How does the saying go:
The beauty of their women and the taste of their food has made the British the best sailors in the world.
Thank you very much for the laugh!
I love the fact they conquered half the world, took their spices and don’t fucking use them.
We don’t?
I just buy grama masala for pure decoration. I mean what else am I going to do with it? Pour it on plain toast?!
Do you?
Absolutely
I enjoyed that, cheers.
He used salt and pepper!
They have marmite, no need for more flavour
That’s like the observation that many astronauts come from the US state of Ohio. Because they want to get as far away as possible.
(Michigander here, we love you Ohio, really we do!)
Californian here, y’all are basically SCPs to me. Especially the Yoopers.
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Reminds me of that one bit, might have been on Top Gear, “7 of the 10 best restaurants in the world are in London!” “And what kind of food do they serve?” “French Cuisine.” *laughter ensues
ty
I love the special this is from so much.
If made incorrectly … also yes.
But look, it’s a matter of degree. You must have a truly cultured palate to discern the subtle variations of bland. Any pleb can taste the difference between a great dish and a shit one, but only a tongue honed by centuries of mediocrity can discern the subtle variations between mushy peas and ever-so-slightly-too-mushy peas. And don’t even get me started on perhaps-a-bit-less-mushy-than-yesterday-but-I-can’t-complain peas.
Honestly, I don’t understand all the hate.
“Boiling everything is a really super smart way to cook everything.”
I see this a fair bit, but like our main things are Full English (fried), Fish & Chips (fried), and Roast Dinner (roasted, shockingly), so where does this come from?
Like the entire “hurr British food bad” meme in general, it was just made up by Americans who have very little knowledge of the going on of things outside North America.
I’m gonna get crucified for that statement, but it’s true.
You’re right, British foods are typically baked, fried, or roasted. I really don’t know where this idea of boiling stuff comes from. Boiling is actually something I find unusually rare in British cooking.
during the rationing period I think boiling was more common. not sure why, but my gran would boil the hell out of sprouts. rendering them awful. always thought I hated them.
My granny would boil cabbage until white, that was her way of telling it was done. I used to hate cabbage.
Then I found that you can fry it with butter and bacon and black pepper. So good… although I’ll admit that boiled was probably healthier 😁.
They did used to taste worse as well though, the ones you buy in the shops now are a different variety to the ones back in the day
I think in the 70s and 80s in the US people were boiling the shit outta vegetables as well. I don’t know who thought turning every vegetable into watery mush was a good idea, but it’s no wonder kids from that time grew up hating peas and brussel sprouts
In Italy it’s common to joke about British food too.
Yes, because the stereotype was started by Americans.
Another common stereotype is bad teeth, despite British teeth being healthier than that of the US (or Italy) by a fair margin.
Because of the US’s ability to publish media globally, they dictate a lot of stereotypes in media.
It’s a quote from SNL Sarcasm 101
Thanks for sharing, enjoyed that. RIP Matthew Perry
Boiling is pretty rare here. Pretty much the only consistently boiled thing I’ve had are potatoes.
The meme is funny (it is!) until people take it too literally.
Yes there are things in traditional English cuisine that are atrocious (from difficult times for some of them) but I believe what counts as English food is what you can find in England today.
If you want cheap then you have Indian, Chinese etc in addition to the usual fast food places. Fish and chips is good but you have to let go off your prejudices. The fish is super crispy outside and flaky inside but bland. It’s meant to be eaten covered in salt with tartare sauce or your vinegar soaked chips.
True the cheap traditional food can be meh compared to Italy or France. If you want really nice English food you’ll have to pay more. Gastro pubs, genuine fancy “British cuisine” restaurants are everywhere but you need to be ready to pay the price.
In addition many other countries also have soso traditional food (I think NL, DK etc according to their own citizens). But the problem obviously is that the UK are more fun to target, because the UK wants to be perceived as a superpower in other aspects as they once were. So yeah let’s make fun of their food.
because the UK wants to be perceived as a superpower in other aspects as they once were.
And because they colonized a lot of countries and pillaged their spices, and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with them.
Common misconception, as well. Take for instance our sausages: Lincolnshire and Cumberland being the most popular, both well seasoned. Or Pork Faggots (which are a type of meatball and gravy/sauce dish).
Pork Faggots sounds like a rural Arkansas insult.
I do that a lot in games, I collect all the collectibles and weapons and potions, but I proceed not to use them.
British food is generally shared with Europe. Like, Brits eat Steak, but who can say where that was invented. Steak is eaten throughout Europe. Same with various roasted meats, savory pies, sausages, etc. There might be some slight differences between “bangers”, “chorizo” and “wurst” but it’s fundamentally the same dish. Most food eaten by / prepared by Brits is fundamentally just European food. And even though KFC and McDonalds are American franchises, what they sell is essentially European food, and they’re popular worldwide.
As for food that nobody except Brits eats, that can be pretty bad. But, often foods that only locals eat is bad. French food is world renowned, but that’s the popular “generic European” food made with lots of butter. Andouillette hasn’t caught on, and probably won’t.
I think steak is kind of like fire or the knife…it wasn’t really invented so much as discovered, and by an earlier species of hominid than us. Like you start the game with that tech unlocked.
Edit: Actually now that I think about it, steak outright requires a knife. It is, by definition, sliced meat.
On the other hand, in East Asia you can get fried / grilled meat, but steak isn’t really a local thing. In those cultures, a big hunk of meat will have been chopped up by the cook before it’s served.
Probably.
Steak kinda logically follows fire and knife.
There’s more than slight differences.every country in Europe makes different kind of Sausages,hell in some countries you move by 100km and the food is completely different.
I moved to another continent and can easily find chorizo at my local deli, I consider it pretty unique. I can occasionally get my hands on German bratwurst at fairest, love it and not even close to chirizo in look, texture or flavour. Boring English Sausages? No idea where to find them noone really sells them here.
Then I lost you at McDonald’s and KFC selling European food, are we actually talking about food? Have you ever eaten at a local restaurant in Spain, Italy, Greece or even Germany?
hell in some countries you move by 100km and the food is completely different.
People always say that, but it’s never true.
not even close to chirizo in look, texture or flavour
It’s still a sausage.
Then I lost you at McDonald’s and KFC selling European food
KFC is deep-fried roasted chicken. Frying chicken in fat was something that people were doing in Scotland hundreds of years ago. The fact that KFC is an American corporation doesn’t mean that it’s not fundamentally making a European dish. As for McDonalds, Frisadelle is basically a hamburger patty, and it’s been a German / Scandinavian dish for centuries. Slapping bread around meat was popularized by the Earl of Sandwich around the 1760s. Maybe the hamburger in its current form is a US thing, but it’s merely a slight refinement of a few European ideas.
I’ve eaten all over North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. That’s why I know that British food is basically just European food, just as North American food is also mostly just European food.
So I asked someone from Hamburg (Northern Germany) if they liked Käsespätzle (the most beloved southern German dish). They had never heard of it.
That made me think, so I asked my cousin’s wife from Bavaria (Southern Germany) if they had ever eaten Matjes (a pretty well liked and popular Northern German dish). She also had never heard of it.
Käsespätzle is popular in Switzerland too. It’s very well known except sometimes they call it Chnöpfli / Knoepfle / Knöpfle or Spätzli. It could be that they’d heard of it under a different name? Spätzle is even eaten in Hungary, eastern France and Serbia under local names.
You can easily find it on the aldi-nord.de website under Spätzle. I mean, it’s possible that there are products that are on sale in local supermarkets that people have never noticed, but then is it really that the diets of the North and South are so different, or is it that some people don’t like variety or trying new things?
As for Matjes, that’s pickled / brined Herring. It’s no surprise that people far from the sea don’t eat it. But, pickled herring is super common. It’s popular in Germany (apparently only the north), Netherlands, nordic countries, etc. Slightly different versions are popular in the parts of the UK near the ocean, in Russia and Ukraine, even Canada. In fact, it’s pretty common in Minnesota in the US despite them being far from the ocean simply because they had a lot of immigration from nordic countries.
“The Earl of Sandwich” is just the most greatest thing or I am just too high. I hope he has a statue somewhere
What’s interesting is that “The Earl of Sandwich” was just a title like “The Earl of Devon”, “The Earl of Suffolk”, “The Earl of Essex”, etc.
Sandwiches got their name because that Earl liked playing cards and wanted food he could hold that wouldn’t mess up his cards. So, it’s like calling one of the things he (or his cook) invented “A McDonalds”. But, now, we’re so used to the name “A Sandwich” that the title “Earl of Sandwich” sounds weird. Even though “wich” is a pretty common place name ending, like “Norwich”, “Dunwich”, etc. And, “Sand” is pretty normal as part of a place name, but not as part of food.
Sandwich is also near the village of ham
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ham_Sandwich_road_sign,_Kent.jpg
Nice
The world doesn’t know what it’s missing with andouillettes
That’s why they colonized many parts of the world, for flavor.
They stole everything except spices
They did stole the spices but they find the smell of money nicer.
Yet their food is still bland as paper.
Chicken tikka masala is a British food.
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You can have my gooseberry jam when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!
So like… 6 weeks?
I will have you know that I have survived on gooseberry jam for years!
Harvesting a goose’s berries must be one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
I did it for years as a kid. We had a bunch of gooseberry bushes. I’d pick them and eat half. The thorns are easier to avoid than you’d think because the berries are at the end of the stalk.
Geese have thorns down there? They’re even scarier than I thought!
I need to read more carefully.
As a Brit I will take this shit from anyone except Americans. Your chese is either sheets of plastic or comes in a can, you have no room to criticise any countries food.
American cheese is one specific cheese made in America. It’s essentially cheese made into a cheese sauce, then chilled back into a block. There’s a number of quality levels of it based on how much they skimp on the cheese. And when eaten melted, it’s actually pretty decent, if mild.
Most grocery stores in the US have two cheese sections. There’s the cheap shredded/sliced cheeses, and then there’s a separate section with the fancier cheeses, both foreign and domestic.
Cheese in the US is weird. We make both Velveeta and Humboldt fog. An American cheese won the World Cheese Awards a few years ago, but most of the cheese eaten in America is cheap, mild, mass produced, pre-sliced/shredded semisoft cheese. Most of it isn’t “american cheese”, though.
Just like our beer. Yeah, budweiser is watery crap. There’s also a new microbrew popping up every week.
Also, American cheese exists for one thing: melting over everything. It provides the creamyness. If you want flavor, mix in some aged chedder, which normally doesn’t melt very well.
You can actually make your own American pretty easily with good cheddar, sodium citrate, and water. That’s how I usually make Mac and cheese. A+ would recommend picking some sodium citrate up on Amazon.
Some of the best cheese in the world is made in Wisconsin. There is plenty to criticize about American food but cheese seems like an odd target.
Yeah some of the best chefs in the world are British. Its a joke response to a meme, not a serious point.
Also no one outside of America really cares about wisconsin cheese.
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You literally have burger cheese. It’s the same shit.
The vast majority of people do not regularly eat Kraft singles just like the majority of brits don’t eat burger cheese every day.
Wtf. There’s so much more to cheese than ‘burger cheese’, whatever the fuck that is.
Burger cheese is a specific kind of cheese that is commonly used for things like burgers in the UK.
Very similar to kraft singles.
I bought a 20 year aged chedder from a local cheese maker this past year. It was wonderful.
You picked a cheese named after a place in the UK, not the best choice for a UK Vs USA argument
And yet you can’t get it aged 20 years over there.
Lmao you absolutely can, just there’s not much point as both the reaction that creates the petides and the cheese crystal formation will be over long before even 5 years. So you won’t see much difference or may even deteriorate over time.
What UK cheese maker does 20 years? Hook’s is the only one I could find, and I pick that up at my local farmer’s market.
There is certainly a difference between 5 and 7 years. I’ll admit the difference between 7 and 20 is diminishing returns, but it’s there.
It’s usually not the maker that ages them for so long but the mongers who will buy vintage cheddar and then continue to age it to sell for a premium, there’s a couple of places in london I know that would sell at least decade aged cheddar, one on jermyn Street and another in knightsbridge. But I havnt been to either in a long time so idk if they still do it.
Pigs in blankets are amazing and much nicer than the American pigs in a blanket.
Which is basically a shitty sausage roll.
Its supposed to be a large breakfast sausage wrapped in a pancake and covered in syrup. The ones you find in stores are the equivalent of an inbred Habsburg.
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Case in point:
That looks decent tbh. I’ll certainly eat that up
Ah, that old stereotype that originated during the second world war.
Tell me one good british recipe.
Chicken Tikka Masala
I could go on and list dozens, because the joy of British food is that it’s often a mix of different cultures and techniques. Britain is one of those rare places where they’ll steal food from everywhere, while also being one of the best places to get “authentic” versions of another country’s cuisines.
Just like how all the good Chinese food was invented in America.
EDIT: I apologize but I was partly joking, I love Shaoxing Wine and real Soy Sauce for cooking. There are clearly some good dishes from the many vast cultures of China.
Honestly as someone who grew up with lots of Chinese immigrants friends real Chinese food maybe is a bit odd the first couple of times you eat it but after that it beats the pants off of any American Chinese food.
This is still the stupidest, most disingenuous response. I don’t even have time to go into the like 10 things wrong with this response.
You don’t have time because it’s widely accepted by many that chose to make Britain their home, and you’d spend your time arguing with what is essentially established truth at this point.
As for it sounding stupid, well, it’s not on us to make you understand it. Do some critical thinking, and come back when you have the time.
Mash potatoes are pretty good
Cornish meat pies.
I’ll give you that one, even though Spanish empanadas are straight up better.
Fish and chips.
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I think Yorkshire pud and fish n’ chips cover a multitude of sins.
