I think I kind of like British food but I might just be perverse.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
i like scones
― horseshoe, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
english breakfast!
i mean englands got nothing on italy or france or india but i think its been underrated for a long time now.
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
I actually kind of enjoy stuff like steak and kidney pie and haggis (the one time I had each of them). Big on ginger marmalade too.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
^^xpost that pretty much sums it up. was just reading on some US food blog that everyone was excited fergus henderson was visiting nyc and his food is the most english thing ever
― just sayin, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
i mean british people invented "things that are named like desserts but actually made of meat" which is a really impressive innovation
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
it doesn't suck now -- after four of five decades of foodie agitation (and haha indian and chinese takeaways) -- and there've always been good pockets, but it was hit REALLY hard by the industrial revolution basically, and everyone flooding to the cities; and plus the fine eating establishments after the french revolution were basically all run by french ex-pats who'd been chefs for the aristos who had their heads chopped off
during empire, "takeout" meant we sent a gunship out to eg india and took their cuisine (curry, kedgeree and so on)
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
fine eating establishments^^^ie in england (well, london)
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
i suppose my point is that theres nothing inherent in british-and-or-english cuisine that would make it suck, so long as its prepared well. but i believe that it spent a century sucking because of bad chefs/bad reputations/margaret thatcher
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:23 (twelve years ago) link
I am late to this but I just read this upthread:
I just want to remind everyone that if you agree with Aerosmith on this thread you are agreeing with a guy who thinks now and laters are the pinnacle of human culinary achievement, standing above only bit O honey
I mean, how can Now and Laters be the pinnacle of human culinary achievement if everything but Bit O Honey is better than them?
― dense macabre (DJP), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:24 (twelve years ago) link
1. Now and Laters2. Bit O Honey3. Saag Paneer4. Garlic Naan5. Chick O Stick
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:29 (twelve years ago) link
every ethnic cuisine in the world has copped to the fact that spices and pickling and fermenting are good things and make food flavorful and tasty and great
but british food, british food
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:29 (twelve years ago) link
currently lobbying to have the above ranking replace the US Constitution in toto
Bill of Blights
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:30 (twelve years ago) link
read a british cookery book in the 1930s and it's all nervously trying to be "french" -- escoffier's fault mainly! (tho he was good at this style)
the turnabout came after ww2, when english writers like elizabeth david started looking at european peasant cookery as the source of quality, instead of high-falutin fancy cuinse that few could pull off -- rationing during the war and after was the end of the low (and its nadir, probably), and it began a long slow trudge of a climb back to interest in cheap(ish) quality
thatcher is not actually the villain here, for once (she's not the hero either, just irrelevant: brit neo-foodiness coincided with her...)
xp spices and pickling and fermenting <-- dude, chutney! pickled onions, walnuts, everyone in the uk makes/buys a fvckton of this!
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
oh i was just guessing that it was maggies fault, everything else seems to be
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
pickled eggs!
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
i am not helping myself here i suspect
wow chutney was a british invention??
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
cheese, beer, whisky, cider are all fermented
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
even bread! bread is fermented
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:34 (twelve years ago) link
and speaking of cheese, it rules, and you cant find any of it in china, so lets call it even
not enough cheese in indian food either tbh
― horseshoe, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:34 (twelve years ago) link
no, stolen from india (this was part of the problem, militarised access to all the world's foods) but pickling and fermenting stuff generally is a long-standing rural DIY activity
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
aero it is vital that we get yr opinion on Lik-A-Maid
(ps: INDIAN FOOD 4 LYFE)
― dense macabre (DJP), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
stilton is english, right? thank you england!
― horseshoe, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
glad to see all of you are agreeing to go on the cheese and whisky diet, sounds great
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:36 (twelve years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/The_Tale_of_Ginger_and_Pickles_first_edition_cover.jpg
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:37 (twelve years ago) link
british cheeses are fantastic
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:37 (twelve years ago) link
also as a happy paneer addict I really don't understand criticizing Indian food for its lack of cheese
― dense macabre (DJP), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
paneer is great, but there aren't a bunch of different varieties of indian cheese, is all i meant.
― horseshoe, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:42 (twelve years ago) link
afaik anyway
I guess I'm just trying to understand why british food sucked for so long when france and italy were innovating up a storm during the same time period
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:43 (twelve years ago) link
really I'm just mad that america inherited the uk's shitty food legacy
we didn't need to innovate! during the upheaval of the industrial revolution, we could just help ourselves to an empire's-worth of excellence, plus many chefs fleeing from turbulent france/italy etc ended up in the uk also!
From wikipedia: Dates of introduction of various foodstuffs and methods to Britain
1492 to 1914:turkey: 1524[22]cayenne pepper,[23] parsley:[24] 1548refined sugar: 1540s[19]lemon: 1577 (first recorded cultivation)[25]peach (cultivated): 16th century[25]potato: 1586horseradish:[26] 16th centurytea: 1610 or later[27]banana (from Bermuda):[28] 1633coffee: 1650[29]chocolate: 1650sice cream: first recorded serving in 1672.[30]broccoli: before 1724[31]tomato (as food):[32] 1750ssandwich: named in 18th centurycurry: first appearance on a menu 1773; first Indian restaurant 1809[33]rhubarb (as food): early 19th century[34]three-course meal: about 1850 (developed from service à la Russe)[13]fish and chips: 1858 or 1863[19]Marmite: 1902[35]
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:49 (twelve years ago) link
Marmite: 1902[35]
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:51 (twelve years ago) link
I rest my case.
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:52 (twelve years ago) link
british cheeses do own
― The sham nation of Israel should be destroyed. (Princess TamTam), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:53 (twelve years ago) link
My Indian grandfather trying Marmite for the first time is literally the funniest thing i've ever seen in my life.
― Mohombi Khush Hua (ShariVari), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:54 (twelve years ago) link
tomato (as food) made me lol, too: as opposed to what?
― mark s, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
tomato (as food):[32] 1750s
was there some industrial use for tomatos?
― there once was a man with a machine (brownie), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
xposts
tomato (as blood sausage)
― max, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
people thought tomatoes were poisonous for ages iirc
― Number None, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
tomato plants were used as garden plants I think?
― fill up ass of emoticon fart (crüt), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
number none OTM
those poor fools
― Number None, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:57 (twelve years ago) link
tomatoes are a new world crop, along with the potato
always amazed me that italians have been working with tomatoes for only a few hudnred years
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:57 (twelve years ago) link
This thread has reminded me how much i hate when 'marinara sauce' is used by 'merkins to mean 'napoli sauce'. Anyway, this could boil down to How much time does everyone like spending in the toilet per day.
― Franz Kappa (S-), Monday, 7 November 2011 19:57 (twelve years ago) link