Or how we adopt other cuisines:
01 September 2014 12:07pm
I like cheese on toast with a tin of spaghetti on top.
With brown sauce.
You know it makes sense.
Captainstegs BewilderedMark
01 September 2014 12:48pm
Spaghetti hoops with fried onion stirred in, poured over two sausage rolls warm from the oven. Delicious.
It might, perhaps, be the couple of thousand calories’ worth of beer first that makes them so good.
Doesn’t this just go to show how adventurous the British palate has gotten over the past 20 years or so? The old sterotype of some red-faced little Englander huffily demanding egg ‘n chips whilst holidaying in foreign is long gone.
“It has long upset many Valencians that Jamie Oliver recommends putting chorizo in paella (it makes the rice turn orange)”.
Well let’s hope those many Valencians never visit Spain.
I wasn’t paying attention when getting lunch and picked up what turned out to be cheesy beans on toast and not cheese and onion crisps. They were disgusting.
Curried spaghetti on rice with chips. Lurvly.
“Curried spaghetti on rice with chips. Lurvly.”
Is there really a pressing need for two carbs tho?
You guys lost me the other day when extolling the virtues of Wall’s sausages and Custard Creams.
“Is there really a pressing need for two carbs tho?” Student days: beer as pud.
Dan said: “Doesn’t this just go to show how adventurous the British palate has gotten over the past 20 years or so? ”
No. The UK has been eating foreign meals, foods and learning from foreign cooks for centuries. Just like everyone else. It probably took off in the 1950s though with an end to rationing, increased transport of people and produce and increased ownership of fridges and freezers allowing us to more easily enjoy foods from all over the world.
What it demonstrates is that there will always be someone with a sniffy attitude about food – often that food is somehow better if it is apparently authentic and that it must be absorbed into our lives without modification or else we are committing cultural vandalism. As Jack C’s comment illustrates there are local variations of meals even in the home nation.
I ate meal X in village Y once does not equal meal X is like this all over country Z.
I’ve just come back from Italy and the best meal I had out there was steak ‘n chips.
It’s true that the steak was an inch-thick heart-shaped piece of filet that was both melt-in-the-mouth tender and pink-and-juicy rare, and that it was covered in an absolutely delicious Amarone sauce. It was steak and chips. (Well French fries).
I did have a side salad for effect and jug of Valpolicello to wash it down, as well as a large bowl of chocolate and strawberry gelato to finish with. Well, when in Verona…
I’ve never had a steak in the English-speaking world that was anywhere near as good as the best steak I’ve had in Italy and France.
Mind you, the best lamb I’ve ever had has been in these islands, with France in second place.
By the by, did you see that the US ambassador has been throwing a hissy fit about being expected to eat lamb? Parochial prick.
I’ve eaten decent beef in France, and in Scotland and the States. Have worked in Argentina and can recommend their steak too. However you’d be pushed to beat the wild-grazing steers my neighbours run on the moor hereabouts. Ditto the local rare-breed sheep.
Best steak I’ve had in France was Steak Tartare. Best ever steak in Buenos Aires, but far too much of it.
Spaghetti Simple a la Birmingham.
1: Use good spaghetti (buitoni,napolin ok, de ceccho better)
2: Use over large pan with lots of water (minimise temperature drop when pasta added).
3: Boil gently for exactly time stated on packet – al dente, NOT soft.
4: Serve with grated cheddar cheese and a big spiral of tomato puree.
Breakfast Mediterranee a la Birmingham
1: Fresh bread, any sort.
2: Some olives, some cheddar chesse and anything else you fancy/have eg: chopped apple, ham, anchovies, celery, tomato
3: slather in olive oil (expensive stuff if possible).
Eat without utensils, using the bread to pick up morsels and mop up the oil.