To think traditional English food is overrated?

Most of the stuff mentioned is ok now and again. But I much prefer a bit more spice in my food.

Since reading this thread - I’m starting to realise that I have eaten extremely well in my life. I was born in this country and yet I’m mixed race having been born to Indian and Italian parents (very lucky food wise). Yet we loved cooking British staples in our home. One of my favs has got to be toad in the hole, or a good roast dinner with duck fat potatoes and proper Yorkshire puds. Not only that but my partner and I have eaten at some fantastic country pubs in the English countryside and even a couple of Michelin star - the hand & flowers in Marlowe being one of them!

I will not have people say that it’s bland - it just sounds as though you’ve eaten poorly cooked food, and you can get that amongst any international cuisine.

Yes I’ve been to plenty but none had good British food , they had good food from other places . What exactly is good British food for you ? Most things you call British are not but simply taken from other cultures

Banoffee Pie

Love leek & potato soup 😋

English food can be fantastic, there’s so much variety across the regions and seasons. Apple pies, lamb chops, leek and potato soup, Whitby lemon buns, Yorkshire Parkin, home cooked ham, Norfolk plough pudding, oven bottom muffins and clotted cream are a few of my favourites.
The mince, sausage and fried dishes tend to be the ones people first think of when asked about English food as those have been the staple recipes of the latter half of the 20th century.

Again, a carvery?!? Have you actually been to a good British restaurant?

I’m sure I must have been Mediterranean in a different life. Nothing worse than all this stodgy rubbish.

I am also a Mediterranean at heart, but I object to English food being labelled 'rubbish'.

90% of the food I cook/eat is Middle Eastern or Italian....... or Indian or South East Asian. But I do love a good roast and all the other delicious, albeit slightly stodgy, English dishes. At least once a week month....

English food is bad . I still remeber 25 years on arriving to live here and a friend took me for a very good looking carvery lunch and the meat ….. 🤢 so bland , lacked salt , flavour and anything really .
I’ve been here 25 years now and I’m yet to find a dish I think it’s amazing , some are ok as, Cullen skink that I live to eat but nothing amazing . All the good restaurants simply offer international variations with a British twist but for the most British food is plain bad.

This.
My DM cooked pasta, curry, cordon bleu, the lot. She was a fabulous cook, and her beef stew, roasts, flans and pies were just as tasty as anything else she produced.

Because Toby Carvery is shit food.

Overrated by who exactly? All I ever hear is people saying it’s shite! I absolutely love cuisines from all around the world. But frankly if you think traditional English food is awful, you must be a bad cook.

My grandfather used to eat cockles in vinegar as a snack, jellied eels were also popular with him . And pie n mash with a parsley sauce, tripe an onions. Liver and bacon. neck of lamb and spring greens, bread and dripping, jam.

I don't think many eat traditional food anymore

What about a fry up OP? Nowhere does a fry up like the UK, sausages in most of the rest of the world are a very different and often very poor imitation. Bacon is rarely as good. I love English food but like anything if it's done on the cheap and badly then it's shite. There's plenty of shite Italian food around for example too - looking at you ASK.
There's nothing like a roast dinner in the middle of winter, or fish and chips on the beach or a fry up when you have a hangover. I love other cuisines but I wouldn't be without British grub.

The other important factor is that, because of the climate in this country, before the advent of technology such as artificial refrigeration, we didn’t need to use spices to hide the unpleasantness of food that has degraded in a hot, humid environment. So, the flavours that we have are of the actual foodstuffs - the meat, the potatoes, the vegetables, and these all have very mild flavour profiles. Compared to the vibrant herbs and spices typically used in Southern Europe and Middle and East Asia, I understand the perception of “blandness”. It takes as much getting used to adopting those cuisines that we have taken to our hearts in this country.

My Mum always cooked very tasty food. Her 'English' food was definitely not bland. Mine is even more European in its influences. My shepherds or cottage pie is practically a bolognese sauce with mash and cheese on top. My roast chicken has lots of garlic around it and lime inside. Like my Mum I can do fancy egg dishes. I'd say the English food we have was evolved both by the influences European ancestors and modern cookery.

I'm not against potatoes, but not keen on dull ways of cooking them. I actually prefer fish with potatoes of some sort though as I'm not keen on rice

One of the best fast foods ever comes from Stoke-On-Trent, in the heart of England. The Staffordshire Oatcake. It's the King of Foods. Especially filled with bacon and mushroom.

British food is indeed amazing when cooked well. Some of the issues:

quality of produce, especially ‘cheap’ meat eg beef, does not produce the flavour. People are convinced the fat is bad - the fat and the bones give the flavour, gravy not made from good quality meat but cubes and granules 🤮. How many people save their chicken carcasses to make (stock) appreciate people are time poor.

However the key one (or two) for me are:

overprocessed food kills taste buds. The sugar and salt is highly addictive and changes the palate

spicy food also does this to an extent as it’s often full of additives etc.

A good example the English like Indian food. If it’s quick ie ‘made for the uk’ it’s full of sugar and salt. If it’s cooked authentically it’s slow and deeply spiced.

A lot of English food requires cooking skills and time. A good Roast is the food of the gods. If however the chef over cooks the meat, with soggy cabbage, half an anemic roast potato - well, it’s beyond shit.

A good casserole/stew takes time and care. Browning the meat, adding the right balance of ingredients to get a tasty meal. Throw some unbrowned beef into a powdered ‘casserole’ mix will not be nearly as nice. It needs time to cook - not thrown together for 30mins with crossed fingers.

Our drive for speed and convenience has taken the skill out of cooking - and a lot of the taste!

Roast dinner, sausage and mash with thick onion gravy and pie/fish and chips are my favourite meals.

Another one laughing at the thought that Toby is good English food. The best roasts are often in a local independent pub. If it has an open fire, even better.

How can it be over rated if you hear everyone say it is bland? It’s either rated highly or called bland. Make your mind up.

Roast meals, pies, fish and chips, baked potatoes, ham joint, Balti (created in Birmingham I believe), salmon fillets, sausage and mash, (or toad in the hole), Cornish pasties, fresh vegetables can all be fantastic if done well.

I think we all need a bit of variety though. I wouldn’t ever want to have to stick to just one type of cuisine - nor would I ever want to give up traditional English food.

I think French food is over rated though.

Pie mash and liquor

This is true 👏🏼

I love traditional British food but also love other cuisines. A great thing about Britain is we embrace food from other cultures. If you visit Italy e.g. (yes I love their food, it's sublime) and fancy a change one night, say Indian or Chinese, it would be very difficult to find.