To think traditional English food is overrated?

I am now really craving asparagus on toast with a homemade hollandaise sauce

I agree. I never eat traditional English food. I don't think many do anymore when you can have mediterreanen/ italian/ indian/chinese/ food.

I hate the trend of saying everything is "bland" without being full of spice chili. I feel people's taste buds have been numbed by all the heat that is disguising all the flavours and there's no going back.

British food was designed to cater to cold weather, filling up workers after long days in cold harsh conditions.
Obviously, shepherd's pie doesn't work so well in Thailand or Portugal.

I enjoy mild spice but don't tolerate heavy spice. I enjoy many cuisines but British food has its place.
On a cold winter's evening a good shepherd's pie is great.

I think we must have been separated at birth @BritishFoodFan

I agree with everything you say.

I remember watching a Jamie Oliver series many years ago where he travelled around Italy. The Italians were incredibly resistant to dishes that were not from their region let alone from other countries.

Off to Google teisen lap now.

I mean, I don't see how you can say it's overrated when we have an international reputation for terrible food. I don't know anyone in my social circle who raves about British food as the best. If anything its underrated - people from overseas typically expect it to be awful and are often pleasantly surprised that some of it is quite nice. But overall I think most people would agree that we have some lovely dishes but we don't have a particularly outstanding cuisine of our own. Our 'traditional' food is hearty, ribsticking fare for manual labourers who needed lots of calories to sustain them in a cool and damp climate. It also has simple and subtle flavours from herbs as that is what we can grow here. Personally I like British food but one of the things I love most about living in the UK and being British is our desire and willingness to try new things and bring international flavours into our daily eating.

In Wales we have

the best lamb in the world
great beef (Welsh black cattle)
fabulous range of cheeses
Glamorgan sausages (made with cheese and herbs)
cawl - leek broth with beef or lamb
Bara brith
Welsh cakes
teisen lap (moist cake)

Why can't you state that you don't like spicy food or rice instead of saying that it is rubbish?

Saying that something is lazy slop is lazy. You simply don't like curry.

I love the different Asian cuisines, I also love good British food.

Although I'm here advocating for British food, I have to say, I like pretty much all the foods. One of my favourite things to do is travel and immense myself in local food culture.

But if you think all British food is rubbish, I would say you're not doing it right!

Lots of good English food as noted above. The strength of the UK though compared to other places in Europe is that in most major cities it is possible to get all kinds of food, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, French etc. In other countries in Europe that variety is not there. Another good reason to live in the UK.

That is how I feel about some Italian food, just different shaped pasta but with very similar sauces

I disagree with that, I'd say British cooking leans more heavily on herbs than spices, although historically we have used spices for many hundreds of years, mace, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, can all be found in recipes from the Middle ages. Spices however were rare and expensive, whereas fresh herbs and aliums abound in the fields and hedgerows.

If it grows together, it goes together!

It's a matter of taste, isn't it? I only like spicy or strongly flavoured food- mostly slop as someone called it above!😂 But I expect others won't like my food. I love the sweet plus salt plus sour flavours in Indian, Thai, Sri Lankan and Malaysian food. Even Italian is a bit bland for me.

I do love British desserts, but I eat less of them these days.

The flavouring in English foods tends to be more herbs rather than spices and sometimes fruits/berries.

(As well as the carbs and fats salts and sugars)

I agree.

I can’t eat spicy food. Even mild savoury spices are a real problem to me. I also can’t eat pasta. This means I mostly eat British food. I find that when poor quality ingredients are used, the go to fix is to add savoury spices. This is a lazy way to overcome a lack of flavour. “Bland” is a subjective adjective and most seem to use it to describe something that isn’t spicy. It’s definition is unseasoned and mild tasting and if you’ve had a decent stew, that doesn’t describe it. Adding red wine, stout etc gives a real depth of flavour as can using sweet spices such as cinnamon. As a non savoury spice eater, I’ve had to get creative in the kitchen. Nothing I cook is bland.

People complain it is carb laden and stodgy. Italian food relies heavily on pasta and bread. Indian food is rice based with the addition of breads on the side. Chinese food is largely noodles and rice. Mexican food uses a lot of corn based items along with all those beans. Carbs are vital to a balanced diet and aren’t all evil all the time. If you are eating stodgy pastry and dumplings, you aren’t cooking them right.

Our local produce is really good quality and when cooked right will give you excellent food.

Beef stew with dumplings with creamy mashed potatoes and green veg is heaven on a plate. Especially if made with ox cheeks

Amazing to me people find in season vegetables like Jersey Royals boring and bland. Fresh produce is the key for me. I do cook things with spice but in season quality produce is what I love the most. Have eaten some of the best tomato’s ever last summer - on the vine British ones.

I think the issue is that the "flavouring" of most of these English dishes is carbs/fat/salt or carbs/fat/sugar. Which absolutely can hit the spot when you're in need of comfort food but ultimately that isn't flavoursome. Other cultures that have been blessed with a wider variety of foods, spices etc thus have more interesting flavour profiles to their food than do the "traditional" English dishes.

I don't remember 'English' food just being roast dinners and cottage pie when I was growing up in London, my Mum had this English cook book and I had quite a few savoury dishes with cream in them e.g chicken and pear casserole made with cream. Pork chops and homemade apple sauce but also a pork and cider casserole and another pork and cream dish. I had more fish than the average British household because of the scandi influence on my Grandma's side.

My Dad grew lots of vegetables and some fruits like Rhubarb so I remember lots of stewing of that and boiling of beetroot, lots of mackerel, crab in the summer.

YABU. English food done well is good, English food done badly isn't. But that's the same with most cuisines.

I'd say Asian and African food is the most overrated. Curry for instance is awful, it's just a lazy slop. Any dish with rice is disgusting. Sushi I can handle but equally I'd be fine with never having it again. I'd be interested in trying whale meat if I was in a country where it was legal but that in itself doesn't mean much, since I live in a country where it is banned and I've never tried it.

I think British, German and American food is the most underrated, mainly because it's not fashionable to support anything that originates in those places.

Sometimes people like to taste the actual food not just cover it up with spice.

All of those foods have lots of flavour already - herbs, garlic, stock, shallots etc.

I think British food is underrated actually. I have been to France many times, yes their food is refined but of all the French cheese I have eaten, extra mature cheddar is still king.

Our baking is top tier too. Traditional food (roast, toad in hole, pies) can be amazing if done well.

Also, what’s important is our cuisine evolves to include dishes from other nations. So, I would say that British food these days also includes; Thai green curry, Indian curry, pizza, spaghetti Bol and Mexican as well as other dishes.

But that doesn't make @BritishFoodFan's meal terrible cooking. It just isn't to your taste.

I dislike shellfish, but the rest of her menu sounds amazing.

Perhaps eating spicy food all the time has dulled your tastebuds to the extent that you simply can't taste more subtle flavours?

There's lots of herbs in there. It was a Spring menu, if I'm cooking British food in spring, I wouldn't use spices, plenty of lovely fresh herbs though. I was looking for clean, fresh flavours.

There are some amazing Scottish foods, but the OP specifically said English food is crap so presumably actually likes Scottish and Welsh cuisine.

We do loads of good foods - often stodgy due to our history of food scarcity and because of what grows well here.

A good Steak and ale pie.
A good - not a carvery - roast dinner.
Sticky toffee pudding
Scone with cream and strawberry jam
Rabbit pie
Stilton
Proper cheddar
In fact any of our cheeses - of which there are a LOT.
Sausage roll
Treacle tart
The sandwich
A crispy jacket potato
Cornish pasty