A comment on this earlier AskLemmy post inspired me to ask this question. I think there’s lots of delicious British food/it really depends on how you cook it, as with any cuisine.
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Haha, yeah, good joke.
I love a bunch of things listed but I’m into low effort. My friend did a jacket potato with baked beans, cheese, coleslaw and it was awesome
Bake the potato, butter it after cutting an X, add cheese then cover with warmed baked beans (if you’re American, find ones not baked with molasses or brown sugar. You want savory not sweet.) top with coleslaw and enjoy a meal in a dish
Super easy, delicious, the flavors and textures mixed well. Like baked potatoes you can add whatever you want but this was a new combination to me
Baked potato fast-food shops popped up all over the country recently. Haven’t gone to one yet because I actually get enough baked potatoes in my diet. I love the combination of cheese, butter, baked beans and potatoes, though.
This one drew in visitors from other, non neighbouring English counties, when it opened. BBC News Article
Nothing beats a proper English breakfast
Also, beef wellington is pretty great if done right.
Nothing beats a proper English breakfast
English Breakfast is a brilliantly balanced meal and it helped me get comfortable with eating a wider range of things (mushrooms, ratatouille, tomatoes) when I was younger. Love it.
Also, beef wellington is pretty great if done right.
I’ve never actually had one - always been told it is more effort than it’s worth. Looks good though - one day I’ll have my prize
ratatouille
What madness is this?
It’s good on buttered toast, but yeah not exactly an English dish.
Haha yeah, we just have it from the can because it goes on potatoes and things and means you’ve got half your vegetables sorted for the meal.
I buy it canned most of the time too.
The canned stuff is almost identical to the homemade version anyway as there’s only like 8 ingredients in a ratatouille and 6 of them are always going to be the same vegetables in approximately the same ratios.
I’ve never actually had one - always been told it is more effort than it’s worth.
Beef Wellington isn’t even English, it started as a French dish and was refined and popularized in the US. And yes it’s way too much work to cook.
Maybe the French disowned it then. “Too much pastry and too much meat, this meal is practically English!” They seem to like more fancy-shaped pastries in France.
OMG
Having a proper Full English at a farm-stay, on the way down to Cornwall, was a standout lifetime meal.
The same exact one cooked by the wife for the farmer, to last him all day out in the field. Glor-i-ous.
Frying the toast slices in the bacon oil was next level.
Had beef wellington for the first time recently, and it was way tastier and less gimmicky than I expected. The mushroom mixture does a lot more work than you would expect from pictures.
Fish n chips hands down 100% final answer lock it in.
To anyone whos been to both places can you get “proper” fish n chips the world over? I’ve asked a few americans on xbox a few times and they tell me that its “fish and steak fries” and its basically the same thing, but it doesnt sound like it will be the same.
Chippy chips are a very specific thing and its incredibly difficult to explain that to someone who hasn’t experienced it and just understands.
In America, the best approximation we can get to chippy chips are our steak fries. It’s the cut of potato that’s most similar, but there is a whole spectrum of doneness that one is rolling the dice on when ordering steak fries.
And you’re right. There ain’t nothing like chippy chips. I’m over here chasing a dragon when I should just be buying a plane ticket.
Got to have mushy peas with it to complete a proper fish n chips.
I lived in the US for a while and never once had proper fish and chips. Even the ‘English themed pubs’ didn’t do it right.
But there’s some amazing American food and if you’re just looking for British fish and chips while abroad you might as well go on a package holiday.
It’s weird, even americans who actually try hard don’t do fish and chips as well as brits who look like they’re barely trying.
Its no good to me now, but my dream was to get a big van and go touring other countries selling proper fish n chips. Get a social media presence showcasing peoples reactions and announcing my next stops like a tour.
If everywhere else already has authentic chippies then its fairly dead already. I don’t know if they do or don’t without doing the traveling that that career was going to provide though.
Oddly enough, the fast food Greek place here (not a chain) gets the closest to what I had in England.
Midwest fish fry at a supper club?
You’re right, US fish and steak fries are not in the same league as authentic UK fish and chips.
Visited Scotland
Walked into a little mom-n-pop fast restaurant
Wondered wtf is a “deep fried pizza”, ordered one.
Dude took a “frozen” pizza out of the fridge
Dude folded it in half and stuck it in an oil deep fry.
OMFG never tasted such sweet sin… crispy flakey crust on the outside, melty cheesy inside
Totally worth the 10 million calories and arterial hardening
I’m flabbergasted that I’ve never seen that dish in the US. Well done rando Scot!
Oh, this isn’t ‘rando’. Chippies in Scotland will deep fry any fucking thing. Pizza? Standard. Mars bar? Of course! In some chippies you can even take something you’ve bought somewhere else and ask if they’ll batter and fry the fucker for you and they’ll say yes.
Whenever I get home to Scotland, my personal supper of choice is the haggis supper - a sausage of haggis meat, battered and deep fried, and served with beautifully fried chips, of course. The second night I’m home (especially if the wife isn’t with me) is a haddock supper. Fuckin’ grand.
I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I’m told by those who do that the deep fried Bounty is just the wrong side of the acceptable line of deep fried sweet shit.
I used to do a star bar tempura as a dessert.
I’ll never forget passing my local chippy when I lived in Edinburgh and seeing they’d handwritten “almost” on the “WE WILL DEEP FRY ANYTHING” sign.
Behind every sign there’s a story.
What, did you think that was the one bit of Americana that didn’t cross an ocean?
Nah, thought Scots like themselves enough to not eat like that.
This is somehow the second time Scottish self-loathing has come up on Lemmy. Here’s the clip from Trainspotting.
I have no idea if that has anything to do with real life, or it’s just a very famous movie, but they do eat a lot of weird fried stuff and have terrible health stats.
Let’s start with:
Fish and chips
Chip butty
Yorkshire fishcake butty
Whitebait
Scottish smoked salmon
Cromer crabs
Potted shrimp
Scallops and Black Pudding
Sunday Roast (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, vegetarian)
Beef Wellington
Full English
Full Scottish
Full Welsh
Ultster Fry
Deviled kidneys
Mixed grill
Gammon, egg and chips
Steak and Ale pie
Steak and oyster pie
Meat and potato pie
Pork pie
Chicken and Mushroom pie
Scotch pie
Game pie
Fish pie
Shepherd’s pie
Cottage pie
Steak and kidney pudding
Lancashire hotpot
Irish stew
Cornish pasty
Scotch egg
Sausage roll
Ploughman’s lunch
Haggis
Afternooon / Cream / High Tea
And of course the full range of BIR curries: Chicken Tikka Masala; Madras; Jalfrezi; Vindaloo; Korma; Pathia; and Balti
And a bunch of puddings and sweet things, sticky toffee pudding, apple pie, mince pie, hot cross buns, etc., but I don’t have a sweet toothDepending on where you get said foodstuffs it can be everywhere from grim inedible sadness to glorious sublime perfection.
Also you forgot Toad in the Hole
I didn’t forget it. I’m just not a massive fan of toad in the hole, tbh.
Oh :(
Same
Mmm Cornish pasty
British food
Irish stew
ಠ_ಠ
They make a mean Irish stew in Northern Ireland. So, yes, Irish stew.
Cooked by Protestants
Northern Ireland is more Catholic than Protestant tbh
Just to clarify / confuse but both Irelands (republic and north) are on an island in the British Isles… but, yeah, the Irish Irish certainly ain’t British; as we’re using it here.
Fish and Chips
Is shepherd’s pie British? Or is that Scottish/Irish? 🤔 I like that, too.
Scotland is British, just not English.
Fun fact: ‘fish and chips’ was introduced to England by a Jewish migrant, same as pastrami for the USA. And shepherd’s pie is British, but it’s unclear whether it was northern England or Scotland.
Something-something ‘cottage pie’ is usually what’s referred to when people refer to ‘shepard’s pie.’
Two things definitely stand out for me:
- The fish and chips are Awesome - fillets are delicious, and 3x the size of what I get in the States. The fish and chips are hot, crispy outside, tender inside.
- Baked goods. Pies, cakes, napoleons, etc are universally fantastic, especially anything made with puff pastry. I got sausage rolls for a pound sixty from under the heat lamps at Tesco that were as good as entrees I’ve had in US restaurants.
Steak and ale pie is delish!
Hm what is that? I know the words but I never heard them in this combination as a dish.
It’s a pie with steak and ale in it
How does the ale stay in there? Or is it just a little bit?
The ale is cooked into the sauce, like a sauce made with red wine.
It’s mixed in with gravy, I guess the gravy and pastry are thick enough that no liquid component seeps out.
It’s alright if the pie splits a bit upon serving because the gravy is going to release onto your plate when you cut in anyway.
It’s also usually alright if some leaks out during cutting because we often put them in tinfoil pie - cups. Example
Oh, mate, why would you cite Pukka pies as an example of good British food. They’re the Kraft dinner macaroni cheese of British pies.
Lived in the uk for just over 10 years from 2000 to 2011. there were some great pub meals in both the north (around Yorkshire and Durham) and in the south west (Swindon / Bath).
I was very disappointed with Indian when I moved back to New Zealand so I guess that was good as well.
We cant get good Jamaican/Caribbean in small town NZ, and that was a good go to down south.
I’m from the EU, but I love making shepherd’s pie. It’s pretty easy and when done correctly, it is an absolutely fantastic dish.
Vindaloo.
Classic. Also a fun one to say to troll people who don’t know much about british food.
Phall. If you know, you know.
When I lived in the states for a while, I’d often crave a curry. Me and another Brit would head out to an Indian restaurant and usually order a Vindaloo. The waiter would say “Are you sure, it is quite spicy hot.” And we’d tell him we were British and he’d say “Oh, I understand.” and give us what we’d asked for without further comment.
I guess I’m an uncultured savage but yorkshire puddings. By a county mile.
I love em, but I would specify what I have them with: Roast Parsnips, Roast Lamb, Roast potatoes and mint sauce and gravy, + Steamed Carrots and Kale. That’s a full meal. Splendid.
With jam and whipped cream!
Indan takeout
…served with a cold beer. (chef’s kiss)
Fish and chips, if done well, can be an absolute gournet experience 🙂
I go to the pub when I want a fancy one and to the chippy when I want to refuel for an almost-affordable price
