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.

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!

I didn’t have a casserole until I moved to the UK. It wasn’t something either side of my parents’ family made or ate in the States, had never been part of our culture. I saw them on adverts and in shows but never had them. I have fond memories of being shown how to prepare green beans, shuck corn, boiling eggs where they come out smooth (still struggle to get it right), etc. My grandmother would make her own condiments, out of fresh ingredients. Seasonings were many with different types of herbs and spices. Canned and frozen food, combined spices were what my mother used because of her work hours understandably and instead of cooking my dad would just take us to his parents’ home where there was always food on, not a bad thing since he could only make three things and they were not things you wanted to eat everyday nor were any vegetables. Many of my family members still cook like that and there is a family cookbook that is passed down a mix of Northern and Southern foods. I cook from fresh like they do because it’s easier for me, and I’m lucky enough to have a plethora of shops that I can head into if I need something within walking distance.

There‘a only a handful of sweets and cakes I eat here, but I’m also not a big sweets person so the most I make baking-wise are occasionally buttermilk or cheese and garlic biscuits (many “American” establishments here don’t offer them and they’re scones just in American biscuit shape form), buttermilk pancakes (don’t get me started 😆), sponge cakes and cupcakes with homemade icing and cookies (butter, peanut butter, and snickerdoodle) for birthdays but I do cut down the sugar about 3/4 of what is asked and sub with an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract and add a teaspoon of almond extract depending on the size of the items for both countries.

Yep, I've since met so many people really into cooking here since (thank goodness!) - and like anywhere, it really depends on each family. In my own back home, my parents are wonderful cooks whereas other I have met were in the "let's boil this vegetable until it is grey!" camp 😱 Some embrace here and some... don't! Lol. My BIL is also a bit "what the heck?" about how my in-laws cook as he super into cooking from scratch. But they had 5 kids so I give them a bit of a pass.

And I was really happy to discover the local food differences here - some areas have phenomenal food culture. I went to NOLA not long ago and could happily back on just an eating holiday, haha.

Baking your own sweets is def the way for making non-sweet sweets. I used to live in Japan, and those are really the only cake-type cakes that didn't leave me feeling in danger of a diabetic coma afterwards.

I don't think I've even been to an American diner in the UK before - I remember they had one near Leicester Square for a while but I seriously doubt that was authentic! There must be some hiding away run by actual Americans. The scone / biscuit confusion is real! Cheese and garlic biscuits sound amazing

It's not! Which is why English/British fayre is not to my taste-not because I'm a crap cook. I wonder if there's an english restaurant anywhere that would have some choices on that I would like. But when I cook I do tend to cook other cuisines. I do like pottage and veg soups-but I still find them both a bit boring so that's why I don't tend to cook British dinners.

I've just noticed my first comment got cut off for some reason-what I was tryingto say is vegan-wise, the only restaurants that seem to have a lack of choice are the independent ones, which is a shame as I eat out often and would love to support them more-just not enough to pay £££ for a plate of pasta with tomato sauce (or similar).

Probably because I am not keen on anything pickled. A 'me' issue I admit- and It's just a bit 'meh' isn't it? When I could go to a Mexican, Indian or Eritrean restaurant (for example) and have many choices, all hearty, tasty and more interesting. Or even a restaurant that serves different dishes from around the world.

I would steer clear of a restaurant that 'serves different dishes from around the world' on the grounds that when I eat out, it's in the expectation that the food is cooked on the premises and not bought in from Brake Brothers. And so the chef needs to have mastered several cuisines and have a pantry with all the ingredients to support them. Most kitchens operate off a few basic stocks and preparations that underpin a range of dishes... like the trinity/soffrito mix that is central to French and Italian cooking techniques.

@ecdysiast2 I could recommend many vegetarian restaurants that fit the bill. Not sure about vegan though-I've never had to research that.

You mean like you wouldn't appreciate greek/italian/persian/chinese restaurant with 187 items on the menu? 😁
I am eith you. They scare me.
However, many single cuisine places also do ping food sadly. 🙄

We had a very interesting and enlightening thread a few months ago about restaurants buying in ready meals, and how it's not just Wetherspoons and the like, it's becoming the majority of restaurants. What became very clear was that these are tough times for restaurants. One way to keep costs down is to minimise food waste. If you buy in fresh food every day it's inevitable some won't get used as you can't predict too accurately how many people will come in and what they will order. This will explain why there are so few vegan dishes on menus in places that cook fresh food to order. If it's not a vegan restaurant I would imagine the vast majority of the customers will not order a vegan main course. Most people eating out go for meat or fish.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I remember it, and contributed too. These are very hard times for restaurants between staff shortages, skills deficiencies, and inflation in ingredients and energy.

Or eat in Indian restaurants. Good veg and vegan options.

Re chains buying meals in.. once I had Zizzi make me something off menu as I had to avoid certain food groups. Chef came out. Spoke to me and gave options. Fab service.

@EffortlessDesmond it does depend on the restaurant. The one I'm fairly local to that I linked to earlier definitely isn't Brake Brothers and that's one of my favourites-however I would rather Brake Brothers than boring food, not for a special occasion but going out for a casual meal. If I am going to eat out and spend money I want to enjoy it.

@CurlewKate would you? I'd appreciate it!

@Rummikub Zizzi is fantastic for me actually. As I've siad, I'd rather give my £ to independent businesses but if I want Italian, I could go to Zizzi's and get a fantastic pizza with toppings of my choice, or I could go to the local family-ran Italian and have a plate of pasta with tomato sauce, roughly the same price-I'll always choose the nicer, more interesting option.

@ecdysiast2 I get that too. But personally, with two competent cooks in the family (we've both cooked professionally, but DS worked in a 5 star boutique hotel with a reputation for food and I didn't) we're competent, happy, and able, to deliver food to a standard that beats most fast food chains. It's never going to rival Michel Roux, but it does make me quite sniffy about where I suggest we eat any disposable income.

@EffortlessDesmond I definitely understand that!

I've never cooked professionally and I am probably nothing on your abilities, but I am a decent cook.

I became interested in cooking from a young age, and I taught myself, I'd spend hours in the kitchen faffing about with ingredients sans cookery books (my Mum always cooked from scratch but she didn't teach me, although she taught me to bake), creating concoctions and just playing with it. I've always loved cooking, It's my (only) creative outlet and relaxes me-I cook just because it does my soul good half the time, I cook things I don't even particularly like and feed them to others! It's my 'thing'. When my friend was diagnosed as coeliac, before things were readily available to cater for it I'd create meals and products for him, that kind of thing.

I've been vegan a long time (20+ years) and back in the day before the 'movement' took off a little I did avoid eating out. It was just so rubbish and I'd seethe sitting there thinking 'I could make this myself at home, 10X as good and for a fraction of the chuffing price'!

It really is much better now but I am sure that even if I was a meat/dairy eater, I'd feel the same in some restaurants!
Having said that, I do enjoy casual dining, just because sometimes It's nice to be out with friends/family and take in the atmosphere and have a glass of wine and some food, but some places even manage to do a simple vegan burger wrong, or produce things that make me think they assume vegan means 'without tastebuds'!
I am reasonably careful about where I go.

I'd be the same in your shoes @ecdysiast2 . Good cooks need to push back againt indifferent food. Vegan doesn't have to mean forgetting to season food, which IME is common. No one leaves their tastebuds at the door and eats their principles instead of a main course. Vegan food can be awesome: my FiL's Cypriot take on Imam Bayeldi (completely vegan) is to die for. There's no missing meat because it's substantial. I only make it in late summer, but the ingredients are available year round.

I would be pleased to offer you the recipe @ecdysiast2 , if you would like it.

This!! 😅

I'd love it! I love aubergines ;)

Everyone I know cooks international food. Things like pasta and burgers seem to be available all over the world. I know it is in the Indian subcontinent too. They also like Chinese food there.
English food is ok but apart from soups, stews and casseroles, you need several dishes to cook a traditional meal and no one's got time for that these days.

@EffortlessDesmond Definitely! And yes it is common-I think people (even some experienced chefs!) are still a bit scared of it-or maybe because they don't want to taste it themselves/can't find people who are experienced with vegan food, they don't 'perfect' it as they would with other dishes? I don't know.

I would LOVE that recipe, thank you! I went to Cyprus some years ago and the main thing I remember how fantastic the food was-of course they have some meat-heavy dishes, but they love to be creative with veg and pulses/grains too.

Define 'British food' first before dismissing it so casually. Modern British food is considered to be among the best in Europe, unless you are French, and still think you have the crown, or Spanish, or Danish. Both countries' top chefs have been celebrated as best in the world in the last three years. British food is taken very seriously overseas now.

Everyone overseas makes fun of British food because it doesn't taste good! If you're talking about fine dining, well that's not really British food is it, that's just food.

@ecdysiast2 and @AscensionToCheese ... I will send it in the morning. I shall need to find it and type it out. FIL's handwriting isn't easy to read! But it is the best version of the dish I have tasted.

I would have to disagree (politely) with that, @Emptycrackedcup . There are lots of chefs around the country cooking good food at Michelin star level. Here in SE Cornwall, we have two chefs with London Michelin stars cooking elegant food in farm to fork set ups within a 15 mile radius. Neither is big, 25-30 covers per service, nor are they cheap enough for casual family meals, but they are exceptionally good at what they do.

@EffortlessDesmond Thank you-don't go to any trouble, you could take a photo and I'll try to translate!

And, having just returned from a month of eating out in Spain and Portugal, during which we had only two memorable meals, the standards are not that elevated in my opinion.