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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 13:50:44 GMT
Tell me what that is Mark. Is that butter on those biscuits,or some kind of cream? It does look yummy,but,I think you need to find some better photos to represent your foodstuffs on here. I don't think these are doing it justice somehow....the color and presentation is not the most palatable looking. Am I being picky here? Sorry....
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 13:52:02 GMT
casimira, 3pm for afternoon tea is a trifle early. It can be then but generally 4pm is more widely known, but any time between 3 - 5pm is fine. Take your pick -
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 14:09:00 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 14:21:21 GMT
casimira, I'm not really spending much time searching through the millions of wonderful British food photos, I just click on the first one or two to give a general impression. No photo, no matter how well taken, can sum up the exquisite taste of the dish shown. On the other hand, maybe there aren't any good photos anyway. However, the cream tea photo - they are not 'biscuits'! You are a heathen. They are scones - The butter(!) is Cornish or Devon clotted cream - Clotted cream is a thick yellow cream made by heating unpasteurised cow's milk and then leaving it in shallow pans for several hours. During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms clots. True Cornish clotted cream must be made from unpasteurised milk or the clots will not form. It has a minimum fat content of 55%.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 14:22:52 GMT
I said three because it rhymed...also, have read so many, many British novels,which I love,and they always bring in the tea at three ritual.Also,always mention "the toast soldiers" or whatever they are called.Always thought that was enchanting. Now ,these are very, very appealing in every way. I love the photos here,way more up my alley and most delicious looking. BINGO!!!! Am hungry now!!
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 16:21:01 GMT
Ah yes, a dippy egg and soldiers (toast bread sliced in to strips to dip in the soft boiled egg) -
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Post by tod2 on Oct 17, 2010 16:29:50 GMT
Mark - That scone with strawberry jam and clotted cream looks the business - Last time I had one of those beauties was 2 years ago down south in Devon at Soar Mill Cove Hotel. It also had raisins in it - come to think of it, so did the scone for the cream tea we had at Hampton Court the same year I prefer without, just like your photo!
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 16:53:06 GMT
tod, funnily enough I prefer them without raisins as well. I worked one summer in Cornwall in my late teens and I've never lost the weight I put on then after having a cream tea every day. Wonderful stuff.
kerouac, I missed somehow your bangers and mash photo. I'm sure I could make it better but there are also somewhere close to a gazillion more superb English dishes that could be featured. One favourite of mine as a snack food is the Bedfordshire Clanger - It is an elongated suet crust dumpling. It has meat filling at one end and a jam filling at the other, comprising main course and dessert in one item.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 17:18:35 GMT
I wouldn't want Mark (or any French people) to go into toxic shock, but I am continually amazed on the big travel forums the number of people who seem to think that France is just an extension of England. They are always asking the best place to go for high tea in Paris or for recommendations of the best B&B's. As small as air travel has made the world, there are still zillions of people in so-called developed countries who can't seem to distinguish European countries from each other. This said, there are probably plenty of French and English and Germans on the very same travel sites asking where they can see the best rodeo in NYC.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 17:30:45 GMT
I'm sure you're being diplomatic there kerouac, and exaggerating. There aren't zillions of people in the USA.
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Post by bjd on Oct 17, 2010 17:38:35 GMT
The Bedfordshire clanger sounds as though it belongs in the food abomination gallery.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 17, 2010 18:45:11 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 18:48:09 GMT
The Bedfordshire clanger sounds as though it belongs in the food abomination gallery. We're on the same wavelength here..I'm glad it isn't just me!!!!! ;D Even the names crack me up!! "Clanger"....jeez.... ::)It is so quintessentially something that Monty Python would do a skit on I'm sure!!!!
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 19:25:52 GMT
Typical. Just typical. Decrying the poor farm workers to whom it was a life saving lunchtime meal. After a strenuous morning hoeing and harvesting and whatever else farmworkers to do cultivate the food YOU put on your plate, you dismiss their one moment of culinary delight in an otherwise back breaking day as only fit for the rubbish bin. They deserve to eat whatever they want.
"Historically, it was made by women for their menfolk to take to their agricultural work as a midday meal."
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 19:48:07 GMT
And another thing - dishes called fluffernutter, whoopie pie or shoofly pie from the USA aren't exactly named to perfection either. Never mind that the epitome of their cuisine could well be the doughnut burger -
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 19:57:31 GMT
Actually, that double cream, clotted cream type crap tastes excellent. I think I've only had it on British Airways flights, though.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 17, 2010 20:09:03 GMT
Clotted cream isn't crap. While not exactly heart-healthy diet food, it is delicious.
The trifle is beautiful, though I'm not a dessert (or desert) person. Only Mark is pretty much a desert person these days. I want the cheese platter, with Stilton!
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 20:42:09 GMT
Now then, cheese. What a subject. Did you know that according to the recognised experts on the subject, The British Cheese Board, there are over 700 named cheeses in the UK? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_cheesesAnd these lads will sell you some excellent Stilton, I'm sure -
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 20:53:11 GMT
Do these postings imply that there are some unsatisfactory aspects to living in Egypt, Mark?
I must admit that during my entire childhood in Mississippi, I often heard my mother complain about missing food items. We could manage a trip to France once every four years, and then things were set right for a couple of months.
With so many good things to eat everywhere in the world (with some glaring exceptions), it's sort of a shame that most of us get set in our ways for food items from our earliest youth. I still like some absolute abominations that I ate as a child, and there is no way to explain it other than trying to recreate bygone days.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 17, 2010 20:53:13 GMT
Where on earth is Imec?
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 20:54:26 GMT
I much prefer a hard crumbly cheese to a softer creamier one. All of these three are my equal favourites - Cheshire - Lancashire - Wensleydale -
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 20:55:06 GMT
True, I'm sure that he would have things to contribute to such a subject. But it appears that it has been a non internet weekend. (Like for normal people with families!)
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 20:56:21 GMT
Kerouac, after several years of falafel I feel it is time for real food again. Plus, I'm hungry. I have been all day for some reason.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 20:58:30 GMT
Mark, you are definitely displaying some cheeses that look spectacular but which appear to be miserably unknown on this continent (and maybe some other continents as well).
I presume that there are some French/Belgian/German/Italian equivalents, but unless we get a chance to taste all of this stuff, we will never know.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 21:01:16 GMT
Kerouac, after several years of falafel I feel it is time for real food again. Plus, I'm hungry. I have been all day for some reason. Surely there must be an "English food store" somewhere in Cairo. But yes, it is likely that the prices would be outrageous. I guess Carrefour is better than nothing.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2010 21:12:31 GMT
NPR recently did a piece on the British Cheese industry being tops right now in the production of fine cheeses in the world Many,many small dairies cropping up allover with "artisanal " cheeses being their specialty. I'll see if I can dig up the piece and post the link to it.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 22:37:56 GMT
As regards cheese I think we do the harder ones on average better than the soft Camembert type, though we do them as well. It must be a historical thing as to why we have one type and France is better at the other type. Don't really know. Cheddar though to me now is an abused cheese and I avoid it if I can, the mild harder ones such as Gloucester and Leicester I also never buy as when they are paired with anything, like in a sandwich, the flavour tends to get lost and you're just left with the consistency of it. Somewhat like a mild Gouda or Edam.
Anyway, Cheshire cheese was traditionally eaten with Christmas cake and even though I don't like Christmas cake, the combination actually tastes quite reasonable. But I digress. We do have a 'British Club' here with a couple of branches that have pub style club houses. In there you can get 'good old British pub grub' but it never really appeals to me. I'm not that desperate that I need to sit in a place that has all the atmosphere (and smoke) of a 1960's pub just so I can eat pie and chips. Bear in mind also though the fact that pork products like bacon for the full English are not available.
Carrefour does have some stuff like Bisto Gravy and Cheddar, sometimes a jar or two of jam or marmalade, but it can't be relied on. That's why whenever I go back to the UK I always take an extra bag and fill it with food that goes straight in the freezer when I get home. I've never found an equivalent in a European country for the dry hard cheeses we do. Funnily enough the nearest I've come to it is an Egyptian cheese called Romy. If there is an alternative I'd love to know.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 17, 2010 22:40:05 GMT
Casimira - 'artisanal' - is that something to do with a painters backside? and how does that relate to cheese? I've heard of builders bum but never what you said.
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 18, 2010 6:30:50 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. I was talking to two English friends the other night of where to ry all the English pies and puddings and they reminisced about one particular pastry used that incorporates the drippings and little chunks that drop of a roast. That sounded really good but I'm not sure whether it's used in steak and kidney pie or pudding. Anyway, both said I couldn't get it here though we do have a couple of places with good stuff.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 7:28:23 GMT
Pies would tend to use just a basic shortcrust pastry whereas many of the 'puddings' like steak and kidney use suet pastry and instead of being baked are steamed. What you might be referring to is known, would you believe, as 'dripping' which can form a constituent part of the pastry and traditionally fish and chips were fried in this. It was also spread on thick bread as a snack when solidified and was the collected fat and juices from the roasting pan when cooking beef, as opposed to lard which is produced from pork and has no 'trans-fat' - so is a bit healthier than first thought
You used to be able to buy it from the butchers and when I was a kid a bread and dripping sandwich went down really well after a day at school.
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