# Northern English foods. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075 "2006-09-09T17:15:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/61 "2006-09-11T09:31:27Z")
It’s all a bit “you say pot_ay_to, I say pot_ar_to” for me… The denizens of the frozen north may claim foods as “northern”, but a Lancashire Hotpot is pretty much the same as a hotpot anywhere else in the UK… i.e. veg and meat chucked inna pot and cooked until you can’t taste what it was originally. We leave 'em to it though… they have so little else to live for that rhapsodizing over the relative merits of “barm cakes” and “stotty wossnames” is one of the few pleasure left available to them 😉 And for all the winkle-haters out there, they ain’t so very different to cockles from Morecambe Bay (both are grotty, gritty pieces of salty inner tube, passed off by hopeful merchants as a gourmet dish, as far as I can tell). **e-Logic** (whose recent move to the Midlands requires the learning of a whole new language) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/62 "2006-09-11T09:47:00Z")
[QUOTE=e-logic] And for all the winkle-haters out there, they ain’t so very different to cockles from Morecambe Bay (both are grotty, gritty pieces of salty inner tube, passed off by hopeful merchants as a gourmet dish, as far as I can tell). [/QUOTE] I’m sure you’re right - most molluscs are better eaten without looking too closely at them - but winkles just look like bogies (and in view of this, it’s surprising that small boys don’t relish them). ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/63 "2006-09-11T09:53:13Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] I know what a babbys head is but what’s **peawep** 😕 [/QUOTE] When you have your peas on top of your chips, wetting them. Pea + wet ==\> peawep. BrainGlutton, a babby’s head is a suet pudding. It looks like a baby’s head. **e-logic** , kindly remove your **s** outhern propaganda from my **N** orthern thread. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/64 "2006-09-11T10:28:26Z")
Can we claim meat pies up north? I know they are eaten all across the country, but I am sure I have read that we eat more per person on average (particularly in Wigan, or anywhere I happen to be living). ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/65 "2006-09-11T10:48:41Z")
A couple of friends from Preston, Lancs have introduced me to their version of the “Meat Pie Floater”… a meat pie (note: the “meat” is usually unspecified!) placed lovingly upsidedown in a bowl of thick gravy. The Aussies do something similar with mushy peas and ketchup, but the northern english version was a bit purer. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/66 "2006-09-11T10:55:22Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] Can we claim meat pies up north? I know they are eaten all across the country, but I am sure I have read that we eat more per person on average (particularly in Wigan, or anywhere I happen to be living). [/QUOTE] What about Wigan kebabs? Three meat pies on a stick. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/67 "2006-09-11T10:59:11Z")
[QUOTE=e-logic] It’s all a bit “you say pot_ay_to, I say pot_ar_to” for me… The denizens of the frozen north may claim foods as “northern”, but a Lancashire Hotpot is pretty much the same as a hotpot anywhere else in the UK… i.e. veg and meat chucked inna pot and cooked until you can’t taste what it was originally. We leave 'em to it though… they have so little else to live for that rhapsodizing over the relative merits of “barm cakes” and “stotty wossnames” is one of the few pleasure left available to them 😉 And for all the winkle-haters out there, they ain’t so very different to cockles from Morecambe Bay (both are grotty, gritty pieces of salty inner tube, passed off by hopeful merchants as a gourmet dish, as far as I can tell). **e-Logic** (whose recent move to the Midlands requires the learning of a whole new language) [/QUOTE] By ‘eck lad tha’s pushin’ tha luck ‘ere. Youse wanna watch it me owd cock or me an’ t’lads ull be round t’sort thissen out wi’ a few knuckle butties, bah gum. southern gits ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/68 "2006-09-11T11:01:41Z")
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan] What about Wigan kebabs? Three meat pies on a stick. 😃 [/QUOTE] Yes indeed and you Wiganites can get them all in yer gobs at once so we Mancs. understand. BTW I saw Paul Jewel in Tesco last week. he was looking at the “reduced for quick sale” stuff ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/69 "2006-09-11T11:12:10Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] By ‘eck lad tha’s pushin’ tha luck ‘ere. Youse wanna watch it me owd cock or me an’ t’lads ull be round t’sort thissen out wi’ a few knuckle butties, bah gum. southern gits [/QUOTE] Hmm… I copied & pasted that into babelfish and selected “english” as the required language, but it couldn’t find a match. Just kept mentioning something about “chips on shoulders” and “pints of gravy” :dubious: 😉 For the record, my mother is a scouser, so visits to my nan’s house were always culinary adventures. Not sure if anyone’s mentioned “scouse” yet - [Lobscouse - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobscouse) - although at my nan’s we used to get “blind scouse”, which is the same dish without the meat. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/70 "2006-09-11T13:19:24Z")
The above can be loosely transalted as… "I say old chap please be very careful what you say otherwise me and my very dearest friends shall be obliged to call upon you and engage in some fisticuffs. “Heavens above” ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/71 "2006-09-11T13:21:32Z")
it can also be **translated** ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/72 "2006-09-11T13:36:12Z")
Hey, who started a north-south bitchfest without inviting me? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/73 "2006-09-11T13:57:50Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Hey, who started a north-south bitchfest without inviting me? [/QUOTE] Hmm… traditional East Anglian cuisine? That’d be turnips with everything then? 😛 As the (unwitting) instigator of this round of north-south bitchery, let me say that my observation is simply that “northern” cuisine is the same as “southern / western / welsh” etc food, just with different names. So I’m not sure there’s much - nomenclature aside - that can be claimed as authentically “northern”, as you’ll find the same thing (or a close variation of it) in other parts of the UK (all of whom would be amazed to learn that someone else was “laying claim” to a particular dish) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/74 "2006-09-11T14:06:50Z")
[QUOTE=e-logic] Hmm… traditional East Anglian cuisine? That’d be turnips with everything then? 😛 [/quote] I’m tempted to head off for some local oysters & smoked eel in Orford, or maybe get something fresh from the fishermen on Aldeburgh beach, just to spite you 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/75 "2006-09-11T15:21:19Z")
[QUOTE=devilsknew] [Pigeon Pie](http://thefoody.com/mrsbpoultry/pigeonpie.html) (I love the part of the recipe where you stick three pigeon feet out of the top of the pie!) [/QUOTE] Why does the recipe say nothing about removing the bones from the pigeons?! “Mmm . . . Crunchy frog!” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/76 "2006-09-11T15:26:15Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] Can we claim meat pies up north? I know they are eaten all across the country, but I am sure I have read that we eat more per person on average (particularly in Wigan, or anywhere I happen to be living). [/QUOTE] What sort of “meat pies”? (When I first heard of a “pork pie” I assumed it was like a chicken pot pie but made with pork; apparently it’s something very different, a rather gelatinous dish served cold.) ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/77 "2006-09-11T15:43:50Z")
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan] What about Wigan kebabs? Three meat pies on a stick. 😃 [/QUOTE] Shouldn’t that be “onna stick!”? You guys are cute, if only I could hear this discussion in your actual voices. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/78 "2006-09-11T16:13:54Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] Shouldn’t that be “onna stick!”? You guys are cute, if only I could hear this discussion in your actual voices. [/QUOTE] eee laddie tha’ widna ken nary a smudge of eet ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/79 "2006-09-11T16:16:16Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] What sort of “meat pies”? (When I first heard of a “pork pie” I assumed it was like a chicken pot pie but made with pork; apparently it’s something very different, a rather gelatinous dish served cold.) [/QUOTE] Actually my friend a Pork Pie is exactly what it says… a pie containing pork. honestly…bloody colonials know nuffink ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075/80 "2006-09-11T16:23:21Z")
**e-logic** Possibly you’re right with one exception. Jellied Eels are (AFAIK) confined to Southern England. In the North, the poverty stricken downtrodden, satanic mills North, we have Cowheel and Pigs Trotters to sustain us through the winter. Then when spring/summer arrives we generally hunt Haggis altho’ these rascals are in danger of extinction because of the influx, from the South, of the feared and ferocious Whelk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/northern-english-foods/372075.md?page=5)