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Post by onlymark on Jan 9, 2011 13:55:20 GMT
He menu certainly looks interesting and I see there is food from the nether regions of Britain, like Scotland and Wales. I'm nor sure how British or English some of the other stuff is though. I do see a couple of deserts, Bubble and Squeak, Exmoor Toast and Leicester soup (the last two aren't well known at all) but fish pie with brussel sprouts? I've not known of that combination at all.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2011 14:49:33 GMT
Doesn't look bad, but only about 50% of the items are British fare. Of course, that's a huge percentage compared to most generic 'European' restaurants.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 9, 2011 17:15:44 GMT
Leicester soup = Potatoes, Onion, Butter, Flour, Turnips, Stock, Milk and Cayenne Pepper. Exmoor toast = Toast fingers with clotted cream and white anchovy -
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Post by onlymark on Jan 9, 2011 18:18:36 GMT
One thing I seem to have forgotten to mention is the following website - www.retrofoodrecipes.com/It has many, many traditional recipes, though the bacon custard is one I'd rather miss out on.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2011 18:37:57 GMT
Ooo ~~ I'd like to try the Exmoor toast.
I haven't looked at the link above yet, but mightn't bacon custard = quiche, or a version thereof?
(How do you say "pitchforks" and "flaming brands" in French? They'll probably be fetched forth by the Francophile foodies forthwith.)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2011 18:59:37 GMT
I have no idea what those words mean in English, in a food context.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 9, 2011 19:57:53 GMT
Yorkshire Bacon Custard.
INGREDIENTS 6 Thin Rashers of Streaky Smoked Bacon 2 Eggs Short Crust Pastry Salt & Pepper
METHOD Line a pie plate with the pastry, cut the bacon into narrow strips and cover the bottom with it. Beat the eggs well and season them with salt and pepper, pour them over the bacon, cover with a thin pastry top and bake in a moderate oven (180C / 350F / Mark 4) for about 30 minutes. Eat hot or cold.
Seems to be a bit of a quiche pie. Always been a bit funny them Yorkshire folk. E.g. Where there's muck there's brass. Never a mickle made a muckle. Ge'or scrating tha daft bugger.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 9, 2011 20:06:20 GMT
Actually there is quite a French influence in some of the recipes.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2011 20:07:49 GMT
Having never been to a so called British food eating establishment,and never having been to Britain,I would like to try out some of the fare. I've been told that some of the offal and other offerings including the traditional bubble and squeak (just love the name!!! hee hee)are outstanding if you go in for that sort of thing. I'll keep y'all posted.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 9, 2011 20:16:31 GMT
If only, if only, I could get decent sausages -
Potato Piglets - 6 Medium Washed Potatoes 6 Skinned Sausages
Cut a core out of the centre of each Potato. Stuff the Sausage Meat in its place. Bake in the usual way. The Potatoes may be peeled if liked and roasted in dripping, as for roast potatoes.
Beautiful simplicity.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2011 20:30:32 GMT
Does skinned sausages mean sausages with skins or sausages with the skin removed?
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Post by onlymark on Jan 9, 2011 20:53:46 GMT
With skin removed. Though you can just buy sausage meat, so why bother buying them with, and then removing it? Unless there was a particular type, like venison sausages, that you wanted.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 10, 2011 9:06:17 GMT
Can you get something like merguez? I quite like them and they're a good ersatz for pork sausages.
When I first read skinned sausages I thought they'd be something like weisswuerste.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 10, 2011 9:35:11 GMT
I can get a version of merguez, yes, but I'm never sure of the quality of sausage meat in the UK, never mind in Egypt.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2011 11:48:21 GMT
I know that M&S (when it still existed in France) could not sell the British sausages in Paris, nor could the English pubs serve them -- not for questions of hygiene but something about an excessive percentage of fat (or was it 'filler'?) according to EU rules. Nobody considered this tragic on the continent, because there is no lack of sausages in any of the other countries, but I have the voice of a British friend in my head saying something along the lines of 'it's a shame we can't get proper sausages here' so I must have heard that line at some time in the past.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 10, 2011 14:53:11 GMT
I just don't really know what happened with sausages in the UK. They became worse and worse with more and more filling and poor quality meat over the years, and there seemed not to be much regulation to it at all. But, as with many food stuffs, there has been vast improvement recently.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 23, 2011 2:43:54 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 15, 2011 7:32:33 GMT
I've just reread this entire thread. I do think that it's entirely natural for people to prefer the food they were raised with....my Father hates/hated anything vaguely spicy and I would say that the stuff he likes best IS bland. As my parents were not well off (6 children and only one wage coming in) we all had to eat what he liked. Maybe the 'nature' not 'nurture' thing applies...maybe not...but I dislike anything with a lot of garlic in it (as does my OH incidentally) and I think that these days an awful lot of British chefs/restaurants think that just putting lots of garlic in a meal will make it sophisticated... (I don't mind garlic incorporated in a tasty meal if it is used with a delicate hand) I do think that a lot of our pubs and restaurants provide awful food....we do have some very good ones too. Invariably tho...the best British food is cooked in British homes.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2011 10:58:06 GMT
Yes, it's natural to enjoy the food with which one was raised, but it's unnatural to remain "stuck" on it for your whole life, particularly if you travel. It's interesting, though, how certain people (like me) are immediately attracted or at least "intrigued" by new and different items while others are automatically repelled or extremely wary of such things. Just open a food stand advertising, say, "Afghan pickled goatburgers with fermented cream and dried olive sauce" and some people just won't even want to try them for some reason.
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Post by onlymark on May 15, 2011 16:34:00 GMT
I'm sure I've mentioned I dislike pasta. I never had it when I was brought up, it wasn't served in our house. Subsequently I have tried many sorts but still can't get a liking for it. (K2, apart from in Koshari where it is overwhelmed by everything else)
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2011 16:43:32 GMT
Keep trying, Mark. You're still a young man, compared to a lot of people.
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Post by onlymark on May 15, 2011 16:53:33 GMT
It depends if you mean mental age or physical age.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 15, 2011 17:11:28 GMT
I think that a lot of English people have developed a liking for food from other countries (as well as enjoying our native cuisine!)...our high streets are stiff with Chinese, Italian, Indian, Pakistani, Thai, Greek, Japanese, Jamaican, Mexican, American and French restaurants (there are even a few Mongolian ones here....) and they are all well patronised. Is this the norm across the world? I haven't spent much time abroad so I don't know...
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2011 17:44:46 GMT
Maybe there were insufficient Italian immigrants to the United Kingdom. Pizza, for example, conquered the world after getting a foothold in France and the United States. And in both countries, Italian food is not considered to be "foreign."
Since the favourite dish in England, according to polls, is "Chicken tikka masala," I suspect that (adapted) Indian food is considered just as British as bangers and mash.
(Same goes for France with couscous now in the #1 position after about 20 years as #2.)
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 15, 2011 18:09:41 GMT
Chicken Tikka masala isn't a traditional Indian dish is it? I read somewhere that it was created in a Punjabi restaurant in Soho, London...or in Glasgow...in the past 50 years.
We are knee deep in Italian restaurants in Leicester. Some are excellent and some are crap.
My OH wants chips with his lasagna...that's the only adaptation I make when cooking lasagna...mind you, he wants chips (french fries) with curries, chili etc....sigh...Fresh pasta is readily available in Supermarkets (I've made it myself but it's a faff and the shop bought stuff is pretty good)....I'm not keen on pizza from restaurants or take-aways...rather make my own.
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Post by onlymark on May 15, 2011 20:15:20 GMT
In July 2009 Pakistani-born British MP Mohammad Sarwar tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons asking that Parliament support a campaign for Glasgow to be given European Union Protected Designation of Origin status for chicken tikka masala.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2011 20:27:52 GMT
Now we just have to find out what an "Early Day Motion" is. Is it before high tea or after?
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Post by onlymark on May 15, 2011 20:49:58 GMT
I usually have one just after getting up and with a cup of coffee and a book.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2011 21:09:07 GMT
Oh, I think that's what Americans call "taking a crap." It's true that you can also call it an "early day motion."
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Post by auntieannie on May 16, 2011 19:23:25 GMT
yes, there's a flourish of British curries that take up most of the menu in "Indian restaurants" and other "curry houses" around the British Isles.
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