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!
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.
This has probably been posted and upvoted by people who put salad on the same plate as a roast dinner.
Hmm. I've lived in two very different countries and always had salad on the side of... Everything.
It's interesting to find that it's not done there. In which situations do you eat salad?
this is tangential to the general thread of salad and weird food culture, so i'm just going to leave it as a reply to your comment.
I grew up in the south in the USA. I'm, therefore, southern. Ergo, I grew up with southern cuisine.
Fast forward to my mid thirties. I now live in France. I invited some of my non-southern and non-american friends over for a thanksgiving dinner one year. I served fruit salad, as one does, on the side of dinner. Apparently that's weird. Nobody else eats fruit salad as a dinner side except southerners, apparently. Also, the non-americans were weirded out by eating cranberry sauce on the bird.
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.
It's a quote from SNL Sarcasm 101
Boiling is pretty rare here. Pretty much the only consistently boiled thing I’ve had are potatoes.
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.
Steak kinda logically follows fire and knife.
Probably.
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.
The world doesn't know what it's missing with andouillettes
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.
I do that a lot in games, I collect all the collectibles and weapons and potions, but I proceed not to use them.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mash potatoes are pretty good
Fish and chips.
Task failed successfully.
I think Yorkshire pud and fish n' chips cover a multitude of sins.
Honestly british recipes actually make some nice food if cooked with good ingrediants, post covid/brexit/ukraine though British food is fucking awful. Vegetables so close to turning that you end up throwing half the thing away before cooking, so much palm oil that many pastries (savoury and sweet) have the consistenty of playdough and such rampant ingrediant substitution that you can actually buy foods so unflavourful that you can drown them in sauces and somehow not even taste the sauce you just added like there's a negative flavour blackhole or something.
The big breakfast plate is good. Just substitute the blood sausage for something edible.
I think that's one of the few decent foods in Brtish cuisine. We also have something very similar to it in Hungary called Véreshurka.
I love how this implies it tastes worse than expected if not made perfectly.
Spotted dick is tasty
I recently was in Scotland with friends and we had fish and chips for dinner one night. We did have vinegar but I also brought some 10 varieties of hot sauce with me from the states. I can tell you with all confidence the sauce was gone the next day because it made the fish edible.
I also had haggis and loved it because it was seasoned, and in general, I noticed all of the good British food was, surprise, not from the English region.
Best fish and chips I've ever had in my life was in a London pub (the kind that still has rooms for rent upstairs) made by South American immigrants. Fucking phenomenal. I still dream about it sometimes.
I thought this was just a meme until I went there earlier this year. The food ranges from bad to bland.
The only legitimately delicious British food I had was a parmo. They got one thing right. I'd eat that every day.
Not to ruin the circle jerk but for as much as you can go to Greggs and ignore the Fat Duck, you can also go to Taco Bell and ignore The French Laundry, or Délifrance and ignore Guy Savoy...
Where did you eat, my man?
Mostly in pubs, but I did try a few places. Carvery buffet, a few different full English breakfast places. Those are the things I'd chalk up to bland but not bad. Brits truly do use less seasoning from what I could tell. Even the takeaway I tried was pretty boring, and all you have to do is fry and salt that stuff.
I don't think your comparison of fast food vs. fine dining is fair. In the US, and the few other countries I've been, "pub food" or family style restaurants are usually always good. They're not high quality but still tasty. I've only been to 7 countries so I'm not super well traveled, but the UK is the only place I've been where I consistently didn't enjoy the food. I can only remember one meal in Serbia I didn't enjoy.
It largely depends on where you go, and where you eat. It's kinda like saying that I hate American food because I only visited Seattle and ate at shitty shrimp places.
It also depends on what you refer to as "British food". It's essentially comfort food, so you won't find many places trying to do the gourmet version of it without busting your wallet open. The great thing about food in the UK is that you can get food from basically all cultures everywhere (if you're in a city).
British food bad
well, yes.
So brave
Everyone hates apple pie
Or mac and cheese
My grandma is an Anglophile, and always staunchly defends "British Food" by sayinf things like "London has the best restaurants, I can get excellent Lebanses or Indian food there at any time".
I recall reading somewhere that a lot of prepared food in the UK has to be packaged to be bland due to food health and safety laws. I know the laws are a lot stricter but on preservative and additives but does this include more general spices as well?
Idk where you got that from. I suppose it depends on your standards, when I visited the US I found everything suuuper sweet, so I guess it isn't like that. But most food here isn't as bland as it's reputation and there certainly aren't laws on how many spices you can put in packaged food lmao
Do you mean Indian food or actual British food?
British "food"
may i present, for your enjoyment, the toast sandwich. it's a piece of toast in between two slices of bread.
Image Transcription: Reddit
Is British food really that bad?, submitted by /u/the_penis_taker69 to /r/NoStupidQuestions
astralnautical
If made correctly; yes.
British food is bland but nothing compared to the stuff in offer in the American Midwest.
Like Wisconsin cheese, Chicago pizza, Indiana tenderloin, Kentucky racism, and Ohio meth?
Three words: tater tot hotdish. It’s what disappointment tastes like.
These weak xenophobic memes/mentality are exactly why I left reddit, ffs
Yeah, my bad, shouldn't have mentioned reddit.
Still, it's, three or four brain cell required, low hanging fruit, that's been regurgitated a thousand times in echo chambers very similar to this.
It's just a little depressing that this shit still gets lapped up, but I guess that's social media, and the world, over.
And I expect zero cool responses, go for it. Gimme your worst gif!
It has been [ 0 ] days since a British colony or former border for a British colony has caused some kind of global affair
Haha, racism is funny!
the post is specifically targeting english food, not all white people food. There are plenty of white cultures that have amazing food. English isn't really one of them.
No time for common sense, there's Offense to be taken!
(Or is that offence)
How is British cuisine a race of all things?
What exactly do you think that word means?
Where is the racism?
Am a British expat, the stereotype is true. Our most famous dishes in the UK are typically stolen from other places like India. And even then, we manage to ruin it. No one can colonise chicken korma more tragically than the British.
Nowadays I live in a European city with every type of cuisine available...heck even the Irish pubs are here. But no sign of British restaurants. Probably because they'd close within a month due to lack of customers.
Nah mate. I don't know where you come from but if this is how you think about British food then your parents just didn't know how to cook. Shepherds pie, Roast dinner, Welsh rarebit, meat pies beef wellington, even simple meals like bangers and mash, toad in the hole, fish and chips are really good when you pit a bit of effort in.
Then not to mention desserts, scones, Victoria sponge cake, trifles, apple pie, sticky toffee pudding, tarts, custard, biscuits etc.
And the cheese, we have something like 700 different kinds of cheese in the UK famously including Cheddar, Wensleydale, Stilton, red liecester etc.
Someone had told me a lot about fish and chips but also said I've only eaten fake Swedish versions. Then we heard of a British restaurant supposedly run by British people but by the time we actually went there it had closed.
Of course this was 2020, Brexit had just happened, and the pandemic was at its highest which affected all restaurants.
You can have scones in some cafes in Germany
You can't be racist against the British, they're a colonial powerhouse. The British basically invented racism.
