3 foods to change someone's opinion about British food

[Flakeisanakedtwirl]

I've heard it for years, and whenever I start to believe that actually it's a myth and we've got some really decent food in the UK, I find out about some comedian or other minor celebrity who's just visited and cried their hungry stomachs around our country.

Surely we have something that people would love? As title says, if you could choose 3 foods / meals that'd hope to change someones opinion about our food, what would it be?

Obviously I have to do my own list so I think....

1. Extra mature Cheddar
2. Beef and guiness stew in giant Yorkshire puds
3. Crumpets

Is that Stilton and apple in a crumble combined or as two separate dessert options….

totally agree on some of our cheese, I’d go rhubarb crumble though personally as a thing of utter beauty.
whilst not universally popular for ‘Brits’ I’d also say good Black pudding and Haggis are up there, a Yorkshire pudding definitely, and toasted tea cakes.

Someone said salted butter, but we stock up in France when we get the chance as they put salt crystals like diamonds in and it’s exquisite.

I think a good shepherds pie with rich greens and gravy is also a standout dish.

There is a French couple on instagram who do reviews of English food when they visit and the guy is always complimentary! He was very sceptical of a full English but then said he’d happily eat it every day. Obviously doesn’t represent all French people! But goes to show we are universally reviled.

Steak and kidney pudding
Aga roast chicken
Parkin
Rich fruit cake with Wensleydale cheese
Really fresh seafood caught locally in cold water, especially the North Sea and North Atlantic,Scottish salmon, scallops, langoustines, mussels.

Blimey I'm hungry now

Here in Sweden they are obsessed with fish'n'chips, scones, and afternoon tea. Sadly they're never up to standard.

A good thick, filled hot pie.

Chicken and ham
Beef

no-one has mentioned bakewell tart, or gypsy tart (a kentish dish). And tinned baked beans have always been very iffy when i've eaten them abroad.

I can not believe you didn't say ham and cheese sandwich

This, basically. There are some great puddings and some nice cheeses, but that’s about it, imo.

I think that a lot of British food is really only delicious if you grew up eating it. If you didn’t, it’s just not that interesting.

Generally, everyone likes the food of where they’re from. Places with strong culinary reputations have food that large numbers of people from other places also like. The U.K. doesn’t have a lot of that.

-Sausages
-Sausage Rolls
-Sausage & Mash (Bangers)

Bara Brith or Welsh cakes with a good old cup of tea.

Things my Mediterranean husband can’t get enough of:
Mince Pies
Homemade steak and kidney pie
Yorkshire pudding with gravy
apple crumble
Stilton
Single malt whisky
But he can’t get his head around the fact that we are an island but you can’t easily get good fish!

A good roast dinner with crunchy roasties and homemade gravy
Seaside fish n chips with homemade tartare sauce
A good steak pie
A cream tea
Apple crumble

Part of the reason that other country's foods are thought of highly here is that British people are generally open to trying a wide range of foods and so are more likely to like something different to their normal types of food. If other cultures tend to only eat things from their own culture, they are less likely to be as open to enjoying something different.

For example, someone gave the example of people in China not liking British food, would they in general say the same about French or Italian food? Or vice versa?

A good cottage pie is a thing of beauty! Nothing sloppy about mine I made last week. I used beef shin cooked slowly with red wine/chopped carrots, onions and celery. Then when falling apart tender I pulled it apart with a fork and topped with mash and baked with a cheese crust 😋

A lot of traditional Christmas desserts are scrumptious imo - Christmas pudding, Christmas cake with marzipan and royal icing, mince pies.
Chapel window/ Battenberg cake, and other cakes designed to be eaten with a cup of tea.
Delicate cucumber sandwiches.
Eton mess.
Apple crumble (and other fruit crumbles)
Rhubarb based desserts.
Ecclefechan tart.
Bakewell tart.
Dundee cake.

The common or garden fish and chips.
Cornish pasties.
Scotch eggs.
Proper baked ham.

Also, real custard on a crumble.

Veg fresh out of the ground, new potatoes with butter, or roasted tatos, carrots, parsnips

All the cheeeeeeeeeeeese (American cheese is yuk)

Ditto chocolate (not Cadbury's, they've ruined it)

Local, fresh, artisan, morning catch, home grown, WI cake stall, all the clichés - that's where you'll find the good stuff.

Certain cuisines (in both their authentic and bastardised forms) are liked in most countries, not just the U.K. Italian food, for example (yes, it is very popular in China). And Chinese food is popular in Italy. People from both countries are disparaging of British food.

Other countries might have mustard but English mustard is the king of them all in my opinion.

English apples, likewise. You can keep your pappy bland French apples thank you very much.

Stilton, cheddar, Wensleydale. Many many great cheeses.

A proper high quality British sausage is infinitely superior to a hot dog or bratwurst in my opinion.

Pies. We make great pies.

There’s many more I can think but cba to name.

Many are misunderstanding the "British food bad"thing. It's not the dishes itself. It's the oddly common fear of seasoning.🙈
I learned very quickly to at least double, if not triple seasoning in all recipes.
Sorry

So the 3 foods can be any foods😁

Staffordshire Oat Cakes
Crumpets
Hot Cross Buns
Really fresh Scottish langoustines
Mussels
Oysters
Morecombe bay shrimps (potted)
Arbroath Smokies
Properly made Pease Pudding with lits of pepper and butter.
Beef dripping on toast
A really well roasted Sirloin of Beef and all the trimmings
Pork pie
Stilton
Scotch eggs

All made properly with top class ingredients - delish!

I don’t know how true it is but I read once that ancient Britons didn’t bother with cultivating food and instead lived off the hazelnuts they foraged and I love this jf it is true because who doesn’t like hazelnuts 😁 assuming you’re not allergic of course.

1. something with hazelnuts
2. cream tea
3. cheese pie

We have some of the best ingredients in the world.

Seafood. There's fabulous seafood around the coast and things like wild Scottish salmon (poached or smoked) Arbroath Smokies, Scallops, Mussels are world famous.

The Agricultural Revolution started in the UK and we have the best beef breeds in the world. Everyone knows about Aberdeen Angus but Beef Shorthorns and Herefords and other traditional British breeds produce fantastic marbled beef. The French called us Roast Beefs for a reason.

Our soft fruits in season are excellent. Strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, forced rhubarb, apples.

We make more cheese varieties than France.

We make the best whisky.

I think the trouble is that
a) we were the first industrialised country and so most people have lost their link to the land. But we really do have world class ingredients due to our temperate climate and variety of habitats.
b) rationing post war really messed up our food culture for a long time. But now London has the 5th highest number of Michelin stars, just Japan and France have cities with more. And only 2 chefs have ever been awarded more Michelin stars than Gordon Ramsey.
c) culturally we don't boast about our food and don't celebrate our strengths and we are constantly told that important parts of our food culture have been 'stolen' from other countries rather than recognising the creativity of British food.

So 3 foods? How about a meal?

Poached Scottish salmon with samphire
Beef Shorthorn sirloin steak with Jersey royals and a garden salad made with a selection of seasonal leaves and edible flowers
Poached rhubarb and clotted cream
A selection of British artisan cheese

One has to question if these exotic sounding foods are more like bread or more like cakes?
... and what, le stupide, is cream tea?

Janina would you mind if i change your Jersey potatoes to Ayrshire potatoes, far superior flavour.

I'm going to try a slightly different approach and name some uniquely high quality food products/ingredients that rely on the climate/topography/animal husbandry etc of the British Isles:

Jersey Royal new potatoes.
Dairy products from Jersey cows.
Aberdeen Angus beef.
Welsh salt marsh lamb.
Scottish raspberries.
Kent strawberries.