pubs - which ones? I could probably tell you whether or not the food is any cop at any of them.
Chippie - chances are it was crap, good chippies are increasingly few and far between, especially in London.
Brick Lane - almost certainly awful
As I hinted at upthread, the overwhelming problem with British food in pubs and some restaurants is a sense of 'will this do?' half-arsedness you get throughout the UK service industry (especially the bits tourists are likely to be coming across). There are a loads of good non-gastropubs for food in London but they're diluted by so many serving pretty bland stuff.
Really if you want to have good British food you're best off being invited into someone's house, even then I think there are several countries here that would comfortably beat any part of the UK.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 22:28 (sixteen years ago) link
The terrible reputation of traditional British food is a little undeserved but I'm not really going to defend it because of the nationalities on this list I would claim to have tried there are hardly any I'd be happy saying it's better than (lots of countries I know almost nothing about food-wise though).
There's good food in rural UK pubs and restaurants but it must be impossible to find the ones which don't just do soggy chips, cz chain anything is usually bad news so local knowledge required (lol food rockist?) and even £15+ main courses and the gastropub compulsion for unnecessarily fancy side ingredients on everything is no guarantee of anything being worth the money (and sadly for the most part any "British"-style restaurant or pub which wants to look like it has good cooking will be about that expensive or worse, which must be an automatic point-docker for the UK).
I mean whenever I've been in Ireland we've been at a total loss as to where to eat and ended up going for sandwich + soggy chips or Wagamama, but I'm sure that's not because Irish food's bad, just because we didn't know where to look.
I was very happy with all my meals when I was in Germany but they were pretty much all fried pork + maybe some mushroom sauce + a mountain of carbohydrates so I'm a little puzzled any time anyone votes for it (though German breakfasts and cake shops are beautiful, beautiful things) (and, oh yeah, sausages, wines, all the Christmas gingerbreads, FEDERWEISSER!!"£$*... oh hell, maybe Germany it is! no, no, that cannot be)
― a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 22:31 (sixteen years ago) link
pubs - Bank of England, Ye Olde, mod/yuppie-ish place up in NW somewhere with quite good pizza chippie - in Peckham, taken by local more-than-half-merkin, the contempo stuff my friend had was much better than the trad stuff i thought i should try Brick Lane - don't remember, but was really pretty good
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 22:32 (sixteen years ago) link