The yanks seem to be attracted to this meme like somebody desperate to paint a target and distract attention away from themself.
I saw this video recently where this guy tried every iconic local cuisine from every American state, and I swear to God half of them made me want to throw up.
Americans will act like British cooking its an abomination despite most of them never having even heard of steak and ale pie, or Lancashire hot pot, or Welsh rarebit. Meanwhile they’ll throw fucking marshmallows on a tray of mashed squash and declare it an ancient family recipe.
Things are pretty fucked here and what I thought were saner parts of the world seem like they’re starting to fall for the same shit. We need distractions.
Funny, but sadly, I’ve seen my best friend sharing these memes (neither from the U.K nor the U.S.).
Since the first time I saw them, I thought they were kind of rude and probably inaccurate as no national cuisine is dull. I googled and read… What seems to have happened is that we’ve normalized British cuisine because it is part of many countries now. We think British dishes are regular dishes. Anyway, I don’t like these memes.
Watched Once Were Warriors last night and the dinner Temuera Morrison has in that is even more bland and basic than any of these memes. So it’s more of classist meme than anything.
Also, I think you’re right about loads of core British dishes just being ubiquitous now. My American colleague told me about the Shepherd’s Pie he made, which apparently came out a bit too rich.
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How about a minimal amount of seasoning? Like a couple twists of the pepper mill?
by the same token, everything here isn’t degenerate midwestern or Alabama bullshit.
Anyway, how about raw vegetables? This photo is just missing something like a salad, coleslaw, a few radishes, and some sort of sauce for the potatoes (easy cheese obviously).
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I still don’t find this appealing tbh
Is it always leftovers day or is there a plate shortage?
Why are there always 15 items on the plate with British food?
depicted: 6, and gravy.
to make a typical American meal:
swap cauliflower for macaroni, double the amount of cheese sauce
roast potatoes for fries
roast meat for BBQ
gravy for bbq sauce
peas for collard greens
carrots for Brussels sprouts
yorkshire puddings for a slice on plain, untoasted, unbuttered wonderbread
My only question is why are the Yorkshire puddings hollow? All the ones I’ve had have been stuffed with mince and vegs, but I’ve never been outside 49 of the 50 states.
This is how I grew up eating them, but some people from the North of England would argue they should be the size of the plate and function like a bread bowl / taco bowl
What you’re describing is more niche as is known as a “pop over”
Since when do the British not like Brussels sprouts?
We like sprouts.
Since they left the EU and now anything from Brussels costs more
Me and my sister don’t like them so that’s at least 2 of us
George Bush Sr. famously hated them. For some reason, people found that funny. I didn’t get it then and I still don’t get it.
They used to taste far more bitter. Then in the late 90s, a breeder was able to remove that flavor.
I liked them bitter.
it’s not that we don’t like them - but more that they’re more winter/holiday focused (speaking generally), and usually roasted rather than fried.
But also, Brussels are on the menu everywhere in the US. middle of July, at a bar, get a side of Brussels. I don’t think Brussels are served commonly at Sunday lunch year round in the uk.
Where in the U.S.? Lots of people hate them. In fact, I’ve never seen a side of Brussels sprouts just given to you as a side. Maybe it’s an option, but there are always other options.
DC area checking in. They are super popular right now, especially roasted or deep fried. Fortunately, I haven’t seen anyone serving the boiled nasties my mom used to make…
What region if you don’t mind me asking. I’ve lived in a couple of US states on the west coast and I’ve never encountered Brussel sprouts so casually and definitely never fried. It’s usually in a part of a dinner at a ‘nice’ sit down restaurant and always roasted in the oven.
America is big. This is like a southern meal maybe? Or more like what the stereotype of the south is.
Roughly 40% of the us population lives in “The South,” I think its fair to generalize that southern BBQ is an American staple cuisine.
The word barbeque comes from the Caribbean. I know people associate BBQ with the US, but it seems to have originated outside the US.
However, it originating in the indigenous cultures of the Caribbean and Central America, would explain why it’s so prevalently associated with southern states.
I’m not arguing about its origins, I’m saying you’re playing Family Feud (aka Family Fortune overseas) and the host asks you to name a type of American cuisine.
Is “bbq/barbeque” on the board? I’d say it’s probably #2 or #3 after Hamburgers (arguably bbq), hot dogs (arguably the same), fried chicken / wings (arguably the same), or pizza (arguably not “American” if bbq isnt either)
Others would be, TexMex, gumbo, cheesesteak, Thanksgiving dinner.
Anything else - deep-dish, pie a la mode, eggs benedict, candied yams, new England chowder, NY strip steak, Boston creme pie, a cheeseball… are way more niche than bbq
Oh it’s smiling! Hello! 👋
I know British food tend to be memed as “brown stuff”, but this doesn’t even look half bad, the lighting makes it look worse than it actually is.
Slap an Instagram filter on it and it will look way better.
I don’t even know what I’m looking at. Sliced white bread with butter, HP sauce, salt or pepper shaker, and a plate with what seems to be boiled potatoes and some unknown viscous fluid with what might be sliced (presumably cooked) carrots.
It’s lentils slow cooked with various cuts of meat, sausage and veggies
It’s absolutely flavorful, filling and delicious. One of my favorite meals to eat in winter time.
https://blindinglygoodfood.co.uk/recipe/slow-cooked-sausage-lentil-stew/
lol, definitely no lentils in that.
It’s likely a version of mince and tatties, but with boiled potatoes instead of mash.
A thick beef stew with boiled potatoes and buttered bread was a common meal in my 90s Midwestern USA childhood. It is delicious
Add butter and some green herbs, like rosemary or cilantro, on the potatoes and is an instant update on that plate
Like, make something completely different and flush this down the “loo”? Yeah that works.
The fact that it looks like you think that the “brown stuff” is the issue there is really funny
The unseasoned boiled potatoes and the untoasted bread are just bland.
The ground beef and carrots in the undefinable brown liquid would be a textural nightmare. I cannot fathom how it tastes because the closest thing in the US would be a sloppy joe.
The real problem with this is lack of technique and seasoning.
Here’s how I would “fix” this: Toast the bread, roast and season the potatoes, make the ground beef and sauce into a something resembling Salisbury steak, and cook the carrots as their own side dish.
Even cheap British bread usually tastes good.
Better than USA bread but worse than e.g. French or German.
It does not. Unless you never had actual bread.
And it would still be better toasted
I can’t argue with that!
The bread is a sop. You can’t sop with toast; that’s insane. The “undefinable brown liquid” is stock and is common across the world’s cuisines. If you season the potatoes further, assuming they’re lightly salted, you run the risk of overseasoning the dish (they’re sitting next to a very rich stew). You’re just making these up now.
I cannot fathom how it tastes
Then don’t say anything! Easy peasy!
Edit to add: The only problem as it were with this food is that it lacks colour, so of course you wouldn’t serve this at a restaurant. But when’s the last time anyone gave a fuck about colour when bashing out tea on a thursday eve?
Stay mad bob
Very drole.
Laugh at this ne’er-do-well who can not see the beauty of a plain slice of buttered white bread.
Stick it under the broiler for 45 seconds and then slap another coat of butter on top.
I can, but it’s better toasted
Toasted is inferior for soaking up the sauce.
Cheers to plain white buttered bread, then 🥂
you’ve chef’d your last boyardee, Rigatoni!
What do you mean unseasoned, they have salt on them. smh
Perfectly good boiled potatoes and stew.
It’s reasonable food! Most people are pretty bad at making photos look good, myself included.
I’d want a bit more seasoning on the potatoes but man, potatoes are delicious in almost all forms, even when they look plain.
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I know that MREs are known for being disgusting, but I actually like them.
They aren’t bad. They do fuck up my digestive tract something awful. I prefer the officer’s mess.
Our drill sergeants taught us that you have to use the Kool-Aid mix, as that has something in it to counteract the digestive issues. Idk if that’s true or not, but I never had digestive issues because of an MRE, and I always used the Kool-Aid packet.
We didn’t really go over MREs in Navy boot. I doubt the RDCs would have bothered telling us that tidbit of information, since there’s really no reason a sailor should be eating those things. I just got curious and bought a few from the Army/Navy surplus stores. I never drank more than a taste or two of the Kool aid packet. Those things aren’t exactly tasty, kinda medicinal aftertaste in my opinion.
Maybe it’s true then.
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Not who you asked but I’m pretty partial to the chili Mac, especially if you got some hot sauce to drizzle on it! It’s the one I look for first whenever we’re given some to choose from!
They used to come with little Tabasco bottles in them. I had little bottles of Tabasco all over the kitchen for a while after leaving the Army. Do they not come with that anymore?
I can picture that tiny Tabasco bottle clearly 😂. It was a godsend in basic training (for any MRE that came with them) I’m not sure if I had a new iteration of the chili mac or what, but when I was quarantined in 2020, mine came with crushed red pepper instead. I know for a fact I’ve had it with the Tabasco too though.
Those little bottles were awesome!
the best homemade dinner on the planet x
Planet X must have terrible food if this is the best thing it has to offer. Glad I live on planet Earth.
Englishman here. I’ve never eaten anything like this? Just me?
Same. I dont even know what it is. It’s like they wanted to make shepherds pie but they were too lazy to mash the potatoes
I was just thinking what the hell is it supposed to be? I’ve never in my life eaten that. Spray “cheese” anyone?
Over in the province we’d call that mince and onions, obviously being part of the island of Ireland the potatoes are inferred from kt being a meal.
The yanks might be taking the piss, but as far as I’m aware they put it in a bap and call it a sloppy Joe (which frankly sounds like a sex act).
Tangentially, other fine Northern Irish cuisine includes the vegetable roll, which is primarily a sliced beef sausage with a wee bit of onion and celery. Tasty.
Brother, just because you call your hamburger meat mince doesn’t mean you know how to handle it better than us here in burgerland. Our sauce for it not only includes onions but also tomatoes and, in true American fashion, sugar(either from ketchup or brown sugar). And of course, said hamburger meat goes in a bun, not on a plate unless you’re serving it with noodles from hamburger helper. What savages.
Looks like the meals I was recently had at the veterans hospital in the USA.
They plated it wrong and forgot to toast the bread. BLOODY ELL
No plating in stew, all cooked in the one pot. Toast seems insane, no soakage
You uns ain’t got bowls or grilled cheese over there guvnah
Not for this type of stew, no.
That’s why it looks like shit and you chase it around the plate. Put the stew in a bowl like all normal stews and soups and the taters on a small plate with the bread.
Don’t be foolish, you mash the spuds and mix it all together with a healthy scoop of butter, I’d like to see you try that in a bowl.
My brother in Christ, It would be way easier to do that in a bowl. We can send y’all some bowls and a couple cornbread recipes if you are hurting.
Not without scraping the tines of your fork on the bottom you fiend. Your cornbread is no match for my wheaten loaf.
Lmao, for sure use a bowl if it pleases you. I was more annoyed the spuds were not stewed. There should not be elements to a stew it should all be one pot, then some brown bread with a half inch of butter dragged across it.
No guvnah here, though they tried to make it so for centuries.
To all of you saying “this literally looks like poop”, “why are they eating boiled vomit”, etc, post the last thing you made and I’m sure I could come up with some shitty things to say about it.
It’s fucking very obviously a normal ass plate of potatoes and meat stew with carrots. Do the potatoes look a little bland? Maybe, but there’s stew to dip it in. Regardless, a well seasoned potato has a good flavor all by itself. The stew looks like every other homemade stew I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to make that shit look “pretty”, but I know y’all scarf shit like that down. Get off your high fucking horses. There’s plenty of other valid things to complain about with British culture, but making fun of their food is asinine.
Pretzels
Middle one looks like a big, ropy turd I dropped last night
You wish you dropped such a noteworthy turd.
I drop respectable amounts but mostly liquid.
Please see a doctor. That’s not OK.
Doctors are expensive ‘it be like that’ is cheap
Oh, my bad, you’re from the only developed nation in the world that doesn’t have socialised healthcare. I’m so sorry.
Lol I figured that one would get the love
How did you make and apply the brine? I tried it once and the results where despicable.
The german flying overhead:
As a german, it’s really the bread that makes me sad ;) I think the UK gets too much shit for their food though and people should shift the mockery a bit more towards Norway, haha.
Buttered white bread dipped in stew is the best way to eat bread. You should try it before you diss it
I mean, do they have black pepper? Or heat for their stoves to brown stuff a bit? Because those potatoes look like they were peeled, and put right on the plate.
We’re white knighting mild food takes now 😂 the internet is so silly
No their food is fucking trash. And as for that stew, yeah it probably came in a can, but I’ve eaten better stew out of a can than that. This is the kind of food that my dad would make sometimes when I was growing up. 35 fucking years ago. Because it’s what he had growing up, and he has like six older siblings. It’s poor people food. And that’s fine, but that doesn’t make it good. I will say at least it is not jelly eels or some other traditional nonsense British food.
The national dish is Chicken Tikka Masala, a delicious tomato based curry invented in Birmingham in the 1970s. The country has nine Michelin starred restaurants, ranking 7th in the world. Fish and chips, pie and mash, cider. Full fucking English.
Their food is not trash.
If it’s seasoned right that stew is probably absolutely banging. It looks great; good colour, good consistency, and you can tell from the softened edges on the carrots that it’s been cooked low and slow long enough really develop the flavours.
The easiest upgrade to this meal would have been to simply mash the potatoes after boiling them; a little butter and milk, some salt and pepper, and your bland boiled potatoes have magically transformed into something absolutely delicious.
post the last thing you made and I’m sure I could come up with some shitty things to say about it.
Exactly, we don’t post photos of what we cook saying it is the best dinner on the planet. Though even that was probably a joke from the OP, and people are joking back. Calm down a little lol.
I mean it’s pretty tasty, comfort food for a lot of Brits. It’s my dad’s fav too, I wouldn’t put it in my top 5, but it’s comfort food for sure.
It looks like literal poop
If your poop looks like that I worry about your diet
OK, I come from southern Europe and this will blow some people’s minds, but sometimes we have bland food on purpose. Especially after a week of eating grease/spicy foods.
We do too but we refrain from photography
British Empire conquered the world at one point, and had access to unimaginable variety of spices, herbs, flavors and tastes.
and they still eat nothing but boiled vomit.
- It builds character.
- You were supposed to use more expensive ingredients to make your food “tastier”.
Yeah, and what a character the UK has now. Really worth all that boiled dog vomit.
Unpopular Opinion, Sardines on Pizza are better than Mushrooms on Pizza
I like anchovies. Sometimes they’re too salty, but that’s perfect after a night of drinking
My issue is that not one pizzaria that I’ve found does anchovies the proper way. They just stick an entire fillet on each slice of pizza. Anchovies are a garnish, not a main event. They need to chop the fillets into smaller pieces and distribute evenly the same as they do with olives.
Chop a couple up until they are paste and put a teaspoon of that into 8 cups of whatever sauce you are making and watch people rave about needing to know your secret ingredient, and then totally disbelieve you when you tell them.
You’re right. Places like Papa John’s put the whole fillet on. Which I actually do love. Cuts through the sweetness of the sauce. But it isn’t good pizza by any means.
There’s a few places in NYC that do it right. My favorite is this Italian pizza place that has red and white pizzas.
The dinners aren’t the problem. It’s the baked beans for breakfast… Also, my Dad, who was born in London, insisted on eating Marmite, which I know many of you will defend, but also piccalilli and Daddies sauce and if you like those things, I will give you major side-eye.
Just a coincidence that none of those things contain high fructose corn syrup then? 😒
Neither saag paneer nor gyros have such things in them either and they’re delicious. Probably because Indian and Greek food are better.
For that matter, a plain old carrot doesn’t have any high fructose corn syrup in it. Ever tried one? They’re quite nice. You don’t even have to cook them.
Of course, that’s just what THEY want you to think.
Baked beans are awesome for breakfast!
You’re entitled to your incorrect opinion.
I don’t often have them, given they are a heart attack on a plate. But an English breakfast can set you up for the day and baked beans are a staple ingredient. Particularly if they are cooked in the bacon/sausage fat.
Marmite is salty and delicious on toast :o. This is from an American.
Marmite is notorious for it’s loved/hated status. They’ve done a whole marketing thing around it in the past.
Even when describing things that have people on either side of the fence we’ll say that it’s “like marmite.”
Genius advertising
