>>> English never had a cuisine Fish & Chips was derived from Portuguese chefs in Goa India
From what I can find on the internet the origin is with Portuguese Sephardic Jews who fled to the British Isles in the 16th century.
Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
21–30 of 51 posts
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#22As most people know, British food has improved a million times since the days of Fanny Craddock on black & white TV. British people know about food now, watch endless foodie shows, they can cook, and the UK supermarkets have great ingredients. The influx of people from what was the empire helped open everybody's horizons. You get the weird situation where the Indian food in Britain is the best in the world, for examp…
Indeed. The combination of the class system and the war rationing absolutely wrecked British cooking in the 20th century, but from about the 1980s the middle class became interested in improving this, largely by importing cuisine.
Nowadays the top end is a bit self-parodic with too much emphasis on weird visual presentation, culminating in Heston Blumenthal, but the middle rank of available restaurants are great.
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#23olde joke: Heaven: The police are British The cooks are French The engineers are German The administrators are Swiss The lovers are Italian Hell: The police are German The cooks are British The engineers are Italian The administrators are French The lovers are Swiss
"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse." (ascribed to Charles V)
That was the sixteenth century. For the twenty-first, what should it be? "I speak english online, russian for scientific sources, chinese for datasheets, and french quand nos aînés n'y seront plus ?"
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#24>>> English never had a cuisine Fish & Chips was derived from Portuguese chefs in Goa India
Wait til you hear about the Italians and tomatoes!
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#25I'm the last person to wave the flag for Britain but I've never understood this meme about our food being bad, when so much of it is inarguably world class. For starters, so to speak, the Full English is obviously the king of breakfasts, a traditional Sunday roast cannot be beaten, we have the best cheese in the world by some considerable distance, and as for puddings, pies, crumbles, custard... well need I say any m…
I agree English breakfast is good, but not the best in terms of variety and quality. The king of breakfasts award in terms of variety and quality (that would suit the widest range of tastes) would go to either Turkey or Iran.
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#26I'm the last person to wave the flag for Britain but I've never understood this meme about our food being bad, when so much of it is inarguably world class. For starters, so to speak, the Full English is obviously the king of breakfasts, a traditional Sunday roast cannot be beaten, we have the best cheese in the world by some considerable distance, and as for puddings, pies, crumbles, custard... well need I say any m…
No no no - the Full Scottish Breakfast is //clearly// the King of Breakfasts!
Seriously though - the freshness of ingredients available in the United Kingdom makes a huge difference, if you ignore British-Chinese food and can track down real Chinese food in the UK - it's genuinely world class
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#27I'm the last person to wave the flag for Britain but I've never understood this meme about our food being bad, when so much of it is inarguably world class. For starters, so to speak, the Full English is obviously the king of breakfasts, a traditional Sunday roast cannot be beaten, we have the best cheese in the world by some considerable distance, and as for puddings, pies, crumbles, custard... well need I say any m…
It's just a stupid stereotype/meme, like the French being cowards and many others. The best and most varied food I've had was in England, and I wasn't even in London with their variety. And I'm counting all the foreign foods adapted to the local palate, I think that's fair.
Btw, German sausages can't hold a candle to British ones, change my mind :D
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#28As most people know, British food has improved a million times since the days of Fanny Craddock on black & white TV. British people know about food now, watch endless foodie shows, they can cook, and the UK supermarkets have great ingredients. The influx of people from what was the empire helped open everybody's horizons. You get the weird situation where the Indian food in Britain is the best in the world, for examp…
> the Indian food in Britain is the best in the world Got about a billion people here who'd like to disagree. In fact, of all the crimes against humanity the British visited on India, I think that assertion might just be the worst.
You’re being heavily downvoted but I can’t imagine by who or why. Certainly not by people who’ve eaten Indian food in both India and the UK.
While there are a few good restaurants, most Indian restaurants in the UK are bland beyond reason, catering to the common palate. There’s nothing wrong with liking bland food or restaurants catering to that preference, but let’s not make this extraordinary claim that it’s better than the food in India. For most part the food is plain and plays it safe. For example, it’s rare to find Indo-Chinese, a cuisine nothing like Chinese or Indian but a staple of cuisine in India.
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#29I'm the last person to wave the flag for Britain but I've never understood this meme about our food being bad, when so much of it is inarguably world class. For starters, so to speak, the Full English is obviously the king of breakfasts, a traditional Sunday roast cannot be beaten, we have the best cheese in the world by some considerable distance, and as for puddings, pies, crumbles, custard... well need I say any m…
“Obviously” the King of Breakfasts?
I’ve eaten the Full English. I’ve also eaten Idli-Vadai-Pongal-Chutney-Sambhar and I prefer the latter. There’s nothing objectively better here. We prefer what we grew up eating.
Re: Fanny Cradock, a lodestar in the foul-tasting odyssey of bad British food
#30As most people know, British food has improved a million times since the days of Fanny Craddock on black & white TV. British people know about food now, watch endless foodie shows, they can cook, and the UK supermarkets have great ingredients. The influx of people from what was the empire helped open everybody's horizons. You get the weird situation where the Indian food in Britain is the best in the world, for examp…
Indeed. The combination of the class system and the war rationing absolutely wrecked British cooking in the 20th century, but from about the 1980s the middle class became interested in improving this, largely by importing cuisine. Nowadays the top end is a bit self-parodic with too much emphasis on weird visual presentation, culminating in Heston Blumenthal, but the middle rank of available restaurants are great.
> The combination of the class system and the war rationing absolutely wrecked British cooking in the 20th century
I don’t think this explains it. Being the first place in the world to get processed food has more to do with it. Britain’s been importing a lot of calories for a long time and canning and other flavor destroying methods of preservation really didn’t help. Rationing is unlikely to be relevant. British food was widely considered dreadful long before WWII. See any description of boarding school food or just consider the paucity of decent cheese in the UK in the 50s. The US didn’t have post war rationing and food in DC was terrible well into the 70s going by restaurants. Anglos have never beg known for great food culture like the Italians, French or Spanish.