Dinners - are Brits only ones that make international food for dinner

[o9yhke89]

Was chatting with an Italian and Spanish friend about kids dinners - and mostly they just make whatever they grew up with i.e. Italian and Spanish food and really treasure their family recipes. Most of my English friends always try to have food from different cultures and this is seen as much more sophisticated and worldly. I've lived all over but was wondering whether the Brits just don't value their own cuisine especially when it comes to family meals.

Sorry I didn't mean unusual additions. More the amounts of the usual ones.

Many pp have said that the British are used to eating other cuisines. Then why do they hardly serve it in their own restaurants? And don't talk to me about Michelin star restaurants. All I see is all day English breakfast or fish and chips. We went to Southend for a day last summer and the seaside was littered with fish and chips "restaurants" at extortionate prices. I am sorry for having to break it to some people but in other countries serving a single instantly cooked food is NOT a restaurant! I felt sorry for the locals TBH. If they want to stroll the seaside in the evening and dine there all there is is fish and chips. Other, proper restaurants are further away. Why not have other fish available to cook like in Malaysian, Italian, Greek, Turkish etc restaurants e.g. grilled sea bass? In my home country any average coffee shop will make you a pizza for example. It might not always be fresh dough but screw that if you are tired and you are ok with it. Or hot sandwiches. Or here in the UK in the tiniest Algerian caffe you can find pasta with mince (call it whatever you like but most cuisines have it), lasagne, pizzas a few of their own traditional dishes and cakes. Go to a Turkish or Albanian restaurant, they will have their stews and spaghetti bolognese.

@Chermeup that’s prob a good shout as I think that’s why my friends cooking is so good.

Older Spanish people tend to cook Spanish food, but quite a few of DD’s friends eat other food at home, although in the main it is Spanish. People probably tend to go to restaurants to eat food from other countries, rather than cook at home. There is a lot of universal food cooked - meat and veg, fish and veg, pasta dishes etc, same as in the U.K.

Scones are as bland or as interesting as you choose to make them, I guess.

We don't eat them usually, only when mum comes over.

Afternoon tea is very revered around these parts!

But equally, there are other parts of my neighbours cuisine that I find bland...

Exactly.

It's really not as cheap as you think, well in Spain anyway, I can't speak for Italy. Shopping in the supermarket is proportionately more expensive than the U.K. when you compare the big difference in household incomes between the two countries. Possibly if you go to seven or eight different shops to get things, it could be cheaper, but apart from retired people, most of us don't have time to do that. Our weekly shopping bill without meat and toiletries/cleaning products for three people (two adults and a child) averages between 130 - 150€. My Spanish in-laws spend an insane amount of money weekly as my MIL cooks a lot of seafood and meat.

DP is Spanish and he loves British food!

You haven't eaten the right Spanish food. You should come to my MIL's house. Her food is fantastic! The seafood here is amazing, things like cocido and migas aren't that great, but most food is really good. I love British food, but again, certain things I don't. I think the nation with my favourite food is Italy. Everyone loves Italian food!

@chocorabbit I can’t really comment on the types of places you choose to frequent generally but on the point about seaside offerings - it depends very much where you go. You’re more likely to get a really good variety of offerings from restaurants in harbours than very touristy beachside areas from my general observations.

it’s much the same in other countries otherwise I’d be here talking about how Portugal only offer up toasties and chips based on their touristy seaside areas.

@Cornettoninja
The thing is that I have visited touristy cities abroad and you could see restaurants, sea food restaurants, pizzerias, caffes, pasta places etc covering the whole coast as far as the eye could see, nothing fancy but a real variety. Here it seemed that they can't be bothered to make the effort and just offered one option at extortionate prices. It's really not hard to offer pizza as an extra or spaghetti bolognese if they don't want to offer stews.

Fair enough, you’ve seen what you’ve seen. 🤷‍♀️

I don’t think that’s true actually. I think a good Brit menu has variety - some sorely lacking in many parts of the world, in particular Italy which is very boring once you’ve lived there.

A traditional menu would mean that we eat what we grow. More herbs than spices but certainly no lack of flavour.

I would offer up Worcestershire sauce as an example of a very British export that’s used widely across the world.

Apparently that condiment is closest to a popular historical Roman one.

I really like well cooked traditional British regional food. It's really really good.

Britain, for a variety of reasons mentioned by other posters, ( industrial revolution, rationing, reliance on importing food) has lost its connection with food and it sees it as a necessary part of life, but one that can be outsourced as much as possible.

The government does not actively promote "food" like other countries do. It's not part of life.
In Italy there is a whole type of secondary school system set up for those interested to learn extensively about agriculture, food production, vineyards etc. Students create massive allotments and learn how to manage them.
The country loves its food and the average person spends double the amount on food in a year.
Where I live it costs almost 5€ a day for a child's school lunch. A day! Because to feed children anything other than healthy fresh food would be seen as a disgrace and they would feel so ashamed.

Too funny - I am a Brit in the states and I would feel the same about American food going off my in-laws 😅 Cooking for them is like opening a can of something to throw over frozen something else in a casserole, and they only have things like salt, pepper, mixed herbs etc or other mystery mixes, and never anything individual!

Feel the same way about sweets and cakes here. I always halve whatever any American recipe says for sugar and it is still too sweet. Japanese and French sweets have a much more acceptable level of sweetness, I find.

Agreed, and so sick of people trotting out this very old and unoriginal joke like they are hilarious because they lack the wit and creativity to think of something new.

Not to mention, chilis are originally from the Americas and weren't even commonly used in Asian cooking until a few hundred years ago!

@FuzzyDonkey at some point we have to break it to the good people of MN that potatoes are also from the Americas.

Brits or English - as they are two different or things. Also I think if I was to feed my kid haggis neeps and tatties they would hate me - they don't get anything exotic either - fishfingers, chips & peas 😂

This may be a bit of an own goal by Max on their own cooking?

I love haggis, neeps and tatties. Good nutritious meal.

Can folk stop with the 'you're a shit cook' stuff? It doesn't make sense-I'd be very surprised if everyone saying they don't favour British food, have only experienced it when cooking it themselves! Most of our first experiences with it will be by our parents/relatives surely? And in eating establishments.

The point is, regardless of who cooks, not all of a certain cuisine is crap. You cannot say all French food is bland and tasteless just as you can't say all British food is bland and tasteless. To do so would be utter bunkum.

Haha, oh so many things! Potatoes, tomatoes, chilis to start with. I once delved into a 1am Wikipedia wormhole about what foods are native to what countries and it is fascinating to see how things have traveled around the world, the cultural and agricultural exchange and so on.

Few cultures can really claim ownership of any particular ingredient or recipe etc. And crazy to think how much must have changed in world cuisine over a few hundred years!

I agree, it is fascinating. I'll add maize, sweetcorn, red kidney beans, sweet as well as chilli peppers, turkey, cranberries and, of course, chocolate - all from the New World.