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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 25, 2018 16:00:40 GMT
I was wondering if it was because of the way the plate is tilted toward the camera or even if the picture was photoshopped. Look at the size of an individual fry next to the woman's head. That's not normal.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 13, 2018 23:22:20 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Sept 14, 2018 6:32:21 GMT
Unfortunately reputations can take millennia to be altered and the UK will suffer from the thought of having bad food for long after I've kicked my bucket of clogs. I lived through the main times, the 70's, when food was appalling without a doubt and 'foreign muck' was scorned. We had one Chinese restaurant in my town and that was it for may years. In the early eighties I found a place that served pate with toast as a starter, and that was an eye opener. I didn't know cheesecake until I was about twenty. My dad had spag boll once a week or so and that was pushing it for foreign food. I can forgive those who write with disdain about UK food as long as they've done their jobs and researched into it and they just personally feel they don't like it. Fair enough. But writing from a place of ignorance needs addressing.
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Post by whatagain on Sept 14, 2018 7:05:33 GMT
I fully agree. Mark is spot on (on the mark). I must say food did improve a lot and food in pubs is more than correct nowadays. I still have doubts to believe UK is now a member of haute cuisine. I don't say there are not good chefs but I say they are less accessible to common mortals. If you speak of average good cuisine there is still some way to go to catch up with france Italy or Spain. Hiwzver you needn't take your sandwiches with you when going to UK nowadays.
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Post by whatagain on Sept 14, 2018 7:06:25 GMT
And to comment on Chirac mean comment we have to remember that ' l'anglois est fourbe ´. ;-)
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Post by lagatta on Sept 15, 2018 12:12:32 GMT
I've always thought of spag bol as an English dish, not a northern Italian one. Don't mean that it is bad; just very different.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 2, 2018 15:03:28 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Nov 18, 2018 18:59:40 GMT
I confess that this makes me want some fish fingers!
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 18, 2018 19:04:55 GMT
In my freezer right now I have two rectangles of frozen unbreaded pollock. Frankly, I prefer the breaded kind, but I try to eat healthier from time to time.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2018 19:18:29 GMT
I occasionally really enjoy fish fingers, but the ones I get here are not so much breaded as just bread.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 18, 2018 20:34:31 GMT
I think that for the breaded kind, it is really a case of having to choose the most expensive luxury version to get to taste a bit of fish.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2018 21:28:26 GMT
They are sold loose here by the piece, along with the ickily pink wieners that even the dogs reject. Wonder if they have any fish in them at all.
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Post by patricklondon on Nov 19, 2018 8:04:25 GMT
Don't know about yours, but ours certainly do, usually some white fish that flakes. Just fillets cut up small. Originally it was cod (full marks to the marketing person who stopped them being called "cod pieces"), but I suppose pollock replaced it when cod became endangered. My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 19, 2018 15:17:06 GMT
I think many brands have as part of the ingredients list "other cold water fish". I've had brands of fish fingers in the US which were as fish fingers should be. But the little rectangles of breaded whatever here are a far cry from that.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 19, 2018 15:33:52 GMT
I imagine that there are a number of countries that were not originally of the fish finger culture where entrepreneurs immediately saw that they could sell any kind of crappy fish as long as it was breaded and fried because people will eat 'fried anything' even if it isn't all that good. Only us connoisseurs know what a travesty it is. Nevertheless, I would think that international chains like Walmart would have a better quality imported version, probably at double the price of the local product or more.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 19, 2018 19:17:42 GMT
Or Costco? I seem to recall Don Cuevas mentioning shopping there in Mexico.
I've rarely been inside a Walmart, and never in a Costco. No, not a boycott or anything of the kind, they are simply far from where I live. Walmart products aren't appealing as compared to local chains, and Costco sells in quantities far too large for one person and one very small cat.
I bought some from a dependable brand, with the Canadian certification conforming to the UK one. We'll see. I'll make a spicy mayonnaise and add a token salad to pretend it is healthful. (shredded carrots and cabbage).
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Post by mich64 on Nov 20, 2018 3:13:21 GMT
We referred to them as "fish sticks" and they were a once a week meal when I was a child. A meal of fish sticks, oven fries and a salad was an easy and quick meal to get together on the days my mom came home from working a weekday shift.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 20, 2018 4:33:03 GMT
Yes, I always knew them as fish sticks, too, Mich. They were one of those things that school cafeterias used to serve on Fridays, which was where many children first came into contact with them. Fish sticks, tater tots, and apple crisp were all things I learned about at school, not at home. Oh yeah -- the other thing I learned about at school was sloppy joes. When I was in the eighth grade I went to a Catholic school in Logansport, Indiana. It was a dairy town and there was a big strike. The nuns would put on sloppy joe dinners to make money to help keep the striking families afloat.
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Post by mich64 on Nov 20, 2018 4:58:27 GMT
Bixa Sloppy Joes was another day of the week meal! I never attended a school that had an actual cafeteria. Our high school did have vending machines where we could purchase cans of soup or ravioli that we could heat up in a microwave but we mostly relied on our lunch bag made at home. Most bases we were stationed to had schools within walking distance to your base housing so we had lunch at home during our elementary school years.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 20, 2018 5:11:56 GMT
There were no microwaves yet when I was in school! I can remember walking to school(s) in kindergarten, first, & second, then again in 6th & 7th. We had to take the bus from base to Logansport, going through lots of farming country. I remember all the windmills and seeing the buggies of the Amish.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 20, 2018 5:17:33 GMT
The memory of meat loaf at school still makes me shudder.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 20, 2018 7:07:44 GMT
I have numerous memories of school dinners and not all were bad. I remember the last day at school before Christmas when I was a kid we would have a proper dinner with turkey and trimmings. The desert was Christmas pudding which traditionally had a sixpence in it which brought the finder luck for the whole year. The school one was made in a normal catering tray so it could be cut up into squares. It would have several sixpences in it, which the dinner lady knew exactly where they were. She would always make sure the poor kids got them.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 20, 2018 14:10:46 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 20, 2018 16:37:39 GMT
I've never quite got the taste for kedgeree and mulligatawny but baltis I could eat any day. The problem I have with chicken tikka masala is that if I order it in an Indian restaurant I think the waiter is sneering at me because I don't know proper Indian food. Bit like ordering a chop suey in an Asian restaurant.
One point is that a number of Indian dishes didn't originate in India before they became popular there. Then they've migrated again to the UK and other countries. Biryani probably came to India from Persia, as did a number of dishes from there and Turkey, also like samosas and even vindaloo all the way from Portugal. So for me it becomes a little difficult to speak about traditional British food and include Indian dishes - even though they could qualify. On balance I may consider some. I know my dad felt a chicken Madras was certainly English.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 20, 2018 17:17:45 GMT
Just as pizza is more American and French than Italian -- they eat 5 times more pizza than Italians. Pizza didn't even arrive in a city like Milan until 1960 while it was popular in New York and Marseille already in 1920.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 23, 2018 16:31:42 GMT
I had delicious fish and chips recentmly. In Denmark... Just would have loved too have vinegar.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 23, 2018 17:54:23 GMT
The first time I every had fish and chips and learned about malt vinegar was in the late sixties in Monterey, California. What a revelation! And yes, it would be so frustrating to have good fish & chips and no vinegar. Did you ask for some?
Sort of off topic, but I went to a supposedly German restaurant recently & asked for mustard to go with the bratwurst & the waitress seemed amazed by the request.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 23, 2018 21:13:57 GMT
Of course I did ask ! You know I cannot keep my mouth shut ;-)
But the waiterss was charming and spoke very good French so she was forgiven. Funny to finds people who speak great French in the middle of nowhere - I was at Silkeborg : nothing there, nothing in the neighbourhood.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 27, 2018 12:34:28 GMT
This is a bit long winded but I saw this regarding my upbringing in the UK and it rang true. A lot of it may be applicable in other countries as well, but only you can say - If you love food but were a child of the 60’s you should remember most of this; Pasta had not been invented. "Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food. Curry was an unknown entity. Indian restaurants were only found in India. The only vegetables were spuds, peas, carrots, turnip, cauliflower and cabbage. Mange tout and Pak choi were made up words. Chilli was in South America and scotch bonnets were worn by old ladies in Aberdeen. A take-away was a mathematical problem. A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower. Oil was for lubricating your bike chain not for cooking. Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet. Spice went in Christmas cakes. Herbs were used to make medicine I think. All crisps were plain and had a small blue twist of salt inside the packet. All soft drinks were called pop. Coke was something that we put on the fire, we never drunk it and we certainly didn’t sniff it. Ginger beer burnt your lips off, when you stopped drinking. Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner. A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining. A microwave was science fiction. Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves. The tea-cosy was the forerunner of all energy saving devices. Tea had only one flavour, it was tea flavoured. Figs and dates appeared every Christmas, but no one ever ate them. Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town. Mayonnaise was called Salad cream. Hors d'oeuvre was a spelling mistake. Dinner was in the middle of the day and consisted of what we were given, and not negotiable. Only Heinz made baked beans. Leftovers went in the dog. Sauce was either brown or red. Eating raw fish was called madness, not sushi. The only ready meals came from the fish and chip shop. Frozen food was called ice cream. None of us had ever heard of yoghurt. Brunch was not known of and was not a meal. Cheese only ever came in a hard lump. If we had eaten bacon, lettuce and tomato in the same sandwich we would have been certified insane. Eating outside was called a picnic not Al Fresco. Eggs were not called ‘free range’ they just were, and the shells were white. Pancakes were only eaten on Pancake Tuesday - it was compulsory. The phrase "boil in the bag" would have been beyond our realms of comprehension. The term "oven chips" would not have made any sense at all. We bought milk and cream at the same time, in the same bottle, before you gave it a shake.
Prunes were purely medicinal. Pineapples only came in chunks in a tin. We didn't eat Croissants because we couldn't pronounce them, we couldn't spell them, and we didn't know what they were. Same for Baguettes (see Croissants). Garlic was used to ward off vampires in films, but never to be eaten. Water came out of the tap; if someone had suggested bottling it and charging for it they would have been locked up. We didn’t take our shopping home in plastic bags because we didn’t have any and used a proper bag that hung in the pantry or larder.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 27, 2018 13:31:09 GMT
As a child of the ‘60’s every bit of that was true. Incidentally we had the same meal on the same day of each week. Roast on Sunday, soup and cold meat Monday, stew on Tuesday, can’t remember Wednesday, steak on Thursday, fish on Friday, boiled ham on Saturday. Parents would always have shellfish on Sunday evening i.e. winkles, cockles, shell on shrimps etc.
I would have sugar sandwiches.
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