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

bah xpost

xpost Ally, they sort of look like that, but they're way better. More cakey.

Haha, that's the problem with flapjacks, you think "ooh, healthy oaty goodness!" and forget there's like 1000 calories in a bar. Think about it, they weigh about 500g each.

Read it here.

i remember no bread from my one trip to Berlin. only sausage. plenty, plenty sausage.

I think the joy of British food is that there are still distinct regional identities e.g. ask for Stargazey Pie outside Cornwall you'll get blank looks. Bath Chaps, Pan Haggerty, Pond Pudding etc. Some British foodies get all weepy eyed over the distinct cuisines of other countries (well you simply can't compare Calabria to any other region etc yawn) and forget that we have our own.

British food haters = ill informed.

this isn't true everywhere in the world?

i admit that i am scared of words like treacle and suet and "marrow jam". reminds me of that famous brit offal dude with the famous restaurant. the whole pig dude.

(Bit surprised that Orwell says back there that if you want a good cheap meal you'd go to a Greek or Chinese restaurant; I'd been led to believe you just didn't find such things until at least the 70s. Maybe you only did in London.)

things that are readily available in the US but are completely different in the UK

Saw a webpage recently that was some American kid going "holy crap WTF look at all the weird shit the Brits eat! Here is the British food I have been eating on my holiday" and it was, like, "Coke! In funny-shaped metric bottles! Salt and vinegar crisps, gross! [picture of a tin of Pringles] Curry sauce?! [picture of McDonalds sauce sachets]". Still not sure whether it was a joke.

The Royal Oak in Borough is good for pies as I think I mentioned up thread and i really like the square pie company chain doing take away boxes of pie, peas and mash.

My minging flatmate once bought some, and left half a loaf mouldering in a cupboard - the mould infected the wrapper too, crawled through the wrapper, and spread itself over the inside of her cupboard.

Scottish things and people that I like

It is horrible. My husband loves it and keeps buying it. It doesn't even fit in a toaster!

ALDOTM!

(it's the second of two google results for piece'n'mince)

k-OTM.

There are some brilliant places to eat in Glasgow, but I've found that if a restaurant has a Reputation or chic interior design, it's best avoided.

Ad-Lib's grey prawns and badly-spelled menu to thread!

this isn't true everywhere in the world?

That was my point, hence the Calabria dig. We get weepy eyed about cuisine de terroir, or difference in ham cures from one italian region to the next and yet forget our own.

those restaurants don't all serve British cuisine

The english language evolves constantly, taking on flavours from other cultures, why not the cuisine? An excellent point is made upthread about curry. Also, some of the restaurants listed serve french in the classical style, a style that was developed in part by imported British cooks. There was enormous crossover in the middle ages when the nation-state concepts of modern day "Britain" and "France" were significantly more ambiguous.

OTM! Thank God I'm going back up to Scotland next week! Bring it on!!!

The major chain grocer in Chicago (Jewel) has a multi-ethnic aisle that includes a British section. I wanted to try Spotted Dick, but it was unreasonably expensive, so I picked up another tasty-looking item, a can--I mean tin--of Heinz Curry Beans.

They.

Were.

VILE.

All I can taste now is cloves.

Should have gotten the Kit-Kat Chunky. I hear British mass market chocolate is way better than ours, even items of the same name.

Or maybe I should have shelled out for the Spotted Dick??

I had some very bland chips at Whaddon Road in 2003 with no not very melty cheese slices. My most notable memory of the day was the house right next to the football ground with a boarded up window where presumably a league two standard defensive hoof had smashed through it at some point.

Pie, peas, gravy and a sausage roll at Barnoldswick Town (@barlickfc)

💷 £5.50 pic.twitter.com/21EWlCWcH6

— Footy Scran (@FootyScran) December 1, 2022