Subtle differences between the US and the UK that baffle me/you/us. - by SubJeff
faetal on 15/12/2012 at 15:23
Yeah, I think what you did was tripped my annoyance at a pervasive British attitude which I am tired with - I shouldn't have aimed it at you. I get so annoyed by childish attitudes towards other nationalities. The phrase "The French" is used so often as a prelude to a derogatory statement of some kind here in the UK, often by people who don't know many French people or spend much time there. Likewise, after France showed some resistance towards invading Iraq, the whole wave of re-naming French fries in the US to "freedom fries" just seemed petulant and asinine.
Differences should be celebrated.
SubJeff on 15/12/2012 at 15:48
Unless they are ridiculous.
As to the French; I don't think anyone I know actually hates the French, but its still amusing for me to observe their ways vs ours. And we know full well that they look down on our food, and rightly so imho.
faetal on 15/12/2012 at 16:00
Ridiculous to who though?
There are plenty of people who find the UK custom of drinking alcohol to the point of being drunk to be ridiculous. My ladyshape is one of them. She drinks wine and loves beer, but will always stop when she feels the effects.
French food is exquisite and renowned for it, but I do think UK food gets a bad cop. Sure a lot of it is based around using leftovers, but there are some real gems which, if they are made well, top a lot of other foods just for pure "hitting the spot" rather than for being refined. Various regional stews (Irish being my favourite), roast dinners, toad in the hole, various pies, fish and god damned chips. That said, I'm clearly biased as I grew up here, so not sure how objectively good it is.
SubJeff on 15/12/2012 at 16:26
Ridiculous to logic and decency. Like women being banned from school or not being allowed to drive. That's the extreme end of the scale but you get what I mean, no?
I can appreciate good UK food but the fact is the common things are pretty, pretty awful. If you go into a random cafe just about everything is bad. I almost cried when I got off the 'plane at Stansted after a week in the Basque county and tried to find a quick bite before the drive home. You just have to go to Termini Roma Station in Rome and then any train station in the UK to realise that our average food is absofuckinlutely awful.
I'm not talking about nice restaurants (of which there are few) but just in general. And it extends to foreign food too. I can make nicer Italian food than many of the Italian restaurants I've been to in the UK. Chinese food in the UK is criminal in general. Its changing a little and I've been to a few places that are really good, but they are in the minority.
And I don't eat Spanish food in the UK in general because it only brings my mind to murder.
Good roast dinner is great, as are good pies. But the majority of this stuff is very badly done. If you're lucky here you can find some amazing food, but in general we undoubtedly deserve our poor culinary reputation.
The most narrow minded eaters I've met are British without question. People who've never eaten tomato. People who choose processed ham over Iberico jamon when in Spain. People who want chips or a toasted cheese sandwich whilst dinning on the Balearic sea. People with Indian girlfriends who have never had any Indian food. People who complain about garlic. People who can't believe I'm eating chicken liver tapas because "liver, uuugh".
The frikking British.
faetal on 15/12/2012 at 16:53
Maybe I just mix with good people :)
My family recipe Irish stew would melt your brain with happiness. Sure some people just buy a bag of stewing lamb, throw it in and hope for the best, whereas I'll use lamb shanks and sear them first for some Maillard reaction goodness, but it's still authentic. Sure our greasy spoon café food is utter shite and the food served in chain pubs is sheer microwaved awfulness, but get a country pub with a good chef and you can get some really amazing stuff. But yeah, as I said, I'm biased for sure. I sure as shit wouldn't put the best of our food up against the best of Italy's, France's, Spain's (and yes, Jamon Iberico di bellota is the king of cured meat - but fuuuuuuucking expensive), India's etc... but I think so long as you avoid poor chefs, UK food isn't bad. The trouble is that too many British people don't have good taste, so there's still a market for poor chefs and shite food.
SubJeff on 15/12/2012 at 17:20
Quote Posted by faetal
The trouble is that too many British people don't have good taste, so there's still a market for poor chefs and shite food.
QFT
catbarf on 15/12/2012 at 18:44
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
The most narrow minded eaters I've met are British without question. People who've never eaten tomato. People who choose processed ham over Iberico jamon when in Spain. People who want chips or a toasted cheese sandwich whilst dinning on the Balearic sea. People with Indian girlfriends who have never had any Indian food. People who complain about garlic. People who can't believe I'm eating chicken liver tapas because "liver, uuugh".
The frikking British.
A lot of Americans follow a similar trend, albeit maybe not to the same extreme. My roommates won't eat cooked carrots, cooked broccoli, any seafood at all, strong cheeses, anything sushi, tofu, or onion-heavy dishes. Their dishes of choice are burgers, pizza, and Buffalo wings. These aren't extremely sheltered guys either- one's a mild Japanophile, and we go to an ethnically diverse liberal New York college. I have a (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_cuisine) Georgian cookbook collecting dust because most of the recipes are verboten.
I'd say it's due to travel and worldly experience, but my mother spent a good twenty years in exotic locales and still won't let me cook chicken liver or heart. So I don't know.
Renzatic on 15/12/2012 at 19:22
Quote Posted by catbarf
...onion-heavy dishes.
I can kinda agree with that. I like onions, even love them sometimes, but only to a certain degree. When you go too overboard with them, it gives everything this almost sickly sweet yet somehow equally acerbic taste that just isn't all that good.
Save for French onion soup, which is delicious.
And vegetables? I'd say the biggest reason why the US seems to have this near vegetable phobia is because we have a tendency to overboil them to a ridiculous degree (just one of the many small places where we expose our British roots). I love raw carrots, love steamed and grilled too. Boiled carrots? Mushy CRAP! It's disgusting! Same thing with Asparagus. It makes me sick to look at when it's boiled, but if you steam or grill it, I love it. Green beans? Used to hate them, then I discovered...well, you get the point by now. Broccoli is about the only vegetable I can tolerate boiled these days, but I still like it better grilled.
SD on 16/12/2012 at 02:38
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
As to the French; I don't think anyone I know actually hates the French, but its still amusing for me to observe their ways vs ours. And we know full well that they look down on our food, and rightly so imho.
Yeah, how can we compete with garlic-infused snails and amphibian limbs, I just don't know.
French food is fine if you have conservative (read: antiquated) tastes and you don't mind your plate starring more corpses than the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I suppose.
catbarf on 16/12/2012 at 02:41
I really like escargot. And pate. And baguettes are a great style of bread. Cheeses too? Yeah, honestly, I'm a fan of French cooking.
