I have had universally* bad experiences with English food. First up, I’ve a family of in-laws who are scarily similar to Catherine Tate’s Janice and Ray. Frozen lasagne and chips and “never tried it but don’t like it” type people. I’d say rationing and overcooking can bear about an nth of the blame for bad food in England than “never tried it but don’t like it” can. Veges are overboiled, meat is overdone and anything other than overboiled veg and overdone meat is unacceptable.
Restaurants and pubs usually miss the mark with overpriced odd combinations of foods that are usually bland or an approximation of an ethnic style. Small, family-owned and reasonably priced places are rare. Fish is something that isn’t made enough of; dipping it in batter and frying hell out of it until you can’t taste anything but oil doesn’t count. Again, finding a good seafood restaurant is nigh on impossible and if you do find one, chances are it’s serving “fish and chips” at inflated prices and not fresh seafood. (I’m surprised at this, I would have thought fish restaurants would have abounded - maybe it’s a cultural thing? Some-one once explained to me that the reason why pub food is better in England than restaurant food is the huge coaching industry of yore when travellers would stop at coaching inns for meals.)
Sure, there are TV chefs. I’ve eaten at Rick Stein’s restaurant and it was great though the same standard is available in other countries without the chef making it onto TV nor charging GBP275 (ten years ago for four people).
Ack, all of this the reason why we stick to ethnic restaurants when in England.
not universal really, Marks and Sparks cheese and onion pasties, TUC cream crackers and sausage rolls excepted
Eating out in England is great, restaurants are never a problem in terms of quality and choice in cities. We suffer a bit on price IME, I’ve eaten great meals in France and Spain for half the price of what I would pay at home.
If you’re talking English Cuisine, rather than eating in England, I would have to agree that it is a bit ropey. Aside from beer (fantastic heritage of brewing in the UK) and cheese (truly formidable) I can’t think of any gastronomical exports from England that are really embraced elsewhere (marmite, the nectar of the Gods, sadly doesn’t count). I don’t think I have ever seen an English restaurant overseas, serving authentic English food. I’ve seen plenty of Brits abroad-style places serving cooked breakfasts and cheap ale, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’ve been really impressed with some Scottish restaurants since I moved north of the border. A good Scottish meal can be outstanding - a lot of game and fish on the menu, then there’s the whiskey.
I’m interested to know where you went Bathsheba (other than Padstow obviously) as I haven’t visited a town in Britain that didn’t have at least a few decent restaurants. I think it’s really unfair the reputation we have as London is literally jam packed with good restaurants, you’d have to be really unlucky (or just have a knack for choosing shitty restaurants) to eat badly there. I have lived in London, Bristol, Colchester and Southampton and all have great restaurants, I have visited much of Britain for business and pleasure and have always eaten well, I am a dyed in the wool foody as well and as such won’t put up with poor quality. Is there any chance that the people you visited just took you to some bad places seeing as they weren’t that interested in food to begin with? The best places to eat (IMHO) in Britain are good quality pubs, just buy a copy of ‘The Good Pub Guide’ and try any of the entries, I have been to at least 50 different pubs from the guide and they have been awesome without exception.
I think that the idea that English food and produce is poor is also wrong, fair enough if you are buying food from people who juts don’t care then it will be bad but you only have to watch Rick Steins ‘Food Heroes’ or perhaps Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls ‘River Cottage Road Trip’ to see there are loads of great food producers out there as well as loads of young chefs creating amazing modern British cuisine - it’s basically the current food trend at the moment: British classics with a bit of a twist coupled with local, seasonal produce. Check out the menu for St John’s (Anthony Bourdains favourite restaraunt apperently):
Loch Fyne restaurants are great. Fish and seafood is pretty expensive here (not just in that restaurant - in the shops too) though, isn’t it - when I went to Spain last spring, we bought a huge pile of raw prawns for a few euros and cooked them over charcoal - I’d have to extend my mortgage to buy the same amount of raw prawns here (and they’d have been frozen).
Aha but that’s changing thanks to our immigrant communities. Last month I got a 1 kg bag of frozen, shelled, tail-on raw tiger prawns, from my local Bangladeshi halal shop, for £4.99! They were fab, too. I swear, I’d save about 75% on groceries if I shopped at those places all the time: that shop is round the corner from the place that sold me 3" of ginger, a bulb of garlic, an apple, and two onions - for 28p.
British food has undeniably changed for the better in recent years but it is still easier to get a bad meal there than in, say, Italy. I think English home cooking is wonderful, and the people are much more open to trying new things than many other Europeans, who are conservative to the point of mental disorder some times.
I’ve known a few Scandinavians who have never tried rice or pasta. If it isn’t meat and potatoes, it’s not going to be eaten. These people were my own age. So yes, I would agree with that.
When I was last in England, last spring, I joked that I was there for the food, but there is some truth to it. Aside from meeting up with old friends and seeing both old and well-loved and new places, it is what I most look forward to going back to England for: full English breakfasts with a drizzle of HP brown sauce. Fish and chips. Mushy peas. Tea at Harrods. Tea at the Pump Room in Bath. Cream teas in Devon. Did I mention the teas?
ETA: Dangermom reminds me: Walker’s biccies that you can’t get in the States! Last year, I brought home about 12 boxes.
They have the best Indian food I’ve ever tasted excepting my mom’s cooking, that’s for sure. Way way better, on average, than stuff I’ve had in the US.
Their dairy products are far, far, FAR superior to anything I’ve ever had in the United States. I’ve had yoghurt there that made me shake my head in surprise it was so tasty. Maybe it’s even better on the continent, but my impressions (admittedly from 2001) is that most of their raw ingredients simply taste better than most stuff you get here.
I don’t think I’ve ever tried any native cuisine but that’s largely because I don’t eat red meat. Too bad they overboil their veggies and meat.
They’ve got the best Indian food ever…seriously. And it seems like 9/10 of them consider curry the national dish or something so I have a hard time disassociating ethnic food from the immigrant communities from British Food because they tout it so wholeheartedly.
Yes, that sounds like it. Is it typically served on a baked potato? To be fair, I was fairly well into my pints at the time and not in the best state to evaluate cuisine.
Heston Blumenthal is the chef and owner of The Fat Duck, the three Michelin starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire. The Fat Duck was named Best Restaurant in the World in 2005 by Restaurant magazine.
What I love about eating in the UK, is the fact it is ALL pretty much fusion cuisine without having to make a song and dance about it. British food has always been a blend of cultural influences, with the repeated invasions and then the Empire.
I’d agree with your dairy comment, anu-la1979, and add the inevitable bread one as well. I have tried large and small bakeries over here, and can never find anything as good as I grew up on. And there are few meals finer than crusty bread with good cheese, especially when consumed with a few pints and in the company of good friends.
What’s your sample size? My mother in law in Coventry cooks to die for. My anecdote balances off yours.
As to seafood, so what? There are going to be styles of dish that any given country doesn’t do well. The question is whether there is good food to be easily found. Not whether there is a certain type of dish that you happen to want that is not easily found.
I am, honestly, surprised to read all the comments about how the food was so bad. I thought my Scotland/England trip was one of the tastiest travel experiences ever. And fish and chips is quite marvelous if done delicately.
Strangely enough, if you go and eat at the restaurant of a celebrity chef it will be rather expensive.
Alternatively, if you go and eat at a restaurant that’s not run by a celebrity, it will be cheaper. And in a glaringly obvious way, there are many chefs that are as good as Mr Stein or better, but don’t have a TV program.
I’m lucky. I’m in the North east of scotland, so the local beef, lamb, pork, seafood and fish are all rather good. That makes life pretty easy on a chef, as all they have to do is just keep things simple so that the flavour of the ingredients can do all the hard work.
Meh. There’s great native English foods around. Give me a decent stew with dumplings, a plate of potato cakes with butter (they don’t seem to be available outside the NW ), a Lancashire pasty, plate of roast beef with Yorkshire pudding etc. etc. over any French food
), a Lancashire pasty, plate of roast beef with Yorkshire pudding etc. etc. over any French food 