cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35679472
The taste of their food and beauty of their women made the British the greatest sailors on Earth.
I live in the UK. Tonight we had fresh haddock and chips, caught locally. Yesterday we had lamb curry, made with locally sourced lamb. Local produce is abundant, and high quality. How you cook it is up to you, but we also have some of the best chefs in the world.
Nice. It’s cool that curry has become a national English food. And well-made fish and chips is hard to top.
Local produce is abundant, and high quality.
French sounds of incredulity
Dans l’arène des imbéciles sans complexe méritant mépris, moqueries et mépris absolu, les Français trôneront toujours sur une tribune d’honneur. Cela est dû à leur provincialisme arrogant et absolu lorsqu’ils se proclament arbitres du goût. Leurs prétentions prétentieuses et élitistes à être la source des meilleurs délices épicuriens du monde ignorent toujours leur plagiat puéril des techniques, des saveurs et du talent artistique de leurs voisins européens, notamment italiens, et de leurs lieux de pillage asiatiques : les Indiens, les Chinois et les Japonais.
N’oubliez jamais de leur rappeler leur grossièreté inconsciente lorsqu’il est question de goût, d’art et de plaisir de vivre. Sinon, leur pompe étouffera tout.
Et surtout, faites-le en français. C’est le comble du bonheur que d’insulter les porcs français dans leur propre langue absurde ; c’est vraiment comme s’essuyer le derrière avec de la soie.
The Quebecois
Yeah, the produce is high quality… for your British standards.
I don’t remember where I heard/read it first, but someone said that the British eat like they’re still going through the blitz. I thought that was hilarious, and it seemed true.
We got bread. We got cheese. We got beans.
What more do you want?
Flavor
Salt?
Now that’s a pro’a bri’ish flavor
Sausages ?
Ah yes a banger in the mouth.
Including beans in breakfast is a British culinary achievement that I will never stop defending.
Beans for breakfast is also in Mexican food. So not weird to me.
As an American, I ate a sushirrito and a pizza sandwich.
Beans for breakfast upsets you, you haven’t lived.
Ate a what?
Oh no… no no no no no! This cannot be real
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Sounds like somebody never tried a warm plate of Scraggledy Numps, or a bowl of Thumps in a Bodice, or even a hot cup of Singeshammy Longerjohns in Tabbernickywammelty sauce.
I genuinely believe these are actual names of actual british foods.
Go back far enough, and you uncover dishes with wonderful names like Farts of Portingale.
well america has shit on a shingle
So called because the toast in military kitchens were nicknamed shingles, as in roofing tiles. Evocative of bad cooking, which I’m betting was rampant.
Honestly, shit on a shingle (s.o.s. appropriately) is better than it sounds, even when not referred to under that name. But it’s definitely a comfort food. It’s not good for you, it’s just creamy, beefy, and starch. Inoffensive, cheap, and easy to make in bulk. (Kinda want some now.)
Ever tried some bubble and squeak?
I had a hot cup of Singeshammy Longerjohns in Tabbernickywammelty sauce once.
Never again! I prefer mine cold.
British Food is awesome. It’s not very colorful or ultra complex but it’s the kinda food that warms the soul.
- A good Sunday Roast with yorkshire pudding, lamb, roasted potatoes, peas, and gravy
- Fish and Chips served with a good curry or mushy peas
- Fresh warm scones with clotted cream and jam
- A proper fry up with a cup of tea
- Beef Wellington
- Pie Mash
- Meat pies
- Bridies
- Scotch Eggs
- Minemeat Pies
- Spotted Dick (Yeah yeah)
- Treacle Tart
- Banoffee Pie
There are few things that bring me more joy than popping into a Greggs on a cold rainy morning for an overheated cup of generic tea and a sausage roll.
Those sound good to have now and then, but not every day
My mom dated a Englishman when I was a kid and he made us “Yorkshire Pudding” that shit was excellent.
The best 'Fish and Chips" are made at this little seaside rstaurant in Oregon and made with Salmon. They must have ran out of chips because I got French Fries instead. Was still excellent though.
Ba dum tiss!
Best Fish n’ Chips Ive had was at a small pub near the old harbor in Reyknavik, arguing with two brits about toy internet spaceships, where the fish was alive that morning.
Euro food is the best, even the simple things, its just better.
Euro food is the best, even the simple things, its just better.
I certainly wouldn’t want to limit myself to “Euro” food exclusively. It’s good, but so is Mexican, Argentinian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese etc. I love how diverse food culture is.
Some other great British dishes:
- Tikka Masala
- Shepherd’s/Cottage Pie
- Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Cornish Pasty
- Crumpets
- CUSTARD
Love Shepherd’s Pie
Still? Greggs is a rip off now and there are far too many of them. 16 in the damn centre of Manchester.
Just so none of us have to do a web search. What is spotted dick and why is it called that?
It’s basically a spongey, boiled (or steamed) cake thing with currents (the “spotted”) and spices. Normally served with custard. “Dick” is an archaic term for “pudding”, which is British for “broadly dessert, but not always”.
It’s really quite nice and I highly recommend it. Just saddled with an…unfortunate name.
Max Miller made it awhile back. https://youtu.be/xAp-FGyLkNM
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick
It’s a steamed suet pudding made with raisins or sultanas which make it look spotty.
Really not beating the allegations with that one.
“Dick” is an archaic way of writing dough. It can also be called spotted dog
I once had a conversation with my boss who was well-travelled. He said the secret to Europe is to eat in the Catholic countries. If you must spend time within a Protestant country, look around for a Catholic enclave within it. Not only will the food be superior, but people will be falling over each other to make sure you are well fed.
I looked at him incredulously. How can you say that? It’s such a sweeping generalization! And then I went to Europe…
I don’t know… my experience is that in Muslim communities they wont let you leave until your stomach explodes… then they offer you coffee and sweets to go with.
That’s good to know! Actually, now that I think of it, my wife and I visited the one and only mosque in our home town during a public event in a show of solidarity after it got vandalized. And I have to say, it was an absolute food fest in there!
It’s ok, we all think American food is shit too.
why
Their bread is sweet, their chocolate tastes like vomit, and everything has high fructose corn syrup in it
On the other hand, real Texas bbq is amazing
Yeah mass produced garbage is garbage, but there’s good food outside of that. 3-4 distinct bbq styles all great in their own right. Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. NY pizza, Detroit Pizza, Chicago Pizza and hot beef sandwiches. Biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, fried okra. Blackened seafood, crawfish boils, jambalaya, beignets. Where I’m at, smoked fish, wild rice, and pasties.
Are you saying that the popular outside image of the cuisine might be inaccurate then?
Yes. If you avoid the mass marketed junk food and chain restaurants, you can find some delicious and unique cuisine almost anywhere.
Yeah, it’s a shame how we’ve exported all of the worst of American cuisine. There is so much good shit
I would add “Tex Mex” among the list of good American food, along with “Chinese Food”.
By Chinese food of course I mean the food Chinese Americans and immigrants serve in the U.S. From what I understand it’s not really authentic Chinese food, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t tasty. I think it counts.
Say what you will about British food, but a full English breakfast is the best thing after night out drinking.
We have something similar in the US, but we leave out the beans because we are not savages.
So every morning then
England, Britain, it’s the same and of course the capital of Europe - France, OP. And the best English food? Curry. Says it all really. Scottish or Irish (yes, I know!) food is actually decent.
I honestly think British food is some of the most underrated in Europe. It is unfortunately a few years between each time I visit, but I am always blown away by the tea houses and pub food over there. Of course there is a lot of bad fastfood over there, but pointing to that alone would be like judging Norwegian food by our frozen pizza.
British food is still made either like the Luftwaffe is flying overhead or we are celebrating the fact that the war is over and we can cook with butter and oil again. There’s nothing in-between.
We’d hope y’all could come up with something better than deep-fried butter tho
Uhh, what could possibly be better than deep fried butter?!?
Butter-glazed butter-filled butter-fried butter fritters
With a beurre-blanc sauce
Have you smoked a spotted dick?
Not since boarding school…
I think the problem is that after the Second World War, Britain’s economy was so shot to hell that folks had to keep eating like the Luftwaffe was still blitzing London. That kept going on long enough to introduce generational trauma into British cuisine.
folks had to keep eating like the Luftwaffe was still blitzing London
To be more precise, they had to keep eating like the Kriegsmarine’s U-bootwaffe was still sinking the ships with the food.
To me, another be part of it is that the British seem to have an awful penchant for giving delicious things names that sound like Victorian euphemisms for something awful. Spotted dick and toad in the hole sound like they would be ways for Victorians to talk about their STIs, and I’m unsure what exactly Gentleman’s Relish would mean, but it strikes me as some sort of medieval form of punishment on the peasants.
Toad in the hole
My mom made these all the time when I was growing up, but she called them “Egg in a basket” 🥚 🧺. Sounds a lot nicer than “Toad in the hole”. 🐸 🕳️
I had grown up calling it that it would probably seem normal to me though.
Rationing in the UK went on until 1954, nine years after the war ended.
Why, though? I mean it’s not like Britain had to rebuild anything right?
About 65,000 tonnes of munitions were dumped on Britain during WW2 by the Luftwaffe - they did more than break a few windows with all that.
They quite literally did, Britain and France nearly merged their economies it was so bad. While the London blitz is the most well known part of the bombing campaign it was actually the end of it, early on the Germans were specifically bombing factories and agricultural infrastructure like say granaries.
Reminder Great Britain itself isn’t that big while still having a massive population, even while exploiting their colonies they were still massively hurting. Also converting their economy from a wartime one back to a civil one was slow as dick.
Makes sense.
We only finished repaying our WWII loans from the US and Canada in 2006
That’s how traditions are born.
Thanks to successive waves of immigration in the 20th century from India, Bangladesh, the Caribbean, Africa, China and others we actually have a pretty diverse and vibrant food culture.
Sadly a lot is still dominated by roast dinners and meat and two veg (one of those veg is always potato) but go to any major city and you’ll likely find excellent quality restaurants from pretty much every culture on earth.
Thanks to successive waves of immigration in the 20th century from India, Bangladesh, the Caribbean, Africa, China and others we actually have a pretty diverse and vibrant food culture.
OK, but the idea is that it’s the indigenous food that represents the place in question. The Indian (subcontinent), Caribbean, African, Chinese, etc cuisines count as the food culture of those places, not british food culture.
Don’t be like germans who are stupidly deluded enough to say “The döner was invented in germany” , when , no, it wasn’t invented in germany, it was invented in the ottoman empire. Also, Hans isn’t out back in the kebab shop busting his ass making that gigantic log of meat, it’s Ahmet. If you want to argue that derived foods that are based on local ingredients are part of the food culture of that place, that’s a more interesting debate that isn’t cut and dry; no one is selling kapsolon made with gouda cheese in İstanbul, nor are they making Tacos al Pastor with pork and pineapples.
British food is good. Kinda simple, but good. Just not legendary. It’s like a more mid version of itallian food; relies too much on fat and carbs and meat to feel delicious and satisfying, instead of advanced techniques or “just right” spice blends.
My point is that those immigrant communities have brought their food and their culture with them and they’ve created fusion dishes that have created a unique food culture, one that has itself been exported back abroad. Like I’ve said elsewhere, most of the dishes people associate with Indian food were actually created in Indian restaurants in Britain.
If only indigenous food counted, American cuisine is hominy and fry bread and Indian food is lentils.
Like I’ve said elsewhere, most of the dishes people associate with Indian food were actually created in Indian restaurants in Britain.
the absolute arrogance of this statement. Disgusting.
Lol, do some research. Tikka Masala, Balti, Korma, Butter Chicken, poppadoms, chutneys, all invented in British Indian restaurants.
I make no personal claim to any of them so how can it be arrogant at all.
Onto what, an Indian guy slightly changing the recipe for a curry leading the brits claiming that any curry served outside of india is based off the tikka masala? Get your own fucking cuisine to export you lazy gits.
If you’re not prepared to actually have a civil conversation, kindly fuck off you idiot.
No. The train was an indian invention, the reason countries except for britain and india have trains is because they are adapting to the mass transit ideas that are indian.
Sounds like you have had some shit roast dinners. A good roast dinner is amazing. I love all the foreign foods we have access to now as well, but our traditional cooking gets a lot of shit when really it’s just bad cooks. Although we do also have stuff like jellied eels and mushy peas, so I’m not saying it’s all good…
I love a roast, it’s one of my favourite meals, but a shit roast is proper shit.
I went eating at an Italian restaurant in, I don’t know, somewhere in the Highlands, and I haven’t been aware that it was run by Scottish people, including the kitchen. Our trip had many highlights and was really cool all in all, but that food has to be the deepest trench we had to pass through.
Yes but those are restaurants, im assuming grandma is still serving up run over peas and boiled potatoes
Fuck grandma, my roast dinners are an event. Got my roastie game en point, my yorkies are crispy and all the trimmings are standard. Plus the gravy, not to brag, will make you jizz your pants its that good.
Totally unrelated, but you made me question if the phrase is supposed to be “en pointe” like ballet or “on point.” after a little research, I’m guessing it’s “on point” but it seems like the etymology could be from ballet potentially, but it sounds like it isn’t likely. At the end of the day, it means exactly the same thing so it doesn’t really matter. I do find it funny you used “en point” instead of “en pointe” though. Halfway between the two I guess. Lol.
Honestly, getting it wrong in either sense might be the most British thing I’ve ever done.
One thing I’ve always wanted to try is a well made beef Wellington, looks tasty
Honestly, beef wellington isn’t bad or anything but it’s definitely overrated. Don’t bother trying to make one, just find one at a restaurant and wonder what the fuss was about.
Is just a fancy corn dog.
See, gravy is so easy - meat juice, stock, bit of balsamic - I think how can you fuck this up? Then you get gravy litteraly in any commercial setting, and… urgh…
Careful! Facts will damage the worn-out, out-dated stereotype!
don’t know if we can call that british food lol. That’s African, Chinese, etc foods
Many of those countries happened to be part of the British Empire. Technically, they were British.
