Interesting. Inspired by this thread, I’m making Lancashire hotpot for dinner tonight. 
What time?
Perpetuation of the stereotype could be at least partly because people (and not just Americans) when they travel end up at too many tourist traps serving crappy food.
My perspective on British food is that they serve up some of the tastiest dishes on earth - but poorly executed versions of them suck - just like poorly executed versions of any thing else will suck.
Want excellent food? There are countless examples in London alone. Six months ago we had stellar meals in the UK featuring British dishes and ingredients, including at places like The Grazing Goat in London, Howie’s in Edinburgh. We had a couple of really good meals on Islay even.
But then again, I also like fish & chips at Wackers in York and love Pret a Manger sandwiches, which I think are the epitome of fresh delicious portable affordable lunch. And blood pudding is delicious, dammit!
Well, I just put it in the oven literally two minutes ago, so I’m guessing about 2-3 hours from now.
Indeed – http://www.dangerouspiesdc.com
Empanadas, salteñas, samosas, egg rolls, pizza rolls, calzones, Jamaican beef patties, Hot Pockets, and the like are all reasonably popular in America.
Kiwi Kuisine sells their British-style (okay, New Zealand style, but really not that different) meat pies in upscale cafés around here – http://www.kiwikuisine.com
Boston got KO Pies a couple of years ago, and since then at least one other Australian meat pie place has popped up.
I also found this place a little bit south of Seattle that seems to be very well-regarded. And I’ve seen pasty places popping up here in some Chicago neighborhoods, although they have some connection to the Upper Midwest, too (particularly Wisconsin and Michigan, in my experience.)
ETA: Just noticed the above post. See, there you go. Mark my words, meat pies are in line for being a hipster food trend.
And, hell, what about quiche? It has been more than 30 years since it was declared too unmanly for Americans, but it’s everywhere.
I grew up in northern Louisiana and Natchitoches meat pies are a popular regional specialty. My home town even had a factory that mass manufactured them for a while. They are great tasting but probably not all that great for you. They are directly related to Spanish beef empanadas because that area has a long Spanish colonial history. I have never seen them outside of that smallish area of the U.S. but similar versions exist in other countries. It is a traditional meat pie to that area that you can’t even normally find in the New Orleans area or any of Southern Louisiana unless it somewhere like a festival food booth.
Cuppa Coffee is another one.
In the U.S. pudding usually means custard. I’ve never heard of steak and kidney and/or kidney pudding in my life. I’ve heard of steak and kidney pie, but not kidney pie.
(And am I the only one who doesn’t like my bacon crispy? I like it nice and tender – meat shouldn’t be crispy)
Well, in the US, pudding and custard are two similar, but different, things. Custard is egg-yolk thickened. Pudding is starch-thickened.
Agree. Where I grew up, pudding and custard were completely different.
Though I sometimes make tapioca or rice pudding with egg yolks.
FWIW, here is an article on pudding and puddings:
Sorry, that was the closest thing I could think of.
Thanks. For some reason there seems to need to be proof that I wasn’t making steak and kidney puddings up.
“Kidney pie” definitely is one of the items always brought up when criticising British food, though, along with haggis and “blood pudding” (we don’t call it that). Basically criticising British food by focusing on unusual food items and changing the names to make them sound worse.
Same in Sweden regarding “kidney pie”. I just simply respond with “no such dish exists”, which results in them looking very confused. You have to teach them somehow. If they insist I remind them that as a culture they have no right to mock as they eat rotten fish.
I think the thought of eating kidney freaks some people out so much that when you say “steak and kidney pie”, what they hear is “steak and :eek: kidney :eek: pie”.
Threads like this make me angry-sad.
Maybe it’s just my personal enthusiasm for food, but it seems like this particular topic is often an encysted pocket of celebrated ignorance for the SDMB.
:angrysad: (when we get an AngrySad Smiley, I’ll be regarded as a prophet).