Good British food... does it exists?

[Frungy]

To be perfectly honest, your claims of 90% overlap don't wring true with me. See unlike the british isles, America is a big place, with lots and lots of different ethnic groups, So what you consider "American Cuisine" I would consider "A singular aspect of American cuisine"

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. In case you hadn't noticed the U.K. is at least as multicultural as the U.S., and with the E.U. is arguably more so. Sure there are regional specialities in the U.S. ... most which are derived from another country's cooking, like Creole and Cajun style cooking in Louisiana. The same can be said of the U.K. with regional specialities, but unlike the U.S. the U.K. doesn't try to pretend that it invented these things and gives credit where credit is due, so German sausages are labelled as German, not passed off as a U.K. invention (although after what the U.S. has done to the noble Frankfurter in turning it into the "hot dog" the Germans would classify the sausage as organic waste and mark it with a biohazard sign, and perhaps they prefer it not being referred to as a German food).

This is the primary difference between U.S. and U.K. food. The U.S. has tried to "Americanize" everything in an effort at nation building, and as a result comes across as hellishly arrogant in not acknowledging the origins of its food. The U.K., much more humbly, gives credit where it is due, and as a result is criticised for having very little "original" food when compared to the U.S. ... which also has very little original food, but just has the all-fired bad manners to pretend it invented stuff like barbequeing (the word itself is Carribean in origin), or re-label Mexican food as "Tex-mex" because their fragile little egos can't handle the idea that they didn't invent the burrito.

Frankly the U.S. has nothing to boast about in terms of cuisine itself, and a lot to apologise for. ... but getting an apology out of an American is like getting blood from a stone.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Whenever I go to the UK I live on fish & chips (find the guys who dip it in batter not the guys who just warm up frozen filets from Tescos) & Bombay Mix.

I'm not kidding.

That said, Bombay Mix is awesome and well made fish & chips is the best fast food in the world.

 

[Yopaz]

British cuisine is HORRIBLE. They have, however, made a good sport of cooking other nationalities food well. You should be okay.

Unfortunately we haven't mastered the art of deep frying everything in less then 30 seconds and ramming it between cardboard wedges then topping it off with a slice of flavored textured 'cheez', so you may feel a bit home sick.

You clearly don't know anything about American food. They know deep dry the cardboard too. Also to drink you get a nice glass of fried coke

OT: Get a traditional breakfast, for the rest just explore whatever is nearby when you're feeling hungry. I have had some of my best (and worst) meals when I've followed the instinct to just eat at a random place. In Prague I just walked with my friends and we decided to go into a restaurant that seemed nice. It's on my top 5 meals list. Be spontaneous and explore some rather than follow advice.

 

[Terminal Blue]

To be perfectly honest, your claims of 90% overlap don't wring true with me. See unlike the british isles, America is a big place, with lots and lots of different ethnic groups, So what you consider "American Cuisine" I would consider "A singular aspect of American cuisine"

You've never been to London, have you?

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Americans take the piss out of British food? Ok then.

We have the best pies, ever. And pasties. And cake. 'Indian food' is as much a British invention as it is Indian. Go to a decent pub and you'll find a lot of great food, it does exist.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Saying Uk has no good food is like saying American serves just McDonalds. America jokes about the fact the English have bad teeth, talk posh and drink warm beer. Unfortunately, the English have better teeth hygiene than America, we dont talk posh, most of us are common and we drink beer cold.....apart from ales that are meant to be room temp.

Uk has great food, we also have a huge amount of different nationalities here bringing food from India, China and Europe who bring there meals and restaurants here. Proper fish and chips are awesome....as in proper chunky cut chips and not fries. A good sunday roast or bangers and mash. A hamburger cooked from scratch by hand and not in a fast food restaurant. It depends what your likes and dislikes are in food and there is something for every one, i even found a Mexican food place a few weeks ago which surprised me. Also depends on where you go, some places cook crap food and other places cook amazing food.

But then i say thats down to history. America has no historical dishes, America is fairly new as all they have given the world is McDonalds so it always annoys me when they comment on our food. But, to counter this, when i go Florida i love Lennys subs, only place where the food looks exactly like the picture (dont get that in McDonalds. lol). I love your BBQ, Steaks and malt shakes. Fudpuckers has awesome burgers. An your choice in cinema popcorn is way superior to us....we just have salt or sweet. An Golden Coral is an amazing buffet place.

So, basiclly it depends where you go and what you eat. But part of travelling to other countries is tasting the food and not eating what you know.

 

[The White Hunter]

Traditionally British food has been crappy. Jellied eels? who in their right mind would eat them.

Londoners. I've lived my whole life in Britain and I have never met a single person who ate that crap.

East-Enders, to be more accurate. Plenty of Londoners won't touch jellied eels with a ten foot barge pole, but we cockneys cling to them. They are pretty tasty, it's just the jelly that's rank.

Thanks for clearing that up, I've never met a cockney in real life, which is bizarre I've met people from nearly everywhere else on the damn planet.

I personally avoid most seafood like I would avoid plague rats with the exception of fried scampi or prawns in batter or some kind. So yeah, I'll give the eels a miss. Can't do black pudding or anything either xP and yet I eat my steak still alive.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Hey, just realised.....you will actually be able to drink a proper beer than that watery crap they serve in America.

 

[The White Hunter]

Snip

On talking posh, wasn't there a thing done (some documentary on TV) about british accents (and I mean the whole bloody lot of them, all 250 odd or however many) and how americans interpreted them and when questioning american students they couldn't understand a lot of them fully with the worst offender being the geordie?

Cuz I have american friends who've failed to understand what I'm saying when I descend into my native jargon.

Hey, just realised.....you will actually be able to drink a proper beer than that watery crap they serve in America.

Yeah we serve german beer in the UK : D[sup]Joke[/sup]

Yeah try the local beers, they're good stuff. Look out for things like Dark Lord, Old Tom, and any black sheep ale.

 

[The White Hunter]

To be perfectly honest, your claims of 90% overlap don't wring true with me. See unlike the british isles, America is a big place, with lots and lots of different ethnic groups, So what you consider "American Cuisine" I would consider "A singular aspect of American cuisine"

You've never been to London, have you?

London is the only city I have ever been to where all the signs are in pictures because nobody speaks the same language.

 

[The Funslinger]

British cuisine is HORRIBLE. They have, however, made a good sport of cooking other nationalities food well. You should be okay.

Where the hell have you been eating!?

OP: British food is, objectively, the best food in the world.

There's nothing like a slice of well roasted beef or lamb, soaked in gravy, with some roast potatoes, and a side of Yorksire puddings. These are Yorkshire's contribution to the world, and it dwarfs all others, from penicillin to the Internet.

I also recommend you try Cornish Pasties, some good, fresh haddock and chips, and Irn Bru. Irn Bru is a brilliant soft drink.

The idea of British food being bad is absolutely insane. Sure, it's possible to cook poorly, but the same can be said of any food.

Edit: Not to mention British sweets. If you're American, you need to try our sweets.

 

[Stu35]

Yeah we serve german beer in the UK : D[sup]Joke[/sup]

Yeah try the local beers, they're good stuff. Look out for things like Dark Lord, Old Tom, and any black sheep ale.

On a serious note, German beer is pretty overrated - Having lived there for 3 years, I did enjoy their incredible territorialness over beers - for example, I drank Herforder when I was there, as I lived in Herford - my friend from Detmold would often scold me for this and insist we drank Detmolder together. Whenever I went to Wacken, I would of course bring crates of Herforder with me, and be chided by the various multitudes of Germans I ran into for not drinking THEIR local brew.


It was all rather amusing, because the majority German beer can be broken down into 3 main categories - Highly Carbonated Lager (which to my refined British ale drinking tastes, all tasted the same). Dunkel, and Wheat.

I enjoyed the Lager, far more than I do the pisswater we get here such as Carlsberg, Fosters, and, yes - Becks (which doesn't get to classify itself with the mighty Herforder).

I was a fairly big fan of some of the Dunkelbiers, however I found some of them to be a bit... I dunno, sickly? rich? couldn't have too many.

I was, however a huge, huge, huge fan of Weissbier, however it did cause me to suffer terrible gut rot the following day whenever I had a good session on it. Worth it.

 

[Squidbulb]

Try a Cornish Pasty. They're delicious.
A Full English Breakfast is always nice too.

 

[Jacob Fenton]

We have some of the finest food in the world.

Also, London isn't Britain - it's a horrible cosmopolitan wasteland. You want to come to Britain? Get on a Train and visit Yorkshire.

SNIPPED

Also, for proper historic shit (I know Americans love history, because you don't have any), then York is the best bet - It's got walls, York Minster, The Jorvik viking centre, It's in Yorkshire which automatically makes it better than all cities not in Yorkshire. And so on.

SECONDED! I'm from Yorkshire, it's nicknamed "god's country" for a reason.

Also, the "British food is bad" thing seems to come mostly from countries that are considered the big food lovers (France/Italy etc. Although France has plenty of other reasons to make out that Britain is rubbish, and Vice Versa) The "traditional" food is more designed to fill you and keep you warm rather than the enjoyment of food from places like Italy and France so it seems bland by comparison. But when we aren't trying to fatten ourselves up to survive the long, cruel and harsh summer so we can see the longer harsher winter we make some damn tasty food.

IIRC any food from an Indian takeaway that has meat in is pretty much an invention of the British/invented for the British since meat isn't as popular with Indian people. (could be way off the mark there though).

Unfortunately I won't even be in England when you're around though, currently living in Malta on a work placement.

Interesting aside - Horsemeat is a local delicacy here so the I'm getting to watch the horsemeat scandal and know I'm probably fine.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Is there such a thing as tasty food from England?

I wouldn't expect the country that gave us spray on cheese and fast food to be making food jokes. You probably won't find grease coated shit everywhere so if that's your palette then you're going to hate our food. Get a good pasty, some fish and chips (I swear to God if you ask for fish and fries I'll gut you in your sleep), a Sunday roast from a nice restaurant and revel in the country that gave you life.

EDIT: Apologies if this seems rather angry but I just got done playing Empire Total War and Assassin's Creed 3 and I've been having a bit of trouble with the colonies.

 

[vrbtny]

I'm headed to London with my uni on Saturday and I can't help but wonder just how true or false the jokes about British cooking skills are. Is there such a thing as tasty food from England? does it cost an arm and a leg? will it be served by a gentleman wearing a top hat and monicle?


Also, if anyone is in the area and feels like hanging out with a ~190cm American, I'll more then likely be hanging out at the National Royal Hotel on the 6th at 6:30pm...

Well to be honest the quality of English food doesn't matter Jack if you're actually in England, because all the food shops are foreign anyway. We don't really have cuisine, so we just mask it by having all the other countries cook for us instead.

However if you are planning on Eating English, go for a full english breakfast with extra mushrooms.

When indulging in English cuisine, remember one strict rule : Bacon makes everything better. This is what our entire food industry is based on.