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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2009 4:48:20 GMT
You are absolutely right about those pizza things that some of the boulangeries in France sell, HW. They should have a law against that. Actually, they shouldn't call them pizzas at all as they are instead some sort of tomato tart -- but it appears that the pizza name has been stuck on any round object covered with tomato sauce.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 16, 2010 10:21:39 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Oct 16, 2010 10:26:45 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2010 10:50:52 GMT
It all looks pretty much edible, Mark, athough perhaps not all for the same meal. I don't know what the round things are in the second picture, nor the blackish stuff in the bowl in the 4th picture.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 16, 2010 11:35:01 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 16, 2010 14:41:50 GMT
Pretty delicious looking food!
If the beans in the first picture were replaced with grits, it would be perfect.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Oct 16, 2010 15:42:40 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Oct 16, 2010 22:42:50 GMT
Only Mark, those dishes look lovely. You seem to have two versions of shepherd's pie or cottage pie - or perhaps both of those? I love the potato gratin atop the stew. What is in that dish? Lovely ploughman's lunch too.
Those breakfasts sound exquisite.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 2:34:50 GMT
I find nothing at all appealing to any of the food pictured,I'm sorry. It all appears so bland and tasteless.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 17, 2010 4:06:25 GMT
Yeah, I don't get English food either. Is there somewhere where English restaurants (aside from the UK obviously) exist the way Chinese, French, American, Indian, Italian etc. places do almost anywhere? Aside from a few fish and chips places, I can't think of a single British restaurant I've ever seen here or anywhere outside the UK.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 17, 2010 4:42:57 GMT
Wow, talk about knee-jerk rejection of something! All of the cooked dishes look good, hearty, and well-prepared. Not only that, but certainly food similar to that shown above appears on American tables, so it's hardly some outlandish mess that should be childishly shunned. LaGatta already verbalized part of my reaction to the pictures, but specific mention wasn't given to the lovely plate of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, three different vegetables, and the luxurious touch of mini Yorkshire puddings. I believe most people would be pleased and flattered to be offered that array at someones home. For years I've dreamed of having a real British "ploughman's lunch". I've had the pleasure of sampling a few English cheeses, all of which were excellent and that ham & bread both look robustly delicious. Any new kind of pickle is interesting, but the Branston pickle sounds outstanding.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 4:47:22 GMT
lagatta, you may be right about a duplication but I think one is cottage pie and one is shepherds pie though, at least that's what I searched on. casimira, bland and tasteless? There's no accounting for taste I suppose. fumobici, English restaurants don't exist. The reason being that the food is so technical to make, the ingredients so precise, the combinations of flavours so difficult to achieve properly that you have to have an extraordinary level of courage to make the food outside of the UK. Not many are able to do so, they realise this, so when they want to open a restaurant they open a Chinese or Greek or ..... - something easy.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 5:14:10 GMT
I don't think it's at all being "childishly shunned" by my stating my opinion that it appears to me to be bland and unappealing.De gustibus non est disputandum is correct. I enjoy a plate of fish and chips on occasion,especially when it is fresh cod,or scrod,that appears on some New England and Long Island menus. I am simply stating that it doesn't appeal to me is all. No need to accuse me of being childish because of this. I find many Slavic dishes to be bland and unappealing to me as well,and had great difficulty having to be gracious and enjoy some of the Lithuanian food that my mother's caretaker prepared when I was there visiting. Nothing personal people!!! JEEZ!!!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 5:32:34 GMT
It does look bland, but sometimes bland appeals to me. In much of Europe, there are millions of people whose idea of spice is 'salt & pepper' and there are quite a few dishes where that is all they use -- same with me. (Funnily enough, a McDonald's advertising campaign at the moment proudly proclaims that all they put on their double cheeseburger is salt & pepper.) Anyway, going back to Yorkshire pudding, it is one of those terms that I have heard and/or read my entire life but have never actually seen. And from the photo, I'm still not sure of what it is exactly.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 17, 2010 5:45:42 GMT
It's fun to make! I guess it's a sort of popover, for want of a better definition.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 6:08:05 GMT
Popover? What on earth is a popover?
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 17, 2010 6:34:26 GMT
It's sort of like a Yorkshire pudding, but generally made in an over-sized muffin tin.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 6:35:36 GMT
I'm glad I resurrected this thread. And I had to go out so I never got the chance to finish what I was saying. If you want bland food then anyone is best going to Asia. It's all noodles or rice and thin watery soup with a bit of lemon grass thrown in for variation. If you want monotonous then India is all curries and not much else. If you want to have a different taste you have to leave the country - that's why there are so many Indians in the UK. They know what good food is for a change.
Also remember that in the UK we have the greatest mix of immigrants of any country. They don't all come for the free health service, they also come because they know they'll get a good meal. Italy is all pasta, Germany is all sausage, France is all sauce, Spain is all olive oil, the Balkans is all cheap chewy meat, north Africa is all chicken and goat, central and south Africa is all monkey or gemsbok, Australia is all beer, north America puts a new slant on 'how many meals can I make with as much fat in as possible' and Antarctica is all penguin.
In the face of overwhelming evidence, which a lot of you fail to acknowledge, the only conclusion anyone can come to is that English food is unparalleled and can not be bettered (or battered?) Own up, you know it makes sense.
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Post by bjd on Oct 17, 2010 6:39:37 GMT
On a trip to Yorkshire in 2006, we had a couple of very good meals in pubs. We also had a couple of very bad ones. And in York, we went to the place for a pasty and it was revolting. I threw mine away.
Bixa, what are grits?
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 17, 2010 6:47:35 GMT
Bjd, it's ground dried hominy. It's boiled and usually served with butter, salt, & pepper as a breakfast food.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 6:47:42 GMT
Kerouac, imagine you've got your half a sheep or cow roasting over the fire, occasionally getting your servant wench to turn it. All the fat dripping of it goes where? Probably lost in the fire. So the thrifty Yorkshire folk put a pan underneath the roast top catch it. An even thriftier person decided they might as well cook something else in the hot fat as well, so they made a pancake type batter and put it in the hot fat.
This batter cooked and make a pudding type thing which, as they were being thrifty and wanted to fill everyone up so they didn't eat all the good expensive meat, served the pudding to them first. Usually with a gravy made from the meat. A proper Yorkshire pudding is the size of your plate, has lashings of onion gravy placed in the middle to form a lake, and is eaten as a first course.
The same batter is used, when sausages are placed in it, to make Toad in the Hole. Another excellent, cheap and tasty English classic.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 6:52:58 GMT
bjd, not an unusual experience is it though to go to a place that is supposed to be the best at something and in your own opinion it is crap. I've had this in the last several thousand countries I've been to. It's not just in England. And for all you doubters I'd just like to point out that according to AskMen magazine/website, guess where the best McDonalds in the world is? That's right, in England - www.askmen.com/top_10/travel/top-10-mcdonalds_1.html
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 10:21:08 GMT
By the way, Historically, British cuisine means "unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguise it."Definitely not French then. Bubble and Squeak Chicken Tikka Masala Stargazy Pie Steak and Kidney Pudding
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 11:16:27 GMT
You forgot one.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Oct 17, 2010 11:23:33 GMT
Don't forget the (in)famous (via Thorntree Get Stuffed) Cornish Pasty. I've never had an authentic one. My Mother-in-Law made some using hamburger for a "meh" filling, and we once ate the Mexican version at a spot within the Terminal Norte de Autobuses in Mexico City (which had transformed the traditional bland fillings into spicier empanada type fillings.)
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Post by bjd on Oct 17, 2010 11:50:14 GMT
The pasty I threw out in York (reply #48) was a Cornish pasty. There is a reason for which it rhymes with nasty rather than tasty.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 17, 2010 12:11:29 GMT
Empanadas are probably spicy in Mexico, but they most certainly aren't what one would call spicy in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Only Mark, there is a lot of French food that corresponds to your decription: "unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguise it."
The little stew of lamb's kidneys, mushrooms, a bit of onion and garlic in mustard, a bit of cream, a bit of white wine I described in the "what's for supper" thread could be French, but could also be an example of British "savouries", especially if served on toast.
Not just Chicken Tikka Masala, but also the Balti dishes, South Asian dishes (were the cooks from Bangladesh?) as developed in Birmingham. Of course they are British food. Pizzas as made in New York City or Buenos Aires are US and Argentine food, of Italian heritage.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 12:57:12 GMT
The photos in the second batch do indeed look much more appealing than the first. Admittedly,I haven't had many of the so called British food dishes described. I was reacting to the lack of appeal to me,of the first batch of dishes. I was also rather hungry at the time I saw them,and usually when I'm hungry,most food photos will appeal to me on many levels that they wouldn't otherwise. So,using that as a barometer of sorts to my palate,taste buds,whatever,the photos were not doing anything for me. I don't have too much of a basis for attacking British food in general,and wasn't doing so.As Fumobici mentioned,it is not something one generally sees available here in the U.S. While living in NYC or traveling spending significant periods of time in some major U.S. cities,San Francisco among them,I never encountered any raved about British cuisine . Fish and chips perhaps being the single exception. I have always wanted to try a decent steak and kidney pie,as I have always loved the sound of how it might taste. I have had some very decent,shepherd's pie,however,the one in the photo,turns me off to look at. I associate it with more of a "comfort food" type of dish though,and would probably opt to make it myself rather than order it while out on a menu,were I to encounter it. I stand my ground,and don't think I am being "childish" in doing so. I do happen to love scones. and love the concept of taking tea at three!! Most civilized!
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 13:32:57 GMT
lagatta, balti = northern Pakistan.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 13:43:40 GMT
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