To think traditional English food is overrated?

I really like comfort, peasanty type foods so a number of English dishes fit that. I love a good roast dinner, especially if I haven’t cooked it (I make nice ones but love not having to).

I hate the fact you can’t get decent English ‘street’ food that isn’t just a predictable carb/stodgy sandwich and I think that's where our ‘cuisine’ shows its biggest weaknesses. My favourite food is Asian and I envy their street food culture.

For lunch we have just had slow roast pork belly, with roasted apples from our garden, mashed swede, stuffing, broccoli and gravy, followed by syrup pudding with cream.

I haven't made a roast for ages, and it was magnificent.

Problem is.....People have been listing the triumphs of English cuisine, and while they are all nice, not a single one centres vegetables or pulses.

I live in pastyland, and while a proper pasty is a thing of beauty, they're an occasional treat. Nobody could eat one every day unless they were a tin miner! Similarly a lot of the other delicacies listed- proper fish and chips is the kind of thing you'd eat every couple of weeks.

Where are the meals you can eat day in day out, that are cheap, nutritious and have enough vegetable content to keep you healthy? This is where English food totally falls down IMO- it's usually meat based, and the accompanying vegetables are a boiled afterthought. I grow abundant runner beans, broad beans and courgettes on my allotment, but the British methods of cooking these are a) boiled, b) boiled, c)allowed to grow massive and watery and stuffed with mince (bleurgh). No wonder British kids traditionally don't eat their vegetables! I have to look to the recipes of other cultures to turn my vegetables into something nice- Greek bean and tomato stew, Egyptian broad bean falafel, Italian char grilled and marinated courgettes.

I can't bear it when people say any (eg German, Egyptian, Malian whatever) cuisine is foul. So ignorant and insulting to other cultures.The most you can say is that it's not to your taste.
I was brought up abroad and we had an Indian cook so I've always loved Indian (Goan, in fact) food.
But a beautiful joint of English or Scotch beef, on the bone and roasted rare, with Yorkshire pudding, horseradish sauce, crisp but fluffy roast potatoes and fresh vegetables in a thing of joy. I do a tray of roasted veg -- potatoes, parsnips and carrots, plus buttered cabbage. I've given it to foreign visitors and it's much appreciated.
It's a real treat, unless you don't eat meat of course, but it's not that easy to perfect, co-ordinating everything to be ready at the same time. And it's very expensive too. It's really not worth trying to roast a small joint of beef, either, it's invariably disappointing.
As for other typically English or British food, it's all in the cooking. Some people are uninterested in food or cooking but they still have to eat, so their efforts may be underwhelming, sadly.

I think English food has an underserved bad rep. Most "traditional" food is pretty rubbish, and English food has relatively good variation.

Not sure I could eat Thai food every day though it is my favourite.

Also we are influenced by the USA

TBH, I'm not convinced that most people are.

DD is vegetarian and for lunch today we are having a cauliflower cheese and leek pithivier (OK, it is French influenced, but it is basically a pie) with smashed potatoes and roasted carrots. It is going to be full of flavour.

Most British food is good if well cooked.
A lot of it is judged by mediocre pub meals which is mass cooking and results in flavourless, overcooked food. Pub roasts are one of the worst IMO.

British food is a reflection of our climate & history, it's designed to keep us warm and enable us to undertake daily, hard physical work.

Reading wolf hall again, and the descriptions of royalty food are mouthwatering, spices, herbs, cream, fresh cheeses etc. I think a lot of that has been lost.

on holiday in Europe when yo7 get fresh local food it can be incredibly good, simple tomato salads, or fresh fish.

but go to Japan or Thailand and the food just knocks anything here into a cocked hat. Pad Thai or shepherds pie…yeah the shepherd pie has its place….but pad Thai wins for taste .

Another problem is over salted and spiced snacks - after eating those many things would taste bland.

This is interesting with regards to WW2, but the US has vast food desserts due to its internal geography. Many products derived from corn maize started as a practical solution to feeding people, before the chemical conglomerates realised the money making potential of UPFs. The history of food & culture is something I find fascinating.

On a separate note, I’m loving the description of peppery cress as bland.

Should be Mrs Beeton

We grow the most amazing veg compared to most countries - where are the veg recipes?

if you look at one of Mrs Beatons books there are hundreds of recipes using every cut of meat, every type of fish etc
Possibly it was rationing that caused those recipes to be forgotten.
Also we are influenced by the USA since tv became available - theirs is very much money driven -whatever shortcuts, additives can make the supermarket or manufacturer most money.

I think a good roast is amazing. Also fish and chips.
Toad in the hole can be pretty good too. English breakfast is good if cooked well.

I can’t think of anything else English food wise. It’s all a bit of a dogs dinner.

People always say their cooking is amazing. But we all like our own cooking.

WWI and II impacted British food availability through rationing, reduced imports, and increased reliance on domestic production. This led to a restricted diet and had long term effects on British food.

The North Sea was closed for fishing. Subs patrolling The Channel, North Sea, and Atlantic torpedoed ships supplying the UK – cheese (seventy percent of which is imported) almost vanished. Wheat, largely from the Americas, was scarce. Supplying anything by sea became impossible.

Rationing diminished things such as butter, sugar, eggs, jam, bacon, sausages, for example, and there was very little eating for pleasure. No baking a cake, no pastries, reliance on what you could grow at home or preserve or tin. People made do and then they got used to what they had, and our food still reflects how mundane food used to be.

I don't have a Waitrose near me 🙁

Loads of rhubarb in my garden right now - I cooked a kilo of it yesterday.

New potatoes and jersey royals in Waitrose but not in Tesco went I went on Thursday.

There is a theory that American troops arrived in their tens of thousands during WW2, and had to eat our food. Obviously because of rationing, food was awful during the war. But they failed to recognise that was the result of us living on an island with no supplies coming in, and so we were forced to live off potatoes for six years. They returned to the states in 1945 and the UK has been famous for having shit food ever since.

I'm near the rhubarb triangle, so no shortage of rhubarb here. I haven't seen any new potatoes yet.

Slightly off topic, but has anyone else noticed no jew potatoes or rhubarb in the shops?

Last week I bought gorgeous asparagus and a nice bit of salmon, but there were no Jersey Royals or any new potatoes.

Add to this the fact that in the past most people had less clothing, no central heating, cars or double glazing and did manual jobs. Therefore their calorific requirements were completely different. For me, this explains why much traditional English food may appear heavy/stogy for the modern appetite. That doesn't make it less appetising in itself, though, in the hands of a decent cook, as so many others have said.
I'm old enough to remember when it was completely normal for the average person to cook traditional desserts everyday. I guess younger people haven't even heard of many of them, like Sussex Pond Pudding. That was always a bit of a rarity, but people did cook and eat things like 'Spotted Dick' with custard every day.
Also I can recall only being able to buy Ready Salted or Salt and Vinegar Crisps. All the highly flavoured snacks have developed in recent times, possibly changing our taste buds and expectations.

This post is simply more boring Brit bashing IMO.

Can you explain this?

OP I suggest buying 8-10 UK regional cookery books, rather than just trotting out the usual roast and shepherds pie. Also, a lot of the recipes relate to the local food available over 100yrs ago, so it is going to be bland to our international palette.
Slow cooked pork and apple casserole, anyone?

It isn't bland and boring if it is seasoned well.

But thank you for the reminder. I need to buy some cress.