British Food: Classic or Dud (S&D too)

guess

English muffins -- what do the English call them?

Marmite is the only thing I have purchased in the British aisle in Jewel. It was pretty expensive but well worth it. What's pretty stupid is that I hadn't had Marmite in years, and may well not have it again for years, but that one week I needed it really badly.

I'm not sure there's anything else that's all that different these days - I get my loose-leaf tea sent over from England, but could certainly get decent stuff here, and I don't eat much by way of chocolate bars, except plain dark chocolate that's just as available in the US.

Oh, wait a minute, I just remembered the nightmare that was shopping for the ingredients for Christmas pudding and mince pies. I never did find currants, for example (!).

yeah the US doesn't do sultanas either

The sultana grape is cultivated in the United States under the name Thompson Seedless, named after William Thompson, a viticulturist who was an early grower in California and is sometimes credited with the variety's introduction.[3][4] According to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, the two names are synonymous.[5] Virtually all of California raisin production (approximately 97% in 2000) and roughly one-third of California's total grape area is of this variety, making it the single most widely-planted variety.[6][4]

Not all speakers of English in Anglo America make clear distinctions between different types of dried grapes (raisins, sultanas, currants), and golden-coloured raisins made from other grape varieties may be marketed as sultanas. In addition, virtually all California raisins are produced from the Thompson Seedless grape, even those which, because of different drying processes, are not golden like the traditional sultana raisin. The term sultana is not commonly used to refer to any type of raisin in American English; as most American raisins are from sultana grapes, they are called simply raisins or golden raisins, according to colour. The latter, which at least in colour resemble the traditional sultana raisin, are artificially dried and sulfured, in distinction to "natural" raisins.[7] All non-organic sultana grapes in California and elsewhere are treated with the plant hormone gibberellin.

Hey! I'm eating currants RIGHT NOW!

Which I purchased from Jewel in your hood, Toby.

They are dried, don't know if that's what you were looking for.

I'm going to be in England in early December and I reserved a table for two at Fat Duck (Note: I'm not loaded lol--I'm an American writer, doy--I've just been dilligently saving my money for savory deliciousness).

Thing is, my GF isn't convinced it's such a good idea. If she flakes, is there an english ilXor who would be interested in being my dinner buddy? Maybe someone who also has trouble convincing his/her friends to make the trek to/spend money at places like this? It'll be fun! Send me a PM.

In light of the turn this thread took, I would like to point out that mass-produced items sold by the processed foods industry do not constitute "cooking", English or otherwise. Cooking is done in a kitchen, using identifiable ingredients. It does not consist of opening a can or removing a wrapper.

As noted many times already, good English cooks excel at savory pies and puddings, roasts, and various sweets. They seem to have no feel for vegetables whatever, unless you count potatos and even then not so much.

Are characteristic English soups any good?

Hmmm, I would say mostly no. The only soups of I can think of that people might call 'English' are either meaty (game soup, yuk, or the usually horrible Brown Windsor soup, basically beef stock with bits of beef floating in it) or half-English, like Mulligatawny (which can be delicious). And then there's completely not English soups like Scotch Broth (veg and meat) or that other Scottish favourite Cock-a-leekie (which can be quite nice).

I'm not sure I agree with you on your other points - I think good English cooks have quite a feel for veggies these days, I can't remember the last time I went to a decent restaurant and had bad veg, although tbf this was once commonplace.

And Whiney - if your GF is crazy enough not to want to go to the Fat Duck - I'm there!

(ps. does she not want to go because she thinks it'll be all clouds of fluff and bits of wood, because you can eat sort of 'normal' food there too...)

Dunno about British cuisine, but hot damn there are a whole lot of fantastic Indian restaurants over there. Also Weetabix - There is no American equivalent of this delicious (and convenient!) breakfast treat.

As Wheetabix is to Frosted Flakes, so I Love Books is to I Love Everything.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/7652487.stm

You can buy Weetabix in the US, though. I think Whole Foods has it - certainly some supermarket chain round here does, anyway.

Fat Duck was so, so good last time I went there. Jealous.

I bought Weetabix in Canada once but it was ludicrously expensive

I saw Weetabix in Cost Plus last week (while buying McVitie's digestive biscuits and Hobnobs), but didn't notice the price.

And Whiney - if your GF is crazy enough not to want to go to the Fat Duck - I'm there!

(ps. does she not want to go because she thinks it'll be all clouds of fluff and bits of wood, because you can eat sort of 'normal' food there too...)

She's mad picky. She's vegetarian but has a list of vegetables she doesn't like a mile long. They told me they could make her a veg version of the tasting menu, but she's also not a glutton like me and doesn't know if she can handle a bazillion courses. Plus we're only in London two days and I don't want to drag her some place she's not pumped about.

So, seriously, if you're into the idea, drop me a sitemail. Since you'd be doing me (and her) a HUGE favor, I'd only expect you to bring the £££s for your wood-and-fluff tasting menu order (they seem adamant that everyone at the table order it) order and whatever drinks you want. I'll be a good host and pay our tip, I'll cover our train/taxi ride to come from London (is that where you're at?), and buy you a celebratory beverage if applicable.

Then we can post about what we ate!

That pork pie news linked to above is excellent. WRT English soups: pea and ham is a bit of a classic.

There is that, but generally Scottish soups >>> English soups by a large margin.

Potato Pete makes a good soup

Ah, but like Hitler, he has eyes everywhere.

I've got this book: The Taste of Britain, which is awesome. 450 pages of every british food you can think of, arranged by region - not really recipes as such, just a piece on the history of the dish and the techniques used to make it, and sometimes tips on where to get the choicest cuts. And not just proper foods like scratchings, black pudding and gingerbread - Tizer, Vimto and 'Tally's' Ice-Cream get just as much attention

I've got this book...
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518Q5Y0QQJL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
...which sounds suspiciously similar, i.e. Vimto, Tizer, etc. It's an excellent inventory of British food, paid for by the EU, perhaps unsurprisingly.

Not a lot about soups though!

I've been meaning to check that out, but the price tag is a bit off putting. Well worth getting is 'In Search of Food: Traditional Eating and Drinking in Britain' by Richard and David Mabey, it's about 30 years old but much of the stuff they were covering was already just about extinct, wiped away by the then growing supermarket culture.

This is a good cook book on British food as well.

Definitely, and actually cookable, which is always a bonus.
Gary Rhodes 'New British Classics' is really good too but has a picture of him on the front so I won't link to it.

You can pick up Jane Grigson's guide to British cookery (which has info and recipes and is very good [although naturally a bit out of date now being well over 20 years old]) for a penny on Amazon, bargain!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/03/06/britain.restaurant.blumenthal.sick/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Just weeks after I ate there too. Guess I'm stickin to the $5 footlongs.

I think the appearance of Ann Coulter in the ad next to that article is more frightening.

I can't help thinking that there's an element of misremembering/hysteria creeping in to this story. How was your meal anyway?

yeah it's all over the papers here. how was yr meal whiney?

Two of my friends ate there a couple of weeks ago and went down with something very nasty shortly afterwards. I don't know what misremembering/hysteria you could be talking about. Maybe a few people are jumping on the bandwagon but there's definitely something pretty grim in that kitchen.

What's really weird is they haven't worked out what it could be yet.

time jumping sickness obviously

Those of you looking for Heston food can go to the Little Chef he took over instead.

How was your meal anyway?

I mean easily the best or second best meal of my life, obviously. Not getting sick helped. the bacon and egg ice cream is 1000 times better than it sounds. Half the joy is on the presentation, when you're invited to see something or smell something or read something with your course. The best was "Sounds Of The Sea," where they brought out a little conch shell with an ipod mini inside, and you listen to lapping waves while you eat mollusks and sea weed and mystery foam.

they don't tell you what any of the stuff on the Sea course is until afterwards, so you just listen to the seagulls and imagine walking on the beach, picking up random shit and eating it like a caveman.

when this is all over with, i'm betting 50:1 that something on the Sounds Of The Sea course is what's making people sick. Some weird clam or something.

Really enjoyed him on the telly the other night, except for the really annoying selection of guests.

I missed the Victorian Ejaculating Cake!

it didn't miss me :(
victorian bucake

They need to send Gordon Ramsay in there to clean that shit up ASAP.

What's really weird is they haven't worked out what it could be yet.

Erm, well, yeah precisely. It seems to be a bit odd that people who hadn't said anything until now are suddenly piping up. "Oh, yeah I was sick after being there" when asked by someone. And at the height of the vomiting big season too.

Vomiting bug.

conversely no-one has died from eating at Little Chef since the revamp. really makes you think.

i'm betting 50:1 that something on the Sounds Of The Sea course is what's making people sick. Some weird clam or something.

This seems to have been ruled out.

The entire menu was tested but all results proved negative. Final tests are being carried out to see if an airborne virus caused the sickness.

Isn't Blumenthal just a media-friendly Ferran Adrià aping baw?

No.

Despite this being reported on Tuesday the news is still being reported as "food poisoning". There's a certain amount of schadenfreude in much of the reporting.

"Essence of polonium"

i can see how a virus could spread in there: it's VERY tight quarters and people are coming from all over Britain to congregate in a little room and eat snailz