Food Idiots (and also: are the Brits bad at cooking?)

Cait Takara said:
What were they doing with it? lol
Oh My Wow GIF by Curiosity Stream
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Boiling raw beef... Boiling everything in fact. No seasonings at all- not even salt or pepper, it was just horrific.
 
Reason said:
Boiling raw beef... Boiling everything in fact. No seasonings at all- not even salt or pepper, it was just horrific.
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Where on earth did you go to deserve that LOL. It sounds like a Blackpool guest house from the 1950s, but they died out long ago. It wasn't just the food - go on holiday to one of those and they kicked you out at 9:30 and didn't let you back in till 4:30 in the afternoon, regardless of the weather. Those places used to stink of over-cooked cabbage and stale fish all the time. You've got to be an in-patient in one of our hospitals these days to get a culinary experience as remarkable, though it's different in content - I think they do that so you get the hell out of the place as quickly as possible.
 
Reason said:
After watching videos of British people do things to food that should get them hanged in any just world I actually started to form a connection in my head between them and what I'd call 'food idiots' here in the states.

For clarification sake: food idiots are people who can take even luxury ingredients and make food that is utterly bland and unappetizing. This obviously differs from food that is less appetizing because of extreme poverty related scarcity or extreme health/ weight loss dieting or some other similar reason.

What are your thoughts on food idiots? Also do you believe the British really have more of them on average than the rest of the world?
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Haha, I made beef and vegetable stew today. It's a relatively bland food, but it's satisfying, hearty, and true to the British influences in Australia.

I don't care for processed food, takeaway, or snack type food. And while I could have bought steak quality meat, and nicer vegetables, stew is a very easy to make basic healthy food (just chop up everything, and leave it simmering for a few hours). I made a big pot and froze a lot of portions for later, making it a convenience meal.

Perhaps roasting the meat, making buttery mashed potatoes, with dressed steamed vegetables would taste better, but it's definitely a lot more work, and a lot more fat.
 
John K said:
Where on earth did you go to deserve that LOL. It sounds like a Blackpool guest house from the 1950s, but they died out long ago. It wasn't just the food - go on holiday to one of those and they kicked you out at 9:30 and didn't let you back in till 4:30 in the afternoon, regardless of the weather. Those places used to stink of over-cooked cabbage and stale fish all the time. You've got to be an in-patient in one of our hospitals these days to get a culinary experience as remarkable, though it's different in content - I think they do that so you get the hell out of the place as quickly as possible.
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I suppose some of my cynicism on this subject could just be my bias from watching """chefs""" online. There is much you can find online that is being presented as practical quality recipes that are in fact blueprints for rather nightmarish inedible slop
 
Matty said:
Haha, I made beef and vegetable stew today. It's a relatively bland food, but it's satisfying, hearty, and true to the British influences in Australia.

I don't care for processed food, takeaway, or snack type food. And while I could have bought steak quality meat, and nicer vegetables, stew is a very easy to make basic healthy food (just chop up everything, and leave it simmering for a few hours). I made a big pot and froze a lot of portions for later, making it a convenience meal.

Perhaps roasting the meat, making buttery mashed potatoes, with dressed steamed vegetables would taste better, but it's definitely a lot more work, and a lot more fat.
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It's not that difficult to make healthy foods like vegetable stew taste good if you know what you're doing. Just a bit of salt and pepper maybe is all you'd need for that. Ideally you want food that's healthy and delicious but barring that at least having either health or flavor is still good enough. Food idiocy often results in neither healthy meals nor (good) flavor.
 
Reason said:
I suppose some of my cynicism on this subject could just be my bias from watching """chefs""" online. There is much you can find online that is being presented as practical quality recipes that are in fact blueprints for rather nightmarish inedible slop
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LOL I imagine there are households over here that eat such stuff. The really criminal food in the UK is the mass produced pap though - factory produced bread that tastes like cardboard with butter on, potatoes that are bred to last a bit longer on supermarket shelves than those that are edible, packet cakes that are wrapped to make them look twice the size they really are and are grossly over-sweetened. Instant coffee powder that's made using creosote. I could go on ....
 
John K said:
LOL I imagine there are households over here that eat such stuff. The really criminal food in the UK is the mass produced pap though - factory produced bread that tastes like cardboard with butter on, potatoes that are bred to last a bit longer on supermarket shelves than those that are edible, packet cakes that are wrapped to make them look twice the size they really are and are grossly over-sweetened. Instant coffee powder that's made using creosote. I could go on ....
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I'm going to respectfully disagree here. I would honestly rather eat a factory produced snack cake that is 99.9999999 percent vegetable oil and sugar than to ever touch my taste buds against 'bean lasagna'.
:m063:
 
I can't believe I've only just seen this thread.

The UK's main food export isn't fancy dining, but alcoholism in the form of pubs - but the Irish beat us in that regard. Pub grub is delicious at the very least, and probably best exemplifies what British food is - comfortable and modest food that does the job but doesn't necessarily blow you away. It's even better if you go a bit fancy and enter a gastropub.

Generally, the whole joke about British food being a bit bland is true enough - aside from a number of truly beautiful savoury dishes/snacks. That's why I'd say we're stronger in the baking department.

Our desserts are truly something else.
 
emilykennewell said:
It's not fair to generalize or make sweeping statements about any particular group of people.
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You must be fun at parties.


Rit4lin said:
The UK's main food export isn't fancy dining, but alcoholism in the form of pubs - but the Irish beat us in that regard.
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You guys make good cider.
Goes well with salt and vinegar crisps too.
 
Wyote said:
I just ate a whole bag of salt and vinegar chips a couple days ago
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Youʼre self-indulgent, but like a boss. :sunglasses:

The Goodness,
Ian
 
Rit4lin said:
Our desserts are truly something else.
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Absolutely. Fruit crumble with ice cream or custard, jam roly-poly, parkin, carrot cake and cream, raisin scone fresh out the oven with blackcurrant jam and clotted cream, black bun (Scottish this), and so on ....
But there's good savoury stuff too - our craft cheeses are some of the best in the world, and we now have our own wine to go with them that's been beating the French to international awards. And anyone who says hot-cross buns, toasted and with melting butter, are boring has clearly never tried the real things. The best Brirtish beef is very good too, and we still make brilliant pork pies if you can find them amongst all the cardboard replicas the supermarkets sell.

I read somewhere that in fact British cuisine was once the envy of the world up until mid-Victorian times, but it was abandoned. That's because it typically took several days to prepare each meal and only the large stately homes with lots of domestic staff and a huge kitchen could prepare it.

One part-British culinary invention that has stood the test of time all over the world is curry - it was developed after we colonised India in 18th Century and to my surprise I learnt that many curry dishes we eat in Indian restaurants in the Western world were invented by the soldiers and their families to match British needs and tastes.

But the average meal in a motorway service station is the pits - stale, greasy fast food full of E numbers and tasting dreadful. Unfortunately a lot of our food is little better.
 
Rit4lin said:
May I tempt you both to a British delicacy then which definitely doesn't emphasise any stereotypes
best-crisp-sandwich.jpg

Crisp sandwich
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Can't say I've ever had just chips and bread together, seems too dry for me
Putting chips in sandwiches of all kinds is legit tho
 
Asa said:
That doesn't look nutritious. :expressionless:
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When I think of a crisp sandwich, itʼs the golden bread of a melt, done low and slow, such that bites have proper tooth, with soft yield after the initial crisp.

Now Iʼm dreaming of a tomato and avocado melt with tahini and olive tapenade.

Nom nom,
Ian
 
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