I make my own lemon curd and love the stuff.
Good over vanilla ice-cream, too.
Lancashire hotpot…
Roast chicken with bread sauce and all the trimmings…
Beef in Guiness stew…
Pan fried calves liver with caremilised pearle onions mash and gravy…
Quality sausages…
the list of all the amazing cuisine in Britain goes on and on, think of all the game, cheeses, fish etc? It upsets me when people assume that British food is crappy because they came here for two weeks and ate in Little Chefs and shitty pubs. You just have to eat at the right places…
Or worse, tried to order the stuff they know and love from back home.
Another one that would be good for humour is a Welsh Rarebit.
Er.
Oops.
Wrong thread.
Very embarrassed now!
I had eel pie mash when I was in London. I wish I could find that in the states.
Mince pies
Hot cross buns
Chocolate digestive biscuits & hobs nobs
Fruit puddings (the slices you fry up with breakfast)
Butteries (a kind of bread roll in Aberdeen)
Horlicks
Scottish blend tea
Mince & tatties
Haggis (if it’s a good one), neeps & tatties with onion gravy
Leeks in white sauce
Cheese & onion pasties
Worcester sauce crisps
Crispy chili beef from the local Chinese
Back bacon which is nearly all meat
Bourbon creams
Irn Bru
Bisto gravy granules
Capaldi’s ice cream in Brora
Glenfiddich whisky cakes
And oh how I miss the chocolate tasting club from Choc Express!
As far as highway restaraunts go, I wish we had Little Chefs - are you serious Balduran? these places suck!
Now what I really miss is…
Scoth eggs (the mini ones - pop in your mouth…Mmm)
McVities Ginger biscuits
Indian takeaway!
Also we are looking at all the classic British Dishes when there are a lot of brilliant British chefs creating new British dishes all the time and also re-inventing the old ones in a new and stylish way. Gary Rhodes springs to mind and the brilliant Gordon Ramsey plus I wouldn’t be anywhere without good old Delia Smith. I think that people only think of the classics when it comes to British food because in reality the new style of British cooking takes ideas and ingredients from all over Europe and the world thus making it difficult to recognise it as British in origin.
Apple pie!!! The original. Whaddaya mean you think it’s “American”?!
In fact, all pies, when done well. Steak’n’kidney I love.
Proper roasts.
Puddings - sticky toffee, roly poly.
Seville orange marmalade.
A good sharp bitey cheddar.
Pickles - piccalilli, pickled onions, Branston pickle etc.
HP & Worstershire sauces.
Jaffa cake biscuits.
Pretty much all of this is easily available in Australia, or there are locally made close variants. I don’t think I’ve ever had cheddar from Cheddar, but you MUST try King Island.
Things I can’t get - twiglets; clotted cream (except from one or two specialty dairies); Caerphilly cheese; “spring greens”, which is like baby new loose-leaf cabbage? My gran (Welsh) used to do roast lamb, with gravy, mint sauce, roast spuds, and spring greens. And “wimberry” tart for dessert- umm, low-growing wild small blueberries, perhaps? Loved it.
Count me in as a lover of the gorgeous cheeses of England, especially Stilton. When I was staying in Bristol a few years ago, I had dinner at an inn where they had this lovely appetizer of melted Stilton with mushrooms, served with a baguette to dip into this gooey pot of heaven.
Bangers and mash also have a special spot in my heart.
notice you didn’t mention the naked chef willass?! my favourite is the guy with the beard and slightly camp voice. can’t remember his name - double-barrelled i think - but i do remember his favourite meal of all time is BEANS ON TOAST.
How could I have forgotten Jamie Oliver? I really like his style of cooking a lot less ponce and presentation but a lot of flavour. I think the guy you are thinking of is Anthony Worral - Thompson, kind of short, fat, blond, beardy bloke? He does a lot of classic British cooking but I do find him kind of annoying…same goes for Ainsley.
Stimpy - I wonder if your double-barrelled chap might be Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Proper English fish ‘n’ chips where you choose your fish variety.
A ploughman’s lunch with a beer. It’s all you can manage at lunch when travelling because at the Bed and Breakfast place you stayed at you were given
A full English breakfast (with toast and fresh bread)
Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies - I can get these at the supermarket.
Afternoon Tea in the Palm Court at the Ritz.
Mmm…this thread is making me hungry! I lived in Cornwall for 3 years. Here’s what I miss most:
Cornish Cream Teas
Pasties
Fish and Chips
Grilled Tomatoes and Mushrooms with breakfast (I don’t know why I just don’t make them for myself here)
Beans on Toast (another that I could make here)
Chocolate Limes
Lion Bars
I’m sure I could think of more if I take some time. 
yes, anthony worral-thompson. you don’t like ainsley? suzi salt and percy pepper?!?
Ainsley makes me want to throw something heavy at the TV. The two fat ladies used to be good for quality British grub, 'specially if you’re like me and highly carnivorous. And they are responsible for the best dessert EVER - lemon meriange (sp?) roulade.
I absolutely love introducing friends and family to British grub. With all the horrid stereotypes, they are often quite amazed at how scrummy our food can be. Mind not everything is nice, but for the most part I absolutley adore the food here. In fact it is easier to list what I don’t like rather than what I do.
What can’t I get enough of? Mushy peas and mint sauce.
Simple is good: beans on toast.
American ruining good British grub: Yorkshire pudding with spray cream in it and drizzled with golden syrup… Oi!! I’m pregnant okay??
Thanks to Washte and Kal, I received a shipment of English snacks and candy a while back. A few observations:
Picnic: Perhaps candybar-making perfectly realized. Why don’t we have this in America? Raisins, peanuts, crunchy rice. Some other stuff. Absolute heaven. Raisins in chocolate is a criminally underused combination in early 21st century American snacking.
Cadbury Crunchies: Some sort of honeycombed thingimajig wrapped, no, enrobed in chocolate most subtle.
Wine Gums: Not to overstate myself, but these are the greatest things ever created by man. They are these… shapes and they have names of wine on them. I don’t know if they taste like wine, because I don’t drink alcohol. But they taste like I would imagine a wine flavored candy would taste. Not overly chewy. Not overly sweet. Is it any wonder that the Spanish Armada lost?
Chocolate Digestives. These were described to me as being similar to graham crackers but different. This describes them perfectly. And covered in chocolate
Sherbet: This is a foamy powdery substance. I gave some to an 18 month old kid and he rather enjoyed the sensation, once he saw that we were laughing at the bits of foam coming out of his mouth and not screaming in holy terror. Washte sent me these in lolly form, in Dib Dab form, and in comes-in-a-roll form. The lollies are a bit much. Too sweet for me. Halloween is coming so the kids will get this. The Dib Dab was neat. You dunk a lolly in the powder. Also too sweet. The roll was good. Extra points for being able to give to toddlers.
Just a time out: The chocolate is much better than ours. And not just the plain old chocolate. The chocolate used in the candy bars and cookies just tastes better. Creamier. Richer. Not cloying.
Hula Hoops: One can rarely go wrong with potato powder pressed and formed into unnatural shapes, then fried. Good flavors. Barbecue beef flavor. Thanks for being specific.
Whotsits: Like cheetos, I guess. They have prawn cocktail flavor. Ooh la la. Goes good with roast beast sandwiches made with…
Salad cream: I suspect this might be like salad dressing here in the U.S. A tangy change from mayo. Disturbingly colored though. Just a bit too yellowy to be called “French Vanilla” colored.
Washte also sent some cereal. Pretty similar to American stuff. Ricicles were quite nice. The free t-shirt had a picture of Tony the Tiger surfing on it. We were quite amused by the idea of a kid in England wearing a shirt with a surfer on it. Almost as funny as a person in Austin Texas wearing a shirt like this, I suppose. No offense intended.
Toffifee: We have this here in America. We call in Toffifay. I’ve always been a big fan. There’s this caramel bowl, filled with, I don’t know what, and it has like a hazelnut or something inside. Not a very good description, but I liked it. Oh, and there’s a bit of chocolate on top.
Jaffa Cakes: Rounds of cake with orange flavored jelly on top, and dipped in chocolate. Good times. Good times.
Horlicks: Malted something or other. You mix this powder with water and drink it. It says it’s supposed to help you sleep. It did not. I was distinctly unimpressed with this. One understands why the sun sets on the British Empire when one drinks this.
Angel Delight: Chocolate flavor. To be precise, Corking Chocolate flavor. I have to admit, it was quite corking. Like the digestives, washte described this as like U.S. pudding but different. Again, this is an accurate description.
Malted Milk biscuits: Delicate flavor. I admit to liking bland cookies. The youngsters today with their high falutin fancy cookies with all sorts of stuff in 'em and on 'em and around 'em just piss me off. This is flour, sugar and water. Baked. Quite proper, I assure you.
As I write this, I’m eating a bruiser. Blackcurrant and apple flavored taffy. One thing that impresses me is the courage with flavors. I’m sick of everything being strawberry or raspberry flavored. There seems to be a lot of blackcurrant flavored goodies. I have something next to my keyboard like a Bruiser, called Black Jack, that is anise flavored. Bravo!
I have yet to try the Parma Violets Washte sent. The label says these are “delicately perfumed violet sweets” Look at me, I’m the King of England.
Quick Soak peas: Yeah, I know these aren’t sweets. I just wanted to point out that the directions say you are supposed to soak these peas for two hours. This is NOT quick soaking. In America, these would be called “Slow Soak Peas” Two hours!
Washte also sent me Spotted Dick and a Treacle, which I haven’t tried yet. I’m trying to plan a British foods dinner party. I’m gonna have the Branston pickle, the mashed peas, and the Yorkshire pudding. I also haven’t tried the peanut butter. Or the tea. Or the piccalilli. Honestly, I’m a little frightened of the piccalilli.
Well, there you go. Sorry for the long post.