To think traditional English food is overrated?

You are wrong. Currie was explicitly used in a 16th century English cookbook to mean a spiced meat dish.

Interestingly, many of the posters on here who are from the rest of the world have been very complimentary about our food.

Rubbish, come back when you learn to read this thread.

Bad cooks cook them as you describe. Good cooks don't.

Please stop with the incorrect sweeping generalisations and maybe spend a bit more to eat at a decent restaurant instead of tarring all chefs and home cooks with the same brush.

I like my steak medium rare and that is how I cook it.

No one is suggesting England doesn’t have lots of heats and fish. It’s how they are cooked. They are generally just cooked to un-raw them. Fried or baked or boiled. That’s the point. No culinary art. No flavours no skill

When was the last time you had any food with those herbs/spices?
and ‘currie’ means boggy plain you donut.
curry comes from kari. A Tamil word.

Traditional English food is spiced. The word currie is an English word dating back to the 16th century. Common hogweed, water pepper, herb bennet, spognel and many more.
However English self loathing means foods from abroad are always seen as superior.
A pub near us does some traditional English food well made. Game pie, anything but bland. Venison. Wild salmon, tastes different to famed salmon.

I love all those cuisines as well as British cuisine, but I am a good cook and don't cook bland mushy food.

YABU, proper English food historically used spices, herbs and really excellent sauces and puddings you don’t get anywhere else, as well as a wide range of meat, fish, game and soups etc.

It’s a myth that only French or Italian etc cuisine is good or flavourful.

Yep, I agree! Give me Greek, Turkish, Mediterranean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Mexican pretty much any other cuisine 🤣 any day.

A nice addendum to my comments on this thread is a thank you card I received today after the lunch I held.

@Notateacheranymore , but we've been eating things flavoured with ginger, mustard, horseradish, herbs etc for centuries.

Considering how many countries there are in the world, or even Europe, there are not all that many where their restaurants feature regularly in a uk average town or city.
French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish or Greek....(if we're thinking European)

I don't think I've seen a German, Swiss, Austrian, Hungarian or Bulgarian restaurant. Or any Scandinavian restaurants. I did go to a Polish restaurant about 20 years ago and i didn't really like my meal. The food was too salty for my taste , but maybe I made a bad choice...

And talking of stodgy , some pasta dishes or risotto can be stodgy (if not cooked well)

This!!!

I am no longer displeased
The thing is all cuisines have stodgy foods as well as non stodgy foods.

It's the simplicity and the combo is delicious.
What about the American Cobb salad? It also had a throw-together-what's-on-hand history.
The quintessential strawberries and cream in summer?
The perfect scone with the perfect cup of tea?
The creativity of the British home cook?
The stereotypes abound, but so does good home cooking. 😋

Of course you can. I cook from scratch every day.

I am eternally sorry I missed a few words out and should have said “SOME can be very stodgy though…”

I’m absolutely right.

But please forgive me for displeasing you so 😂

Oh FFS.This again!

Not necessarily

The ignorance and lack of imagination shown by some posters on here beggars believe.

Grilled fish or meat with vegetables or salad,
Shepherd's pie with mashed swede instead of mashed potato, savoury mince minus the dumplings, a roast dinner without the potatoes and Yorkshires etc etc.

Do you never eat vegetables?

You can eat a healthy British stodge free diet if you put your mind to it.

It’s very stodgy though and I can’t stand fish and chips.

Traditional British food is quite clearly based on what we had available to us through the centuries, basically what we could easily grow or raise.

It’s not rocket science. It’s pretty obvious 😂

Well @ohdrearydrearyme, at least the use of spices was brought into the conversation as a factor.

I don’t know anybody who overrates British food. Normally they slate it. I love food from all over the globe and that includes good pub fare and English puddings (like what we had at school.)

I also LOVE a sunday roast or the simple pleasure of a jack potato.

Making a sunday roast from scratch is probably something I would like to learn to do from scratch!

I actually don’t think I have come across a country where I think their entire cuisine is terrible. It just depends on my mood as to what I want to eat.

Britain was not out there in its own during and after the war with regards lack of quality and quantity of good food. All of Europe struggled.

Give me Australian crunch and mint custard any day maybe the big advantage of state education!

I never understand why people go crazy for Eton Mess. It's not a recipe, it's a chef suddenly realising they've nothing to serve for dessert except broken meringue, cream and raspberries.