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She just needs a bit of toad in the hole
toad in the hole
A fun rabbit hole at 4am
British food is actually top tier. Tye difference with Italian food for example is Italian is quicker and easier to make, so your average person can put together a pasta dish pretty quickly as a weekday evening meal. Whereas youre not going to come home and quickly make a roast dinner or a beef wellington or a proper steak and ale pie, so instead you’ll just bang some fish fingers and chips in the oven and 20 minutes later have some perfectly good scran for while you watch EastEnders.
Italian is quicker and easier to make
Oh no! No it is not!
If you want a real Bolognese sauce, know it needs to simmer for a looooong time, and if you’ve never had this, you never had a real Bolognese sauce! Nothing you will find pre-made in a jar will ever match the fresh one!
It’s just like pizzas: fresh made are incomparable to frozen ones.
Italian food was made “quick-and-convenient” by the food industry because it is top-tier, not because it was initially quick and convenient.
And industry italian-style food is of a much lower standard than genuine italian cuisine.Eh, I will sometimes make a big batch of sauce and then either keep in the fridge a few days or freeze it. But that’s besides the point. I can still make a pasta Bolognese in about an hour if I’m trying to make a quick but tasty weekday meal, since you don’t actually HAVE to simmer it for hours.
Like to take a beef wellington for example, you can’t really cut corners on it and make one on Wednesday night after work. Even if you were to buy a pre made one, you would still have to roast it for ages.
And even then a lot of Italian cooking is legitimately quick, even doing it “properly” a carbonara for example is super quick and easy to make from scratch, if you just buy the bread instead of making it Bruschetta is super easy, or if I’m feeling super lazy I will sometimes make a frittata with leftovers, that takes like 15 mins to make. In the other hand no one quickly throws together a chicken and leek pie, or make a pasty from scratch, or even something as relatively simple as a roast. The only British food I ever really make for easy meals is a stew because you can make it in a slow cooker, but stew isn’t even a uniquely British dish.
Like to take a beef wellington for example, you can’t really cut corners on it and make one on Wednesday night after work. Even if you were to buy a pre made one, you would still have to roast it for ages.
That’s why Brits historically just had the help cook it for them
This affirms my hypothesis that the problem with British food is that they still have their nobility. France is the textbook example of the process - after they guillotined their nobles the good chefs that once served the elite had to offer their services to the general populace. But Britain? Only the nobles (or otherwise wealthy people) can have their servants at home prepare “a roast dinner or a beef wellington or a proper steak and ale pie”, while the comments have to settle for “some fish fingers and chips in the oven”.
16 years after the Terror, the nobility was restored under Napoleon.
British food is actually top tier
Stopped reading. Actually, gonna block you right after writing this message. I don’t want to know anything from you ever again lmfao.
As a British person myself, I completely disagree that our food is anything you would call top tier.
We have some nice food (as you mentioned) but it’s the exception, rather than the rule.
As a child I was forced to eat a lot of Sunday roasts at the grandparents that were bland and anemic and mushy, with veg boiled within an inch of its life, and where the meat was the only good part. I don’t think my experience was atypical.
British food these days is getting better all the time, but mostly because modern British food is a cultural fusion of tastes and techniques from everywhere in the world, and thanks to the Internet people are actually learning how to cook. Good roasts these days have sweetly caramelised oven-roast veg with olive oil and herbs and seasonings, and are a million miles from the mush I was served as a child.
But has British food historically been good? No, it has not.
As a child I was forced to eat a lot of Sunday roasts at the grandparents that were bland and anemic and mushy, with veg boiled within an inch of its life, and where the meat was the only good part
And I used to date an Indian lass who was the worst cook I’ve ever met in my life, the food she made was truly disgusting. But that doesn’t mean all Indian food is bad.
I know self-flagelation is a time honoured tradition of hours, but the whole “Britain bad” circlejerk is just getting annoying now.
Yeah I’m getting a bit tired of it myself. It’s fun to banter but there’s not really much banter left.
Sure, there are always exceptions.
I’m not being self-deprecating for the sake of it - I’m speaking what I feel from personal experience. And on the basis of that experience I would rank the average state of British food well below the average state of food in a pretty wide spread of other places.
And that’s what I’m basing it on - averages, not exceptions.
But has British food historically been good? No, it has not.
Oh boy. You should Google that, because you couldn’t be more wrong.
Edit:
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forme_of_Cury XIV century cookbook. Damn, oldest known recipe for macaroni and cheese comes from it.
XIV - XV century whole Europe was jelly for English cuisine.
XVI you were the capital of pastries and sweets.
Macaroni & Cheese originates from England, and there’s few simpler recipes.
I can’t agree, but I can very much understand.
So what you’re saying is, I need to find an Italian woman! I can work with that.
It’s not all positives. Don’t dig your own grave
I mean…I’d have dinner, and a woman. Sounds better then no dinner and no woman.
even an Italian woman who don’t cook is still an Italian woman 🤌🤌🤌
Ok…I get that. Little confused why you ended your comment with the emoji for anal fisting though. Not judging, just confused.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_vuoi%3F
I mean, I’ve also met more than one Italian/Italian-American woman at a kink party so 🤌doubling as a fisting emoji might not be far off lol
jokes aside, i’d say british cuisine is definitely taking more flak than what it deserves.
Maybe…
What I don’t understand is how they can be on an island, surrounded by some of the best fish in the world (including the fantastic Scottish salmon) and the only piece of fish you can find in the whole country is freaking cod with four layers of batter applied to it and fried until the only flavor you can perceive is that of mediocre burnt oil.
They make good meat dishes (roasts, meat pies), but then they pair them with the most uninspiring sides… The UK cuisine has a few good things, and they have good ingredients, but more often than not they cook them in boring ways and stop there, calling it “good enough”
I once read that a group of Rotterdam Housewives wrote a collective letter to their fishermen husbands, that they would abide no more then 2 days of salmon dinner a week. Maybe having an abundance of it makes it unbearable after decades. I mean, complaining about salmon dinner seams crazy to me, so who knows what you can get fed up with :)
Fish used to be poor people’s food. It was plentiful around the sea, but it kept for just a few hours without modern refrigeration, so you couldn’t really transport it to the main city market and sell it. It didn’t give you much food security or much money, and it wasn’t as luxurious as meat, which was the food of choice for the higher classes.
The only fish that was eaten by the higher classes were the ones that could be preserved by salting, drying or smoking, and they were eaten mainly during lent, as a “lean” alternative to meat. It was mostly viewed as a sacrifice. During the late Middle Ages and early modern era, the herring trade started to really flourish, with Holland being a major exporter of herrings, while the Nordic countries like Norway and Sweden exported lots of salted cod and Stockfish (dried cod).
So I’m sure it was at a moment where eating fish was seen as a humiliation, rather than a treat, like it is today. In North America lobster was considered as very poor food, cockroaches of the ocean, fed to those who couldn’t afford anything else or to prisoners. Sometimes they were even used as fertilizer for the fields.
That’s pretty sad and true about the fish situation. Even fish and chip shops mostly just do cod and haddock, and I’ve only rarely seen one offer a wide variety of fish that would help avoid overfishing.
We also have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to seafood, but most people don’t even touch it apart from the occasional prawn. The day after Brexit came into effect there were tables of cockles and muscles, clams, scallops etc just sitting going off because they couldn’t get them to France.
They make good meat dishes (roasts, meat pies), but then they pair them with the most uninspiring sides…
I mean… British were always shafted by their nobility. The land wasn’t known for fruits or sweet veggies, the rent in UK paid to the landlord was relatively high, so most peasants ate pickles, chutneys or different mushed veggies as sides.
Not known for fruits? Strawberries, gooseberries, blackberries, apples…
Yes. Historically British Isles had meh climate for fruit production. You could either forage for berries, but fruits were mostly seasonal apples or pears or plums, but the harvest seasons were rather short.
Tbh, british food is mostly just salt-deficient. Add salt to it and a lot of it tastes really good.
Food is like music. You can have very strong tastes for a particular genre. But I reckon real lovers will always find something to love wherever they go.
Like, I love scones, and carrot cakes and I fondly remember a simple ham and potatoes I had one Christmas in Ireland. And fantastic fish. That smoked salmon filet with herbs and spices from M&S is still in my mind all those years later.
There is always something to love, if you give it a fair go.Yeah, tikka masala is awesome. And yeah fish and chips is amazing too. It’s just that brits also have stuff like boiled roasts
The fuck is a boiled roast?
Something I’ve seen brits complain about on the internet before, Something about Sunday roasts involving far too much boiling and not enough seasoning
I do believe tikka masala is British but it is funny that it’s the first thing you said because it’s also very clearly Indian
Yes, that was intentional to attempt to be humorous. It was invented by brits returning home attempting to recreate Indian food.
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There is a whole category of British-Indian food which is from immigrants creating completely new types of curries that dont exist in India.
indian the same as pizza is italian. invented elsewhere by emigres to another country who then had family bring back the crazy new fusion food for the people of the homeland to go “oh that’s good.”
Pizza was invented in Italy though.
what am i thinking of then that’s an itallian-american dish that got popular back in italy. i was thinking the phenomenon was called pizzafication but maybe it’s… lasagnafication?
it is the pizza effect, it’s just about how the specifics of pizza have shifted over time, not about the overall creation of the thing:
idk man. I went to the UK to sample some of the cuisine thinking it can’t be that bad and I have mixed feeling afterwards. Like the food is edible at least.
What did you have because you can go to a crap pizza place in Italy.
It may not be as nuanced, but it’s pretty damn good.
Yeah their curry is awesome.
Waitasecond…
Yeah, you all definitely have… 8 or maybe 9 edible things that aren’t beer or curry.
All the same, I’d rather have a full English breakfast than 90% of French food and 98% of German food. Kidneys in cream, or raw pork crackers, or bread and cheese like they invented it or whatever.
Very ignorant take because everything a full English offers is also very German. This includes the pig blood which isn’t french but you probably didn’t think of that anyway.
English are a kind of German
Branding and beans for breakfast. That’s why the English get the win here, which is also occasionally called a full Irish breakfast if there’s no Brits looking. Plus, the English hardly have any indigenous culinary variety or spices. Why else colonize with such a passion?
And I’m actually very much ok with black pudding, that’s not the issue. I don’t like northern French cuisine because it’s just “how much butter and cream can we pump into this snail or these poor mushrooms or a potato that was fine all on its own? Can we drown this perfectly mediocre cut of beef in cream and butter to make it seem fancy?” I’m far more partial to living below the butter/olive oil border. Southern France on the sea is tolerable, they’re also below the border.
French cooking is cheap peasant foods with lipstick applied and loads of makeup to try and cover up that fact.
Snails are not a northern France thing though (unless you have a loose definition of north). It’s mostly central, with a huge correlation with tourist hotspots
They confused Central French with Northern French, but it’s true that classic French cuisine, both northern and central, use too much dairy.
I mean I love France with all my being, but there’s no denying the use of cream and butter (or cheese in Northern French cuisine.
I guess you’re not into bread, because Germans have incredible bread
I left the 2% for pretzels, sausage, and Haribo gummies.
And Italians also make bread, you’ll notice they’re not on the exclusion list.
Yeah, but Italian bread and German bread…
Germans make pasta too, but I’m not talking about maultaschen here
Italians make bread without salt… Bah!
That’s just the Tuscans
Germans have roughly one kind of bread that they’re very good at.
Germany has tons of Turkish immigrants, but Germans won’t buy pita bread unless they’re getting a doner. They share a massive border with France but mostly ignore delicious French breads like croissants, baguettes, etc. They’re right near Italy but you won’t find much focaccia. Forget about naan, bagels, bao, corn bread, crumpets, injera, etc.
The French have good bread as well. Not as good as what we have in Italy of course, but well, they’re doing their best!
The French have good bread as well
I dunno, the last baguette I ate tasted like pain.
They sure like talking about their bread a lot. No one beyond their borders understands why however.
That’s what I thought until I started working at a German bakery. Now I’m converted (as someone who isn’t from here and grew up with fresh home baked sourdough every day). You should try more of it.
A lot of you still cooking like the Germans are still flying over your heads NGL
Well de are, but instead that the English read the dropped recipe books they use it as toiletpapers!
We still are, but now it’s Lufthansa, not Luftwaffe. Big difference.
A-tier joke lmao
Like the Von Saxen-Coburg und Gotha’s became the Windsors
I’m not much of a fan of many traditional British dishes, and there are some things many British people seem to enjoy make me wonder about their taste buds. OTOH, Britain once had a worldwide empire, and it brought back a lot of dishes from that empire to the mainland. Indian curries are the obvious example, but there’s also Caribbean food, Chinese food, even other curries from South-East Asia.
In comedy, timing is everything. This cut down TikTok ruined the joke :(
Of course it does. I grew up in the UK and it’s fun taking jabs but then you have a bunch of people who just keep doubling down as if they’re God’s gift to the kitchen.
My favourite take of theirs is always what they exclude from English food but they’ll talk about American food and include everybody else’s cuisine …
In fairness, a lot of people will only experience or know what’s brought out as quintessential English for at holidays or other special occasions, which isn’t always the best thing there is to offer from the cuisine. It’s something else entirely if you actually go there for a couple of weeks and pay attention to all the delicious stuff you’ll eat while there.
Plus, you get plenty of weirdos from every country who seem to have Stockholm syndrome with the most bland/boring aspects of their cuisine and will wholeheartedly recommend their absolute most terrible dish as the pinnacle of their country’s cuisine. I have a coworker from Ireland who won’t touch a spice bag if his life depended on it, but will tell anyone who listens how wonderful beans on buttered brown bread is and that it should be more common everywhere.
lol I actually quite like Irish food. Went to a random pub in Galway and had some stew and it was so good! Irish beef is awesome.
I have friends kinda like what you described though. No spices and they love bland food, lol.
I’m okay with people taking jabs at British food to be honest. Like, my first year back when I was an adult I didn’t know what to eat and I actually cooked more because I didn’t know what to get. It wasn’t until I made some friends that I knew places to check.
What’s crazy is all the trash they talk about American food, and somehow managed to completely forget that Louisiana is in America…
I agree but if you need some beans made, they will excel in that.
I’d much rather have some Mexican bean dish rather than a British one. Baked beans are trash, you cannot change my mind.
English baked beans are trash. Barbecue Baked beans heated up out in a smoker with a bit of shredded pork or brisket in it are fantastic, and if you disagree with that, you and your bean mash can go burn in hell ;-p
Boston baked beans with pork belly also deserves a mention.
They’re almost the same thing. Sauces are just a bit different.
I’d say the seasoning is different enough to call it a distinct thing, though the cooking method is identical. Like New York vs Chicago tavern style pizza.
Cheesy beans on toast will change your mind.
Who would have anything against British cuisine? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVHbWHGVYaU
This is another one of those times where I can’t tell if this is British humour or British documentary.
You can only tell at the very end when he says “no joke intended”
100% real, you can buy packs of frozen removedts at basically any supermarket
Can someone authoritative clarify? I literally can’t tell either.
I can! I come from that area and it’s a real dish that is eaten commonly and served in pubs and restaurants. If you go to a local market, you can get then to take away with scoops of mushy peas in the container too.
I don’t eat meat, so I can’t speak to the taste, but mushy peas themselves are delicious and shouldn’t taste anything like garden peas. They are more like a dal.
Huh; I’ve gotten so used to all the non–slur-related uses of “faggot” that Brit.s employ that I didn’t even consider that was the source of the confusion.
I was just like, “Of course; like in that one commercial.”
I did NOT see that opening sentence coming! 😂
Opening, middle, end… Much like removeds, there just is so much to love.
Lmao, the first comment:
"Well I know my algorithm didn’t search for “peas.”
“Relatively recent”
I’ll be sure to let the Etruscans know.
Ahkshually, cultures all over the world have eaten crustaceans for millennia!
(I made up that fact for the sake of the punch line, no idea if accurate)
My people would rather have starved than eat crustaceans. Lobsters were being fed to prisoners in the US until recently. People are weird.
(It was a valiant attempt)
Isn’t tomato native to the Americas?
Most food is.
And pasta to China.
Pasta has been around in Italy since at least the Roman era. The story that they didn’t know about pasta until Marco Polo returned from China is just not true. He might have brought back some specific new recipes, but Italians have been enjoying pasta since before the three kingdoms began their romance.
It’s a reference to Alberto Grandi and his theses about the origins of many popular Italian dishes that are perceived as “traditional” but did become mainstream until after WWII (and that Italian cuisine before that was much more regional and less homogeneous).
I think there’s something to those arguments, but it is worth noting that he’s not really a “food historian” as he’s often described but a professor of economics and management.
economics and management
The foremost things I have with every meal.
The Etruscans, famously known for their tomato sauce.
“Food made by people living on what is now the Italian peninsula” is not a synonym for “Italian food.”
Yeah, all they did was form the basis for modern pasta, and cultivate the seasonings used by modern Italians. I’m sure that counts for absolutely nothing. /s
“'ow about we add some vinegah—”
“ANDARE!”
“'ow about we add some vinegah—”
wtf are you trying to do here?
“FUORI!” would be more likely, or “SCIÒ!” (shoo)
A strong boundary and a great punchline 😄 That’s love, culture, and humor all working together.
A classic. For sure that’s a dope sando tho
He’s Scottish though, not English
The Scotts will one up the English at any chance they get out of pure spite if for no other reason.
Yeah and it must have been really hard to on-up them on terrible food. But they did manage to come up with Haggis in the end.
Also deep fried mars bars apparently
I have several thousands of millions of food intolerances, so I love that British simplicity
Italians assume they eat good but in fact they eat a lot of shit like anyone else
The food, the weather and the women created a seafaring nation.
The absolute best breakfast in the world is square sausage and potato scones.
Nope. Biscuits and gravy is the very best breakfast. A pair of fresh handmade biscuits hot out of the oven and smothered in a white gravy with bits of spicy pork sausages and loads of black pepper for bite. A meal fit to fight whatever the day throws at you. Although fried chicken and waffles is a fine substitute. And smoked ribs, brisket, or pork butt cooked low and slow and infused with hours of hardwood smoke might be perfection itself. If you have the desire, your patience will be rewarded with meats that are unrivaled in this world.
But, like everything else in this world, cuisines are built upon whatever scraps of food that were handy and flavored with whatever seasonings that could be bought or scrounged. Local cuisines died when the first trader brought home something new to eat. It’s all just a mish-mash of ideas and methods now. And good food is as easy to find as bad food is.
