Why Is British Food So Monumentally Bad?

It''s been a stereotype for ages, but it''s most definitely true. Why can''t they cook?

• You''ve never had a good scone with homemade preserves.

• I lived in the UK and you''re silly, uninformed or a twit. I had excellent food, and not just in the posh restaurants in London. Traditional street and fast food still is great, with fish and chips and a range of fine old oddities available. Plenty of wonderful fish - best sole I''ve ever had. Pakistani, Indian, French, Caribbean, Chinese restaurants are all over. You can get great Scottish and Australian beef. The lamb is great and I could get wonderful mutton, which I never can find in the States. Greengrocers are more plentiful. Home cooks are savvy. Dairy is fresher and you can get better cheeses because they''re not paranoid about pasteurizing absolutely everything. I could get goat''s milk cheaper than stateside. \ \ What the hell are you talking about?

• I have nothing against British food. It''s just that "fish and chips" is not a great example.

  Anonymous

• r2 = douche of the century. You must write the tourist brochures in the UK, Pollyanna. lmao!

• The English were the Klingons of Europe throughout much of their history - going out and conquering less warlike populations; focused on hierarchy, tribal affiliation, and empire. Klingon food probably wouldn''t be so great, either.\ \ England isn''t a a world power anymore, but they still haven''t learned to cook.

• Even we wouldn''t eat that shit.

  The Klingons

• Bangers and mash. Yum.

  Ciaran

• Ever had Haggis? These people don''t have taste buds.

• We just give the awful stuff to foreigners.\ \ No but seriously, if you look in the right places the good food is there.

  Anonymous

• My British friend brought me back spotted dick from his last trip back home. I took one bite and had to choke back tears, it was so nasty.

• That would be great except you don''t have any British friends, r10. Or any friends, let''s be totally frank.

• As a Brit, I wouldn''t say that our food is particularly bad as such. The problem with British food is that far too much of it is processed rubbish.\ \ In my experience, food in other countries is simpler, tastier, fresher, and comparatively cheaper.

• I''m not surprised Spotted Dick was nasty if it''d travelled all the way to the US. If you cook any desert, then put it on a plane for 8 hours it''s going to be vile. Get someone to cook one from scratch for you. Unless you mean the canned kind which I''ve heard of but never actually seen. That definitely isn''t a good example of traditional British food.

• Cheese on toast: a national delicacy!

• Says the OP - from the country who invented "surf and turf"

  Bleeeeeeeeuuuugh!!!

• Klingon food is still moving.

• Their everyday food is weird. I know, I lived with one for three years. In an email, a friend, who was at work, wrote, must end here and have lunch...a tin of baked beans and (something I can''t remember).%0D\ %0D\ I wrote back, when do you think war rations will end?%0D\ %0D

• The real answer is that the majority of British homes did not have stoves until the 1st quarter of the 20th century. For some reason they hung on to their open fireplaces for dear life; consequently, the majority of British food was boiled, stewed or something that could be put on a fork and toasted over the fire. Even with the acceptance of stoves, they held on to the food that they knew. *British* food is generally bad. That is not to say that one cannot get good food from other cultures in Britain, but don''t confuse the two. A good curry is not good British food.

• R8, haggis is Scottish, not English.

• I think the real answer has to do with the deprivations of two world wars in a row. People learned to live with less--almost nothing--boil meat, oatmeal in the morning, canned spam (if they were lucky) etc and then it was hard to go back to a fully developed cuisine. \ \ The "British food" jokes are a relic of WWII and the period(s) after imho. But it''s a bit silly now. Some of the best food in the world can be eaten at London restaurants and the markets, bakeries etc have some of the best ingredients etc.

• British ''cuisine'', much like British ''fashion'' is an oxymoron. \ \ Then again, Americans don''t have fancy English accents, so I suppose it''s a wash.

  No, no it isn''t.

• I''m not particular fond of their usage of mince in their dishes (I have similar distaste for Spain using the flavor of oranges in their custom dishes) not even in their desserts (I probably ate five pieces of After Eight chocolate in my entire life).\ \ The closest dish I use that could be vaguely considered British is grilled Sireloin steak with rosemary potatoes and vegetables.

• If you want the true reason and aren''t just trolling - %0D\ %0D\ Traditionally, British food was the product of a highly agricultural society on a relatively small island of temperate climate. The inhabitants made use of the available material.%0D\ %0D\ As that society progressed, a degree of innovation became possible, but initially only amongst the wealthy. Still very traditional, but there was some innovation.%0D\ %0D\ The real problem only came much later, with the Victorians. %0D\ %0D\ Under their (hypocritically) strict sense of morality, food itself became of secondary importance to the battleground of etiquette and good manners that every dining table had become.%0D\ %0D\ Ironically, at a time when Britain had access to an array of foodstuffs unheard of in history, food became blander and blander, and the eating of bland British fare became a sign of cultural superiority...%0D\ %0D\ However, that has changed dramatically in the last 20-30 years.

• We don''t use mince in our desserts, r22.%0D

  Ewwwwwww

• [quote]We don''t use mince in our desserts, [R22]\ \ Yes, you do.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mince_pie

• OP hasn''t visited Britain since 1945.

• Could someone explain what a pudding is? It seems to be a catch-all, misc. kind of category, as in, we don''t know what the hell to call it, so we''ll call it a pudding.

• Another example of mincemeat used in desserts

  http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art7253.asp

• A "mince" pie is not an everyday dessert.%0D\ %0D\ And if you tried putting real mince in one nowadays (unless you are some posho-asshole like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall) people would beat you with sticks.%0D\ %0D\ As I say - Ewwwwwwwww!!!

  Times - and palettes - change

• Sorry, r28 - that''s the same stuff as in R25.

• I''ll take Spotted Dick for dessert any time.

• That Wikipedia article manages to completely obscure the fact that mince pies don''t have meat in them. They may have done in Victorian times, but they certainly don''t now. They are made of raisins and spices with suet and I think they''re horrible. Christmas pudding, however, can be wonderful if it has enough nuts and alcohol in it.

• This is coming from an [bold]American[/bold]?!?

  Ronald McOffal

• I''ll tell you why our cooking is so fucking appalling - we dedicate our time instead to perfecting the best blow jobs in the world :)))))%0D\ %0D\ x.%0D\ %0D

  Lucy J.

• [quote]A "mince" pie is not an everyday dessert.\ \ It''s a dessert. You claimed there''s NO mince used in desserts. You were proven wrong and try to wiggle your way out of your own claim like a worm.

• British food is amazing. Admittedly it declined in the postwar years and has only recently recovered, but some of the UK;s finest restaurants are famous for serving BRITISH food. \ \ Things like baked beans and mince pies may be an acquired taste, but they are really nostalgia foods - things people eat because they had them as kids. I love beans on toast, but I''m not kidding myself that it''s haute cuisine.\ \ If you want good British food, try Rules on Maiden Lane, one of the finest game restaurants I''ve ever visited; or Bentley''s Oyster Bar and Grill in Mayfair; Or J Sheekey in Covent Garden. \ \ Then, come back to me and complain about British food!!!

• OP: the food of the average person in the U.S. is just as disgusting as that of the U.K. And the fast food is as equally revolting...as demonstrated by the endless DL threads about the food at Wendys -- or Entermann''s crap cakes!! The upper middle class eat exceedingly well. The only difference between UK and US is the massive consumption of alcohol by all classes, from Buckingham Palace down.

• R36, in the states, we call that comfort food...basic meals or dishes you grew up with and you turn to when you are feeling depressed, sad or whatever as an adult

• Not quite, r35 -%0D\ %0D\ I said that there is no mince in mince pies.%0D\ %0D\ In my experience, there is none.%0D\ %0D\ Your "argument" is therefore historical. Mine is objective.%0D\ %0D\ You lose.

• Good Lord, I live a stone''s throw from Bentley''s and eat there often. Odd to see my favorite resto mentioned here. I''ve eaten all over the world and I can tell you that Bentley''s ranks right up there with the best without being boringly posh.

• r37, the United States is a huge country. It has millions of different restaurants and cuisines. It also has a large amount of fast food chains. It has everything. It''s also a melting pot and has every type of exotic food on the planet because of it. Its cuisine spread out all throughout the country. In Britain, the amount of crappy food is dominate. It''s a much smaller country, thus, it has a higher rate of horrible food. So much so, that its horrible taste is stereotyped. The French also play it up all the time. British youth especially lives off of American fast food chains. Brits drink and smoke at a rate that I can''t believe they''re not all dead by the time they hit 45!

• I really don''t know what the fuss is about. Britain WAS known for having poor food...maybe 50 years ago. Things have changed dramatically.\ \ It is odd that a thread such as this would be started by an American who''s country is known for the worst food in the world.

• ''Mince meat'' does not contain meat; although historically it did. There is no meat in mince pies (or any similar dish). %0D\ %0D\ Mince pies are also not a dessert. They are a snack or sweat treat, but wouldn''t be served as a dessert (or pudding). %0D\ %0D

• [italic]who''s country is known for the worst food in the world.[/italic]\ \ But whose education system is obviously better than the Brit''s.

• [quote]The real answer is that the majority of British homes did not have stoves until the 1st quarter of the 20th century. For some reason they hung on to their open fireplaces for dear life; consequently, the majority of British food was boiled, stewed or something that could be put on a fork and toasted over the fire. Even with the acceptance of stoves, they held on to the food that they knew.%0D\ %0D\ Historical bullshit, R18. Gas stoves were commonplace from the 1880s in the U.K., and other forms of proper metal stoves (not toasting forks, spits, and iron kettles over open fires) were in common use from at least the thrid quarter of the 18thC. %0D\ %0D\ At link, an 1859 stove manufactured in Exeter, typical of middle class and lower middle class homes.

  http://www.exeterfoundry.org.uk/stoves/barnstaple1859.jpg

• *In Britain, the amount of crappy food is dominate. It''s a much smaller country, thus, it has a higher rate of horrible food. So much so, that its horrible taste is stereotyped. The French also play it up all the time. British youth especially lives off of American fast food chains. Brits drink and smoke at a rate that I can''t believe they''re not all dead by the time they hit 45!*\ \ Wow, talk about not knowing what you''re talking about, not to mention the over arcing generalizations that just don''t and never did make any sense.\ \ Darling? Before making such grand pronouncements, you really should go to the actual country you claim to be an expert on.

• [quote]In my experience, there is none.\ \ You outed your own experience and knowledge in historical quisine as limited. That''s supposed to give your claim any credit at all?\ \ [quote]You lose.\ \ You are winning like Charlie Sheen is winning. Congrats.

• [quote] Brits drink and smoke at a rate that I can''t believe they''re not all dead by the time they hit 45!\ \ Life expectancy UK: 79.8\ \ Life expectancy USA: 79.6

  http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/profiles/

• .

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1037116/The-REAL-health-map-Britain-From-lowest-life-expectancy-fattiest-diet-likely-fare.html

• I live in Manhattan, and can walk into a random restaurant and get a terrific meal at least 95% of the time. In London, there''s good food around, but you have to research, and ask people where to go. To walk into a restaurant in London, without knowing anything about it, can get you a plate of truly inedible food.

• Have any of you ever actually BEEN to the United Kingdom?\ \ There is so much ignorance in this thread! Mince pies are a Christmas tradition and haven''t had meat in them for like 100 years or something. Only an idiot would think this contains meat.\ \ Here''s what mincemeat has in it. Most of us buy it in jars, ready-made. Then the classier of us put in our own extra ingredients like chopped glace cherries, chopped nuts and sherry.\ \ The Wiki article is shockingly incorrect. No one puts meat in mincemeat anymore. No one. It''s considered absolutely weird it was ever there in the first place.

  http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/mincemeat/home-made-christmas-mincemeat.html

  ayb

• r50, where the hell were you in London? The east side? London is known the world over for having the best restaurants anywhere. I live in Mayfair and can''t think of one bad restaurant within a five mile radius of where I live.\ \ Hint: when traveling, don''t cheap out and stay in the worst hovels in the worst parts of town.

• These threads are so transparent. Usually started and posted to by seethingly jealous Americans who can''t quite get it through their inbred noggins that they''re *NOT number one, NOT number one!*

  Good Lord...there are SOME things you Yanks can be proud of isn''t there?

• [quote]Pakistani, Indian, French, Caribbean, Chinese restaurants are all over. \ \ These are great examples of "British" food, R2! Thanks for playing!

• "You outed your own experience and knowledge in historical quisine as limited. That''s supposed to give your claim any credit at all?"%0D\ %0D\ OH DEAR...

  What is this "quisine" of which you write?

• R27, we call dessert pudding. It''s a simple as that. All desserts are puddings.

• [quote]But whose education system is obviously better than the Brit''s.%0D\ %0D\ Evidently not.

• And while we''re "oh, dear"-ing...\ \ "In Britain, the amount of crappy food is dominate"\ \ Dominate? Really? Are you sure? I mean, are you REALLY sure you didn''t perhaps mean to write "dominant"? (Which still makes for a VERY clumsily constructed sentence, by the way...)\ \ \ Oh, dear indeed.

  It''s ok, you''re an American. We don''t expect much of you.

• Google image search for American food...view at your risk or have a barf receptacle close at hand.

  http://www.google.ca/search?q=american+food&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=lWa5TcH4KsLFgAeTz-1c&ved=0CEUQsAQ&biw=1579&bih=780

• this coming from a country that put cheese in a can...!%0D\ %0D\ britian may have had an old stigma for bad food from back when the rationing was going on but that has long since gone. today you can find some of the best reastuants in the world in london, liverpool etc.%0D\ Also this coming from an american, whos country has the reputation for the worst food in the world! %0D\ %0D\ oh and by the way we dont put minced meat in our mince pies stupid and havn''t in like 50 years, if you gave a brit a minced pie with meat in it we would throw it back at you.%0D

• R45, Sorry, but you are wrong. The majority of British homes did not have stoves until the 1920s. Many homes still did not have stoves in the post WWII period. That is not to say that they did not exist, but on a per capital basis, they were not the norm. Because of its strict class system, Britain had a *much* smaller middle class than the USA. The majority of Britains would fall into the cottager/trades person/agricultural classes. These people did not have stoves as a rule. And perversely would often not use a stove for cooking even if they had a small one for heating purposes. I won't bore you with a lecture on the British class system, but to large degree it was self imposed. Many people did not have stoves because "our class" does not own a stove. To own a stove would be see as "trying to be better than one ought to be." Also, there was the sentimental affection of "Cottage Life". The late Victorians romanticized cottage life as a bucolic ideal. Cooking over an open hearth was considered more "pure" than using a stove. And of course the middle class Victorians felt it necessary to impose these ideas on the cottage class for the cottagers own good and moral improvement. Third, the open hearth was closely associated with national identity. A great deal of Europe heated with tile stoves; consequently, Britain held tight to their open hearths as a sign of national pride. There is a famous essay arguing for the superiority of the open hearth over the stove by one of the early 20th century Arts and Crafts Architects. Also, may I remind you that we are discussing "Britian", not just England.

• Mince contains suet ... where do you think that comes from?

• I heard the slip a bit of rat into everything. Disgusting!

• Good old fashioned American piggery.

  http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P_VlOz4p0WA/TA-2b4VncvI/AAAAAAAAB3U/wm27JII269U/s1600/fat+kid+eating.jpg

• Demanding American pig-child eating the best teh US has to offer.

  http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cXiE_PsrymA/TLW6kZcK6XI/AAAAAAAAASU/I7cCnbUmWNQ/s1600/fat+kid+eating.jpg

• 63 you are a retard! if i told you that ombama was white i supose you would believe that too.

• "Many people did not have stoves because "our class" does not own a stove. To own a stove would be see as "trying to be better than one ought to be.""%0D\ %0D\ I would refer you to my parents and their siblings (now all aged 80+) who would all give you the same answer -%0D\ %0D\ Codswallop.%0D\ %0D\ And they all come from poor mining families...%0D

• walk into almost any pub at lunchtime and you can get the best steak and kidney pie with mashed potatoes and peas. Heaven.

• I used to have an English bf and I liked a lot of what he would cook but I did notice that he boiled the fuck out of veggies. I like them steamed with some crunch still in them. He also only ate his potatoes roasted along with the meat and everything he ate was drowned in gravy. I don''t get the canned beans thing especially in the morning. Makes me gag.

• r62, a modern mince pie does not contain suet. If it did, the vast majority of people would not buy them.

• I think a lot of British food''s reputation stems from the sort of food outlets you get in very touristy places. The food tends to be absolute muck.

• I''ve always gotten the impression that Brits ate mostly meat and that vegetables in Britain are always overcooked until they''re mushy and tasteless. It that the case?%0D\ %0D\ The dish called "blood pudding" or "blood sausage" sounds revolting, but I gather a lot of people love it. It''s a sausage that''s made with animal blood...PUKE!

• Mince and mincemeat are completely different, unrelated things. Mince is minced beef. Mincemeat is a dried fruit mixture often steeped in alcohol. Mincemeat doesn''t have any actual meat in it (unless you count suet, and even then that''s not so common). It did hundreds of years ago, but the idea of there being actual mince in mince pies now is just bizarre and I really don''t think you would be able to find one nowadays. I mean maybe someone like Heston Blumenthal would make a mincepie with real meat in it because he does wacky stunts like that, but you certainly couldn''t buy one in a supermarket or any normal cafe or restaurant. I wonder if there''s some kind of ''tricking the tourists'' practical joke there, like with drop bears in Australia?

• OP is an idiot. I''ve had wonderful traditional English food. I especially love their deserts. No one does a flaming pudding like the Brits.

• Okay, I will agree about steak and kidney pie.%0D\ %0D\ Kidneys? Just say no...

• R68 I like the idea of the steak pie but I will not eat internal organs and I don''t understand why so many Brits eat them. I went to an Irish pub and got a steak and guinness pie that was good.

• Pudding is really sort of a homonym. First, "a pudding" is a specific kind of dish/cooking technique, traditionally a boiled suet dish (though nowadays people often use vegetarian suet or alternatives). You can get sweet puddings and savoury puddings, in the same way you can get sweet pies and savoury pies. Second, "pudding" is a fairly traditional British name for the sweet/desert course of a meal, and is also used to refer to whatever you serve for that course. So basically it''s Brit for desert. So chocolate cake, fruit salad, apple pie, spotted dick, ice cream, they could all be pudding (but not necessarily ''a'' pudding) but only when served as the sweet course at dinner. If you eat an ice cream at the beach or something it''s not pudding, because it''s the name of the course.

• Bubbles & Squeak is one of my favorites. In fact I make it at home here in the states all the time (except I leave out the meat which I can''t eat). Pure comfort food.

• "Good Lord...there are SOME things you Yanks can be proud of isn''t there?"\ \ \ Certainly. For example, our education system. Children are taught grammar from an early age. Maybe it will catch on in other countries soon!

  Miss Ritchet, 2nd grade, Middleton Elementary

• "The dish called "blood pudding" or "blood sausage" sounds revolting, but I gather a lot of people love it. It''s a sausage that''s made with animal blood...PUKE!"%0D\ %0D\ No such animal in British cooking. There is black pudding, which is delicious - and many countries make their own variation of it.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding

• Yes R77, we are aware of that. Is there a reason for your unnecessary tutelage on the subject of "English puddings"?

• I enjoy a lot of the food available in London, but I miss the fresh vegetables so abundant at home. Steak and kidney pie would be great if you could get a small portion with a salad and steamed vegetables. Nice and crisp with no sauce. But stand alone it is kind of overwhelming in the protein/carb department. It''s hard to get fresh veggies, in my experience.

• Two Words: Jellied eels.%0D\ %0D\ Revolting. But that''s not to say that all British food is monumentally bad.%0D\ %0D\ (and I''m British).

• Well then, R82, your experience is a weird one.

• England was populated with hardy peasants, and unlike their French counterparts, manned up and ate their rotten food with vigor.\ \ The frogs used sauces and wine to mask the rotten meat they had. It''s yummie now, but back then - road kill with wine and mushrooms is still road kill.\ \ I love English fish and chips; the Sunday roast tradition (Yorkshire pudding is really REALLY good); and a good spotted dick.\ \ Traditional American food... what has happened in this country? A large proportion of our population now live on fast food, coke, and junk food.... We don''t have room to talk!

• vegatables are cooked to mush by people who cant cook them right, that is a universal thing and happens in america too. in general vegatables are cooked properly in britian. yes we do like gravy over here but it usually served in a mini jug so you can add as much or as little as you like.%0D\ %0D\ the blood sausage is called "black pudding" and is vile! alot of brits will order there food without the black pudding but some people like it aswel. its a matter of personal prefferance. it sounds worse than it tastes (but i personally still think its tastes bad).

• R61: I agree on the bucolic ideal and "hearthiness" you detail, but to return to your point about class, these may be viewed as the affectation in a vacuum of the "haves" -- popular amongst a set of idealistic educated upper middle classes, social reformers who did not much get their hands dirty in their reforming, let alone greasy and blackened in performing regular kitchen duty. Yes, William Morris and others advocated the anti-industrial --crofting, thatched roofs, handicrafts, and the virtues of the open hearth -- but so did factions of Scandinavian architects, American architects, and others, and to no more real effect than their British counterparts, which is to say much literature, many lectures to bluestockings held at workingmen's clubs, a whole field of genre painting and illustration, but little real impact in suppressing the foodways of the working and lower classes in the name of national identity. %0D %0D To draw on a DataLounge favorite, the reformers may as well have saved their breath and ink and stopped trying to make Cottage Life happen. %0D %0D The great behemouth built-in cast-iron stoves that existed in the early 19thC were very popular (in scaled-up and scaled-down forms) by the late 19thC; by the 1880s, gas stoves were popular amongst working classes and above in cities, and a series of accelerated innovations from that point arrived at something close to the modern stove by the 1920s. Despite the reformers, the pattern of development and acceptance wasn't wildly different than in comparable parts of Europe and in the U.S., and between the U.S. and the U.K., technological innovations were quickly adopted and adapted from one country to another, with innovation in both directions.%0D %0D Where people lacked stoves and were cooking on open hearths in 1919, it was because they were dirt poor (or the occasional Arts & Crafts architect slumming it for a week-end), not because of some desire to hold fast to a primitive tradition of fire and vision of Druids dancing naked around Stonehenge, or a suspicion of the new-fangled. Homes that had any measure at all of comfort typically had stoves well before 1920.

• I agree R85. My family still tries to have Sunday dinner but it''s getting harder and harder with everyone spread out and their kids'' soccer games and stuff.%0D\ %0D\ Fish and chips, yorkshire pudding good. Spotted dick, bad.

• I''d agree with jellied eels - but that is a very region specific dish (East End of London) and is dying out.%0D\ %0D\ And rightly so, in my opinion...%0D\ %0D\ My friend, on the other hand, loves them.

• Have traveled to Britain numerous times and eaten in all kinds of places including people''s homes. The latter... always a shudder. \ \ However, every meal I''ve had in a restaurant - from very high-end to obscure pub - has ranged from outstanding to at the very least decent. Food is always served piping hot (and usually by several servers) and fresh vegetables are excellently cooked and retain their freshness.\ \ I''m very picky... but in my experience, I''ve been really pleasantly surprised by the high quality of British food.

• Once again, the mentally ill Dataloungers fall victim to the weekly anti-UK troll.%0D\ %0D\ Like taking candy from a retarded baby.

• The worst meal I ever had was Fish and Chips at Camber Sands in Sussex. The second worst was some Chinese muck at The Venetian in Vegas. It''s unfortunate that fish and chips is our national dish, it can be ok, but never amazing.

  UKDLer

• r72, some people do eat like that, and that stereotype is based on fact. But it's very old-fashioned. It's the kind of diet you'd associate with the elderly, people who lived through the War and rationing. The problem is that 'traditional' British food/its reputation was damaged a lot by things like the war, rationing, and other practical/agricultural and social factors, and at the same time, Britain started to enthusiastically embrace foreign cuisines, to the point where Indian (though it's really strongly Anglicized Indian) food has been more or less the country's unofficial cuisine for decades. Britain has had mass immigration for a hell of a lot longer than the US (by a funny coincidence I was writing about the Norman influence on food and food language yesterday) and this has changed our food heritage far more than say the French or Italians. Because of this, and other factors, we lost some of the continuity of food culture - kids growing up watching their parents cooking the same way they learned from grandparents. There has been a movement to 'save' British cuisine, and there are quite a lot of restaurants and cookbooks promoting 'modern British cuisine' which takes and updates traditional British ingredients and recipes but without the nasty "boil everything for an hour" element. Nowadays, Brits fall into different types. People who still cook and eat in a very traditional way ignoring trends and changes, generally older people. People who are very into food/cooking, who buy cookbooks and eat in restaurants; likely to be equally interested in modern British food revivals as learning to cook Thai. People with no interest in food/cooking who live on junk and microwave meals. And most people probably fall somewhere in between, wanting to cook and eat healthily and having some interest but not having enough time and not really caring enough to make the effort much. (They're the prime market for ambient meals.)

  Desperately trying to avoid working on my dissertation

• R72 We always called that black pudding when I was little.

  Anonymous

• R92 I much prefer when the fish is haddock, rather than cod.

  Anonymous

• R87, I will try to get the figure when I get home, but in 1920 nearly 50% of the population in Britain did not own a stove. After WWII nearly 20% still did not own a stove. The number of homes with a stove would be higher if one were to remove Ireland and Wales, but we are discussing Britain.

• *Certainly. For example, our education system. Children are taught grammar from an early age. Maybe it will catch on in other countries soon!*\ \ OMG...good one, I nearly blew coffee all over my keyboard!

• [quote] The number of homes with a stove would be higher if one were to remove Ireland and Wales, but we are discussing Britain.%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ Go ahead and remove Ireland. It''s not Britain. Wales and Cornwall are cool with being part of the British minipeen "kingdom." Ireland never has been cool with it and is a separate country and culture.

• I lived in New Zealand as a child and loved meat pies, fish and chips, etc. I still love them but living in the US it''s really difficult to get any decent version of those foods. Having said that, it''s probably a good thing since it''s not food I''d want to eat every day. But god, why can''t we do decent fish and chips here?\ \ I''ve only been to England once and the food I had was decent to very good. London has great restaurants and there is the refined pub food scene that is fantastic. I had a great pub meal out in Berkshire. Don''t ask me where, it was a pub out in some village I was driven to. The issue I think with England and particularly in London, is the cost of decent food. I imagine if I lived there, it would drive me crazy to pay a lot more for fresh produce. Moving from California to the east coast gave me sticker shock when I first went to the grocery store.

• Well good for you, r81, take a gold star and go to the top of the class. Obviously judging from the questions other posters have asked that''s not the case for everyone.

• I read that, too, R96. Every morning for breakfast each family would have to set a portion of its hovel on fire, toast bread and boil water for tea, and then put it out before going to work in the woolen mills.\ \ For lunch, workers would set paperwork afire (explains why Tullet always fucked up forex orders) just to heat their jelly sandwiches.\ \ For tea, everyone scrounged up rat on the trip home four hours before having to get up and do it all again.\ \ They also shit in their left hands which is why they''re into ''back slapping''. It was just an excuse to wipe excrement off their hands.

  And now you know the true 20th century cooking history of Britain

• Among the roughly 25 countries I''ve visited on four continents, England is the only one where the food stood out as being memorably bad and expensive. I even tried Thai and Greek places in London. I think the problem is that a variety of fresh, local ingredients is lacking and that spices and herbs are used with too much restraint. Loved the country and people, hated the cuisine. I ended up getting a lot prepared foods at Marks and Spencer, which was a very good alternative.

• "''Mince meat'' does not contain meat; although historically it did. There is no meat in mince pies (or any similar dish). "\ \ Some brands (the best ones IMHO) do still contain suet.

• Britons'' level of tolerance of the abysmally bad in hospitality of all kinds is quite high. They will accept being served shit on a plate and call it "lovely". Never trust their reviews of a hotel or restaurant on TripAdvisor. They would stay in a typhus-infested Bombay prison cell and call it "nice basic accomodation".\ \ Their unwillingness to send crap back is what makes it so hit and miss in the UK and wherever they congregate worldwide. Sure you can get Heston or Marco Pierre or the Wolseley in London but you can also get a full English on the Costa del Pom reminiscent of dog vomit. And they wolf it down with pleasure!

• Doesn''t Marks and Spencer prepared food count as "British cuisine"? A lot of middle-class people more or less live off it.

• marks and spensers is british.%0D\ also london is expensive! what did you expect. elsewhere in britian is nowhere near as expensive. %0D\ i am a brit who has travelled both britian and america and i can say could find good food in both! fresh food in both. and very nice places to eat in both. i also found very poor food in both! %0D\ when i comes down to real "british" meals vs real "american" meals though i would take a sunday roast anytime

• [quote]Go ahead and remove Ireland. It''s not Britain. Wales and Cornwall are cool with being part of the British minipeen "kingdom." Ireland never has been cool with it and is a separate country and culture.\ \ Unfortunately, It is not up to me to do so. Ireland as a whole was part of Britain until 1922, and would be included in the earlier numbers. Whether the post war numbers include all of Ireland or just Northern Ireland, I will not know until I get home.

• I''d agree in part with R104 that the standard for random restaurant fare (and lodging) is low. Ruth Watson''s TV series, The Hotel Inspector, points out a level of cluelessness that''s somewhat pervasive. Still, anyone making the least effort can find a much higher and really quite good standard of accommodation or restaurant fare. %0D\ %0D\ Good raw ingredients are available, many restaurants do offer excellent food at all levels of cost, and the standard for "packaged foods" and "ready meals" puts to shame what''s available in the U.S., as do fast food options in the form of chain sandwich and lunch shops.%0D\ %0D\ Though it''s possible to eat quite miserably in the U.K., it doesn''t take much effort to eat quite well, and without having to make reservations at The Wolsley.

• It seems a lot of people posting were so busy eating out in ''britian'' they neglected to go to school.\ \ It''s B-R-I-T-A-I-N.

• All this from a bunch on obese fucking passport-less cunts. Lordy!

• I beg your pardon. I am not obese and have a passport.

  that''s Ms. Cunt to you

• BTW Donald Trump for President!

• We eat you faggots for BREAKFAST!

  http://funny.picturepie.com/images/pork_faggots.jpg

• BTW 2 Thank you for the poison that is processed food. For Coke & Mickey Ds. I hope y''all choke on your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, you bunch of 2 digit IQ''d nincompoops. And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don''t ever come to London - the place is quite full enough of elasticated-waitband, sneaker-clad ''merican fuckin'' dumbasses as it is.

• I was just in Great Britain, I thought the food was quite good. Although Brits at home tend to use "canned" everything for the simple reason that they don''t get the sun as much as people in California do.\ \ But their Indian food is divine. There''s a reason that Indian food is number 1 in Britain, it''s fantastic. Nothing here in the USA is comparable to the amazing Indian food from Great Britain.

• Calm down dear at R110/ r112/ r114

• Something that seems to have been overlooked is that Britain is a small, cold country. Our natural food resources are very limited, basically root vegetables, brassicas and cabbage. We never developed much of a culinary tradition because we had so little to work with.

• it had to be said r114. so true. if i see another one, out comes the pipe bombs.

• How Dare You r116!

  Angela Eagle

• Britain has a plentiful supply of fresh food. A lot is imported, but go into any good supermarket and there is a large array of fresh fruits, veg, herbs, meats and fish. Go to a good London food market and you''ll get virtually anything.\ \ Where the fuck are you people shopping? The local Esso petrol station?

• You really have to look at the whole range of food available in the country and Britian does have an excellent variety of cuisines available.%0D\ %0D\ What do posters consider to be true food of the United States - traditional Native American cuisine?

• Agree with r120. I''d also like to know where people are choosing to dine that has left them with the impression that British people regularly eat jellied eels.

• lol @ R120\ \ Probably Tesco which is SHITE. Speaking of which I have to go there now to get tomorrow''s beer.

  ayb

• R121, I don''t think America has a "true" food. We had so many influences and the cuisine is so different in each region. Where I am (TX) we have a lot of Mexican, Cajun, German and Creole influences but if you go somewhere else it''s totally different.

• ayb, pop into Sainsbury''s. 3 bottles for fiver on speciality beer and 70 per cent off Easter Eggs.

• R125 alas we don''t have a Sainsburys nearby. Although that fat tongued spaz Jamie Oliver puts me off going in there anyway.

  ayb

• True American food?%0D\ %0D\ I grew up in the 50s and for breakfast it was hot or cold cereal, bacon or sausage and eggs. For lunch or supper it was roast beef, pork chops or roast pork, hamburgers and hot dogs, fish fried or baked.%0D\ %0D\ Potatoes baked, boiled or fried. White rice. Many different vegetables.%0D\ %0D\ Does that resonate with any Brits?

• [quote]I had excellent food, and not just in the posh restaurants in London.\ \ Actually, some of the worst food is at the "posh" restaurants.\ \ Food and service at the Connaught are precisely the kind that have given hotel restaurants a bad name. Whether in the bright Esplette or in the more formal and somewhat lugubrious traditional Helene Darroze, the diner is offered the same menu choices and gets the sinking feeling that nobody is really in charge.\ \ At best the service is polite but careless. At worst, it can be embarrassingly pretentious.\ \ Most discouraging of all is the food - consistently mediocre, sometimes totally inedible because of spoilage. The flavor of garlic and herbs in one appetizer, shrimps Riviera, was overpowered by the iodine in the shrimp, indicating staleness. A veal loin chop smelled rancid, as did the meat stuffing for some soggy quail. Duck pate arrived musty and dark gray, and oysters, apparently opened at least an hour before they were served, were shrunken, yellowed and dried out.

• R2 eats mutton and drinks goat milk, so we know we can''t give him any credibility.\ \ And England isn''t a world power anymore, r5?! Are you kidding me.

• German food, the worst.

• r130 - disagree. Their breads are good, their Weinerschnitzels are amazing, their frankfurts are great.\ \ One thing they don''t do in Germany is spicy food so never go to an Indian Restaurant in Germany. It''s spiceless.

• When I was growing up in America, it meant meat, once a week...usually chicken.

• Most people have no clue as to what German food really is. All they know is Bavarian with a bit of Swiss and Austrian thrown in. There is a lot of very good fish in the north, but don''t get me started on Currywurst, yech.

• Can''t say I''m a huge fan of German food but, while in school near Lac Leman, I learned to appreciate Swiss food. Most people only are familiar with fondue neuchateloise but there are other dishes worth trying. I was especially fond of these:\ \ Virtually the Swiss national dish, emince de veau a la creme (also known as geschnetzeltes kalbfleisch) is veal simmered in cream. \ \ Raclette valaisanne is a blob of melted cheese, inexplicably accompanied by boiled potatoes and cornichons (sour gherkins). It sounds disgusting but melted cheese--to quote that cow Ina Garten--how bad could that be?

  R128

• Wow, you are SO inciteful OP! Why don''t you start a thread about British teeth?

  BTW, what''s the weather like back there in 1947?

• While not all German food is good, there are many dishes that rate very highly.

• I was in England for 2 weeks this March and noticed that the bread was consistently good. Also the fish preparations delicious and very fresh. I have also had excellent meals in friends'' homes.

• Aye, well there''s the rub R137 - the OP obviously doesn''t have any British friends, if he has any friends at all {!?} %0D\ %0D\ BTW, the UK Masterchef Final aired this week, featuring one Brit, one Italian and one American. All are living in the culinary backwater of Britain but somehow managed to produce world class dishes despite this ''handicap''. Tim from Wisconsin was the winner, and rightly so - the guy was a food genius IMHO. And he paid homage to British cuisine because he isn''t a xenophobic, narrow-minded, un-informed, bigoted Twat - unlike far too many people on here.

  McDonalds & Pizza Hut are not F''ING RESTAURANTS!

• I had an English nanny. She was a fantastic cook and cooked traditional English food. %0D\ %0D\ You can find good English food if you look for it.

• When I think of English food I think of strawberries and cream. That''s what I remember having as a kid when my parents took us to watch tennis at Wimbledon. I haven''t been there as an adult, though. But I''m planning on it.

• German ''cuisine'' = pig + cabbage + potato

• The year I lived in London, I thought that the hamburgers from the Wimpy chain were very aptly named.

• I''ve been watching the series ''Three in a Bed'' online. I''m both drawn to and repelled by the idea of eating a traditional "full English" breakfast on a regular basis. That can''t be an everyday meal, can it?

• It must be their native elite''s centuries-old aversion to garlic.

• [quote]I''ve been watching the series ''Three in a Bed'' online. I''m both drawn to and repelled by the idea of eating a traditional "full English" breakfast on a regular basis. That can''t be an everyday meal, can it?\ \ nah, most people don''t have the time. It''s Sunday and holiday food as a rule. People might make a bacon sandwich or something of a morning if they got a craving, I suppose.

  Anonymous

• [quote]German ''cuisine'' = pig + cabbage + potato\ \ Nobody does meat and gravy like the Germans. Amazing.

  Anonymous

• I would like to put this discussion to bed once and for all. Granted: if you live in a tiny, rainy, hidden-away town in this country, the food commercially available probably isn't very varied or exciting. However, there are lots of wonderful home cooks in England and the UK who excel in making the most of shoe-string budgets. For example: a Lancashire hot pot consists of the cheapest cuts of lamb slow cooked in a mouth-watering array of herbs and vegetables. The result is a thick and rich stew of wonderfully delicate and tender meat alongside powerful flavours. Another great example of cheap but delicious home-cooking would be our traditional pies. I think the problem/origin of the myth that British food is bad stems from the following 2 phenomenons: 1. Poorly educated Americans - let's not forget that this is primarily an American pre-conception and that less than 1 third of Americans even have a passport (this is a RECORD number and 15 times higher than at the end of the 1980s). That stunning fact combined with the effect of American food companies who invent trademarked chemical flavours for large food corporations in order to dumb down their customers' taste buds and unify their customer base (cold, hard fact) combined with the globalisation of American TV (and yes it's spelled with an 's') means that the broadcast of this myth stretches far and wide. 2. Snobbery of patriotic Europeans: it's common knowledge that French, Italian and Spanish cuisines are delectable and wide-ranging but, until recently, each of these countries' famous chefs have tended to snub each other's and collectively England's cooking culture. The result has been that over generations the legend of ‘terrible’ British cooking has spread. England and specifically London are among the most multicultural places to visit on the entire planet. There is a lot of racism still rife amongst the lower echelons of our society but the more broad-minded amongst us embrace our multiculturalism and our cuisine makes no exception. I live in London (along with 10% of our population) and the variety of food available to me is endless: and I don't just mean in posh restaurants. I can think of 10 different affordable and impressive national cuisines within 200 metres (yes metREs) of where I live. The variety of ingredients in our supermarkets is also astonishing: you can buy the ingredients to concoct the most exotic of dishes in your own home. The influence of cooking techniques from around the entire world influence what has become 'British cuisine.' We have been positively affected by Jewish, French, Spanish, Thai, Chinese, African, Caribbean, Pakistani, Indian, Lebanese, and (save us) even American cuisine (and the list goes on). I must also stress the importance of our long and varied coastline: The UK has a coastline that runs for 7,723 miles. To put that in perspective for the slower-witted amongst us, that is 3 times the distance between New York and Los Angeles. It might not be so surprising then we have developed a taste and an aptitude for cooking fish and seafood that rivals any country. Such is the variety of marine life around the British coastline that a Billingsgate fishmonger claims to be able to serve you a different species of fish for every day of the year. Yet it is the classic 'fish and chips' or 'eel pie' that stories are told of around the globe. This is largely because travellers come to Britain for a short period of time and eat in chain pubs and cheap hotel restaurants serving regurgitated frozen fish and veg and pies with pastry like a shoe-heel. How shortsighted to assume that British people eat this sort of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Another example of wonderful British cooking would be the classic British Sunday roast. Again, if you buy this in a pub round the corner from the Hilton, the meat will be over-cooked, the Yorkshire puddings and the roast potatoes will be soggy and the gravy will be out of a packet. Venture into the home of a passionate British cook and you will find that the British roast comes alive.....

  Greg%20Marshall%20-%20London

• Every family has its own traditions for a Sunday roast (be it how the potatoes are cooked, which veg will accompany it and even where the gravy is poured) and the fact that what is essentially meat and vegetables can be so varied across the country is testament to the committed and advanced cooking culture that we really have. I have travelled to Africa, North and South America, to the Caribbean, to Asia and all over Europe and whilst I have relished in their individual food cultures, I am yet to visit anywhere that has the open-minded approach and the eclectic range of foods that we Brits enjoy (apparently in secret) on a daily basis. I think it's time that the rest of the world moves into the 21st century and wakes up to British cuisine.

  Greg%20Marshall%20-%20London

• I haven't read all 148 posts, so forgive me if someone else has mentioned this, but British food is bad because Britain is the first and most industrialized country in world. While most of Europe continued to have a sizable agrarian class that had time to cook and use fresh ingredients, in the UK, workers were too tired from working all day to cook quality meals. As a result, British cuisine consists of fish and chips and bangers and mash - terrible food, but quick and easy for the working class. Obviously, with recent immigration and a renewed emphasis on quality food, food available in British restaurants has become world class. However, this doesn't change the fact that British cuisine is objectively bad - British people today just have more non-British options for food.

• Two world wars in a row and the enormous scarcity and "make-do-ness" it caused (especially on an island) are to blame, or so I've heard. Pre-WWI Brit cuisine was more along the lines of French cuisine, with lots of game, regional dishes, pastries, sauces etc. But during WWI and WWII people felt lucky to get some boiled spam. The cuisine never quite recovered.

• [quote] affordable and impressive national cuisines within 200 metres It's weird that you have to begin your condescending, misguided diatribe by offering up the example of food that isn't even British. Thai food being served in England doesn't really count as "British cuisine" in the sense we're speaking of, anymore than pot roast being served in Bangkok would really be considered Thai cuisine. Pointing out that there are some people who cook well at home doesn't really save your case either imho. I suppose I'm a 'dumb American tourist,' whether I go to Britain, France, Spain or Italy, but somehow I always eat well in France, Spain, Italy, etc yet I have to eat crap in Britain (and it's somehow my fault). Odd that.

  sod%20off%2C%20greg%20marshall

• This thread is an endless conversation of lies and delusions. First, every country in Europe rationed during the world wars. EVERYONE! Audrey Hepburn said she basically ate beets and potatoes during WW2 when she was living in the Netherlands which suffered a massive famine. So the excuse that Brits' bad cuisine is the end result of rationing during the wars is BUNK! Italians had to rationed their food but their cuisine was still great after WW2. So stop with the rationing excuse. Their cuisine is bad, period. Steak and kidney pie? No thank you. The bad cuisine has more to do with the fact that everyone there is so fucking drunk all the time that they don't taste their own food because their taste buds are numbed/burnt from all the drinking. Oh, btw, how many fast food chains around the world sell British food? Zero. As bad as the food is in the US it's what everyone's eating around the world. It's junk food but it's universally accepted junk food. One word: marmite.

• r18 gave the correct answer. The thread should have been closed after his post. British food - as cooked by everyday people at home, in the workplace, and amongst British people - is VILE. It is tasteless, overcooked and thus devoid of any vitamins, served without sauce or seasoning, dry and bland to boot. They hate vegetables, and will serve EVERY meal with peas or 'swedes'. They know no more than 3-4 dishes that they keep rotating. Traditional English cooking is v.i.l.e. r18 gave the historical explanation as to why that is; however, none of that excuses their refusal to change their culinary ways.

  puking%20as%20I%20type.

• I know this thread is old, but r20 wasn't getting what OP was saying. No-one is disputing you can get good groceries in the UK, nor that there are good restaurants in London (run by foreigners, mostly). We're discussing how Brits cook at home, and what they eat at the workplace. And it's not pretty.

  r153

• R92, "Chinese" food in casinos is not the same as Chinese food in China Town, which is only a few miles away from the Venetian. Stay away from fast-food Chinese as well; it's more American than Chinese. Mincemeat is fab in winter. Like spicy baked apples, the cloves and cinnamon help fight colds. I make mine with brandy. Only the old-fashioned versions contain suet or meat. Many Americans copied traditional British food, especially overcooked vegetables and plain meats. Other ethnic groups introduced garlic, curry and lots of spice; tasty and healthy. Of course much of what SOME Americans eat is IMHO totally inedible especially prepared frozen dinners, artificial "snack" food, and canned and packaged garbage. I refuse to call this "food." I guess baked beans were a cheap source of protein during the war years. When you put it on toast, do you add mustard? Does the canned versions have the same ingredients/taste as the American ones?

• The only good 'dish' to come out of British cuisine is indeed Christmas pudding. (Which is a moist cake, not a pudding - pudding is their word for dessert).

  r153

• I think their food is bad, too. I think they are trying now.

• First went there in 73 as a teenager on a driving tour through small villages. If it wasn't for breakfast and dairy for two weeks, I knew immediately I was going to starve. I ate bread almost exclusively. Where was the fast food? Surely they had some fast food. We found a Wimpy's and our relief was short lived. Finally on the last day we found an Italian restaurant. Bliss. Next day we went to Ireland, What a freaking difference. No more mutton and bean sandwiches. No more Scotch Eggs. ROAST BEEF!!! Potatoes in gravy. Green vegetables. ICE! Next trip 4 years later. Indian and Pakistani food and Italian restaurants the entire trip except in small village cafes where I ate the chicken. Food choices where much better. Ate at a Scotttish border town hotel restaurant and had a fabulous meal including the best Scotch Broth I ever tasted. Next trip five years later. Food was much much better, more foreign restaurants and even the traditional places had better choices. And more fast food. God forgive me but traditional British food is awful and made me long for McDonald's.

• Actually, r149 and r18 are the only two posts you need to read on this thread. They know of what they speak. The rest are confused wannabe-connoiseurs who don't understand the topic at hand (home cooking in Leeds and Notthingham, NOT London restaurants).

  THREAD%20CLOSED

• R153 It depends where you are eating. I am not great cook by any means but I regularly eat a wide variety of vegetables which I try to steam, I make a variety of sauces for the food. We eat a lot of fish in my house: salmon, trout, haddock, cod, tuna, mackeral etc. Yesterday, I made pangasius in herb butter. I make a variety of potatoes new, mashed, roasted, baked, sauteed, champ etc. We have pasta and rice dishes of one sort or another a couple times a week - the pasta is cooked al dente. I cook casseroles, roasts, pies, etc when using meat. What I can't seem to get right are convenience food which I invariably manage to burn and therefore don't buy the sodding stuff. Most of my friends cook in great variety and using fresh ingredients. Of course there are those who rely totally on crap processed convenience food but it isn't everyone. For tonight's dinner I am making chicken olives, rosemary roasties and broccoi in cheese sauce. I'll also serve carrots and green beans with that. We don't usually have pudding but when we do it is usually something like homemade apple pie or crumble with custard or ice cream. I think we eat ok but what do I know about these things? I'm just a dumb Brit.

• r160, you're the exception. British cooking is usually done with no sauce, no seasoning, it is boiled to death, and 9 times out of 10, they will serve everything with peas, and peas only. Dry, boring, tasteless, grim. I've lived with English people for years, and have eaten in English workplace cafeterias for years, and I'm sorry, as much as England is a fun and interesting place to live in - English cooking is terrible. Every cliche is true. And yes, I do know that several people - like you - put some effort into their cooking. But most Brits don't. They do love their bland food, and r18 outlined it all very well. Truly, just read his post, it explains it all very well.

  r153.

• Nothing better than a hot sausage roll and a cup of tea on a cold day.

• Hello All: Please see link: A hilarious food blog on british food written from the perspective of an outsider. VERY FUNNY.

  http://food.girlalive.com/

• ??? OP have you actually been there? when I left California for London 12 years ago for a 7 month stay, food was my big concern, being a vegetarian. there were plenty of farmers markets near my place and I cooked at home.

  not%20Gwyneth%20Paltrow

• R164 doesn't understand the difference between British food and food available in Britain.

• My Brit Grandma made the same thing for dinner for years. Ground beef shaped into an oval and fried, canned corn, and a potato. Sometimes we'd dress up the potato with bacon. She was on a fixed income but had no culinary imagination. It was just fuel for the day.

• It comes of their heritage. For too many centuries, as the cultured world progressed, these were crude people wrapped in animal skins, with no knowledge of garlic, only onions. They lacked subtlety as well as manners, and even today they justify their dietary proclivities by creating false movements that embrace eating all the animal from head to tail. They think nothing of devouring a kidney or the brains of a pig. Barbaric and coarse in every way! And, quelle horreur! They drink beer!!!!!

  CatherinedeMediciwho broughthautecuisinetoFrancefromthehomeofFoodinFlorence

• Christ on a Christmas pudding, R153/R154/R156/R159/R161, take R18's dick out of your mouth for a second and take a breath. Whether British food is good or bad, R18 is incorrect about the stoves in Britain. Cooking stoves were commonplace throughout the 19thC, even in rural and modest dwellings from the second quarter of the 19thC by which time numerous innovations in cooking stove technology had originated --and taken hold-- in the U.K.. By 1850, more than half of the British population lived in cities - they were not cooking on three-legged pots in the open hearths of crofters' cottages.

• In Jeanette Winterson's book, she talks about kids lining up for free dog biscuits to eat themselves.

• Because its hard to cook well when you are totally wasted and or have colonial subjects to do it for you very well.

• I am English and my favourite food is British but I agree it is very difficult to find good British cooking out and about. So unless you have someone nice to cook it for you who is good, you're out of luck. But roast beef and yorkshire pudding,sage and onion stuffing with turkey.Roast lamb with mint jelly,Meat pie and gravy, gammon steaks and pease pudding, Shepherd's pie, ect... just the best food ever done right. I would also not bother with Italian food in the UK either mostly just bland and a good burger is also hard to find but Bryon is making an effort, most like the burgers I have had in the USA.

• "As bad as the food is in the US it's what everyone is eating around the world. It's junk food but it's universally accepted junk food." Junk food which has contributed to unprecedented levels of clinical obesity. It's universally accepted by the disadvantaged, stupid and lazy. Such junk chains are a business success but a cultural embarrassment. (Colonel Sanders is the L Ron Hubbard of fast food.) Popularity doesn't make a bad thing better, it just amplifies the embarrassment.

• All true, r172, but that still doesn't change the fact that it tastes better than British food.

• [quote]This thread is an endless conversation of lies and delusions. Ah, R152. You noticed [quote]The bad cuisine has more to do with the fact that everyone there is so fucking drunk all the time that they don't taste their own food because their taste buds are numbed/burnt from all the drinking. And you were doing SO well up till then. Bless. PS. The French drink more than we do so obviously it must be the alcohol.

• [quote]I've lived with English people for years, and have eaten in English workplace cafeterias for years, and I'm sorry, as much as England is a fun and interesting place to live in - English cooking is terrible. If you're going to damn a nation's cuisine based on cafeteria food you may as well damn their fashion based on the cafeteria workers' uniforms while you're at it.

• What's a gammon steak?

• R174 I was joking about everyone in Britain being drunk. But it's true that the taste buds of alcoholics are shot. My dad was a perfect example. One time my mom cooked something that was vile but gave some to my father and he said "It's delicious!" Everyone laughed because it was just ghastly.

  R152

• Sounds great R171. On Anthony Bourdain's show(an obnoxious hipster chef from America) he was in England and said that the best food in the country is usually quality home cooking, which is not necessarily represented in the restaurants.

• R171, too bad about the Italian food in England. In the USA, there is a lot of wonderful Italian food, even if most of it is not terribly authentic or is 'Americanized'. That doesn't make it any less good, it's just something somewhat different. Lots of great stuff. And it doesn't have to be from fancy restaurants to be very good, most cities have good Italian food somewhere. Not a big hamburger fan(and it's something the English strangely always associate with Americans, like we are obsessed with them or something), but it's pretty easy to find a quality burger in most cities, too. I'm surprised that that is hard to find in England. Wouldn't seem terribly hard to do.

• The English have better theatre, so who cares about food

• WASP-o sorts don't really care much about food -- that goes far in explaining why it is rather mundane.

• I don't think that's true, R181.

• I visited London and a few neighboring small villages as well. I have to say the majority of the food left me sweating and my stomach felt like it was hiking up a very steep hill. This was only a couple years ago. The beer was better than the shit they make out here in North America for the most part but after going to Germany, Belgium and Austria I would have say it also tastes like soap.

• There are plenty of really outstanding restaurants in London (and I imagine elsewhere in the UK) doing sophisticated versions of traditional British food. I used to dislike British food until a friend who lives in London took me to some of those places.

• I remember eating in an Italian restaurant in London and ordering the penne arabbiata "extra spicy". When I bit into it, it had no flavor at all, and was told by an English friend that Brits don't generally have a palate for spicy things. Yet, with curries being so popular, I really couldn't figure that out.

• Gammon is pork.

• are they really afraid of "spicy" food?

• "I think the real answer has to do with the deprivations of two world wars in a row. People learned to live with less--almost nothing--boil meat, oatmeal in the morning, canned spam (if they were lucky) etc and then it was hard to go back to a fully developed cuisine." Italy also lived through those same two wars. And so did France. next!

• Who says their curries are all that spicy, R185?

• This discussion is by far the best and most entertaining here at DL. Congratulations. I don't know about you guys, but while celebrating the Queen's Jubilee aboard Royal Caribbean the British food buffet spread was the BEST during the trip. And there was British barbecue at the pool side. The best barbecue I have had so far in my life.

• R190 British barbeque is the best you've ever had? When do you live? There is no better barbeque than Texas!!!!

• You can find wonderful food in London...But you have to look for it. Pick a place at random, and you'll be sorry. In New York City the opposite is true...most food is terrific here, and you confidently pick a place at random and it's probably excellent.

• Europeans in general didnt have their own stoves. I think its just that fabulous wasp puritan tradition that discourages the 'worship' of food.......eat to live not live to eat. Mortify that weak backsliding flesh. French bastards.

• It amazes me how bland their food is there. You know it's sad when you'd rather eat at a chain restaurant that can be found in the US instead of a British restaurant.

• You haven't lived until you've had mutton aspic!

• The British are trash. Linking video of the top 30 moments from Come Dine With Me. Do you expect these chavs to cook good food?

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DS2x2s9wYgDI

• Mmmmmm. Sounds delish. But i honestly do love jellied eel and pork pies

• [quote]WASP-o sorts don't really care much about food -- that goes far in explaining why it is rather mundane. I remember being to a WASP household, and then to an Italian one in the span of a week. My god, the WASP one now seems rude for not offering anything to eat.

• It's funny how they have all these British cooks on television... my god, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey?! They come from the country that can't cook a decent meal for shit. It's so ironic. Tracey Ullman used to make fun of it, cooking for the audience, starting her vegetables the night before, and 7 hours on a high heat.

• KFC and McDonald's are delicacies in Britain.

• [quote]KFC and McDonald's are delicacies in Britain. The sad thing is that it's true. Same goes for Subway, Burger King, and Pizza Hut. Normally, I don't go to any of those restaurants, but whenever I go to the UK, I go to them on a regular basis since they're the only places you can find food with flavor. Even the specialized restaurants (Italian, Chinese, etc) taste plain.

• [quote]I remember being to a WASP household, and then to an Italian one in the span of a week. My god, the WASP one now seems rude for not offering anything to eat There was an episode in The Nanny where Fran grabs the reigns to plan a party for Mr. Sheffield because goyim never order enough food -- liquor, yes, food, no.

• But Britain had no excuse. Why didn't they send some of their chefs across the channel to Paris to learn how to cook?

  Julia Child

• OLD THREAD -- OP STILL STUPID

• Have you tried my kidney souffle? It's not half bad.

  Ethel

• [quote]There is no better barbeque than Texas!!!! I'll go with you on this one. Barbeque and chili are considered an art form and a lot of beer drinking straight men spend a lot of time and money perfecting it. I have a neighbor who built his own smoker and goes to cook-offs on many weekends and wins. I recently tried his wild pig and we had a huge chili cook-off recently.

• I have been to England. And my ancestors are English (Alfred Tennyson, King Richard). Some English food is great, some is awful. Bangers and mash, not so great. Fish and chips-amazing. Especially when it is haddock. Here in the states we have food that is great and food that isn't so great too. Bratwurst, grits, pancakes, and yogurt aren't very tasty. So to decry an entire nation's culinary fare because of a few dishes you did not like is a bit hypocritical, isn't it? And English ginger ale and beer blows away the crap we have here

  Leroy

• When I think of British food, I think of the Two Fat Ladies. Very meat heavy and fatty foods.

• R208 I loves me some 2 fat ladies. I am going to watch my DVDs again and maybe make some chicken breasts with walnut aillade.

• Only the Mediterranean neighboring countries can cook in Europe. This is common knowledge.

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• I'm British and if you mean the cuisine (ignoring Chinese, Indian and whatever else imported cuisines), then I agree. It sucks! Overcooked boiled vegetables (nasty) with some icky plain roasted fatty meat with boiled potatoes and gravy. Or chips with almost everything. Shepherd's pie or cottage pie are uninspiring. Heavy and stodgy puddings with dollops of custard can be comforting but it's not high cuisine. The cuisine doesn't understand taste, herbs and spices, garlic, ginger.

• Historically, British food was the best in Europe. Its blandness was a sign of quality, since spices were used to hide spoilage in France and the Continent. Britain was the wealthiest country in the world from 1800 to the 1930s. Americans began attacking British food only after they started eating tropical productions like Florida and California fruits as a matter of routine.

• The selection of foods available in most British grocery stores puts all of the American ones to shame. Even Whole Foods and Trader Joes have nothing against them.

  American%20who%20has%20spent%20a%20lot%20of%20time%20in%20the%20UK

• Dunno, R212. This Briton remembers differently from his history lessons; such that prior to Puritanism British sauces were renowned throughout Europe. Plenty of herbs and spices were used. We didn't conquer and pillage throughout the world for diddly squat. Unfortunately, that era of plainness led to dull, stodgy food so as not to offend the eyes of heaven with sinful enjoyment. Or something. I have travelled plenty in my time and eaten dull, flavourless food everywhere. Even in France and Italy and especially in the US. Your average US diner is replete with bland stodge and its patron saint is cornbread. People like stodge, it seems. Most 'comfort' food falls under that category.

• I love a bit of horse in my bangers!

• "Puddings" is equivalent to dessert in Britain? Is that vanilla or chocolate milk-based pudding, or something else? R207, Yogurt and pancakes can taste fab. Have you had fruit&yogurt smoothies or blueberry pancakes with cinnamon? It's like complaining that oatmeal is inedible (and it is) without adding spices, fruit, milk.

• R215, yes, puddings are equivalent to dessert. The ones I remember from boarding school which seem to be British cuisine: syrup sponge, spotted dick, bread and butter pudding, apple or pear crumble, apple pie (all served with hot custard - vanilla or chocolate), treacle tart, trifle, eccles cake, bakewell tart, fruit cake, christmas pudding..

• A good sticky toffee pudding is to die for

• R10, are you sure the spotted dick was actually a raisin and sponge cake and not something else altogether? If the latter, you may need to see a doctor A asaP!

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• Hey Londoners: Can you recommend some really good London restaurants for my trip there in May?

• How many of the "experts" on British food have actually been to Britain and tried it? We have lots of excellent produce, fantastic restaurants(especially where I live) and a variety of different cuisines available to us. Having just got back from New York I can honestly say that I was disappointed by the general standard there in comparison to what I get here. To the person coming to London try the Ivy, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Le Gavroche, Dinner, Seven Dials, and for some of the best pizza I have ever had in Rosso Pomodoro in Camden. Enjoy.

• R217, Homemade hot pudding is one of my favorite desserts. Most of what you listed sound like creamy pudding is part of the dish, like trifle. Would you call cake or pie "pudding?"

• Pudding means dessert in Britain. Anything you eat for dessert is pudding - fruit, ice cream, pie, cake, anything. This thread is weird, but funny. It's like a window onto Britain circa about 1974.

• A few years back, a Brit chef won a French culinary contest and had the Frogs screaming. It's fun when the French lose because They. Refuse. To. Lose.

• Mont Saint Michel, 1990s, some restaurant on a cold afternoon: Brit tourist: Creme bloody bruelle! It's bloody baby pudding!

• Dear British food, You don't need to tolerate this negativity. Call my lawyer, Allison Hart. The law firm is Lavely and Singer. She will send threatening letters to the webmaster and this harrassement will be deleted immediately.No one needs to be so abused like this. Take care, Tig Notaro

  Tig Notaro- fan of fish and chips. Yummy.

• When I was there it was amazing, and needless to say, some of the worlds best and famous chefs are from the UK, can't mean they are that bad.

• [quote]It's fun when the French lose because They. Refuse. To. Lose. Get the movie Bottle Shock with Alan Rickman. A cute little film about the first wine tasting in France featuring CA wines. It was a blind tasting and the American wines won and the French were less than pleased. Up until then everyone had mocked CA wines as cheap jug wines with screw tops.

• [quote]Your average US diner is replete with bland stodge and its patron saint is cornbread. Don't diss cornbread bitch or I'll cut you. Seriously, I love hot cornbread slathered in butter or served with a pot of Texas chili.

• What a ridiculous statement. London has the best food in the world.