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u/DarkFlame9101 22d ago
You forgot stuff like scones and hot cross buns, we do pastries quite nicely
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u/Usernameoverloaded 22d ago
Sticky toffee pudding
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u/DarkFlame9101 22d ago
Also that
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u/Usernameoverloaded 22d ago
Bread and butter pudding too. I don’t live in the UK anymore so have to make my own scones, shortbread, Victoria sponge etc
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u/Gentle_Snail 21d ago
Its kind of wild you get people who will confidentially say the UK has no food culture and then binge watch 18 seasons of the Great British Bake Off.
There are so many amazing British baked goods that just listing them all out is practically a an impossible task.
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u/DearestDio22 21d ago
AND you have clotted cream for your scones and pastries and it’s amazinggg, firmly believe clotted cream would be super popular in America with a little rebrand to a name that sounds less gross to us
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u/sheopx 21d ago
'Absolutely homogeneous, totally not lumpy cream' has a ring to it.
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u/Jewel-jones 22d ago
I love a pasty too
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u/sci_fientist 21d ago
I used to live near a British bakery (in the US) and I yearn for their Eccles cakes but it's like an hour and a half drive from me now 😭
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u/alexxerth 22d ago
A lot of the "British food is bad" meme comes from older victorian sensibilities where the upper class sensibilities were very against unfamiliar or particularly flavorful foods. A common cook book at the time called potatoes "suspicious; a great many are narcotic, and many are deleterious", and also said things like garlic were offensive.
Another part of it comes from the fact that the UK went through rationing during and after WWII, lasting 15 years total, and the recipes that originated during that time were...not always great things, and they carried for a long time afterwards as people who grew up during the blitz ended up enjoying those recipes and continuing to make them.
The actual bad stuff is kinda hard to find nowadays. It's been outcompeted. Kidney pie, or blood pudding, or stuff like that is 'divisive' in the sense that it's something that some people are scared of, but they don't actually taste bad if you try it. The same book that holds the first recipe for steak and kidney pudding is the same one I got the quote from earlier from, and is also the same book that holds a recipe for a "Toast Sandwich". Stuff like that is more where this idea comes from.
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u/DontWantToBeOnReddit 22d ago
This is the comment I came looking for. The American soldiers stationed here during world war two did us bloody dirty, and unfortunately the stereotype persists from people who've never even been here, let alone have actually tried beans on toast.
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u/Jiminyfingers 21d ago
The Americans soldiers started it, but today's Americans continue with aplomb. There was a national cuisine tier list fill and British food got brigaded to 'why would you eat that', not even 'mid', below German and Irish food. The yanks have 2 jokes: that we eat like WW2 is still on, and that despite having am empire to get spice we don't use it in our food. Then they all chortle away in a massive insecure circle jerk because it is something they can look down on us for.
At the same time they claim macaroni cheese and apple pie as their own, use Worcestershire sauce in a lot of their cooking, and make cottage pie a lot, miss-calling it shepard's pie, then get defensive in the comments when you point it out.
Also they think we think beans on toast is a delicacy.
Sorry my ribs are really painful, I have barely slept and it's my birthday today so had to unleash
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u/becky_1800 21d ago
Yessssss, it pisses me off when they say apple pie is theirs the earliest recipe was from the UK in the 14th century😭also Happy birthday and I hope ur ribs feel better soon😅
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u/DontWantToBeOnReddit 21d ago
Nailed it. And yes, I've seen this tier list entry. It's unbelievably ignorant and backwards.
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u/Blue_Bi0hazard 21d ago
irony being spice was originally used to cover poor quality food taste, other irony we literally use it all the time in brown sauce
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u/imanutshell 21d ago
Common bit of classist and at times racist apocrypha made up by the wealthy and noble to distance themselves from the lower classes once spices became more affordable and readily available for the lower classes of the empire to enjoy.
There was a purposeful shift away from the heavily spiced foods that had traditionally only been enjoyed by higher class of people in the medieval and renaissance periods due to cost and rarity. And then when they started looking to differentiate their food to feel superior and exclusive again they decided to go for “quality of ingredients” as their replacement and started spreading the lie that spice was used to hide quality to denigrate the poors and regain a de facto sumptuary luxury where they’d lost one.
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u/momentimori 21d ago
American GIs didn't have rationing like British civilians had and couldn't understand it.
The American military had to make educational films telling GIs not to complain about British civilians only offering them a little food when they visit a civilian's home as it could easily be over a week's ration for that family.
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u/Grand_Pop_7221 21d ago
The "British Teef ar bad" meme is from American GIs too. At the time, it was a valid barb, but over the last 80 years, the UK's dental outcomes have outpaced the US'.
Stuff like this really is a great example of "common sense" being complete horseshit, baseless, and based entirely on how people feel. It's the lesson to learn in the modern day if you don't want to be led around by internet memes and bullshit artists.
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u/edgelordjas 21d ago
There's also the thing where we keep natural teeth that are healthy but might be slightly crooked or yellowed. Where as the US tends to favour straight white bleached teeth.
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u/_Aimway921_ 21d ago
American soldiers stationed abroad during and after WW2 tended to do everyone dirty. They're the reasons American associate japanese geishas with prostitution.
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u/snoozymum 21d ago
That's because they have been conditioned for so long that they are the best country in the world. The best athletes, smartest people, richest country, best at everything, the american dream, everybody wants a slice. They learn so little about the outside world that they believe they are superior.
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u/LadenWithSorrow 21d ago
They really try hard to sell “the American dream” too bad it’s dead in the water.
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u/Agitated_Parsnip_178 21d ago
It's been floating bloated and face down for twenty years.
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u/crimsonbub 21d ago
The US GI's complained about British grub, then when they got to the continent they insulted the Italians and French by asking for really watered-down coffees (where Americano comes from) 😂
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u/Special_Cicada6968 21d ago
Interestingly, the upper class food sensibilities seems to be a common thing. Chilies were viewed as trash peasant food used to improve bad meat in China until Mao's revolution championed them as the people's spice.
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u/umlaut-overyou 21d ago
This is very true, and I think some of the meme persists in part because stuff like the Great British Bakeoff had "Taco night" and it was clearly a foodstuff they just had no idea what to do with. That doesn't mean British food is bad, but particularly in the US, people are used to seeing different kinds of foods that just aren't as common or popular in the UK.
The meme is not helped when a small subsection of internet folk continue to try and shit talk American food, claiming all bread is cake, too sweet, too salty, to big, too mushy, etc., always inferior. And internet shit stirrers who do things like claim that Americans don't know how to make a "jacket potato" (baked potatoes with toppings), or that chipped beef on toast (shit on a shingle) is a common American staple (its a WWII rationing/military meal and they cooked it wrong).
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u/IndieGameClinic 21d ago
We also don’t neighbour Mexico!
When I was a kid in the 90s we ate our versions of Chinese, Indian, Jamaican and Italian food all the time. We also had Chili but other Mexican dishes (and Thai) seemed to come later. Some of this is national but it probably also has to do with my parent’s class position.
If you watch early 2000s episodes of Come Dine With Me you can see there’s still the nouveaux riche idea that “fancy” meant coq au vin, and then over the coming decades it becomes a bit more cool for middle class people to be seen as “worldly” in their tastes.
Americans don’t seem to understand social class in Britain and love to see what one section of society does and call it a national trait. They also don’t seem to understand how geography and colonial history impact what people in a country eat most commonly, despite - I expect - having towns where people of European heritage eat more or less Asian or South American food due to the makeup of the local community.
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u/RubricOwl 21d ago
Tacos aren't particularly common in the UK, but Fajitas are - I wouldn't say it's authentic, but we have Fajitas nights at home, and it wasn't uncommon to have Fajitas when I went over friend's houses when I was younger. They aren't an uncommon sight in pubs/restaurants either. Quesadillas and Enchiladas are more popular than Tacos too, now that I think about it.
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u/RaspberryJammm 21d ago
I'm 34, English, and I don't think I've ever tried a taco despite wanting to.
They're not as common as burritos and fajitas etc
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u/thepitcherplant 21d ago
Really hard to find places selling good ones, the only place I've found that makes them well is a tiny family run place in the middle of an industrial estate that don't do delivery.
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u/htb_md 22d ago
Nothing beats a homemade Sunday roast. I’m heading to my mum’s on Sunday and am excited for the roast chicken dinner that’ll be waiting for me.
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u/Cruach 22d ago edited 22d ago
That's the thing though, Sunday roast isn't all that unique to British people. We do it in France, I'm sure many other European countries too. Though I do love pies; and bangers n mash; and fish n chips, don't get me wrong. I just feel that mentioning sunday roast like it's uniquely British is odd, even if there are British versions after all.
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u/Temporary-Concept-81 22d ago
My fav part though are the Yorkshire puddings. Do other places include those?
Cuz sometimes I have six, lol.
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u/B4rberblacksheep 21d ago
They aren’t saying Sunday Roast is uniquely British, but it is a traditional British meal.
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u/VioletRosefinch 22d ago
They probably mentioned it because it was originally from the UK. All countries do a version of basically all foods but it's important to remember where it came from.
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u/crestfallen_warrior 21d ago
Technically a sandwich falls under this umbrella too. First record of it is from Britain.
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u/dx713 21d ago
And you forgot the cheeses.
Contrary to popular belief by people who probably only tried industrial cheese in the UK, the countryside has great cheeses.
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u/crestfallen_warrior 21d ago
Getting some good cheese, crackers, grapes, pickled onions, pickled cabbage, etc all together on a pick and mix plate is heavenly.
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u/Sir_Lazz 21d ago edited 21d ago
You know what: As a frenchman, a natural ennemy of the hallowed brits, i must set the record straight: we shit on british food all the time. They are the number 1 target when joking about bad food. The truth is, britain has some of the most AMAZING comfort food.
Is it light ? No. Is it healthy ? ahahaha, hell no. But british pub food is the EXACT thing you need when you come home after a long day, tired, wet, and miserable. It's like a long, tight hug from a lover with high body temperature when you're feeling cold. It's like the coziest blanket in the room.
Now, yknow i wouldn't exactly call it fine dining, but it's not pretending to be. It does one thing, and does it well.
edit: i would sell off a family member for a nice plate of Ham egg and chips. Oven cooked with honey, the real deal.
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u/Kingreaper 21d ago
The british and french mockery of each other's food is funny to me because most of what we actually eat is just the same things with different names and maybe some differences in presentation.
Britain and France have a long long shared history, and our national cuisines reflect that fact.
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u/Sir_Lazz 21d ago
I say, we should bury the rivalry between our great nations and focus on the ACTUAL frauds: Americans :p
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u/Emperor_Xenol 21d ago
Couldn't have said it better myself! Us brits never pretend to have the culinary expertise of our French or Italian brothers, but if you want something hearty and warming, nothing beats a Shepard's Pie or Steak Pie - perhaps followed by a Sticky Toffee pudding
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u/Olives_And_Cheese 21d ago
Ironically, as a Brit, Croque Madame/Monsieur are my all-time favourite comfort foods; I think I had one or the other for most lunches when I visited France and then learned to make them at home 😂.
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u/TheBankTank 22d ago
The horrific reality that nobody wants to accept is that the well-prepared version of most cuisines is pretty damn good, whether or not it's specifically to someone's taste. There's nothing Morally Pure about food*.
*Except soup is the best food, and all others are inherently less good, but they're still FINE I GUESS
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u/lou-bricious 21d ago
But soup isn't even food! It's a lumpy drink.
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u/FR3Y4_S3L1N4 22d ago
British food is a lot better than people give it credit for, yeah there are some "wierd divisive" dishes like herring pie, but literally every single country is going to have horrificly wierd and gross food somewhere. Go to a state fair in the US, you will see all the divisive foods you could ever imagine now also deep fried and on a stick.
Meat pies kick ass. Fish and chips soothes my midwestern fish-fry loving heart
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u/HyperionSaber 22d ago
As a Brit for nearly 50 years, I've never heard or seen herring pie anywhere ever.
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u/FR3Y4_S3L1N4 22d ago
EXACTLY, people will point out the insane bullshit they see online and tout it as the countrywide norm. I used it purely as an example the british food haters have recently started latching onto and exploding in the youtube algorithm
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u/Flyinmanm 22d ago
Yeah, stuff like jellied eels.
I live here and have never once come near a place that sells them. (Never sought it out either though, lol).
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u/Metazoick 22d ago
I occasionally see jellied eels in very old school east London chippies, but that's it. It's probably less common than something like rocky mountain oysters in America and I'd honestly rather eat the eels lmao.
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u/perseidot 21d ago
Idk about herring pie, but Fish Pie is downright delicious!
Take a mild flaky white fish fillet (like sole, or plaice), and simmer it in milk. Meanwhile, sauté onions, mushrooms, and then add diced fresh tomato. Take the flaked fish and add it and the vegetables to a pie plate. Use the milk you poached the fish in to make a white sauce, mix it into the ingredients in the pie plate. Top with creamy mashed potatoes and dot with butter. Bake until bubbly and slightly browned.
It’s absolutely delicious. Even people that don’t like fish like it.
The only reason I don’t make it more often is that it uses every pan in the kitchen: sauté pan for veggies, pan for poaching fish, pan for making roux and white sauce, pot for boiling potatoes, bowl for mashing potatoes, pie plate, and cutting board. Seems like a lot for a single dish!
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u/Lupus_Brassica 21d ago edited 21d ago
Loved my 2 visits to the UK. The food was a pleasant surprise having grown up on the “British food bad” stereotype. They do what I call “brown food” really well. So meat pies, Sunday roasts, sausages, British Bacon sandwiches are much better than US BLTs! Loved the pastries, Yorkshire pudding and crumpets! I loved crumpets so much that make my own in the winter regularly and have them with butter and jam for office breakfast with tea. So satisfying.
So yeah British food is actually good!
Edit: forgot to mention the world famous Fish n Chips! In the US the fish is usually a thin strip of greasy and soggy disappointment whereas the proper UK Fish is this large crispy exterior with a melt in your mouth buttery fish that is Divine!
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u/Milf_Puncher 21d ago
People often forget that many not beige curries were invented in the uk as well
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u/Barbed-Wire 21d ago
The stereotype of Britain having awful food dates back to WWII, when American troops stationed in the UK saw how awful our food was, completely glossing over the fact it was bad because there was a war and strict rationing.
But "British Food Bad" is what was told to people back in the States and the stereotype stuck 🫠
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u/BrassUnicorn87 21d ago
And the rationing lasted for many years afterwards, meaning the stereotype had time to really stick.
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u/dtb1987 21d ago
As someone who visit Britain when I was younger the only thing I took issue with was mashy peas and that was a texture thing. I didn't try blood sausage or blood pudding. British breakfast is excellent and they also know how to do sweets. Things they failed at when was there was pizza and Mexican food (or any Latin American food really, I was there in the 90s near Yorkshire if that provides useful context) otherwise I didn't find much I didn't enjoy
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u/obliviious 21d ago
We used to be bad at mexican food, but it seems to have picked up in the last few years. Once it was impossible to get a burrito you didn't make yourself. Many takeaways are depressingly bad at pizza, but proper Italian restaurants are great.
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u/Pinoccicrow 22d ago
The sausage rolls are goated and the wine pours were always large and very drinkable. The 3L bottles of Strongbow were incredible to 20 year old me.
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u/TheBestBigAl 22d ago
I suspect the majority of the native population's experience of 3L bottles of Strongbow is getting drunk in the park when they're 14.
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u/MSweeny81 21d ago
Check out Mr.Sophisticated here. It was 3ltr of White Lightning round my way!
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u/aBoringSod 21d ago
Look at you mr fancy pants, it was a bottle of frosty jacks on the park bench up my way.
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u/1nfam0us 22d ago
Yorkshire pudding with gravy bangs so much harder than it has any right to.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 22d ago
Went to England over the summer. The food was not half bad. My personal favorite was the blood pudding from the full English breakfast.
Not only was that an amazing start to the day, but it also felt metal as fuck cause it was blood pudding
Also loved the meat pies. 10/10 meal. Could eat all day
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u/PatchyWhiskers 22d ago
Blood pudding sounds terrifying.
It is a sausage.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 22d ago
Correct! For those that don't know blood pudding is a traditional type of blood sausage made by cooking animal blood with filler grains and fat until it congeals
It's actually REALLY good
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u/The_Flurr 22d ago
We usually call it black pudding.
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u/Mr_SunnyBones 22d ago
Yup ..in Ireland we have black pudding , and a bloodless version called 'white pudding' ...both great.
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u/JDJ714 22d ago
We call it black pudding over here, but yeah its pretty slammin. Would also recommend anyone going to the UK try a good cornish pasty too
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u/Fun_Journalist4199 22d ago
I’m from Michigan and pasty’s were brought over here as a mining food for the copper mines back in ye olden days. You can still get them at any tourist-centric store and I fucking love them
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u/Strange-Option-2520 22d ago
I know it as Black Pudding (and as a native that's what I'm used to hearing it called anyway) but it's actually pretty nice. I know a lot of people who've never tried it because they hear blood and avoid it like the plague
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u/sheopx 21d ago
If you like black pudding, haggis would blow your mind.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 21d ago
I've had haggis when I went to Scotland! It's amazing. 10/10 meal
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u/what_am_i_doing23 22d ago
My theory is still that, because food nowadays has a tendency to associate bright/colourful food with good food (Mexican, Indian, etc.), that a lot of northern European food got the short stick because of their main ingredients. One of my recent favourite foods is Savoy cabbage soup and it's legit just cabbage soup, it's sheer green. And it's delicious.
I grew up with a grandmother from northern Germany and sometimes what people would call "green/brown slop" is the most delicious because it's speck, potato, cabbage/green beans and Kassler.
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u/whatintheeverloving 22d ago
Cabbage is so underrated in general. Three of my grandparents were Ukrainian so I grew up eating tons of it. Cabbage rolls, cabbage-stuffed varenyky, pickled cabbage, braised cabbage, cabbage soup, cabbage cabbage cabbage!
What you said about us associating colour with taste these days makes me wonder if cabbage rolls seem to have taken off as one of the most popular Eastern European foods on reddit because of the bright red tomato sauce. Food (heh) for thought.
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u/indigodawning 22d ago
So one time I can home from a really long hard day at work and found my husband had made Savoy cabbage soup, I was so disappointed until I tried it amd it was so delicious
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u/EldritchSanta 22d ago
Great comic.
We have good food, we have bad food. You have to be a bit careful in where you choose to eat, but there's plenty of good stuff out there and it's getting better with time.
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u/moriya 22d ago
Yeah - to me, more than other cuisines, it's about the execution. Well-made fish and chips is a thing of beauty, but you can also get a bland plate of greasy, soggy yuck.
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u/EldritchSanta 22d ago
Suet puddings and sticky toffee puddings - if I see them on the menu, that's what I'm having.
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u/Earwigss 22d ago
I very much agree, just spent 4 months with my spouse in England, didn't dislike a single thing i ate. Tbh kinda crazy for the food, and yes, even beans on toast. Shit slaps hard.
Spouse was worried id starve because because how non brits think the food is bland and terrible. Im kinda impressed i didn't gain weight in those four months.
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u/djdino9999 22d ago
As a Brit, I appreciate you actually giving our food a chance instead of going “BuT I ThOuGhT ThEy OnLy AtE BeAnS On ToAsT”
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u/ChickenInASuit 22d ago
Side note: Beans on toast is delicious. Particularly if you use nice bread, and add a little bit of cheese and barbecue sauce.
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u/Chemical-Agency-3997 21d ago
That’s a weird way to spell Worcestershire and brown sauce.
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u/djdino9999 22d ago
Being a lover of a good Beans on Toast, I’ve never heard anyone have it with Barbecue sauce. Might have to try that now
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u/Infamous-Oil3786 22d ago edited 22d ago
As an American who has tried beans on toast myself; keep up the good work over there, your food is delicious. I even made my own version of heinz beans to save money since the cans are super expensive over here (expensive for beans anyway). Grate on some nice aged cheddar 🤤🤤 man, now I want beans on toast.
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u/Foreign_Kale8773 22d ago
So I don't eat filtration organs in any cuisine (nothing to do with the taste except in the rare case of liver - I just don't intellectually like the idea of filtration organs being consumed), and I managed to eat well and eat very good food the whole 9 months I was in the UK. I genuinely do not understand folks who make these sweeping judgements.
Proper scones! PASTIES! Fish and chips absolutely cannot be beat. Honeycomb chocolate! I ate vegetables and fruits that I had never experienced in the US, like TURNIPS and PARSNIPS bc they're just not super popular in most US cuisines. I did not like marmite and was shunned, but I was instructed on proper preparation of a cream tea. (Which, why hasn't the US picked up clotted cream?!?)
A FULL ENGLISH. A FULL SCOTTISH. I don't eat the beans BUT WHY HAVEN'T I BEEN EATING FRIED TOMATOES AND MUSHROOMS WITH MY BREAKFAST THIS WHOLE TIME?!
There's genuinely so much to enjoy even if they made fun of me for all the milk I drink 🤣
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u/chemistrytramp 21d ago
If it makes you feel better UK wide clotted cream is a newish thing. I work with a woman who can remember it being something you asked holidaying family members to bring back from Cornwall.
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u/kilgoreq 22d ago
I could eat cheese and onion pasties for every meal every day.
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u/Blue_Bi0hazard 21d ago
bean sauce?, do they mean regular beans with fish n chips?
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u/Robbie4382 21d ago
Mushy peas is the trsdion I believe that's what being referred to here
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u/MagnusAlbusPater 22d ago
I very much enjoyed the food in the UK as well.
Steak and Kidney Pie is delicious.
I even tried haggis and was a bit disappointed at how normal it tasted.
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u/ngms 22d ago
Did you ever get drunk and end the night with a kebab? Its not "good", but it is amazing.
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u/Jamikari 21d ago
A greasy kebab from the bossmans takeaway is the best way end a night out.
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u/heyo_throw_awayo 22d ago
As an American who moved to the East Midlands I think I can explain it.
First, there's no artificial colouring in the foods, so they look more "plain" by comparison. Especially the sweets.
Secondly, there is SO MUCH LESS SALT in everything. It BLEW my mind when I first moved here how "flavourless" everything seemed, and I found out (because I'm diabetic and read nutritional labels) there is literally 1/10th the salt in prepackaged foods here, and that's just sodium, I'm not counting other salts.
After almost four years of adjusting to a British palette from an American one, I can tell you, American say British food is bland because it's not blasted with salt. I rarely add salt to dishes anymore, and if I do it's a pinch. I order snack foods from the States occasionally, and having the same flavor crisps on Lay's brand verses Walkers is insane. I can't eat lays anymore it's so salty.
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u/Psyk60 22d ago
The funny thing is every now and then there are articles in the UK about how food in this country has dangerous amounts of salt. So how much salt does American food have?
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u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits 22d ago
THANK YOU!!! I FUCKING LOVE BRITISH FOOD. I made pork pies myself for the first time recently and I am pleased to report they were literally perfect
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u/Ralife55 22d ago
The idea that British food is bad arrives from two points. One is that after WW2 British cuisine was limited due to continual rationing into the 50's which caused a lot of food to only be edible and filling instead of rich and delicious and this arguably still leaves a mark on British food to this day.
The primary one though is that traditional British cuisine even before WW2 really relied on simple flavors to start with. Spices are used in a limited fashion especially when compared to say Italian, Mexican, indian, Chinese or south east Asian foods.
Your not going to find extremely complex flavors in British food. Hence why some people see it as bland. Meat pies, fried fish, various baked goods, blood sausage are all foods with fairly one note flavors. What it is is hearty. British food fills you up, tastes perfectly fine and gives you energy.
Now for me personally, I love food like that. As an American, our version of this would be roast beef with mash potatoes and gravy, warm buns with butter and green beans or broccoli. I have a place I go to local to me that makes that exact meal and I could eat that every day and I absolutely love complex foods like Indian, Italian or Chinese.
I like to call that kind of food lizard brain food. Because your inner animal loves it. It's nothing but fat, carbs and protein and we are hardwired to desire that stuff. Regardless of if its complex or not our bodies crave it.
I find a lot of the people who really beat on British food who have actually tried it (let's be honest it's mostly a meme at this point, most people raggining on it have never actually had it) are usually from those spice heavy culinary cultures who are use to complex flavored foods which honestly is just a cultural thing. The foods fine, it's just not like your food.
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u/TeddyBugbear 21d ago
Traditional British food can have a lot of complex flavours, but the issue is that most people don’t use the ones we have. Exotic spices became the norm and the wealth of British herbs in particular started falling out of favour. Wild onion, garlic, and Angelica, not to mention the famous parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. These were a lot of the basis of British cooking but with the decline of the herb garden and easier access to different spices from elsewhere they aren’t given a lot of the spotlight they deserve
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u/OldEcho 21d ago
They didn't just fall out of favor. In the song parsely used to be "savory" as in "summer savory." No idea what the hell that is? I didn't know either. Capitalism, urbanization, and industrialization robbed British people of many of the spices they used for well over a thousand years. It wasn't just herb gardens - most people who mostly lived in the countryside would eat many of the "weeds" that would grow in their fields and these sorts of plants formed the basis of British seasoning. Now most of us don't have land, most of those who do own very little, and foraging on land you don't own is illegal since Thatcher starved out the striking coal miners.
In some ways the world wars started to bring back the old spices as people foraged out of desperation. But I think a lot of people just simply didn't season when they couldn't acquire what they were used to. The great depression didn't help. And then their kids who grew up in that environment didn't have the knowledge passed down and found strong seasonings overwhelming anyway.
I agree though we should bring the old spices back. I season with sage, rosemary, and thyme nearly every time I cook red meat. (I genuinely keep forgetting to try to get savoury.) It really is just a recipe it's absolutely very nice. Also oregano. I also like paprika and garlic powder and of course black pepper so I quite enjoy foreign spices, but there's nothing at all wrong with the traditional ones. Everything but the paprika I mentioned makes a fantastic sunday roast with some salt.
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u/Raptoot83 21d ago
Cheddar is the single most popular cheese in the world.
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u/FourEyedTroll 21d ago
Not around here, sir.
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u/Raptoot83 21d ago
(I love a good python sketch)
And what IS the most popular cheese round here?
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u/BouillonDawg 21d ago
I think it’s two fold. One is that people judge the struggle meals and some of the more outlandish stuff and two is that the British get ripped on a lot by other Europeans and the French especially who are infamous food snobs second only to the Italians…who also rip on the British so it makes sense they’d attack their culinary prowess. That’s probably leaked overseas too cause a lot of people really like to rip on the British and latched onto that cause why not
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u/Im40PercentUsername 21d ago
I've never been to Britain so I can't speak to it personally, but I've never seen a picture of a "Full English Breakfast" and not had my mouth start watering, that looks delicious!
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u/No-Mulberry-8866 22d ago
I lived in Ireland for a while, which is culinarily basically the same. Yeah, British/Irish food is great. I miss black pudding sometimes
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u/QuilSato 22d ago
please try a British burger in a pub, if it looks like this, you're about top eat good
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u/merliahthesiren 21d ago
People shit on British food but Scandinavian food doesn't get enough shit.
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u/cryoclaire 22d ago
Having lived in the UK for a decade, I have to agree?? I do love their pies. The sicko in me even likes beans on toast. At the same time, I think their famed biscuits are mid as hell except for maybe shortbread
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u/chemistrytramp 21d ago
How dare you slander the chocolate hobnob or beloved custard cream so!
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u/crestfallen_warrior 21d ago
Problem is a lot of our store brand biscuits have gone the way of most food lately and seriously decreased in quality. It's pretty sad.
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u/somedays1 22d ago
Agreed!! Everything was scrumptious, I'm not entirely sure where that stereotype came from.
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u/Hugsomebunnies 21d ago
...Is "so healthy plain bean flavor" supposed to sound appealing?
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u/Strange-Bumblebee312 21d ago
What is it even referring to??
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u/Hugsomebunnies 21d ago
My assumption is mushy peas, you can look it up, I didn't just make up a gross sounding food! It's apparently served with fish and chips.
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u/Dasterr 22d ago
I recently went to scotland and ate fries once. they were absolutely terrible
the rest was great though
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u/odddino 22d ago
You got unlucky, the chips/fries in the uk are great. But I guess there are always going to be some places that fuck it up.
Brandon Sanderson even mentioned it in a video recently, he did a trip to the UK and was shocked how much better they were here than in the US.
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u/Warvillage 21d ago
I visited London last year and the food was great!
Among other things I tried a sunday roast with yorkshire pudding, gravy and root vegetables roasted in duck fat. It was so good that I started looking up recipies for yorkshire pudding and if any stores near my home has animal fat for sale.
First day there I had fish and chips, with fresh fish and several different species to chose from, it was amazing.
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u/wormyg 21d ago
Isn't tikka masala technically British food? Made by a British restaurantoor to introduce Indian cuisine
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u/petrolhead0387 21d ago
Created in Scotland, also called the top National Dish of Britain.
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u/strat-fan89 22d ago
I was in Scotland for two weeks last year and didn't eat a single bad meal. Some were obviously better than others, but all of them were well made with good ingredients. Best fish and chips was in Uig near the harbour in what looked like a gas station from the outside...
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u/DiesByOxSnot 22d ago
Also, Scottish food! Trying sausage rolls actually changed my life for the better
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u/Dropkoala 22d ago
I'm not sure sausage rolls are uniquely Scottish, you'll find them all over Great Britain but they are class regardless.
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u/martzgregpaul 21d ago
A lot of tourists eat at a big chain restaurant or one in a tourist hot spot and assume its all like that. Its like judging Italy based on that terrible €30 pizza you had on Piazza Navone.
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u/Purple_Dragon_94 22d ago
As a brit who has travelled abroad I can say that part of the problem is that other places fucking suck at making British food
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u/Vaxtez 22d ago
Alot of people judge British Food on looks only. I genuinely wonder how many people saying 'British food sucks' have actually eaten British food & are clearly not just regurgitating whatever the media says. British food isn't just Jellied Eels & some abomination from WW2 rationing, nobody eats that stuff anymore.
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u/Ferris-Feinreich 22d ago
The best of British cuisine still heavily influences food in Australia too. We especially love our fish and chips and meat pies, they're treated as signature dishes here. English pubs are very popular in Melbourne and most will offer a traditional English breakfast on the menu too.
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u/Fun_General_6407 22d ago edited 22d ago
So as a Brit who's been across the globe. I absolutely agree. Foreign cuisine is awesome but so is ours in its respective well practiced applications. Not to sell our selves short, please look at our number of Michelin stars.
It is true the reputation of British cuisine suffered greatly in the 40s and early 50s, but to be fair there was a bloody war on ! (Followed by continuing rationing and a recession). Yes, we're sorry that visiting American GIs during WW2 didn't get the best culinery experience at the time but in our defence we were suffering from a bombing campaign, an energy crisis and a U-boat menace all at the same time. This did somewhat affect the availability of fresh ingredients, seasonings and cold beer. However, through effective rationing and healthcare provisions the average UK standard of nutrition actually improved during this time period.
It should also be mentioned that we won (with a lot of help from the USA, USSR, Canada, Australia and the commonwealth) a food supply and manufacturing war against an opponent who's plan was literally to starve hundreds of millions to death, whilst they also simultaneously murdered tens of millions.
Please be a little bit impressed that in WW2 we managed to give everyone in the UK a cup of tea and a day (as well as a full 2500/2000kcal) while the Nazis plan was pretty much corpse starch. However please ackowledge we've moved beyond that somewhat.
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u/AmberMetalicScorpion 22d ago
I can't remember whether it was WW1, WW2 or both that this happened in, but I remember at one point the Germans were reduced to eating "Ersatz" (fake) food which consisted of presenting non-foods like they actually were foods
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u/Jamikari 21d ago
Also beans on toast is shat on but it’s a bloody good quick dinner/tea
Low effort, minimal wash up time and delicious.
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u/iamansonmage 22d ago
Isn’t the joke that all those Michelin stars are for serving French food?
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u/CyclonicTransbian 21d ago
Please stop keeping that horrid woman's creation in the public eye. Let it die before we do
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u/Short-Sheepherder314 21d ago
British food is a victim of its own success. The temperate climate in the UK, and Ireland, means that we have an abundance of wonderful produce: meat, dairy, fish, shellfish, vegetables. The quality of this produce is so high that it doesn't need to be covered in sauces or spices to make it taste good. If you eat food in the British Isles, you need to eat it as close to where it is produced as possible and it has to be as fresh as possible. So we are not talking about mass-produced food here. We are talking about produce which has been cooked very simply and is taken to the plate without needing very much, if anything, added to it. There's a commonplace misunderstanding about food from the British Isles. The difficulty is that most of the rest of the world is used to having its own produce, in many cases inferior to that of Britain, covered in rich sauce or spices of some kind. If you eat simply in Britain and Ireland you will find what excellent produce actually tastes like. I'm not knocking any cuisine because I enjoy so many flavours from all around the world, but simple British food is unbeatable. Don't believe me? Then try a simply cooked steak with a light salad or vegetables. Or a plate of lightly cooked scallops or prawns, again with a simple salad. You can't beat it. It's back to the basics of quality food and simple cooking.
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u/Balaquar 21d ago
The idea that places like India have historically had poorer quality produce is entirely unfounded.
It's also a hard argument to make when, historically, Britain imported spices for food at great expense, and heavily flavoured food with cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, ginger, etc...
The move to blander foods really started in the 17th and 18th century but largely influenced by France, with a focus on stock, butter, herbs, and less use of spices.
Urbanisation and the industrial revolution separated people from food production and people became more reliant on cheap staples and preserved foods.
And ultimately the wars and rationing of the twentieth century had a huge impact on British cooking restricting available ingredients.
There's really no evidence to say that Britain somehow had superior quality produce at all. And by the late 1800s around 40% of produce was imported anyway. This percentage only rose during the start of the twentieth century, reversing briefly during ww2, before returning to similar levels.
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u/01001001_01001001 21d ago
Italian food is also similar in the respect that their food is also simple they have 4 ingredients at most and most traditional dishes have no meat because they will just eat those meats separately because of the unique flavors of the meat
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u/odmirthecrow 21d ago
Fish and chips in any of the fishing port towns in the UK is incredible. The fish will have likely been caught the morning of the day you order it, filleted on site, then battered and deep fried within minutes of you ordering it. You simply do not get any fresher than that. If it's a decent chippy, the potatoes will be relatively locally sourced as well.
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u/Spacer176 22d ago
Listen, you have not lived until you've eaten properly homemade crispy, fluffy roast potatoes.
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u/spilt_milk 22d ago
Full English breakfast is one of my favorite things. I even enjoy the black and white pudding.
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u/Dispenser-JaketheDog 22d ago
'British food is great, it just doesn't photograph well' - my british fiance, after our first visit to england, where I was suprised how great everything tasted